Kind of OT but streaming services. Which do you use how and why.

[Pibroch]

I have a ton of music in ITunes. A lot of it loaded from my CD collection and albums. For finding newer music I have been using Spotify. The user interface is pretty good but I really don’t like how little respect they seem to have for the artists. A friend told me about Bandcamp and they seem to have a better relationship with the artists but the interface seems clunky to me. Plus I don’t want my music spread out over 3 services. Anyone have any great insight on streaming services that are great to use and support ethical treatment of the artists?

For me it depends on the resolution of my playback equipment. As I often listen at home on pro D/A converter and speakers I need a lossless streaming service. Here the difference in sound quality between lossy streaming and lossless is dramatic, (and my ears are 69 years old). In my case I'm talking between the highest quality Spotify (lossy) vs the highest quality Tidal (lossless).

Also use Bandcamp a lot but never to stream (lossy), only to download lossless into my iTunes library which is an easy process.

 

[multijd]

I use Spotify because it is easy to use for me. We have the family plan. If I like an artist enough then I will buy their music.

Bandcamp is good for selling music but I don't think you can stream like you can with other services. Also, even if you buy an artist's album on Bandcamp you can still lose it if the artist takes it down (if you didn't download it beforehand).

I've heard good things about Apple Music but I haven't used it even though our computer ecosystem is Apple.

For a while, I used Google Music to upload and stream my music anywhere. It was pretty good. It is now YouTube Music which you have to pay for.

I believe it was explained above that you can download the files from Bandcamp and store them as you wish. They are yours which is not the case with spotify.

 

[LRod1707]

And Alexa ( or whatever you may call her/him) being your personal Dj is worth every penny

Yep! I've got 4 of them in the house.

 

[clowndog]

The streaming service that puts the most money in the artist pocket respects them the most in my opinion.

I toggle back and forth between Qobuz or Tidal HiFi. Qobuz has better sound than even Tidal, but they are a little light at times on all albums being available. I am surprised more here don't fork out for high quality music streaming based on the painstaking attention to detail taken on snare drums and cymbals ..lol

DIGITAL SERVICE PROVIDER	$ PER STREAM
Qobuz	$0.04390
Peloton	$0.04036
iHeartRadio	$0.01426
Amazon Unlimited	$0.01175
Napster/Rhapsody	$0.01110
24/7 Entertainment GmbH	$0.01050
YouTube Red	$0.00948
Tidal	$0.00927
Deezer	$0.00567
Google Play	$0.00543
Apple	$0.00495
KKBox	$0.00435
Amazon Digital Services Inc.	$0.00395
Spotify	$0.00331
Loen	$0.00205
Pandora	$0.00155
Vevo	$0.00109
Yandex LLC	$0.00051
YouTube Content ID	$0.00028
UMA	$0.00013

 

[jptrickster]

Yep! I've got 4 of them in the house.

Great for learning new material just say stop ,go back 10 seconds, 5 seconds or wherever you want to cue. A great tool.

 

[Browny]

I use apple music. I like the interface and the way it functions, both on the phone and using Carplay when driving. They pay artists a little better than Spotify which isn't a bad thing either.

 

[cdrummer]

For me, Bandcamp and Spotify are complimentary. I use Bandcamp to support the artists I like - usually by buying CDs and Vinyl. They give the largest % to the artist of any platform and you can actually voluntarily give more to the artists on top of that.

While at work, or when playing along on drums, I'll use the paid version of Spotify as the catalogue is vast and I like the interface. It's also nice to be able to download albums I like to my phone for driving (back when I actually did drive to the office...).

 

[hsosdrum]

The closest I get to streaming is listening to Siruis/XM radio through my computer, which I have piped into my studio and through my home theater system. I also listen to progressive rock through my computer on an Internet Radio station, laut.fm/progman. However, both of these are for background listening only. When I want to listen to music for real I play CDs.

For the six years before I retired that I commuted 50 miles each way to and from work each day (average time of 90 minutes each way, since I had to drive from one end through the other of the second-largest city in the U.S.), Sirius/XM was a lifesaver. Besides music I had my choice of news broadcasts and I could even listen to Dodger baseball games when I was too far from L.A. to pick them up on AM radio.

 

[Mcjnic]

Music streaming is Apple. I've been an Apple guy since the Plus. Spent quite a few years as a certified tech. Love their work.
I am not crazy about this whole streaming service thing, though.
It's a strange turn in the payment structure for artists.
Not sure where I stand on it yet.
I am much more familiar with film streaming structures. Those are tough.
All of this is GREAT for the consumer ... not so great for the artists.
But this is where we find ourselves, so it is the out of the box thinkers that will figure it out.
That's where I'm at now.

 

[Beefsurgeon]

Like others, I used Google Play Music largely because it let you upload your own tracks. The switchover to YouTube Music has been...okay. The interface is not great, but it's a fairly new service which will hopefully improve.

I also love Bandcamp, both as a consumer and a musician. It's a different model, in that it is designed to get people to actually buy music. They started doing "Bandcamp Fridays" during the pandemic--one Friday each month they waive their revenue share and 100% of what you spend goes to the artist.

 

[Nubs]

For music, it's either Spotify or Soma FM. I love the option of creating playlists and exploring new artists on Spotify. That gets really expensive the traditional way.

Soma FM is just awesome music. I've been a huge fan since 2001.

 

[michaelocalypse]

I was using YouTube Music, Spotify and another pod catcher. Then I actually went through some menus on Spotify and saw they had most of my podcasts, so I dropped the third app. YTM and Spotify both seem to push some bands/genres and suppress others, so you have to use both to get a decent variety, but then if you don't used one for a week, it'll only play the same 10 songs it thinks are your favorites (because it's not showing you other stuff).
I probably should've just kept the pod catcher I was using and deleted the other two, and go back to buying CDs and putting what I want to hear on a memory card.

I've never had any luck with iProducts. I forgot I had a Pandora account until I just read some comments here.