Slashdot Asks: What's Your Preferred Music Streaming Service? 316
Spotify announced on Monday that it has hit 100 million users on its music streaming service, with over 30 million paid subscribers. The Swedish music company's service rivals with Apple Music, Pandora, and Google's Play Music. Apple's streaming service, which was launched last year, has over 15 million paid customers as of earlier this month. Amazon also reportedly plans to launch its music streaming service later this year. YouTube is also a stop for many music listeners, and so is radio.
How do you get your music? Do you still purchase CDs and DVDs? Anyone with a turntable in the audience?
How do you get your music? Do you still purchase CDs and DVDs? Anyone with a turntable in the audience?
MP3 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:MP3 (Score:4, Interesting)
For me as well. I actually buy music. I'm not interested in streaming services at all.
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It's the same aspect for me as well.
In college I had thousands of MP3s, now that I am out of college and have a career, I have actually started to purchase more music.
Not that I have a lot of money to spend, just that now that I am not living off of Ramen, I think it's fair to start opening up the wallet a bit more and support the arts.
Re:MP3 (Score:5, Interesting)
Spotify is best for music that it's impossible to buy. I find out-of-print music on Spotify all the time.
The real value of a service like Spotify is its back catalog.
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This - this, right here.
It goes doubly so for artists that are on indie labels (or their own labels), as well as long-forgotten one-hit-wonders that are on no RIAA catalog (anymore, anyway).
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I've not bought a CD from a big label in years, unless you consider Cold Spring Records [1], Nuclear Blast Records, or Cleopatra Records big. Otherwise, I do buy the albums.
[1]: R. I. P. Cold Meat Industries.
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When I buy music, I do it via Amazon (if you by the disc, they give you the MP3). I like the .mp3 format. I won't buy music via iTunes because of the proprietary format that won't play via USB stick in to my car stereo.
For streaming, it's Pandora and TuneInRadio (I stream a station I like located far away.... radio is crappy in my locality).
Re:MP3 (Score:5, Informative)
For what it's worth if you're going to buy music online you should probably get it in a lossless format (FLAC) so that if you format-shift it won't result in additional degradation beyond what the lossy codec would normally involve. In practical terms it doesn't matter that much since audio codecs aren't changing terribly often and almost everything is backwards compatible with the older formats, but if you re-encoded your lossy files enough they would eventually sound like garbage.
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I used to argue this over a decade ago, that AAC was Apple only. However, times have changed, with many other devices accepting this format. The days of WMA players are long gone, and virtually everything will play AAC. Ideally, one should purchase music in FLAC, and choose the best format for the device. For a high noise threshold car, 192kbps might be good enough. For listening with cans, might be best just to listen to the FLAC file directly for the best quality.
Of course, most newer audio heads ass
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As someone who purchases music in 96/24 (or better) DVD-A format whenever possible (and has a DVD-A player), if you think you can hear ANYTHING above 128 kbps AAC (or probably even MP3) in a CAR, you're DELUSIONAL.
Untrue. Granted, I had a significantly upgraded system compared to what was available as a stock system, but I was easily able to tell when a song was at 128kbps or below. Oddly enough, I didn't read what you were replying to until now, but I was about to say that the cutoff in my car was 192kbps. That and above was next to impossible for me to hear a difference, but 128kbps was easy to spot.
That being said, none of this matters to me these days. I'm driving a 95 Vovlo station wagon now and the cassette player in my car isn't terribly friendly with these MP3 and AAC things.
I would challenge you to an A/B/X test in your car. I don't care how advanced your car system is, road noise, vibration causing intermodulation distortion products right in the air of the cabin, and other factors conspire to hide anything but the crappiest CODECs at above 128 kbps in AAC. Did I mention AAC as part of my "conditions"?
Having said that, when I conducted my own (unscientific) tests before committing all my CDs to iTunes, I found that 160 kbps AAC was where I stopped being able to tell in a NO
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When I buy music, I do it via Amazon (if you by the disc, they give you the MP3). I like the .mp3 format. I won't buy music via iTunes because of the proprietary format that won't play via USB stick in to my car stereo.
For streaming, it's Pandora and TuneInRadio (I stream a station I like located far away.... radio is crappy in my locality).
