6 ms·

For someone that never used it, what was the appeal of this service? I took a look at the site and didn't really get it. What does this have over Spotify?

xoai 7y ago
It's used to be the best place to discover new music based on human's taste, not machine's taste.
IkmoIkmo 7y ago
On youtube and spotify I'd usually just get a list of music from the same artists, or from artists who operated in the same genre that I liked, but had a very different sound to what I liked. Somehow, discovering new music on youtube/spotify is a bit of a chore, endlessly pressing next on songs that I'm not feeling, and only sometimes striking gold. Somehow, 8tracks was different, I could pick a genre and I'd just listen to a whole playlist of mostly new, great songs. Likely because it was curated by DJs and musicians themselves, not record labels or algorithms. Second, because there's a lot of upcoming talent that's not on Spotify yet for lack of an album or label, but had a single mixtape or single record out on e.g. Soundcloud which was great. I don't know the exact mechanics, just that it was the best place to discover new music for me, and I haven't seen a good replacement yet.
nicoburns 7y ago
The curation (all by humans - mostly ordinary users I believe) was significantly better than any other service I've used.
- ImprovedSilence 7y ago
  I agree with what everyone is saying here. My years of using it led to some of my best music discovery, and the ease of finding playlists with which I could just put on and be happy with the music coming out for hours. I rolled off it a bit when they went to the paid subscription model though, as it was never quite the same for me after that. I didn't really realize how great it was, until years later when I still didn't have any replacement I was happy with. (And I got old..)
themagician 7y ago
8tracks launched a few years earlier than Spotify. 2008 v 2011 (Spotify US). So for a few years if you wanted to share a playlist this was THE way. The early day of Spotify also had a limited library and not a lot of people used it.

xoai 7y ago

It's used to be the best place to discover new music based on human's taste, not machine's taste.

IkmoIkmo 7y ago

On youtube and spotify I'd usually just get a list of music from the same artists, or from artists who operated in the same genre that I liked, but had a very different sound to what I liked. Somehow, discovering new music on youtube/spotify is a bit of a chore, endlessly pressing next on songs that I'm not feeling, and only sometimes striking gold. Somehow, 8tracks was different, I could pick a genre and I'd just listen to a whole playlist of mostly new, great songs. Likely because it was curated by DJs and musicians themselves, not record labels or algorithms. Second, because there's a lot of upcoming talent that's not on Spotify yet for lack of an album or label, but had a single mixtape or single record out on e.g. Soundcloud which was great. I don't know the exact mechanics, just that it was the best place to discover new music for me, and I haven't seen a good replacement yet.

nicoburns 7y ago

The curation (all by humans - mostly ordinary users I believe) was significantly better than any other service I've used.

ImprovedSilence 7y ago
I agree with what everyone is saying here. My years of using it led to some of my best music discovery, and the ease of finding playlists with which I could just put on and be happy with the music coming out for hours. I rolled off it a bit when they went to the paid subscription model though, as it was never quite the same for me after that. I didn't really realize how great it was, until years later when I still didn't have any replacement I was happy with. (And I got old..)

themagician 7y ago

8tracks launched a few years earlier than Spotify. 2008 v 2011 (Spotify US). So for a few years if you wanted to share a playlist this was THE way. The early day of Spotify also had a limited library and not a lot of people used it.