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Digital Music

Slashdot Asks: What's Your Preferred Music Streaming Service? 316

Posted by msmash from the affinity-for-music dept.
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?
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Slashdot Asks: What's Your Preferred Music Streaming Service? More

Slashdot Asks: What's Your Preferred Music Streaming Service?

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  • MP3 (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 20, 2016 @12:51PM (#52352889)


     

    • Re:MP3 (Score:4, Interesting)

      by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:08PM (#52353077) Journal

      For me as well. I actually buy music. I'm not interested in streaming services at all.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nucrash ( 549705 )

        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)

          by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @02:30PM (#52353981) Journal

          I have actually started to purchase more music.

          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.

          • 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).

      • 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)

          by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @02:21PM (#52353871)
          I think people get confused by the name, but the AAC format is not a proprietary Apple format, nor was it even developed by Apple. If you have older hardware it might only support MP3 (which AAC was designed to replace) but almost any newer "MP3" player will support AAC. Apple originally sold their music with a closed DRM wrapper called FairPlay, but they (along with everyone else in the business) stopped selling DRM-encumbered music years ago.

          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.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mlts ( 1038732 )

          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

        • 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.

      • Re:MP3 (Score:4, Interesting)

        by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:57PM (#52353609)

        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.

        • 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).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mlts ( 1038732 )

        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.

      • 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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rossdee ( 243626 )

      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)

    by H3lldr0p ( 40304 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @12:55PM (#52352925) Homepage

    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)

    by mamono ( 706685 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @12:56PM (#52352933)
    Pandora (paid) for radio-type streaming and Amazon Prime Music for purchased music and playlist type stuff. I would get rid of Pandora but it's the only streaming service out there that still plays Tool.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mamono ( 706685 )
      I used to stream Pandora everywhere but it doesn't like to work all the time when I'm on 4G. Now I either listen to Amazon in the car or SiriusXM.

    • Re:Pandora and Amazon for me (Score:5, Informative)

      by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:12PM (#52353135)

      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)

        by cloud.pt ( 3412475 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:28PM (#52353293)
        The reason those big catalogs don't matter is exactly why you get so much repeats: most labels only allow Spotify/Apple use their artists if they agree to constantly bomb you with their hidden "sponsored" content - artists and songs they'd prefer you to hear. Why do you think Spotify is a "curated playlist"-service, and they bury Discover in the browse section and only update it weekly. Pandora basically only has Discover, and it never is a static, weekly list. It not only trains to offer you music you WANT to listen due to your "likes", instead of forcing you to just listen to the most popular thing of any genre/artist you happened to give a like last YEAR, but it will also train by song structure in order to keep providing you stuff outside your common genres/artists. That is one of the main reasons why Pandora is reported to pay less per song/artist than other services: they just don't repeat that much. of course they also don't force you to subscribe for anything other than clearing up the commercials, unlike Spotify does, for instance. This is also one of the reasons I feel sad every time I remember my current workplace doesn't allow me to use VPNs and listen to Pandora - I live in Europe, and we don't have "legal" Pandora here.

      • 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)

        by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @02:34PM (#52354019) Journal

        This is obviously subjective, but - I felt like I heard fewer repeats on Pandora than on either Spotify or Apple Music.

        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.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by mamono ( 706685 )
        I agree, after being a Pandora listener for about eight years now my stations are very well trained and I get the variety of music I like to listen to. I always used to listen to the plain old radio because if I only listened to my own music collection it was harder to get introduced to new stuff. With Pandora I get the best of both worlds. I can cull out music I don't like, seed in what I do, and still get cool stuff I've never heard of before. I listen to everything from hard rock and gangsta rap to show

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jedidiah ( 1196 )

        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)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I stream my own music via excellent Subsonic.org app running on a raspberrypi at home.

    • 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)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @12:57PM (#52352951)
    Radio.

  • Still CDs. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SumDog ( 466607 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @12:58PM (#52352973) Homepage Journal

    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.

    • 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.

      • The benefit for me for the streaming is that the algorithms find me music I'd like so I don't have to make any effort into finding new bands. I came across Clutch this way, who had not gotten much of any radio airplay in my area (at least prior to when I stopped listening to radio much, anyhow). I then bought a bunch of their CDs as I found myself wanting to listen to them more. Other more ephemeral songs that lose their interest to me I would've regretted buying so I don't mind if they vanish in the eth

    • 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.

  • I wanted to vote for a change
  • I usually use a ripper to grab tracks from various free streams and store them as mp3s.

  • Ol' fuddy-duddy here (Score:3)

    by Qzukk ( 229616 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @12:59PM (#52352995) Journal

    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 plain ol' server sitting in my closet. Buy a CD. Rip it. Sync to devices.
  • Slacker has a solid catalogue and has local caching for multiple channels, both curated and self-created playlists/custom channels, for offline listening.