Get a clue from the clue box.
iTunes uses, and always has used, the Industry Standard Dolby AAC.
It is your car stereo that needs an upgrade; not iTunes.
Oh, and Apple Music sidesteps ALL of that, by allowing you to stream nearly the ENTIRE iTunes Catalog at your whim.
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Since I've never been a member of the Apple hive mind, I don't know if the average car stereo can play that format exclusively used by Apple or not. I simply don't need to care.
Most of my music collection predates iTunes anyways.
Re:MP3 (Score:4, Interesting)
For me as well. I actually buy music. I'm not interested in streaming services at all.
Yup. I rip my CD's to FLAC and play them off a computer. Occasionally I'll just play a CD. I have no interest in streaming. (Unless you count the canned music channels that come with our cable subscription as 'streaming' - we use those as background music sometimes). I DO listen to a lot of stuff on YouTube, and I've found quite a bit of new music there that I like. I'll download it from YouTube, then if I find I listen to it more than a few times, I'll buy the CD.
When I want stuff that I can't find on CD, I have no qualms about using youtube-dl or BitTorrent. I'm happy to pay for music, (if it's in a lossless format), but if the music company sees fit not to make it available in some permanent, non-DRM'd format, then too bad, so sad, oh well - I can usually get what I'm looking for in some other way.
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CDs for me. I don't buy much music anyway, and don't listen to much except when commuting. If I had a party (hypothetically) I could just turn on the TV and use one of the music services built into the roku, either free or a one month sub only (or maybe bring up youtube with the 24 hour looping Taking The Hobbits To Isengard, which will make the parties shorter so that I can get back to other stuff).
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MP3 or AAC. I am in places with spotty to no cellular reception, and with a 128GB smartphone (or 128 GB SD card), I can shovel most of my music collection onto the device. Plus, downloading/purchasing ensures artists get some revenue, compared to streaming where the royalty per play is just insanely small.
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Same here, my "streaming" service is my MP3 player.
I rip from CD's bought at Garage Sales and used record stores....
Or the rare CD bought directly from the artist for small time "unlabeled" singers/groups I like.
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Yep, I store my music collection on a microSD card in my phone
I don't want to pay VZW for data overage.
Google (Score:3)
I got in on Google's at the very beginning of it's service, so I have the legacy price. I've yet to be able to stump it in terms of not being able to access my choice of music but that doesn't mean it has everything.
As for purchasing...those have always been few and far between for me. I've done more KS albums for smaller bands in the past few years (shout out to the DoubleClicks!) than I've purchased from any storefront.
Pandora and Amazon for me (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Pandora and Amazon for me (Score:5, Informative)
Back when I finally started rethinking my resistance to the idea of paying for streaming music, I kept reading about how Pandora had "only" a million songs, while Spotify and Apple Music had somewhere around 30 million. But when I was listening to Apple Music in the genres I often like to play in the background (jazz, swing, blues), I was hearing a lot of repeats - so I did some testing.
This is obviously subjective, but - I felt like I heard fewer repeats on Pandora than on either Spotify or Apple Music. And Apple Music was by far the worst when it came to playing the same songs, over and over. And Pandora certainly trains well. So... I'm now a Pandora customer, and paying 1/2 of what Apple or Spotify charge.
I'm sure there are cases where those huge Spotify/Apple catalogs actually matter... but it doesn't seem to be the case with the music I stream.
Re:Pandora and Amazon for me (Score:5, Interesting)
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I think hearing repeats has more to do with algorithms than it does to do with amount of content available. I was on Spotify on 2 different trial periods spaced over a year apart, and both times I ended up cancelling because it just played too many repeats, even though I know it had more content available. Choosing 90s or some other huge category seemed to only have some list of 100 songs, even though it was supposed to be a dynamic list. It would also pick things that specifically weren't from that decade
Re:Pandora and Amazon for me (Score:5, Interesting)
I can speak to the Spotify part of this. Their algorithm for shuffle and radio are just awful. If you've got a 10,000 song playlist and put it on shuffle, you're going to hear the same 50 songs over and over. There has been a complaint thread in the Spotify support forums about this since at least 2012.
If you like jazz, swing and blues, the nice thing about Spotify is that you can find records that are out-of-print and impossible to buy anywhere. But you have to be prepared to do a lot of fiddling with your playlists to hear the songs you want.
