Switching away from YTM but to what?

[Tell]

Besides, Tidal, Apple, qobuz and amazon give you lossless anyhow. It's really just spotify and YT who are incompetent there...

Yeah sure, but personally I don't care since I've never heard any difference between lossless and lossy if done correctly and at higher bitrates. And Youtube uses Opus, so with that you don't even need that high bitrate to get it to transparency.

 

[buz]

Yeah sure, but personally I don't care since I've never heard any difference between lossless and lossy if done correctly and at higher bitrates. And Youtube uses Opus, so with that you don't even need that high bitrate to get it to transparency.

Truth to be told, neither do I. I do mind the fact that with YT video obsession, you never quite now where the audio comes from, though.

 

[Head_Unit]

A decent recommendation engine / radio station featureis appreciated.

I use Apple Music, but don't know about this aspect, I don't do that. One thing I preferred in Spotify was much better user playlists, for instance someone will have taken all the non-album singles someone like Drake puts out and gathered them into a handy playlist. The killer thing for me with Apple Music was originally that was the only one with CarPlay/Siri control. And still the only one that lets you upload and stream your own content.
- "Lossless" take with a grain of salt, there's another thread here somewhere explaining that is only in AirPlay not AirPlay 2 (more or less). But the 256k AAC sounds quite fine certainly on the move. I guess downloaded files are lossless. As for

Music streaming is extremely unreliable, expensive, and an album can disappear overnight

For years now I've found it pretty reliable. Not perfect, there are indeed hiccups sometimes, and of course if your cellular signal dies then you get nothing. Expensive?!? Are you nuts?!? $10 a month to stream all day and night is less than the cost of one CD back in the day. Albums DO disappear hence why some stuff I upload to Apple Music. But really if there is ONE album you want to hear and it goes away there are literally millions of hours of other stuff, and if that doesn't satisfy...buy it and upload it!

 

[Old_School_Brad]

I use Apple Music, but don't know about this aspect, I don't do that. One thing I preferred in Spotify was much better user playlists, for instance someone will have taken all the non-album singles someone like Drake puts out and gathered them into a handy playlist. The killer thing for me with Apple Music was originally that was the only one with CarPlay/Siri control. And still the only one that lets you upload and stream your own content.
- "Lossless" take with a grain of salt, there's another thread here somewhere explaining that is only in AirPlay not AirPlay 2 (more or less). But the 256k AAC sounds quite fine certainly on the move. I guess downloaded files are lossless. As for

For years now I've found it pretty reliable. Not perfect, there are indeed hiccups sometimes, and of course if your cellular signal dies then you get nothing. Expensive?!? Are you nuts?!? $10 a month to stream all day and night is less than the cost of one CD back in the day. Albums DO disappear hence why some stuff I upload to Apple Music. But really if there is ONE album you want to hear and it goes away there are literally millions of hours of other stuff, and if that doesn't satisfy...buy it and upload it!

There are two different perspectives to consider here. If your goal is to listen to the same twenty albums repeatedly, then streaming services might not offer as much value compared to purchasing the CDs or storing the music locally on a drive. However, if you enjoy discovering new music and appreciate the convenience of controlling your music from various devices throughout your home, streaming services provide exceptional value for money. They offer vast libraries of music and seamless integration across multiple platforms, making them an excellent choice for music enthusiasts looking to explore and enjoy music effortlessly.

 

[raindance]

After using Amazon Prime Music for a number of years I've cancelled and reverted to Spotify. Maybe my musical choices are obscure, but a lot are not "HD" and sound worse than Spotify's more consistent 320K MP3 quality. Additionally, Amazon can't distinguish between artists with the same name and has terrible suggestions that don't align with my tastes at all. Amazon Music is also buggy and will only play continuously on one Echo at a time. If I try to use groups or "everywhere" every second song stops and I have to restart manually. According to forums this issue has been in existence since 2021 or so - Spotify is much better about improving their usability over time.

I use a mix of connectivities, such as Bluetooth, USB (Android Auto), Alexa/Echo, Heos. In every case, Spotify works better and Spotify Connect doesn't rob you of half the functionality you're used to.

 

[Sal1950]

Apple music has about as large a 2ch catalog as you'll find anywhere.
Add to that the largest Atmos and multich catalog in the business.
At a cost the same or less than the others.
You might find you really enjoy the immersive listening experience on buds and cans.

