Gone are the days of MTV music and Indus channel to stream new music, and while radio is still popular, its use is declining as new substitutes appear catering to each user’s desires. YouTube is a great application to stream music, though the constant ads can be quite annoying, snapping us out of good moods while listening. Moreover, YouTube doesn’t let you play music offline or exit the application, and while YouTube Music app covered the gap, it didn’t gain as much as popularity.
Many Pakistani users have either chosen to download music online or use Patari, a music application offering a vast collection of local music curated into playlists according to genre and mood. However, as Spotify has made its entry into Pakistani market, the competition has increased. So which is the best application for streaming, downloading and listening music and podcasts? We take a look.
Music Collection
Both music apps have an extensive collection of music, though Patari is primarily focused on local productions, while Spotify includes music from all over the world. Spotify offers you a variety of music by undiscovered rising artists in different genres, while Patari has selective music from artists in Pakistan and is great app to listen to drama osts and new releases. The local app founded in Lahore, is up-to-date and offers not only urdu music, but includes music in other regional languages like Punjabi and Balochi. Each of the two apps contain a unique collection, both of which cannot be found in the other. Patari does not have a wide range of English international music, and even though Spotify may have that, it doesn’t have the extensive collection of local music as found in Patari.
Both of the apps have curated playlists according to moods, genres, occasion, year, new releases, etc. Patari has a separate category of English music sung by local Pakistani artists, while Spotify has a separate collection of Bollywood and Pakistani music. Patari does not have any international music, but features coke studio original music, as well as Pepsi’s new campaign music titled “Why not meri jaan?”
Podcasts
Patari is a localised podcast app with new episodes every week, on a variety of subjects ranging from politics to urdu poetry recitation, short fictional audiobooks and history lectures. Patari Orignal podcasts featured the stories behind the making of music, interviews and important event coverage such as the Aurat March. However, the number and variety of podcasts have declined since 2018, with barely a few new podcasts in recent years.
Spotify on the other hand has a wide variety of topics, including playlists from YouTube that have been uploaded by third parties, and also includes some Hulu Orignals soundtracks. Spotify provides access to comedy talk shows, informative podcasts like Ted Talks, from philosophy and religion to literature and aeronautics.
Interface and Features
Spotify has a more developed and user-friendly and interface, making it easy to navigate and learn how to use the app. The app runs smoothly with rare bug issues, allowing users to even build collaborative playlists with their friends that can be edited by everyone.
Group sessions allow you to listen to music playlists together, however only available to premium subscribers. Group sessions support two to five people, and can be shared with a link that can be sent to friends. Users can create an Artist Radio Station to make playlist of songs from the same artists and similar ones as well.
Patari has a less appealing interface and design, while a few bugs do not let new users sign up and create an account. Users have sent multiple complaints regarding app issues not working smoothly but an update to fix the issues has not released. The free unpaid version disables features such as skipping to the next song, while bombarding users with popup ads in the app. This is also the case of Spotify free version, some playback features may be disabled while music will be interrupted with audio ads in between sessions.
Premium Subscriptions
Patari offers a reasonable deal of Rs 100 per month or the weekly package of Rs 25, offering various options to pay through, including JazzCash and Easy Paisa. It does not however, have a student discount either. Premium version is ad-free, allows you full access to play with controls and skip songs, download songs and create playlists.
Spotify is slightly pricier with an individual package of Rs299 per month and a Rs. 149 for student. The application also offers duo package of Rs390 and a family package of 479 with up to six working accounts. Premium versions are ad-free, allow full controls of playback and lets users to stream music offline.
While both Patari and Spotify are available on phones and web browsers, choosing the right application is contingent on what one’s need are. If you are one who listens to local music more and are not interested in podcasts, Patari is the best app for you. A regular Patari user reviewed the app and said, “I’m simply blown away by this local app that has all the bands from when I was young, with the history of they originated or formed, as well as their discography. And most importantly, the style of interacting with its user is also very colloquial which makes the app very close to the heart.”
Spotify, on the other hand, is for users who want to listen to a wide variety of music from everywhere and need a vast collection of podcasts to listen to. One spotify user however, aptly pointed that although Spotify's student package is affordable and their services quite remarkable, the only drawbac in the app is the lack of lyrics, since 'behind the lyrics' is of no use.
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