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Pandora with their "music DNA" seems to have the music streaming service option far better figured out than any of their competitors. Apple is particularly bad at suggesting things to you based on what it already knows about you and your collection/preferences.
Subsonic.org (Score:2, Interesting)
I stream my own music via excellent Subsonic.org app running on a raspberrypi at home.
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This is what I do as well. Nice software, but I wish it supported song ratings rather than just stars.
Now, Subsonic is no good at all for discovering new music. For that I generally use YouTube, Spotify, and Pandora. Each has it's strengths. I don't pay for anything, so one of the weaknesses of Spotify is it is not free on mobile. Pandora is excellent but the playlists tend to get repetitive without frequent attention. YouTube has the poorest automatic playlist selection algorithm, uneven audio quality, and
I listen to a free service... (Score:5, Informative)
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You also can't skip the songs you don't like and you have to wait for them to play your favourite song.
Your radio only gets one station? I feel sorry for you.
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It's not free, it just doesn't cost money. You have ads
You might, but I don't.
Still CDs. (Score:5, Interesting)
I buy a lot of CDs are bars when I see bands. I rip them to FLACs and sync them to my phone/work.
I also use Bandcamp because they only take 10~15%.
If a band I like has no other options and they're not playing in my city any time soon, I might use Amazon MP3 or CDBaby, but I don't like it.
I haven't bought off Apple/google ever. They use to take ~30%, but I think some of that may have change. It's till too much. They have the volume that they could easily take 5%, still turn a massive profit and give more to the artists.
I don't use Spotify and never want to. I prefer to own my music, not rent it.
Main stream artists I torrent if I want them. If you already have a million in sales, there are artists out there who tour out of vans with better music than your shit. Just because you got lucky with a label since your music is generic enough to reach a wide audience without offending anyone doesn't entitle you to as big a peace of the pie as you have. Things haven't really changed since Metallica and Napster. Also, all my Metalica CDs are pirated.
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Same here, still buying CDs. Though I will buy one-off mp3 songs from Amazon.
I see Internet streaming as no different than having a radio, except more expensive. You don't own the music in the end and you lose any library music when you change providers, so you'll never build up a music collection. I'd rather have music that I can listen to whenever I want and not have it tied to a subscription service.
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Me too! :-) I buy CDs from bands and the store and also have a small stack of LPs but haven't (re)purchased a turntable. Heck I don't own a CD player anymore - used to have a very high quality model but it died. And I have 4 HA CDs that I've played through the blu-ray player to "just to do it" - but it is a PITA and can only listen on the main stereo so isn't used often. If only I could RIP and place on my NAS for Sonos to pull from in all their HA glory.
But streaming still plays an important role.
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Main stream artists I torrent if I want them. If you already have a
million in sales, there are artists out there who tour out of vans with
better music than your shit. Just because you got lucky with a label since your music is generic enough to reach a wide audience without offending anyone doesn't entitle you to as big a peace of the pie as you have. Things haven't really changed since Metallica and Napster. Also, all my Metalica CDs are pirated.
Wow. Entitled much?
only if he doesn't patronize those guys in vans with the better music.
Although most stuff should be in the public domain anyways. That certainly applies to any of Metallica's relevant works.
Where is the cowboy neal option? (Score:2)
Free streams ripped to mp3s (Score:2)
Ol' fuddy-duddy here (Score:3)
I buy my music on CD, rip it to FLAC, add it to my library (QuodLibet FTW), then transcode the best tracks to mp3 for on-the-go playing in my car or at the gym.
I listen to what I want, when I want, without worrying about bandwidth or ads or monthly fees or internet access.
My own server (Score:2)
$3/mo ain't bad (Score:2)
Outside of Slacker, Amazon Music allows me to listen to my own catalogue from basically anywhere on basically any device, which is very useful and less of a hassle than having to transfer files manually, and since you can stream it you don't need to take up storage space in these newfangled devices without expandable storage. Their selection of streama
Slacker and Youtube (Score:2)
I'm more into streaming talk.... (Score:4, Insightful)
CBC Radio One
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CBC Radio One
Agree. I have the SiriusXM app, so CBC Radio One + NPR.
