How do you use your streaming service?
Discussion
Amazon Music no longer wans to store my music collection on line for £22 per annum, so I have just subscribed to Google Play Music.
I am curious to know how people use their streaming service?
I am 67 and it seems that a lot of stuff from 60’s and 70’s is available, yet something obvious like The Eagles Hits, is not.
I still cannot get my head around what Google / Sonos call Radio. Is it what I might think of as “shuffle”, or “Mix”?
The one radio that I played of Google’s choice seemed very good, but looking back at albums that I did not buy in their day, seems to simply confirm that I was right. - Fat Boy Slim, We’ve come a long way Baby, being just one example. The hit singles were edited very well for radio.
I suppose in short - Do you think that is it worth £120 per annum. Most people object to paying a BBC license fee, but in comparison this seems proposterous.
I am curious to know how people use their streaming service?
I am 67 and it seems that a lot of stuff from 60’s and 70’s is available, yet something obvious like The Eagles Hits, is not.
I still cannot get my head around what Google / Sonos call Radio. Is it what I might think of as “shuffle”, or “Mix”?
The one radio that I played of Google’s choice seemed very good, but looking back at albums that I did not buy in their day, seems to simply confirm that I was right. - Fat Boy Slim, We’ve come a long way Baby, being just one example. The hit singles were edited very well for radio.
I suppose in short - Do you think that is it worth £120 per annum. Most people object to paying a BBC license fee, but in comparison this seems proposterous.
I agree the full subscription rates to Amazon/Spotify/etc seem crazy, but I suppose when you compare it to the number of CD's/Tapes/LPs you might have bought in a year before, maybe it's not so bad.
I use the Amazon Music single device plan, £3.99/month but only available on my Echo. The range of music available seems to be huge but apparently Spotify is a lot easier to work with for playlists.
I tend to listen to podcasts on planes/trains rather than music so not having it available on multiple devices isn't really an issue for me.
I use the Amazon Music single device plan, £3.99/month but only available on my Echo. The range of music available seems to be huge but apparently Spotify is a lot easier to work with for playlists.
I tend to listen to podcasts on planes/trains rather than music so not having it available on multiple devices isn't really an issue for me.
We listen to about 6-hours of Radio 2 per day, for free.
It’s curated by producers and presented by Pros, for the audience it has identified and nourished, rather than Bots and “likes”. It is free, along with another 5-stations.
So, it depends which end of the telescope you are looking through.
It’s curated by producers and presented by Pros, for the audience it has identified and nourished, rather than Bots and “likes”. It is free, along with another 5-stations.
So, it depends which end of the telescope you are looking through.
I pretty much dont is the answer.
All my music is on silver disc which I physically own and store. A copy of which is ripped to NAS which I already had for file backup and security camera storage. The NAS has built in streaming software which means I can then play over wifi or network on multiple devices at no ongoing cost. If I sort out a fixed IP I could even access remotely through the internet.
I do use Amazon Prime music (free as part of a service I already subscribe for, for deliviers & video) to help me discover new stuff as well as obviously traditional broadcast through Radio & Music TV.
Cost of the kit was probably about £200 one off (I actually had it already so free to me) & when you can pickup CDs after release or second hand for just a couple of quid, I can't really see that a paid for streaming service is worthwhile for me. I suppose if you do a lot of new music listening and are not subject to data caps it may be worthwhile.
All my music is on silver disc which I physically own and store. A copy of which is ripped to NAS which I already had for file backup and security camera storage. The NAS has built in streaming software which means I can then play over wifi or network on multiple devices at no ongoing cost. If I sort out a fixed IP I could even access remotely through the internet.
I do use Amazon Prime music (free as part of a service I already subscribe for, for deliviers & video) to help me discover new stuff as well as obviously traditional broadcast through Radio & Music TV.
Cost of the kit was probably about £200 one off (I actually had it already so free to me) & when you can pickup CDs after release or second hand for just a couple of quid, I can't really see that a paid for streaming service is worthwhile for me. I suppose if you do a lot of new music listening and are not subject to data caps it may be worthwhile.
spotify family subscription for £15 a month.
I hardly listen to anything else these days, even my vinyl is getting dusty.
Listen on the phone, in the car, across multiple rooms and two houses.
I keep the vinyl as occasionally I like a traditional evening, the silver discs havent moved since I moved into my current house 5 years ago.
The mixes and radio stations I'm presented with introduce me to loads of new stuff.
My wife uses it for all her gym music - thats why I got a family subscription as she was mucking up my recommendations with all her boom tish boom "music".
Its a bargain compared with the price of a new disc
I hardly listen to anything else these days, even my vinyl is getting dusty.
Listen on the phone, in the car, across multiple rooms and two houses.
I keep the vinyl as occasionally I like a traditional evening, the silver discs havent moved since I moved into my current house 5 years ago.
The mixes and radio stations I'm presented with introduce me to loads of new stuff.
My wife uses it for all her gym music - thats why I got a family subscription as she was mucking up my recommendations with all her boom tish boom "music".
Its a bargain compared with the price of a new disc
rdjohn said:
We listen to about 6-hours of Radio 2 per day, for free.
It’s curated by producers and presented by Pros, for the audience it has identified and nourished, rather than Bots and “likes”. It is free, along with another 5-stations.
So, it depends which end of the telescope you are looking through.
I can't recall last time when listening to mainstream radio I discovered anything new or interesting. Maybe on Radio 6 or FIP, Jools Holland etc but radio 2 is really just playlists that big labels have paid to get their artists on exactly same as on Spotify playlists. Only difference is you have to listen to awful presenters drivel on and its full of ads for other programs etc they don't recommend you new artists based on your listening and you can't decide what you want to listen to! It’s curated by producers and presented by Pros, for the audience it has identified and nourished, rather than Bots and “likes”. It is free, along with another 5-stations.
