Very OT - Seeking advice in music streaming services
Seeing as we are well into the offseason, I thought this would be a good time to seek some mgoadvice on music streaming. I have had Rhapsody for years, but in the last 18 months or so after merging with Napster, it seems that the service has really gone down, and the fees are actually up. Any insight as to whats the best out there today?
Sorry to clog the board, but it seems the help here is better conversation than google, or ask jeeves.......Thanks, and Go Blue!
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:48 PM ^
If you use a .edu email address, you get 50% discount on premium. It is well worth it.
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:23 PM ^
^This
And even for the $10 a month full price, totally worth it. It has a totally comprehensive library and let's you play anything from your phone with the membership.
February 23rd, 2017 at 5:23 PM ^
OP might have a family who wants to stream as well, and if so, you can get the family plan for $14.99, which gives you 5 premium accounts for family members. It's quite a bargain. Spotify is hands down the best service out there right now.
February 23rd, 2017 at 2:07 PM ^
It might be an age thing, but I despised the Spotify UI. Used to have the subscription service, but dropped it. But then I don't like i Tunes either, so as I said, age thing?
I recently got Amazon Unlimited through Prime, but so far I haven't found anything on there special, pretty limited catalog for those of us who go deeper than Beyonce, guys who use $ in their names, and what other stuff people listen to nowadays? I will probably tell Amazon to stop dinging me the additional $7.99 soon.
I've also been on Rhapsody/Napster for years, so they have my catalog and playlists, advise me on artists & other user's playlists I might like based on listening history, etc. It also adds the charge straight onto my Verizon bill, so that's sort of convenient.
I haven't experienced any change in performance since it morphed into Napster. Gotta check out this Soundcloud people are mentioning, sounds good!
And of course Pandora, but that can't be what OP was asking about, right? Meant those where you program the music you choose I thought?
February 23rd, 2017 at 2:13 PM ^
Spotify's user interface isn't always the most friendly, but it's not too bad. I'd recommend giving them another try. Their music library runs very deep; you will not run into the problems you're describing with Amazon Unlimited.
They also used to be more restrictive (for example, you couldn't play a particular album in order on the phone, only shuffle), but that seems to have disappeared.
February 23rd, 2017 at 6:10 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 3:36 PM ^
because I have a gap in my SiriusXM service (new car coming with SiriusXM free for a year), and I am pretty surprised with how much I am liking Apple Music. If only Howard Stern was on it it would be perfect...
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:30 PM ^
I'm thinking of doing Apple Music. Just heard today that you pay the monthly fee and can download whatever, whenever.
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:33 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^
Mine does not. I have a 2008 car, so it's not very tech-y compared to what is available today. My car has been paid in full since 2012, though. It's nice not having a car payment.
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:12 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:23 PM ^
I just signed up for Apple Music as well and love it. Very easy to sync your downloads to your apple watch. I do this and listen to my music in the gym without even having to have the phone with me.
Also, Apple Music offers a free 3 month trial.
$15/month family plan.
$10 individual and if you pay in full for a year ($100) it comes out to $8.33/month for 12 months.
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:30 PM ^
Everyone recommends Spotify when this topic arises, but I prefer CDs and Pandora.
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:46 PM ^
I have an older car, with a freaking tape deck. I just use the tape deck iphone adaptor and listen to my catalogue in the car. It's perfect.
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:12 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:19 PM ^
Nope, AOL and party lines.
February 23rd, 2017 at 3:38 PM ^
tends to play a lot of the same music too frequently. All my CDs are in storage somewhere, haven't seen them in literally a decade...
February 23rd, 2017 at 6:15 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:34 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:34 PM ^
I have Spotify and love it, but the future of the company is still in the air. Their IPO was rejected again and have terrible contracts with major music labels.
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:36 PM ^
I got into Amazon music because I had Prime, and then got into Amazon Unlimited and really like it. Alexa can access all your playlists and junk too, if you've got an Echo.
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:37 PM ^
It's also on almost any "connected" device as it's own app (as is spotify) which is nice.
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:37 PM ^
I use a combo of the two. I pay for spotify $9.99 a month. Spotify has just about any purchasable music available to listen to and even save for offline listening. I LOVE soundcloud though, I just use the free version but if something is not on spotify, it will be on soundcloud. mixtapes/ep's/dj sets stuff like that. The membership just gives you the ability to listen to songs that you can find on spotify.
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:46 PM ^
Very true. The only drawback of Spotify is that they don't have mixtapes and DJ sets.
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:03 PM ^
Soundcloud is excellent for EDM. By the way, EDM is the best genre of music and that is a fact. No alternative facts are allowed in this discussion.
February 24th, 2017 at 8:54 AM ^
Having said that I despise EDM and find it unlistenable.
February 24th, 2017 at 9:35 AM ^
EDM makes me so happy.
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:39 PM ^
He speaks the truth.
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:02 PM ^
I had Rhapsody in like 2003 in college on my desktop, because I didn't even have an iPod yet. It's weird to think how ahead of its time it was.
