Streaming Music - What do you use?

[yakers]

Sirius on the cars, Pandora at home and sometimes in cars, absolutely love Pandora, stream it over Sonos

 

[Sunset]

I download free music from the library using Freegal. Three of our cards allow 5 free downloads a week each. I plan to try the Amazon app, too, since we are Prime members, but I already have a lot of music downloaded now from Freegal, so I haven't bothered yet with it yet.

We used to do that and then freegal disappeared.
Going to have to check to see if it came back

 

[audreyh1]

The tunes collection on my idevices is so large I haven’t streamed in years. I only occasionally go looking for something new to add.

Have occasionally tried different music streaming services over the years, but would eventually get bored with them and I like my collection better. Sometimes picking a genre works well, otherwise have many playlists.

Haven’t listened to radio in years! On a long drive I sometimes download a bunch of podcasts ahead of time. That seems to keep the driver (me) entertained.

Way long ago I did find several pieces of music I really liked from streaming, but it would just be the occasional gem. I listened to a lot I didn’t care for that much and it seemed like a lot of repetition and little turnover. But I would occasionally find something new I really liked, and then go find the piece and often find I really liked most of a group’s work. That’s how my collection grew plus nostalgia - remembering music from the past. Classical music collection grew mostly by seeking out more pieces by known composers or performers (YouTube), but sometimes stumble across from research - like watching Versailles and reading about Louis XIV and early ballet I read about his court composer Lully, and watched some videos and discovered an amazing early baroque sound.

I guess you could say I watch a lot of YouTube music performances including footage from concerts long ago. I suppose that counts.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Your Classical is an amazing website. They have several channels. As a wind ensemble player, I love quality band music, and they have a concert band channel. They also have a children’s channel too.

 

[Montecfo]

Since we both like to drive, DW and I have come up with the following: we divide the day’s drive roughly in half.
We trade off at about the halfway point. Driver controls the climate settings, passenger controls the entertainment. It works great for us.

Wow, you really have got it down. We just came back from a long road trip. Driver controls music/podcasts and DW controls climate settings. I assumed that latter data point was universal.

 

[JoeWras]

Here's another lesser known alternative: DASH radio. Completely free, and completely commercial free.

Historically, they were mostly about Hip-Hop, but they've expanded to many other genres. We don't listen all the time, just occasionally for variety. I find their playlist of the 70s or 80s is slightly different and gives a little variety.

There's an app you can use on your streaming device, and apparently something you can use on Alexa, which we haven't tried yet.

 

[Montecfo]

+1 on the bank account drain. That is why I like Freegal from the library. If I relied on Amazon Prime, I'd lose all my music if I ever decided to cancel my Prime membership.

I'm with you and OldShooter on this. I avoid buying things on subscription. It's compounding in reverse. I am a cheapskate for sure.

I manage my own library which is on my wife's old iPod touch. Use that on road trips. It works incredibly well and very easy. The other cars are too old to use that technology. When I walk I listen to financial podcasts on my phone. I also tend to listen to and watch music performances on YouTube.

I recall Paul.LeMat's character in American Graffiti saying " there has not been any good music since Richie Valens died". I guess I'm a bit like that. Classic rock, country,.folk and when I add music it is usually only new to me.

Picked up some good ideas here though.

 

[Rianne]

Amazon Music. It plays gently in the background as I pay bills, post on ER, read articles etc. Love Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emily Lou Harris trio.

 

[JustVisitingThisPlanet]

Pandora Premium is about $120 per year. Spotify premium is $120 per year. Amazon Music Unlimited is $96 a year. These are rounded figures for the individual plans. Fairly comparable. Correct?

Currently, I have the Pandora Plus at $55 a year.

I used to be all Spotify but after trying the majors again now prefer Pandora the most - 90 day trial helped. The library is larger now, but what stands out is the 'radio' feature tends to stay more within the genre, usually picking songs I want to hear. Spotify often goes too off genre a bit and might do live versions or remixes more than original studio songs (at times). Pandora allows fine tuning stations with 'add variety' of artists as well as up/down votes specific to station. The $5 Pandora plan is also a good value (no ads and allows to download three stations for offline use). Pandora doesn't have the largest library but they have a lot of obscure to new artists and less live/remixed tracks. Amazon Music is pretty limited and can go way off genre but fine if you already have Prime and don't want to pay for another music service.

 

[frank2009]

Tried spotify, Amazon music, deezer but pandora just works best for me. Use the $55 plan at home. Radio only in the car.

