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Post by Drew on Jul 15, 2020 18:45:14 GMT -5
Long gone are the days of P2P music sharing and Napster. Currently, there are 20+ monthly and yearly music subscription services out there. Each of them provides access to an entire catalog of just about every popular tune out there. Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and Pandora are the popular ones, but there are a number of others as well. Which of these popular music streaming services do YOU subscribe to?
Also, pros and cons... what do you or don't you like about the ones you use (or have used in the past)? Is it a good value for the cost? Is new music always available when it's released? Is older music available? Do the smartphone apps work well, or are they buggy and glitchy?
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Post by JessieLou on Jul 15, 2020 19:35:08 GMT -5
I voted for: Spotify Amazon Pandora TuneIn The only one I pay for is Spotify. My parents have Amazon Prime and sometimes I use their account to listen to music. I use Pandora once in awhile, and I use TuneIn sometimes to listen to M4B Radio. Overall I'm happy with all of them, except TuneIn is a pain in the ass sometimes.
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Post by FreakyFlyBry on Jul 15, 2020 20:20:40 GMT -5
Spotify, Youtube, Google Play
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2020 23:47:07 GMT -5
I am not subscribed, but I use Spotify. I guess for me, the days of P2P can't be gone, as there are artists that are not on Spotify, so that sucks.
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Post by Pipa on Jul 16, 2020 10:07:09 GMT -5
I decided to vote for everything I've used past and present. I use Spotify, currently have a month trial of Apple Music, used Amazon Music when I still had Prime, and have a ton of music on Google Play Music, and of course I listen to stations on TuneIn. But most likely I rip from Youtube or Deezloader.
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Post by Vic on Jul 16, 2020 19:24:08 GMT -5
I guess I am in the minority. I don't use any of those services. I listen to my own music in my music library.
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Post by macprohawaii on Oct 28, 2021 21:03:31 GMT -5
Gonna bump this topic with my opinion of various streaming services.
On-Demand Streamers
Spotify - I have more than 250 playlists there. Only streaming with my Mac or Chromebook via web browser. To get past an ad, I just reload the current playlist. I am usually nitpicking and playing one track at the time. For the free tier the Android app only allows shuffle mode, which means it is not good for streaming albums in track order. I like the library, it is huge and has most of the songs I like... however there are some that are totalling missing. There are also podcasts on Spotify but I haven't checked them out.
Amazon Prime Music - I only stream whatever songs and albums I can get for the basic Amazon Prime service. So that is about 2 million songs out of the what.... 11 million track library. Good for listening to current popular albums. Avoid building personalized playlists with this since songs come and go every month. As a prime member you get no commercials. Also all of the music that I bought digitally or on CD with CD Rip are part of my Amazon library.
YouTube Music - The only reason why I use this is because Google forced all of its Google Play users to migrate their personal libraries here. This is a much inferior service to Google Play Music (which is now closed) with an emphasis on getting you to pay for a subscription. No thank you. I just rather listen to and upload (backup)more of my digital music to this since Google Play is no longer around (sad). Lousy interface for both web and Android app. Playlist building sucks and you can't edit tracks like how it used to be in Google Play. Sigh... I had to send my 25,000 song library somewhere.... ugh.
Google Play Music - The free tier was the best thing going as a music locker for MP3 and AAC files you either bought or ripped from CDs and elsewhere. It had great playlist organization, and you could edit your tracks with updated data like album image, track number, title, artist, genre, etc. Worked nicely on my Mac, Chromebook and my 2 Android phones.
Radio Like Streamers
Pandora - Yes, this works on all my devices. I don't like the automatically generated playlists just based on a few songs you declare first. Playlists tend to drift. Ads are annoying, but for free it's an ok service.
iHeartRadio - The main reason why I use this is to stream classic American Top 40 radio shows with Casey Kasem. Free app and also streams on my Mac, Chromebook, Android.... Good for listening to my local radio stations that are owned by iHeart media.
Tune-In Radio - This is my go to streaming service just to get a more pure radio experience. Many of my local stations are on it as well as radio from all over the world. I use this to listen to BBC Radio 2, BBC World Service and Fox News. Plus they have podcasts. Their Android app is good for my Samsung Galaxy 6 with Android 7 and my Pixel 4a phone with Android 11. My old Alcatel 3G smartphone with Android 2.7 can still stream an older version of Tune-In. Nice.
Other Streaming Services That I also use:
YouTube video streaming - Many hit singles and albums are here. Great for use on my Mac with an ad blocker. Can create custom playlists that carryover to YouTube Music. Accuradio - Similar to Pandora but have way better curated playlists for many genres of music and decades organization. Free and ad supported.
Jango - Free music streaming, many genres, mostly ad free.
Stitcher.com - My go to website and app for listening to my small library of podcasts. They also have some streaming radio stations.
Jamendo - Another free streamer with plenty of public domain and CC streaming files. Can download many songs for free, though most are by unknown artists and of EDM genre.
8Tracks.com - I have about 20 publicly accessible playlists on this mostly pay service, though there is a free tier. Many people over the years set up all kinds of playlists for other people to listen to and enjoy.
Soundcloud - Not my favorite but there is a free tier with a lot of strange music on it. Some songs can be downloaded.
Last FM - They re-stream mostly YouTube videos but I use this to track the music I am listening to.
My physical library
Last but not least I have hundreds of vinyl records and 45s plus thousands of CDs... so these are not bad. I also have about 300 to 400 cassettes, many of them custom mixed tapes or of radio broadcasts from years ago.
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Post by Pipa on Oct 28, 2021 22:12:49 GMT -5
Update: I now use Apple Music as my main service as they pay artists more than Spotify. I only use Spotify now for updating playlists. I replaced TuneIn with an app called Receiver. It's a bit pricey up front ($8 CDN) but unlike TuneIn, it has no ads and never nags me to upgrade. For MP3s I use free-mp3-download.net/ , because Deezloader wants to break every second day, and of course I rip from YouTube. Oh, and I don't even acknowledge the existence of Amazon Music anymore lmao. (PS, R.I.P. Google Play Music, we didn't deserve you )
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Post by Vic on Oct 29, 2021 8:57:57 GMT -5
I will jump in as well and say I did enjoy and now miss Google Play.
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