    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
  • I use Slacker and Youtube. The former since I could cache stations for offline listening, although I believe others do that now, too. So perhaps just inertia. It was the first free streaming site I was introduced to and has the cheapest subscription. When I'm home and want a specific song I usually just use Youtube since I'd need the more expensive Slacker plan to pick any song at will. I still give and receive CDs and DVDs as gifts. They become MP3s/MP4s easily enough and feel more tangible than e-me

  • I'm more into streaming talk.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by the_other_one ( 178565 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:02PM (#52353015) Homepage

    CBC Radio One

    • 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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shakah ( 78118 )
      And you can always fall back to CBC Radio 3 for some music!

      http://music.cbc.ca/#!/radio3

    • 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)

    by geek ( 5680 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:03PM (#52353019)

    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)

      by Nunya666 ( 4446709 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:55PM (#52353589)

      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.

      • 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.

  • 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)

    by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:07PM (#52353065) Journal
    Even if you're not paying for it, you're paying for it, in the form of being subjected to commercials.

    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.

    • 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.

  • ...and I might use Spotify app on Android (still with a free account) if I'm feeling sadistic for a random playlist, although my lifestyle and current car stereo choices save me the necessity of buying premium - I don't need to listen much in streaming devices that do not support Spotify's free music selection on the web player. And I use a USB drive on my car. But if I did have to pay for a service to let me select any song from a catalog, you know, for instant, non-random play, I'd probably go with Google
  • Works everywhere I go. Every car I'm in has it, no subscription needed. If I don't like it, I just turn it off.

  • Google Play Music (Score:3)

    by wardrich86 ( 4092007 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:12PM (#52353121)
    By far the best option in Canada. Most music, best mobile and webapp layouts, AND you get 10% off the Play store.

  • 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

  • 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)

    by mouse_8b ( 854310 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:16PM (#52353195)
    I use Spotify for streaming. The curated playlists are good, and the native chrome cast support is super helpful. As others pointed out, it is renting your music, but there is a lot more music that I want to listen to than I want to own. When I need to own a physical copy of the music, I go for the vinyl. Most new vinyl releases include a download code for digital files, which gets the best of both worlds.
  • When I was looking for a streaming service there was Spotify and Wimp. Spotify required facebook login at the time, so Wimp it was. I later found that Wimp had much more Danish music than Spotify. Then JayZ bought Wimp and called it TIDAL, so now I'm on TIDAL. Here in Denamrk only old ladies buy CD's.

  • 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)

    by Pouar ( 2856763 )
    mpd
  • A huge stash of FLACs & MP3s and Twonky works well at home. Add in a VPN when I'm out and have WiFi, and a 32GB microSD card when there's no WiFi. Renting music and paying by the MB for cellular data to hear it is for the deluded and credulous.

  • WFMU.org and KEXP.org (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Meoward ( 665631 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:26PM (#52353281)
    Intelligent, independent free-form radio never died. If anything, it just became easier to distribute.
  • I keep in the back. When I want to hear a cool song, I go wake them up and they play it for me. Sometimes one of them dies and I have to find a Chinese copycat. I highly suggest it. You just cant have my bands here.

  • Amazon (Score:4, Informative)

    by Thelasko ( 1196535 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:32PM (#52353323) Journal
    Amazon Prime Music was included in my Prime subscription. Not only can I listen to "Stations", I can pick from thousands of songs and albums to listen to whenever I want.

    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.

  • ... Radionomy via Xiph (using streamtuner2 + audacious) has satisfied my music streaming needs for a while.

  • Harmon-Kardon Turntable (Score:3)

    by Kozar_The_Malignant ( 738483 ) on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:36PM (#52353357)
    Harmon-Kardon turntable running through H-K amp and Advent speakers. I do copy the vinyl albums to cassette tape for when I just want music playing in the background. Playing the vinyl is for when I just want to sit in a chair and listen to the music. Some of it is ripped to MP3 for portability, but I am not the kind of person who goes around outdoors with headphones on. I want to hear the birds and the oncoming train.
    • I've got a Dual and a Technics turntable which I still use. Preamp, amp, and speakers are ancient audiophile brands that nobody has heard of (Adcom? Haybrook?) Driving music is FM, sometimes CD. Walking music is whatever's happening in the real world. I do have some tracks on MP3 that I listen to when doing chores...

      • 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.

    • Techniques turntable, Marantz 2285B, JBL L40's.

  • 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.
     

    • 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

  • 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

  • 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).

  • 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

  • If you want a pleasant background noise, the aural equivalent of a Glade Plugin, and you never actually pay attention to it, then the streaming services should do the trick. But if you like music, then in my experience, you have to do something else. I think that the services push garbage. If I make a station on one of them, any of them, it starts out playing the music I want to hear (if they have it, which is often not the case). But it rapidly drifts into canned garbage. No matter the genre or style or wh

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • I pay for music and receive either non-DRM digital downloads or CDs that I rip myself. I play music on a non-networked pure music player with its own long-lasting battery (not a phone or iPod touch). I don't pay for a streaming music service, but will use a free one every so often.

  • I mean why is this topic in 'Digital' with DEC's logo? Seriously

  • 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;

  • For all the trolls and ranters here, no one's picked up on the fact that this has absolutely nothing to do with the long-lost Digital/DEC? Alas, I am showing my age. As for the question at hand: CDs ripped to mp3/AAC/... Lost enough of my mp3 collection in the Napster days to hard drive failures to not rely on a solely digital collection. I also like to know what it is I have and know that if I stick it on random I will pretty much get a song that I like. And I don't have time to be tracking down new artis

  • 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.

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