Pure Music's Spotify challenging subscription service has been on the horizon now for a couple of months. The service has now gone live, offering users in the UK unlimited music streaming for a very reasonable £4.99 a month. There is also of course an Android application that goes along with the service.
That's half the cost of a Spotify premium subscription, which at first glance is incredibly tempting. There are a couple of differences between this and Spotify though, with the most significant being a lack of offline capabilities. If you don't have an unlimited data plan, the ability to stream only on the move is going to prove pretty limiting. Suddenly that extra £5 a month for Spotify doesn't seem so bad. You do get a 1 month free trial, so you at least get a chance to play with it and see what's what before committing your cash.
The Android application has been in the Market for a while now, as a portal to their other online media content, mainly radio stations. With your subscription enabled though the very same application -- it hasn't been updated -- unlocks the music catalogue for you to browse at your leisure. The catalogue seems pretty deep as well, coming up with a number of albums from various, less mainstream artists I listen to.
The UI on the app is very pleasing to the eye, and pretty easy to navigate. One issue is the apparent lack of the ability to create playlists within the app. This I found particularly frustrating as it seems the only way to create and manage playlists is through The Lounge website on your computer.
All in all Pure Music is a bit of a mixed bag. If you can live with the limitations of the Android app and don't need offline capabilities then this could well be the one for you. It's a good initial offering, and if you own any of the Pure range of internet radios then you're even better off. It's not quite Spotify, but it is half the price. Hit the break for the download links.
[Pure Music Lounge]