For music, my wife likes CBC Radio Two and CBC Radio Three.
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http://music.cbc.ca/#!/radio3
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I'd rather just get the podcast versions of the shows. Unfortunately, there's too much to listen to. I've got, like, 10 episodes of Ideas in the queue.
My challenge (Score:4, Interesting)
My challenge is finding new music. I'm not young anymore, approaching 40. My time is spent primarily with my wife and son and some co-workers. Music never comes up with us so discovering new music these days is harder for me. Spotify has opened me up to new stuff I wouldn't otherwise have known about. That's why I maintain a Spotify account.
I have a lot of music that I've collected over the years but frankly, I'm bored of it. It's also cheaper to just stream off Spotify than buy multiple CD's a month.
Re:My challenge (Score:4, Informative)
My challenge is finding new music. I'm not young anymore, approaching 40. My time is spent primarily with my wife and son and some co-workers. Music never comes up with us so discovering new music these days is harder for me. Spotify has opened me up to new stuff I wouldn't otherwise have known about. That's why I maintain a Spotify account.
I have a lot of music that I've collected over the years but frankly, I'm bored of it. It's also cheaper to just stream off Spotify than buy multiple CD's a month.
I have a similar issue, and I'm 50. I like Pandora for similar reasons. I like the multiple "stations" feature that Pandora has. It makes it easy to find both older music that I had forgotten about, and newer music that I've never heard of. For example, listening to the Bon Jovi station also played Aerosmith. And listening to Elle King (I really like her hit single "Ex's & Oh's") also played Gin Wigmore.
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I'm in the same demographic. I listen to "adult rock" kozt.com They have a person there who actually scouts out new music and does a reasonable job at it. When I hear something I like, I write it down and buy it online. It's not a "classic oldies" station FWIW. It works for me.
Rhapsody (Score:2)
I've been a Rhapsody customer for quite a while now. I chose it because it has both a smartphone client and a desktop client. I thought both did a decent job of helping me find new stuff to listen to.
I recently started with Youtube Red. It's early for me to properly review but I do like the music-video angle of it. More importantly, no more ads on Youtube.
'Streaming' is just another form of 'rental' (Score:5, Interesting)
I personally don't believe in 'streaming' services over the internet. I've tried them, and I don't like them one bit. If I want to listen to music for free and not have a choice in what I'm hearing, I'll turn on an FM radio, and mute it/turn down the volume/change the station when there's a commercial block. Otherwise I want to own copies of the music I want to listen to. Likewise I don't like or believe in 'The Cloud', since anything you're paying for that exists in 'The Cloud' isn't ever really yours, it's only available to you until someone else decides you're not entitled to it anymore. Nope, no thanks, I'll keep my own copies of media, or at least files, on a local piece of hardware that I own, that nobody else has the rights to examine, alter, or delete.
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Otherwise I want to own copies of the music I want to listen to.
That's what I always thought, until I tried a "rental" service (I have a Google Music subscription), but the freedom of being able to listen to whatever I want without having to think about price is so great I can't imagine going back. I probably spend about the same on music as I did before, but now I listen to a lot more -- and a much wider variety -- of music than would have been possible by buying music.
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Spotify FREE on the desktop. USB on the move. (Score:2)
FM (Score:2)
Google Play Music (Score:3)
Only free streaming. (Score:2)
I do not pay for streaming, I will not pay for XM, and I will not pay for digital files.
If I am looking for a one-off song listen, I go to YouTube, or SoundCloud. If I want to listen to a random playlist that I like, I go to my local Alternative Rock FM radio station. They also stream. They also break in for local weather and local emergencies. If I get tired of my local Alt station, then I can also stream KRBZ out of Kansas City, or KNDD from Seattle.... all for free. (Yes, Advertising supported)
If I a
a bit of old tech, a bit of new (Score:2)
I still buy CDs of music/bands I really like and want to support, I also still buy DVDs/BluRays for movies or shows under similar circumstances.
Occasionally I will also buy vinyl, but mostly used, as I do have a decent turntable.
All that being said, I use my Google Music/YouTube Red subscription to listen to certain things I don't care enough to own, or if I want to discover new music or have some background sound. Otherwise, I do listen to a fair bit of terrestrial radio and some internet radio stations (
Spotify for streaming, vinyl for owning (Score:3, Interesting)
TIDAL (Score:2)
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And Tidal has a lossless tier.
