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Music Streaming Service

Chef455

Head Cheese Head Chef
So I have been using Google Play Music for a few years and I love it. I will not go into the history of why this streaming service is a gamechanger for us old guys, but suffice it to say that once upon a time you had to purchase an album in the form of vinyl, cassette, or CD. Again an entire album. There were merits to this process to be sure, but audiophiles aside, streaming is a vast improvement.

So on to why I enjoy my Google Play streaming service. I plug in play "Rolling Stones" it will take me to the "Who" and "Fleetwood Mac". Even better, as an old guy, I may find a band I like that is newer, I.e. "Cage the Elephant" and it takes me down the road of similar bands which I can hit with a thumbs up or down, but continues to provide me with newer bands/songs that I enjoy.

I imagine this all depends on an algorithm that is way beyond my comprehension. Yet as far as Google Play Music is concerned while it is not spot on it does do very well selecting music that I enjoy.

Enter YouTube music. I am told GooglePlayMusic will be eventually phased out to be replaced by YTM. Really, I am pretty open to a change, but the algorithm seems to be SO very wrong when compared to Google Play.

Anyone else have a similar experience or a vastly different one? Anyone else thrilled with their music streaming service that would care to share?

Much appreciated.
 
Will be watching this since likewise...google play, bueno....yt music, no bueno.

I'm tempted to checkout amazon, just not keen on the idea of having to migrate thousands of ripped CDs to another platform.
 

Chef455

Head Cheese Head Chef
Will be watching this since likewise...google play, bueno....yt music, no bueno.

I'm tempted to checkout amazon, just not keen on the idea of having to migrate thousands of ripped CDs to another platform.
I just can't bring myself to add any $ to Jeff Bezos' checking account. Admittedly, Alphabet inc. is not struggling either. I just don't feel a piece of my soul die when that ten bucks disappears into the cloud each month.
 

Owen Bawn

Garden party cupcake scented
I don't think I've spent a penny on recorded music (in any delivery format) in over 20 years.
 
I have used Google Play Music, iTunes, Pandora and Spotify. I find they all have their pluses and minuses... creating a radio station on Pandora, for example, works well with finding other artists in the same genre. You cant do that with Spotify, since it's just a gathering of playlists with limited songs per list. But Spotify seems to have a larger range of music then Pandora. Just as an example...

One day, I am hoping for the One Ring of streaming services... but for now, I'll continue to use four. :D
 
Pandora is the first streaming service I ever encountered and it's still what I use. I tried a couple others that were recommended to me, but I keep going back to Pandora. The no ad and no skip limit is well worth $5 per month.
 
I just can't bring myself to add any $ to Jeff Bezos' checking account. Admittedly, Alphabet inc. is not struggling either. I just don't feel a piece of my soul die when that ten bucks disappears into the cloud each month.
I really dislike the amount of business I do with Amazon and I think Bezos is quite the bellend but its the unfortunate reality. That said, since I'm already subscribed to their Prime service I might as well take advantage of all its features.
 
Ipad, IPhone, Apple Watch and wireless EarPods. All my devices are Apple so I run Apple Music. I also run SiriusXM on all my devices also.
 
I stream Amazon Prime through my echo. My hearing is not so good so the fidelity is fine for me. I like being able to walk into the room and say "Alexa, play Art Pepper" and have it start playing. I can also stream to the echo from my phone which allows me to select specific albums.

I also endorse diversity in where I spend my money.
 
I use Amazon Music HD. I do not have a dedicated music server/streamer at home. I use my Apple Macbook . I connect it to the dac in my preamp using a usb cable. In my car I stream it from my phone.
 
I subscribe to both Amazon Prime Music Unlimited HD and Qobuz. I like both and generally alternate between the two. If you are a fan of recently released music (pop, rock, rap, country) such as would be played on adult radio stations, then Amazon is probably the best alternative. I listen to a wide variety of musical genres: Renaissance, classical, folk, classic rock, older country, blues, jazz, etc. so Qobuz provides a lot of what I listen to. However, I do like some of the Amazon play lists, especially when I can play it on my Echo devices. For example, I might play one of their sleep playlists if I am having trouble falling to sleep.
 
Amazon Music Unlimited (AMU) here. I probably would switch to Apple Music because I think their recommendation algorithm is better (at least it was for me when I took it for a trial run), but my family is fully invested in the playlists they've made, used to how it works, etc., so we're staying put. And that's okay by me. I've been working my way through "1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die" by Tom Moon (lots of fun, that) and almost everything has been available on Amazon. The few that weren't were found on regular old YouTube. I have AMU play through the OG Echo in our kitchen and through an OG Sonos Play 1 in my home office.
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
I have had Apple Music since it’s debut. I pay the student price of $4.99 per month so it’s hard to pass up. You can only get the student discount for 48 months so I reckon I’m almost done with that. But, I did just re-certify my student membership so I don’t know.

Anyway, I’ve been happy with it. But I basically only use it while relaxing by the fire outside. I don’t listen to music in the car. I play podcasts. I imagine eventually I’ll be like Bill, no streaming music service.

I have had the same playlist for at least 2 years on it. A shame too because there are millions of songs out there!
 

TexLaw

Fussy Evil Genius
I become a larger and larger fan of Spotify all the time. It's interface is more complicated, and there's not much in the way of just winding it up to read your mind and play stuff you like, but that's about as much bad as I can say about it.

What it lacks in mind reading is more than made up for by the broad catalog, the control the user has, and the access to others' published playlists. I have a hard time dealing with something like Pandora, anymore. It's too limited.
 
Owning a few hundred CDs, all ripped to iTune, I don't listen to streaming services. My iPod is what I grab. Being rural I don't have broadband and data limits apply. I save it for YouTube and Netflix since I can't hardly stand most TV.
 
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