February 23rd, 2017 at 2:14 PM ^
Rhapsody as such doesn't exist, it has become Napster. But essentially the same thing.
As an older person I find it easier to use than Spotify, but then as you mentioned maybe that's cuz it's been around since the dawn of streaming?
Pandora has had some sabotage by their Musicologist-Engineers lately I think. The Ludacris on the Beatles station is not random. They have beenf requently been playing club type BPM on fucking my Nina Simone station lately!!!
Their stock options did not turn out to be as valuable as the early sign on progammers had hoped and they're gonna burn it down now - at least that's my theory!
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:43 PM ^
If you choose Pandora, NEVER thumb up anything that isn't from the seeding artist. That's how your stations get all muddled and you get Billy Joel playing on your Blink-182 station. Seriously. I found an old Beatles station that had Ludacris play on it.
Just thumbs down the songs that don't belong on that particular station and keep Pandora working hard to find you similar music that you'll like.
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:53 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 2:40 PM ^
Question:
Was that Petty comment meant to be /s, or are you suggesting that TP is so broad based in appeal that through him you'll be led to artists that you don't consider similar? The Blink/Billy Joel situation?
Becuase it seems totally reasonable to assume that some people like both TP & Blink, or some both TP & BJoel, but not necessariy Blink & BJoel?!
Interesting programming conundrum...
But yes, wholeheartedly recommend only thumbing up tracks you are sure you love and don't care how many times they play it, because that's what they'll do. Use the down thumb liberally to pare down the chaff though. And if you downvote so many tracks that you end up with them recycling the same playset over and over, junk the station and try creating a new one with a similar goal but different parameters.
For example, rather than "Rolling Stones" try creating "Jumping Jack Flash"... works sometimes.
Clearly I spend a lot of time fighting with Pandora!!! We stream it at work, and some stations just get useless over time as people upvote various tracks that start taking you down the rabbit hole...
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:45 PM ^
It is an amazing service - I got it for my entire family for $15/mo. Their library is very deep (not all-inclusive, but gets into a lot of hard-to-find stuff).
The free service was meh - I got sick of the same damned advertisements. But Premium is amazing. It also lets you download a significant number of albums/songs/etc. onto a device for off-line listening.
February 23rd, 2017 at 12:54 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:10 PM ^
At this point I actually subscribe to three separate services - Apple Music, Tidal, and Google Play. This is because Tidal has some artists exclusively and I really like their interface best. Apple Music is the one service I'll probably let go soon. It's very similar to Google Play, but Google Play also includes YouTube Red in its subscription which is really important for commercial free smart TV and other YouTube viewing. So if I was to just get one service, I'd go with Google Play. Apple Music has a few extra integration benefits with my iPhone and iPad, but YouTube Red is more valuable to me.
I still hate the Spotify interface.
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:10 PM ^
Apple Music, here. It's not perfect, but all their albums have the iTunes exclusive songs, which isn't true of Spotify. It'll also integrate existing MP3s you have on your computer into your iTunes library along with streaming songs, which is nice.
I loved Rdio forever, but then they sold to Pandora and Pandora is emphatically not what I want.
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:14 PM ^
The other services may have a larger user base (Spotify) or play nice with the Apple ecosystem (Apple Music), but for pure music streaming I enjoy Google Play Music. Their radio stations have, to my taste, the best music selection.
February 23rd, 2017 at 1:42 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 2:03 PM ^
I'd second the Google Music comment. Another very nice feature of Google music is that it carries a YouTube Red subscription with it. So, for your $10, you're getting the Google music catalog along with ad-free YouTube. I didn't think the YouTube piece was a big deal, but not having ads on it is actually very nice, and sometimes there are some esoteric songs on YouTube that might not be available on the music streaming service.
For the $15 family plan, which I subscribe to, I have my wife, my sister-in-law, two brothers, my dad, and me on it. As long as your family members have a gmail address, that's all the criteria they need to meet.
All of the streaming services are great, and I definitely vouch for the premium service of whichever you purchase. I simply like Google music the best, and it plays best with my android-PC centric ecosystem.
Hope that's helpful!
February 23rd, 2017 at 5:06 PM ^
+1 for Family & no ads on Youtube.
I have tried them all. This is the one that got me to quit trying others.
February 23rd, 2017 at 8:12 PM ^
February 23rd, 2017 at 5:12 PM ^
Another plus one for Google Music. you get Youtube Red if that's your thing, but you stop getting ads on youtube videos too. The selection if it doesn't mirror Apple music it has to come damn near close. So far the only band I've not ever been able to find is Rammstein. The family plan is awesome. My daughter has her account with her own thumbed up songs, my wife has hers, I gave access to my mom and I still have 2 licenses left to use.
February 23rd, 2017 at 6:26 PM ^
I'll chime in for Google Play Music. I have no clue about the music catalog, but I like it because it integrates well with voice commands via Google Now on my phone in the car or Google Home.