 

[Car-Guy]

I tried several but I keep going back to my MP3 "memory sticks"... 1000's of songs and only "the good stuff". I still use SirusXM on the road but it's mainly for business news and sometimes a little music.

 

[target2019]

I'm finding new artists and expanding my listening library with Spotify.

 

[iloveyoga]

I listen to a lot of podcasts while driving, or books I have on Audible. I listen to podcasts before I go to sleep too. I am also currently listening to Hamilton on Apple Music.

 

[Goonie]

I listen mostly to SiriusXM. I have one subscription for the car that I listen to anytime I drive it. I have another one for my Boombox, smart phone, and tablet....and my computer back when I use to use it. I also listen to books on Audible. And when I'm in the truck i normally listen to either a local NPR station, a CD, or just those crazy voices in my head. [emoji23]

 

[tulak]

I have a Spotify family plan. I preferred Apple Music, but their family plan requires a single credit card that is used by everyone in the family group. That doesn’t work for us. I miss their personalized playlists. They do a much better job than Spotify, which has been terrible for me. I have to skip way too many songs.

And I really enjoy Pandora radio. They do a great job sticking with the artist/genre and I find on Sonos devices, you don’t get that many ads.

 

[FIREd]

I use Amazon Music.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

Tidal at 25.00/month. I have a good audio system and can take advantage of Tidal's excellent high resolution streaming (=greater than CD quality). Love it.

We also stream Calm Radio (60/year) which provides about 400 "channels" of jazz, pop, classical, world, classic rock, etc. etc. Some of the really calm channels, like "Cello for Sleep" or rhythmic sounds centered on various frequencies are great for falling asleep or when I am working on something requiring a lot of attention. I use the Sinatra channel for house cleaning; can't be beat!

I used Pandora in the States, but it doesn't stream here for licensing reasons.

-BB

 

[Zathras]

Spotify for everything.
I have access to many others, but I find Spotify to give the best “random” songs based on songs I like, or allows me to play specific songs/playlists.

 

[WestUniversity]

Pandora, Prime Music, Slacker (Live x Live) and iHeart Radio...

 

[Tractor guy]

I have built up a music library and don't subscribe to any paid services. To listen, it depends on what I'm doing.
In the car for short trips, I usually use NPR or WLS on FM radio.
Medium trips (30-90 minutes) streamed podcast from stitcher or music from playlists stored on my phone. I connect with bluetooth usually, but sometimes Android Auto.
Longer trips, Audio books from a cd that my spouse picks up at our semi-annual library book sale for pennies on the dollar.

In the house, not on my computer: usually a playlist on our Amazon echo (one of the free ones). Sometimes a blue tooth or chrome cast playlist from my phone.
In the house, on my computer: a playlist from my library on Itunes.

Itunes on my PC is still the manager for my master library for my collection of ripped CD's. My main complaint with all radio stations and streaming services I've tried is that they repeat too much. I've got a smart playlist on Itunes that has about 2 days of songs that I don't dislike and that I haven't played in the last two months. I generally play that playlist which tends to serve up a mix of songs I know well and some I haven't heard in years. I've synchronize the playlist between my phone and my computer every 2 months or so so that it stays fresh. I use an app called ISYNCR to do this on my android phone.

 

[bloom2708]

Apple Music, Family Plan, 6 people using.

I create a number of playlists with favorites and new music. 20-25 songs per playlist.

 

[Koogie]

DW and I have been using Jango.

The price is right...

 

[SunnyOne]

I haven't tried out Spotify or the others, but I have a question (and would appreciate any comments!)

With these services, you don't own a copy of the song, as I understand it - but once you compile your personal playlist - do you lose that list (and all that effort!) once you unsubscribe? thanks

 

[bmcgonig]

I haven't tried out Spotify or the others, but I have a question (and would appreciate any comments!)

With these services, you don't own a copy of the song, as I understand it - but once you compile your personal playlist - do you lose that list (and all that effort!) once you unsubscribe? thanks

I'm assuming when you say unsubscribe you mean stop paying. If you are still using the free version then you keep all your lists.

When you stop paying you lose the downloaded versions. That's all as far as I know.

 

[chicamuxen]

I have the Apple Music family plan. Works great for my DW and I and two DD's. I went with Apple Music hoping it would work well with Apple Car Play, and it works great. Worth the price to me. I also have ton's on a very small thumb drive also.