a little poll about streaming music services

Before streaming was a thing, I never used iTunes for windows because (limited experience) it's really slow and hogs resources.. but nowadays I tolerate similar performance issues with Spotify because massive library of music... I figure iTunes runs smoother on a mac..

You can use multiple artwork on 1 album (on 1 track even) in iTunes?

i don't sub to any streaming service, as i use my local NAS/digital archive, but i do have access to a lot of the free stuff on soundcloud via the sonos application.

well now i'm curious about tidal. spotify sound quality is just bleh. apple music -- i'm just turned off by the company tbh. i don't have the brainpower or the time to try and sort out how to make my phone's music app not delete all my precious hardwax and beatport downloads which it keeps doing even though i don't have match or w/e enabled. don't tread on me apple. you're like an annoying roommate who's always home. i'm in the apple store a lot more than i used to be though. bandcamp i feel guilty about not exploring enough. soundcloud is always so buggy ime. amazon prime and google play idk. streaming services in general feel like a chore to me with occasional exceptions but i'm just another grumpy guy.

who needs good sound quality every day like he needs psyllium husk

my biggest problem with iTunes is it's hard to add stuff, like I made a "automatically add to itunes" folder on my desktop but when you add stuff (unless you rip a CD that seems to work) it always shows up as "file not found do you want to find it?" really weird and dumb

i generally use bandcamp then upload that stuff to google music

there was a rumor that spotify was going to go lossless quality and have a $15/month tier?

but i do have access to a lot of the free stuff on soundcloud via the sonos application.

how does that work? is soundcloud one of the streaming services supported by sonos? i would surely need a registration at soundcloud, is that free?

yes, it's one of the services supported, and yes, it needs a login.
but my soundcloud account is a free one, which only has access to free tracks.
you have to go through an authorisation process, but the sonos app/controller runs the show once you have given it your login/password.

I use both Bandcamp and Soundcloud, though Soundcloud is a bit easier/more intuitive when listening for new things--streaming music without interruption, and there's no limit to the amount of plays. Can't really choose one over the other, though Bandcamp is obv. better for accessing full albums and it's ideal for purchasing music, physical copies or digital. I recently got a smartphone and started using Bandcamp more often, but prefer to listen to music files using VLC media player. I was a put off by the phone's tendency to default everything to Google music at first.. definitely prefer a more old school approach. There's always YouTube for accessing the familiar/favorites. For music I really like, I'll purchase it on CD/cassette (if possible) for an ideal listening experience.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

None #lolold

As paid streaming subscriptions get mainstream adoption, the big music streaming services – namely Spotify, Apple Music, and Tencent Music, but also Pandora, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, and others – have entered their prime. There are now over 51 million paid subscription accounts among music streaming services in the US. The music industry grew 8% last year globally to $17.3 billion, driven by a 41% increase in streaming revenue and 45% increase in paid streaming revenue.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/30/the-war-over-music-copyrights/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

?__twitter_impression=untrue

lol

I may check this out: https://variety.com/2019/music/news/amazon-music-unveils-hd-highest-quality-audio-streaming-1203338552/

https://www.salon.com/2019/09/13/jeff-bezos-abruptly-cuts-health-benefits-for-nearly-2000-part-time-whole-foods-workers/

tempted to pay for beatport. 10 bucks a month. they have so much stuff! and the sound is really good. and i could make cool playlists. i pay for ad-free youtube but it is hardly ideal when it comes to certain things. i'm not a spotify fan. i dunno. i might stick with youtube. but what i do now is go to beatport anc check stuff out and then type new releases into youtube. which is demented. i could justify it if i cancelled one of my...uh...many streaming t.v. services. i don't watch Shudder much...

I'm planning on switching to Qobuz.

come on you made that one up.

They make good sandwiches

If you're interested in DJing, Tidal is pretty good too.

I just had to make sure that all my label's releases were on Qobuz, because it sells downloads as well as streaming stuff. Only half of them were, but they should all be up there soon, if Distrokid does their job.

Since this poll ran, I switched from Spotify to Tidal.

lol first thing i see on quobuz site is Mount@in Go@ts.

"If you're interested in DJing, Tidal is pretty good too."

i'm not interesting in Djing other than my once every blue moon fumblethumbs version of it at local places when people are desperate and then i just do vinyl anyway. though beatport does have virtual Dj tools you can fuck around with. i'm just interested in new electronic music that i haven't heard. and good sound.

now that i'm working in back at the shop i can actually listen to whatever i want in peace all day.

as far as new music goes, all i really care about is metal/hip hop/edm. for the most part.

(and even with hip hop i am kinda succumbing to old man 80s and 90s nostalgia and youtube has all that basically. they have all the new stuff too.) (i listen to 90% of the new metal i hear on youtube as well. and old metal. 400 album demo tape playlists. you would think it would all be too much at some point.but that point never arrives.)

beatport is good at curating genre new releases. deep tech hype tracks of the week! i dig it.

how good is tidal with classical and also experimental/avant garde? probably a silly question. probably tons of stuff.

because i am stupid and old i always forget how much better YT Music sounds compared to regular YT. i always forget to click the Music link. like a lot better! i'm gonna get cooler speakers for my desktop. it really does make me work better.

I think it tops out at 256kbps though. I like the UI but hafta use Amazon Music for actual listening.

I think Tidal is supposed to be the best one for classical?

Also I think Qobuz had the Tzadik catalog before it was widely available on streaming, I first heard of it when Whiney was doing his complete Zorn project (or maybe they were only available for dl??).

I like Qobuz best for classical, it's very high-rez and also has the booklets which are essential to me for vocal music.

Ooh, if it has liner notes for jazz then it's over

beatport cheapo plan is: AAC 128kbp/s

hmmmm that doesn't seem like its as high a number as 256...

this sounds so cool on the little external speakers i'm using. imagine if those speakers were not so little!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxYDkDTFgF4

xp Yes that will sound like gar-bazge

I am an Apple Music user. A lot of their stuff, particularly classical, is now lossless. Also, I cannot stand the Spotify UI.

Didn't Apple launch an entirely separate service for classical(?)

Maybe? I haven't seen it. It's still a part of their overall service.

I love Qobuz would really encourage people to try it out

I think the Apple Music Classical
App is currently iPhone/IOS only (it’s not available for my iMac).

the Bandcamp app is worth a try, although you may need to fiddle with your library to get it to suggest the type of music you want to hear

Booklets are common on Qobuz for more recent releases, pop/jazz/classical/whatever

I've been an Apple Music subscriber since they started. There's certainly been some bumps along the way, but I think it has steadily improved and is a solid product now. Previously was a Spotify subscriber, but got frustrated with their playlist/offline song limits, which I'm sure have probably been lifted by this point, and lack of local music integration. Every time I do open Spotfy by clicking on a playlist or something, I'm just WTF is this interface, it's so confusing to me. But that could just be a lack of familiarity. I'm so used to Apple Music and finding what I want.

I also think Apple has significantly improved their discovery mechanisms, they always have lagged behind Spotify there. Frequently I turn on the autoplay similar songs so it just continues after I finish a playlist or album and I've discovered a lot of new stuff that way.