When comparing Spotify vs Guayadeque, the Slant community recommends Guayadeque for most people. In the question“What are the best audio players for UNIX-like systems?” Guayadeque is ranked 17th while Spotify is ranked 32nd. The most important reason people chose Guayadeque is:
Most other players start rather slowly. This one is written in C++, and the end result is excellent speed.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Huge collection of music and fast access to newly released songs
Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music.
The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.
Pro Related artists
Helps to find new authors based on your previous picks
Pro Curated playlists
Public playlists on Spotify created by other people are great for finding new music.
Pro Client's functionality can be extended via third-party apps
Spotify desktop client allows for third-party apps. They extend the functionality of Spotify and many of them offer new ways of discovering music. Noteworthy apps include Moodagent, Last.fm, Swarm.fm, ShareMyPlaylists, The Hype Machine, We Are Hunted, Shuffler.fm.
Pro Has a free version
A free, ad-supported account allows streaming from an extensive library of music.
Pro Weekly Discover playlist uses a great algorithm
A playlist generated by Spotify based on your listening habits and released every Monday. The algorithm used by this playlist is great and stands out from its competitors.
Pro Starts fast
Most other players start rather slowly. This one is written in C++, and the end result is excellent speed.
Pro Doesn't use much memory
Once installed, Guyadeque only uses about 15 MBs.
Pro Well-implemented auto playlist
After music has finished playing, Guadayeque will play a similar type of music.
Pro Handles large music databases very well
Pro Lots of niceties / options / integration
Last.fm shows your profile in the software and also displays info about the artist.
Lyrics are downloaded automatically when you want to see them.
Cross-fading between songs keeps music constantly coming, which is very important when using music to block out ambient sounds.
VU (volume unit) Meters give you something to look at while the music is playing.
Pro Smart play
It automatically make a playlist song-by-song you hear from your music file. It finds similar songs. So, as you listen to a song an endless playlist with similar songs is about to happen..
Pro Clean appearance
Guayadeque has a clean yet customizable appearance.
Cons
Con Free account have lots of ads
If you hate commercials, you would buy Premium or go on using something else.
Con Discovery is terrible
The discovery algorithm is poor and does not learn fast enough. Not obvious how to train it.
Con Poor audio quality
There's a high range of bitrates and most of vary from average to bad.
Con Development seems to stall since 2016
Con Sidebar lists multiple artists as one artist
A song with multiple artists labeled like "Artist 1; Artist 2; Artist 3" will not be displayed under all three artists, but rather under an artist labeled as "Artist 1; Artist 2; Artist 3." This makes actions as simple as queuing up an album with multiple artists a huge pain.
Con Songs with differing artists in an album are displayed as separate albums
Suppose Album 1 by Album Artist A has a lot of songs by Artist A, with one song that features Artist B. Album 1 will get fractured across different artists in the sidebar.
Con Interface is too busy
There's a lot shown on each of Guayeque's screens, and the more important buttons (play/pause and skip buttons) are small and hidden in the top left corner. Most users use music players in the background, meaning they will be switching back and forth with whatever else they're doing. As such, having larger buttons in a more prime location would be preferable.
Con Sometimes freezes and crashes
This can happen if you change some settings i.e. add or remove tabs etc.