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im real lazy so the pretty OP is gonna have to wait. I drafted one up a while back but then i realized I should get some goon approved™ opinions here because im only really familiar with one service. Im going to open up the discussion with my current situation. I've had Spotify for about 4-5 years and it's been an all-around great experience. Music discovery is wonderful, playlist creation is easy, and it has enough of a userbase that I can send playlists to my many lovers, knowing they'd have the app installed. But dat gum Spotify figured out I aint book learnin in university no more so I pay $10 a month now. So I figured, why not try Google Play Music since it has the added value of Youtube Red for free? And who knows, maybe the grass is greener? Unfortunately I feel like I took a significant step back. The UI, (on iOS at least), leaves a bit to desire especially while driving. The interface is clean, but bare with quite a bit of wasted space. But I think the biggest problem is how poor music discovery is. Creating a station seldom provides me good music; I hear plenty of songs already on my playlists.There's no Discover Now alternative, which provided some great stuff each week. Maybe you guys have a different experience? Then there's Apple Music. Oddly, its the one I want to incorporate most since I'm already helplessly absorbed into the ecosystem, but I havent given them a shot since they had their 3-month open beta, which left plenty to desire UI-wise. I also dont recall ever getting good music suggested to me, despite "training" it a little bit. Granted, I tried this like 2 years ago so maybe its different? And maybe there's some cool integration with the apple watch since I own one now? So yeah dudes, discuss your favorite and most hated music streaming platforms here.
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Dec 5, 2017 04:33
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| # ? May 3, 2024 11:23 |
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Don’t forget Amazon Music Unlimited (no really). Average to above average across the board. Discovery, library size, app polish — none really suck, but none are the greatest. Very workmanlike, I guess you could say. Also their mobile app has the best (imo) take on showing lyrics I’ve seen. And it can be cheaper than others. Single plan for Prime members is $8/mo or $79/yr. Family plan is the standard $15/mo, but they offer a year for $149 (for everyone, not just Prime members). Also has a $4/mo plan that only lets you stream on one Echo device (I’d guess goons would call this the Grandma Plan). In general, I think “the consensus” is going to go something like this: Spotify is a no brainer if you’re a college student, with Hulu thrown in on top off the half price deal. Go Spotify if you’re big on “Discovery”. Go Google Play Music if you want YouTube Red. Go Apple Music if you want the radio shows and/or iOS integration. Everyone will forget about Amazon because, while it works pretty well, it’s forgettable. And whoo boy is it a new can of worms when you start considering desktop in addition to mobile.
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Dec 5, 2017 15:31
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I use google music because i'm all up in the Android/Google ecosystem, and the ad-free mobile youtube experience is great. If it wasn't for those things, I'd probably be on Spotify for sure. Their music-discovery stuff sounds like it's lightyears ahead of Google Music's.
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Dec 5, 2017 15:43
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I completely forgot amazon music was a thing even though im a prime member. Unfortunately it seems like I get slim pickings unless I cough up for an additional sub for "unlimited". Im curious to see if the Android Google Play Music app is better than iOS. I mean it probably is, but I wonder if theres any special features I'm missing out on. Goons keep talkin about apple music though, because apparently the radio is good? For some reason I thought it was just access to FM radio, which is all around terrible unless you like top 40s.
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Dec 6, 2017 02:14
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Beats One radio has daily shows which are a lot like radio, but also has a bunch of shows that people do once a week or once every two weeks. It seems to run 12 hours per day, then repeats once. Listening live is free. With an Apple Music sub, you can listen to past episodes of those shows (or in some cases just listen to the playlist of the show). For some reason, it appears the beats one official site is on tumblr. http://applemusic.tumblr.com/beats1
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Dec 6, 2017 02:28
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Apple Music's radio isn't FM stations at all. It's Beats 1 (which is a 24 hour streaming station with a number of shows with varying themes), plus genre-themed stations (including ESPN News, CBS News, and NPR News), and the ability to use a Pandora-like stream.
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Dec 6, 2017 02:44
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I really liked AM and used it for the better part of two years. I dumped it coz $10 a month wasn’t working with my budget anymore and I’ve been using Spotifys free service in the meantime. I don’t like it much at all, but I’m also one of those jerks who’s rear end deep in Apple so it was nice having AM on my TV and airpods and watch (though watchOS4 hosed that right up). The biggest thing I’ve noticed reading about is that a lot of people seem to misunderstand AMs For You page. Many seem to think the New Music playlist is their version of Spotifies discover, when it’s really just newly released music. The discover parallels are where AM suggests albums and playlists if you scroll down. I didn’t have a lot of good luck with AM learning my tastes until I started Liking/disliking stuff from radio stations or stations created from songs. The UI for that is garbage though; I usually use Siri instead of 3D Touch. Siri for the most part works really well with music stuff, fortunately, but I also have a non-regional newscaster dialect. Speaking of which AM actually has a lot of good “radio”, far more than Spotifies “rock” or “classical”. It will instead have sub genres of rock or classical or whatever.
