What streaming service do you use?

[SDG 3335]

In the spirit of all the good info in the "cutting the cable" thread I wanted to ask Surly what streaming service do you use and why.  I typically use Pandora because its easy and free, but just started using a Spotify paid subscription which was also free.  I'm thinking after my sub runs out I'll buy the Pandora sub as I like song transitions a lot more.  Amazon Prime is also an option but I've never tried it.    

 

Am I doing this wrong?  Are there better options out there? 

Edited June 2, 2018 by SDG

[CooterBrown 18273]

I use and like Spotify. The ability to download songs offline for flights is huge for me. The $20/mo for the family plan is more than fair.

[Dbeasy 15532]

Spotify is solid

[SDG 3335]

So far I like Spotify with 2 exceptions. 1 I’m a playlist idiot so setting and forgetting isn’t really an option.  With pandora you search for a track you like and it continuously picks similar tracks.  2 as stated in the op, there is dead space between tracks where Pandora blends/beat matches tracks.  

Ill have to try the download feature.  

[CooterBrown 18273]

Spotify has a pandora like function also. I personally like it better since it goes into some deep cuts and obscure music I’ve never heard before. Pandora rarely gives me anything I haven’t heard before.

[Archer 474]

Been using Amazon premium after a free trial. They usually have any CD I want and some pretty decent stations and play list. It beats the hell out of free Pandora. 

[Buzzrock 15118]

Spotify. Does pretty much everything Pandora does and I like the playlists it creates for you as it learns your music tastes.

I uploaded my CD collection to Amazon so I pay to have that available too.

I killed my Pandora account.

[immortal13 4059]

Spotify has a vastly bigger library than Pandora as well 

[Paul Wesley 3313]

I have Spotify, but I send a lot more time listening to apple music -- most things that I want, I download to the phone on the apple music app.  I don't stream very often.  

I use apple music a lot like a notepad.   For example, last week I was hanging out with some musicians, and one told me he thought I'd like Dan Baird's 90's solo records.  Grab the phone... boom.  Those are downloaded.  Later, someone talked about seeing Nada Surf recently.  And I realized that I'd heard references to that band for 15+ years, but I didn't know anything about their music.... boom, downloaded.  

I'll circle back around to all of it, and depending on what it is, either listen to an entire album, or add a song to my library and it will pop up when I have it on random play.  

Been a long time since I compared services.  Apple music is $9.99/mo, I think.  Not sure if they reimburse the artist at different rates, but I'd put that in the calculus if I ever switch.  

[Ollie Slatt 295]

23 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

Spotify has a pandora like function also. I personally like it better since it goes into some deep cuts and obscure music I’ve never heard before. Pandora rarely gives me anything I haven’t heard before.

This is true.  Pandora actually hires human music experts to listen to songs and map out song characteristics.  Spotify (and almost everyone else) uses a machine listening technology (called EchoNest) to build playlists.  I think the Pandora approach does a better job at predicting user tastes . . . but the draw back is the smaller playlists you mentioned.  The machine listening approach allows for an exponentially larger catalog of songs when building playlists.  

Both services have on-demand features that should have nearly identical catalogs. 

Apple music is good too.  YouTube is supposed to be revamping their services this year, and it should be better than Google's prior offerings.  

 

[Mack Tripper 703]

Spotify 

[4th&Five 41913]

I use Apple and like it. I already had all my stuff in iTunes so there wasn’t much of a choice without spending time rebuilding playlists. 

[Bash Riprock 1695]

spotify

[Buzzrock 15118]

I use Apple and like it. I already had all my stuff in iTunes so there wasn’t much of a choice without spending time rebuilding playlists. 

Spotify imported all my iTunes playlists.

[cactusflinthead 27626]

Spotify and Amazon. Sometimes they get pissy about the rights to a song and I have to get it from Amazon vs Spot. 

I don't like most of what the logarithm has in mind for me. It isn't going to go from Bob Wills to Powerman with a side trip to hear Howlin Wolf. And I'd like to see them try.

[4th&Five 41913]

54 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

 

Spotify imported all my iTunes playlists.

 

Even stuff you had added that isn’t in their library? I was worried about losing bootlegs and live shit I’d added into iTunes over the years. 

[Buzzrock 15118]

Even stuff you had added that isn’t in their library? I was worried about losing bootlegs and live shit I’d added into iTunes over the years. 

I don’t listen to a ton of that stuff but no, imagine it can’t match those up. I uploaded all that stuff to Amazon because I didn’t want to be limited to Apple devices.

[4th&Five 41913]

oops

Edited June 5, 2018 by 4th&Five

[longhrnfan 61]

Spotify 4 Life. 

[Yankee 39]

I use spotify premium but i am tempted to try the youtube service. 

[nycHorn 3123]

On 6/4/2018 at 10:20 PM, 4th&Five said:

Even stuff you had added that isn’t in their library? I was worried about losing bootlegs and live shit I’d added into iTunes over the years. 

Spotify has a "local files" section that I've added stuff into that isn't on Spotify but that I had mp3 or in iTunes.  

[Footballpants 138]

Rhapsody, which was acquired by Napster last year, is a really interesting story in failure. 

I've used the service for almost 15 years. They were the first to launch streaming for a monthly subscription, they were the fist to allow downloading of songs for offline without having to purchase, their interface is great, it's super fast, etc. BUT nobody uses them. Pandora and Spotify kicked their ass even though Rhapsody was first to market by several years.

[SDG 3335]

Bump: to update because I’ve managed to end up with both Spotify (through Hulu) and Pandora (through ATT) premium services and they are remarkably similar as far as selection goes but I have noticed the eq setting on Pandora tends to be a lot more clubby/bass heavy.  I compared the two using the same song and device and it’s definitely noticeable.  It seems like Pandora adjusts everything to what they think you’d like while Spotify sends the flat file and lets you decide how to eq it. 

Anyone else notice this or am I off my meds?  

[tbone_ 14416]

I just signed up for amazon unlimited. First one I’ve tried out.

[VABuckeye 2481]

Deezer Hifi.   Allows me to stream uncompressed music through my system. 

[MaxHorn 397]

The "MASTER" recordings on Tidal are pretty fucking amazing.