 

[FrantzM]

I'd highly recommend just going with local flac files. You're going to get far more quality, reliability and value for money by just using local files. Music streaming is extremely unreliable, expensive, and an album can disappear overnight and there's nothing you can do about it. With local files you can have what you want, no one else can take it away and you don't need an internet connection just to listen to music

Back in the days, I ripped my CD to flac about 3000. between 5 and $15 per CD... let's call it 15,000 in CD,

Spotify Premium is about $14 per month...
The sound quality is IME as good as CD...
They have a library no single human this side of the billionaires (and even then...) can fathom, let alone acquire.
The UI is good.
Spotify-connect is the best in the industry
Their recommendations are decent.
Spotify and its UI, can work with your current library ...

And if you are in the IOS ecosystem, there is Apple Music and Apple Classical... Lot of lossless files, lot of Spatial Audio...Immense Library
IDK the exact price but standalone it would be about the same as Spotify.

Streaming is the new reality, one can choose to continue to but their own files or CDs... Streaming offers much more music, convenience and similar to equal sound quality all that for around $20/month. The price of buying one (1) CD per month ... years ago...

Peace.

 

[buz]

You might find you really enjoy the immersive listening experience on buds and cans.

Does spatial even work on Android? Either way, very unlikely that most of the things I like (tons of metal) would be multi channel to begin with...

 

[Esprit]

The killer thing for me with Apple Music was originally that was the only one with CarPlay/Siri control. And still the only one that lets you upload and stream your own content.

Also Tidal

 

[Esprit]

There are two different perspectives to consider here. If your goal is to listen to the same twenty albums repeatedly, then streaming services might not offer as much value compared to purchasing the CDs or storing the music locally on a drive.

You can still download the music, in the quality you prefer, on your mobile phone or tablet to have it always with you without worrying about the internet.

 

[Esprit]

And if you are in the IOS ecosystem, there is Apple Music and Apple Classical... Lot of lossless files, lot of Spatial Audio...Immense Library
IDK the exact price but standalone it would be about the same as Spotify.

In Italy:

10,99€ indvidual
16,99€ family (up to six people)
5,99€ student

P.S. On mobile devices Apple Classic has its own app.

 

[Sal1950]

Spotify Premium is about $14 per month...

My Apple Music sub is $10.99 a month, $12.45 inc all taxes.
That includes everything in lossless, high resolution, and multich files, their full catalog.

Does spatial even work on Android? Either way, very unlikely that most of the things I like (tons of metal) would be multi channel to begin with...

I don't know about Android, someone else might.
But you'd be surprised how much popular music has been released in spatial over the last few years, it's been a flood.
Both classic and current metal has been as focused as any genre.

 

[Head_Unit]

Also Tidal

Oh I did not know Tidal let you upload your own content! That's nice! Since when did they enable that?

Or...wait...can you only upload investor Jay-Z's music?!?

 

[Esprit]

Oh I did not know Tidal let you upload your own content! That's nice! Since when did they enable that?

I have dozens of GB downloaded on my iPhone which I listen to both in the car with CarPlay and obviously when I'm out for a walk.
All in the highest quality without having to consume gigabytes of my mobile network subscription.

 

[Head_Unit]

I have dozens of GB downloaded on my iPhone which I listen to both in the car with CarPlay and obviously when I'm out for a walk.
All in the highest quality without having to consume gigabytes of my mobile network subscription.

OK that's cool but now I'm confused. @hen I said "upload" to Apple Music I mean I can literally upload a file of say a vinyl rip, and it will then be available for me/my family plan to stream from their server or download to whatever Apple device. Can you actually upload to Tidal then stream that file?

 

[JeremyFife]

Amazon works for my family, and whatever the better music service is called now (prime music?) is pretty good.

I use it either through JRiver or WiiM though so I'm slightly protected from the vanilla app ... WiiM especially is pretty good at integrating streaming and my own files (FLAC, mostly).

I'm thinking less about the individual streaming service these days and more about the music

 

[Sal1950]

OK that's cool but now I'm confused. @hen I said "upload" to Apple Music I mean I can literally upload a file of say a vinyl rip, and it will then be available for me/my family plan to stream from their server or download to whatever Apple device. Can you actually upload to Tidal then stream that file?

I had no idea any of the music streams allowed you to upload your private music files or whatever?
Isn't that what a Google Drive or Dropbox sub is for?

 

[Esprit]

said "upload" to Apple Music I mean I can literally upload a file of say a vinyl rip, and it will then be available for me/my family plan to stream from their server or download to whatever Apple device

I also have Apple Music but I can't find any function to "add" my music...

 

[Sal1950]

I also have Apple Music but I can't find any function to "add" my music...

I think some may be confusing the ability of some streamers user interface to integrate their local music library with the online library.
I could be wrong here ?

 

[Esprit]

With iTunes you could add your own music but it wasn't streaming.
With software like Roon you can have both streaming and your local files.
As you write, even a streaming hardware device can manage both sources.