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Dec 7, 2017 15:43
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lol I just found out Spotify limits you to 10,000 songs in your library. What is even the point?
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Dec 9, 2017 20:36
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I cancelled Google Play music today, not for any real reason in particular, but I think I spent enough time using it in the car and at work to see how it rolls around. If I had to describe it in short, I'd say it was functional yet spartan. I felt like I could seldom leave it running on its own and have it uncover good music, if that makes any sense. Google Play doesnt seem to venture out too far from the radio stations you create, so its a lot of things I've already heard and repeats. Rather than going back to Spotify (which im thinking may be an inevitability), I'm revisiting Apple Music tonight and plan to stick with it for a few weeks. Initial impressions are good, minus seeing all my old purchased music that reminded me of my horrible taste back in the early 2010s. Beats 1 is pretty cool so far. If anyone has any recommendations for stations focused on hispter/indie music, I'll gladly take them. UI wise, I still think I like Spotify's better, but that's probably because that's what i've been using for years. Presentation wise, AM feels pretty "premium" and im hoping its curated music offerings will introduce me to some great stuff. Time will tell though. Depending on how this goes, I'll probably try Amazon Music Unlimited afterwards before returning to Spotify. Who knows though.
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Dec 16, 2017 05:13
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The thing that keeps me on Google Music is the ability to upload my own albums, since I like too much random obscure atuff they dont have on any service.
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Dec 16, 2017 07:11
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Binton posted:The thing that keeps me on Google Music is the ability to upload my own albums, since I like too much random obscure atuff they dont have on any service. Yeah, I've thought about ditching Google Music for Spotify, but the ability to upload my own tracks and have them integrate seamlessly into my library & the included YouTube Red functionality is too much to ditch.
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Dec 20, 2017 13:45
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Does Google Music's upload feature support long tracks? I have a crapload of mixtapes and live shows and Apple Music barfs on anything over 200 megs.
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Dec 20, 2017 19:29
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qirex posted:Does Google Music's upload feature support long tracks? I have a crapload of mixtapes and live shows and Apple Music barfs on anything over 200 megs. Last time I checked (which was like 2014 so ymmv) it was capped at I think 3 hours or 300mb? E: looking it up now it seems to be just 300mb
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Dec 20, 2017 23:55
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Tidal is giving people 12 free days of service starting on Christmas. Apparently no need to give them any info other than an email address.
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Dec 23, 2017 05:14
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| # ? May 3, 2024 11:23 |
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Its been 10 days that I've used Apple Music now and I'm really surprised how far its come since launch in mid 2015. The interface is still sort of "meh", and becomes noticeably worse when driving. Would be really cool if they incorporated a driving UI or allowed swipe-to-skip gestures. This is probably me just being really in tune with Spotify and having subsequent growing pains. Its at least visually appealing though; count me in as the minority who likes the large font titles. Contrary to what I expected, this AM doesnt seem to work any better than Spotify or Google Music when interfacing on my Apple Watch S2. I was kinda hoping for some ecosystem perks, but there's none I can really find aside from being able to use Siri to play radio stations. Speaking of ecosystems, I wish Apple Music had a web player. I have iTunes installed on my desktop PC only for AM (and I dont dare connect my phone to my computer with iTunes installed). But I'd have to ask the IT guy at work if I could have that bloated, update-hungry joke of a program on my office desktop. Kind of shocked at how good music discovery has been for me. The playlists that Apple creates and periodically updates have been filled with gems. Likewise, I've been getting incredibly good songs while listening to my scrub-tier radio stations. But I guess this could all be considered anecdotal. Someone who shares my taste in hipster/indie garbage may actually consider it garbage. That said, if I keep getting enjoyable music at this rate, I'll be more satisfied than using Spotify for music discovery. Still, only 10 days in. Too early to tell? One less savory surprise was how much I disliked Beats 1 radio over time. Maybe because its more hip-hop based, and with a little more talking and music breaks. It just felt like a worse version of the stations I've been making. Final note on the radio stations: even though the stations have multiple subcategories, they still seemingly pick from a broader range of music. Its much less "narrow" than Spotify which seems worse at first, but has actually brought me pretty unique stuff I know I wouldn't have found on my own. All in all, maybe I just have had a lucky streak? Or maybe I was using Spotify wrong the entire time and its still actually better than AM? Who knows. But I think anyone who can get their hands on a 3 month free trial, or is willing to part with  for a month should definitely revisit it.
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Dec 26, 2017 05:11
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