Better quality for the win
A streaming service doesn't know my mood... (Score:2)
I have a pretty good MP3 collection and I have bought maybe 5 albums over the past 10 years. I have rediscovered some older music/artists that I have really enjoyed lately. Radio is awful. Burn MP3s to CDs and listen to them in the car during drive time. Since there are many styles of music, I am mainly talking about hard rock stuff - Clutch, Monster Magnet, The Sword, Orange Goblin. I have some friends in bands, and they turn me onto some local/indie bands that can produce really good stuff (Resident
mpd (Score:2)
Twonky (Score:2)
WFMU.org and KEXP.org (Score:3)
All My Favorite Bands Are In A Giant Warehouse (Score:2)
Amazon (Score:4, Informative)
The only drawback is the algorithm they use to recommend new music sucks. It's constantly recommending songs I hate. With that regard, Pandora is the king.
However, there are a lot of other things I don't like about Pandora. One of which is that the app's permissions are ridiculous. It doesn't need to access everything on my phone. I suppose Amazon already knows everything about me, but I don't need another company doing that too.
Not a big name streaming service but... (Score:2)
... Radionomy via Xiph (using streamtuner2 + audacious) has satisfied my music streaming needs for a while.
Harmon-Kardon Turntable (Score:3)
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I have a Quad 33/303 setup.
I have an AR turntable, but it was built for the wrong voltage/frequency (it uses a synchronous motor) for where I live now.
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Techniques turntable, Marantz 2285B, JBL L40's.
iPod/Pad/laptop (Score:2)
Music is all or nothing for me, I don't care to listen to it as background music. If I want to put everything else down and listen, these days it will be off an iPad/iPad or the laptop, lossless audio files.
I sold the turntable and associated playback equipment a couple years back; the speakers needed $$$ rework and I didn't want to put the money into it.
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Music is all or nothing for me, I don't care to listen to it as background music. If I want to put everything else down and listen, these days it will be off an iPad/iPad or the laptop, lossless audio files.
This. I sometimes DJ at society/staff parties, and it's always great fun when somebody asks me to use Spotify or something to get their favourite track if I don't have it. First, I wouldn't install any of that closed software on my personal machine, let alone a closed OS to use it. Second, my idea of DJing involves playing complete songs uninterrupted by adverts or buffering... buffering.. buffering.
Also, I think streaming is dumb from a technical standpoint, especially over cell networks. I guess the re
MAFIAA (Score:2)
When the RIAA started their jihad against technology and user rights, I said I would stop funding the industry until it settled. It settled, users lost, and I choose not to fund an industry that actively attacks my rights. I have enough CDs and if I buy any more, usually local or indy artists, I make sure they are not part of the MAFIAA. If they are, they don't get my money and I don't get their music but I also don't fund the evil ones.
So far it hasn't killed me, you can choose not to consume the shit that
Google Play for international music (Score:2)
Have compared a few so far -- Rhapsody, Pandora, & Amazon Music all seem OK if you're primarily interested in mainstream pop music from the US.
Last.fm was much better for international music (the user-defined tags made things much easier to find).
Now that they're gone, Google Play seems to have the widest catalog worldwide that I've found so far. (What's not available via Google Play can usually be played through the YouTube Music app, which comes free with the subscription).
Tunein, and purchased MP3s (Score:2)
When I want to stream music, I use Tunein.
But I rarely stream music anymore. If I want to listen to something, I buy it as an MP3. I avoid the Apple Music Store and look for alternative places that sell unlocked MP3s and don't require me to use iTunes to buy it.
Most of the time, I don't listen to music but instead to audiobooks or audio plays. This makes my drive to/from work go a lot faster. I got addicted to audiobooks when I had a regular three hour drive (I worked that far away from home) and just kept
Streaming services have sucky music (Score:2)
Rhapsody (Score:2)
I've been using Rhapsody for nearly a decade, and I have a whole bunch of stuff bookmarked.
I've found some music I really like by browsing the Rhapsody link structure. For example, look up a band I like and then click on some of the "related" links, or look up a category I like and then click on some of the "most popular" links. It's how I found Zero 7, for example.