So, it depends which end of the telescope you are looking through.
Personally I stream most stuff, either for casual listening or work - stuff I don't want cluttering up house, anything where I want to support the artist or I feel its really decent I'll buy the vinyl.
I use Tidal, on my Streamer (HIFI separates) and phone (headphones and via bluetooth in the car). I also have Amazon Music for the echo in the lounge and my son uses it on his PC.
I Tidal it to listen to CD's which passed me by and discovering classic albums from before I was into music. I also listen to the new music playlists while at work. It's also great to be able to check out new artist or albums in full without having to buy the whole album, or acquire it by other means.
I Tidal it to listen to CD's which passed me by and discovering classic albums from before I was into music. I also listen to the new music playlists while at work. It's also great to be able to check out new artist or albums in full without having to buy the whole album, or acquire it by other means.
We have an Apple Music family account. There's only 2 of us but it works out cheaper than 2 individual subscriptions.
I tend to just stream everything via my phone as I have unlimited data. My physical music collection is all ripped onto my Hard Drive and in iTunes but we've had Apple Music for so long now that I don't really listen to any of it and mostly just stream.
I tend to just stream everything via my phone as I have unlimited data. My physical music collection is all ripped onto my Hard Drive and in iTunes but we've had Apple Music for so long now that I don't really listen to any of it and mostly just stream.
Thanks for the replies. My query was more “How do you stream”, rather than “Which service do you use”.
However the impression I now have is that people primarily have a streaming service for 3-reasons:-
Don’t like listening to radio.
Cheaper than buying lots of CDs / downloads
Great for listening to new bands
From being a teenager, listening to top-40 radio format, firstly with the Pirates and, from 67, Radio 1 has been my normal way of listening to music. So I do not have a natural curiosity to listen to new bands and I have only ever bought 3-5 albums each year, costing between £5-10 each.
My primary reason for buying the Amazon Cloud service was to be able to listen to my albums anywhere. I live between France, Spain and UK, so transporting music was not that practical, but a decent sized SD card can now put my collection and playlists on my phone and in my cars, so even that has become less of a problem.
So, I think that while I am enjoying exploring the 30-day free trial, I don’t think that I will be streaming, in the longer term.
However the impression I now have is that people primarily have a streaming service for 3-reasons:-
Don’t like listening to radio.
Cheaper than buying lots of CDs / downloads
Great for listening to new bands
From being a teenager, listening to top-40 radio format, firstly with the Pirates and, from 67, Radio 1 has been my normal way of listening to music. So I do not have a natural curiosity to listen to new bands and I have only ever bought 3-5 albums each year, costing between £5-10 each.
My primary reason for buying the Amazon Cloud service was to be able to listen to my albums anywhere. I live between France, Spain and UK, so transporting music was not that practical, but a decent sized SD card can now put my collection and playlists on my phone and in my cars, so even that has become less of a problem.
So, I think that while I am enjoying exploring the 30-day free trial, I don’t think that I will be streaming, in the longer term.
rdjohn said:
My primary reason for buying the Amazon Cloud service was to be able to listen to my albums anywhere. I live between France, Spain and UK, so transporting music was not that practical, but a decent sized SD card can now put my collection and playlists on my phone and in my cars, so even that has become less of a problem.
Why not utilise something like Google Drive and upload all of your files to that? I have 100GB and it costs me something like £1.50 a month so it's very cheap for what you get. Shared over multiple devices and available from anywhere. I'm pretty sure on an Android device you can even set your music player to look for music in shared folders.
My primary means of listening is with Sonos. They have perhaps 40 choices of music streaming services. One is Google Play which stores a lot of tracks (50,000j for free.
So not much different to Drive, but I can create playlists etc. I don’t think I can use Drive to connect to my Sonos equipment, but unlike, say, Amazon Dots, I am not stuck with only one option.
So not much different to Drive, but I can create playlists etc. I don’t think I can use Drive to connect to my Sonos equipment, but unlike, say, Amazon Dots, I am not stuck with only one option.
rdjohn said:
We listen to about 6-hours of Radio 2 per day, for free.
It’s curated by producers and presented by Pros, for the audience it has identified and nourished, rather than Bots and “likes”. It is free, along with another 5-stations.
So, it depends which end of the telescope you are looking through.
We also listen to radio 2 and radio 6. I completely agree with your points however I'm getting less and less like the audience they have identified It’s curated by producers and presented by Pros, for the audience it has identified and nourished, rather than Bots and “likes”. It is free, along with another 5-stations.
So, it depends which end of the telescope you are looking through.
As a mobile DJ, streaming has become a very useful tool.
Despite having a library containing pretty much every song you are likely to ever hear at disco, I will inevitably get a request for a song I don't have so being able to stream it is quite handy.
The only issue is that Serato (the DJ software I use) doesn't play streamed songs so I have to play through a mixer channel direct from my phone.
Despite having a library containing pretty much every song you are likely to ever hear at disco, I will inevitably get a request for a song I don't have so being able to stream it is quite handy.
The only issue is that Serato (the DJ software I use) doesn't play streamed songs so I have to play through a mixer channel direct from my phone.
otherman said:
I have a mahoosive mp3 collection on my hard drive (backed up two places) and I don't pay anything to anyone.
Likewise, I have also transferred much of my old vinyl collection to MP3 (still working on the last batch) - stored on various PCs, backup drives, ipods, iphone, car jukebox etc. If I like anything new I'll usually buy the CD (preferable) or download, I'm not a fan of anything subscription based or third-party stored.
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