I tried using Spotify and I didn't see any real advantage to Spotify over Rhapsody, so I stayed with my bookmarks.
But I have an Android Auto c
CD/mp3 (Score:2)
Personally, I'm one of those people who still buy a CD and rip it to mp3s. Why, I've lost many an mp3 to a corrupted drive. Plus, I can listen to my music wherever I am, whether there is internet access or not and my listening habits aren't being sold for others to profit from at the expense of my personal privacy.
cranky old fart (Score:2)
turntable, reel tape, cassette, CD, iThingies. used to listen to radio before it became all-airheads with all-asshats in studio.
I do NOT stream. I pay for my content, so I know the artist is supposed to get their share.
Paid & Downloaded Files (Score:2)
How old are the Editors (Score:2)
I mean why is this topic in 'Digital' with DEC's logo? Seriously
Pandora/Spotify/Sonos (Score:2)
I went with a Sonos system a couple of years ago, and we use Pandora (paid) and more recently Spotify (also paid) even more than our library of CDs I so painstakingly ripped to FLAC and then to mp3s. I may ditch the paid Pandora at some point. If I'm buying mp3s I usually use Amazon, though often I can get a CD for less than the download so I'll just rip the CD myself.
Despite (or maybe because of) having a universe of music available at the click of a button, my teenager just got me to dig out a turntable;
Digital?! (And CDs) (Score:2)
Live365 (Score:2)
Live365 was far and away my favorite service. Eclectic stations programmed by individuals. Alas, the massive increase in licensing feeds killed it back in January.
Re: Family Plans (Score:5, Informative)
Pandora > Google play music (songza) > Spotify > A tape mix done by my gf in 5th grade > Apple Music.
But no Pandora in Canada I think.
Other peoples' music playlists (Score:3)
I could never get into Pandora, but probably because my musical tastes are strange. I mostly listen to parodies, so when I insert stuff like Weird Al or Monty Python Sings or Capitol Steps or even King Missile, they really confuse the genre classification engine.
These days I mostly listen to curated streams, because I can't be bothered to come up with my own playlists. So usually SomaFM.com (Groove Salad, Lush, and sometimes Secret Agent or Defcon). I also like to hit http://sleepbot.com/ambience/b... [sleepbot.com]
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I guess you could say I use Google Play -- but it's all my own music. When they first announced Google Music, I uploaded all my music to their cloud, and it's now available to play where ever I have an internet connection. They used to periodically pitch me on signing up for their paid service, but I think they've given up (or maybe I just don't notice anymore.)
If I do get new music, I buy the CD and rip it to flac. Google Play uploads it and converts it to whatever format they're using. I keep a second
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You could try the theramin. Kind of like with piano where you play the right hand first, then add the left, you want to start with automatic transmission before going to manual.
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I use a low power FM transmitter at my house to broadcast streaming internet radio. I can turn on any radio at the end of the band to hear the music. Works great. Bought the transmitter on Amazon.
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Seems like the new owners of Slashdot have no idea what that "digital" logo is from, or for.
Probably the previous owner, who also had no clue [slashdot.org], explained it to them.
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Right, this has been discussed before. I think the overall conclusion is, "fine, re-assign the tag. But at least change the icon!!"
I have a suggestion for the new Digital icon [wikimedia.org].
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Red licorice dispenser on the headliner?
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DI.fm is still the first thing I think of for streaming music, since it's been around for nearly 20 years.
However, you must admit the service has become much more hostile lately. Once upon a time, Ari had a Web page with a handful of URLs. Copy-paste them in to your streaming app -- any streaming app, not just DI's proprietary one -- and start enjoying music. Then they started demanding you create an account if you wanted to use their proprietary Android app. Then the streaming URLs started getting ro
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How does it compare to Plex?
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MOD PARENT UP! (Score:3)
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You don't need audiophile equipment to detect inferior audio streams.
A more useful quality of physical media is the fact that it is subject to the first sale doctrine. Whatever gets printed is available forever. Even if Disney decides to put something back in the vault, it's still out there. You just have to find it and be willing to pay for it.
"streaming media" can disappear on a whim. Some material may never exist in that form due to artist stupidity or the work being ignored by whomever keeps your partic