Spotify alternatives

[ghostrunner]

My favorite Limewire error was the Gin and Juice cover being credited to Phish. Back in the day I had people confidently correct me when I told them it was by The Gourds.

Of course it's fine to be wrong, but it's super annoying when you know you're right about a simple fact and someone's being confidently obstinate about correcting you. I was working at Apple at the time and of course everyone there was using some kind of Limewire program and this came up at least a couple times. And this was in Austin, where The Gourds were from.

[ghostrunner]

That was an effort Young spearheaded, bankrolled, and publicized several years ago. He went on the talk show circuit, spent his money and why? Because he thought the sound quality from the device manufactures was bullsh!t and deliberately so. So he put his money where his mouth was and tried to come up with an alternative. It was rejected by the marketplace. Noe you see the renaissance of the vinyl LP - because of its sound quality. Go figure

I was aware of Neil's dislike of the cold digital sound, but I had no idea he'd started a company and whatnot. I'm half-ass considering putting together a little system to play vinyl on. I've already got my dad's Marantz receiver from around '71. It's worth a chunk. BUT would I use it enough to justify sinking a few hundred? Probably not.

Hey TM. Hope all is well.

I doubt I could identify audio quality changes, but as far as the catalogue there’s been maybe a couple songs that didn’t transfer because they weren’t available. I used SongShift to do the playlist transfer and it gives you the chance to find a match. Usually it’s an issue of the artist name being slightly different so if it’s not in the suggested list you can search for it by name.

“Train Song” by Vashti Bunyan didn’t come up, as an example. A couple others on that level. Nothing by Pretty Lights, an electronic artist JoD turned me onto years ago. Not huge hits but not exactly obscure either. Tons of stuff I wasn’t sure about was on Tidal though and I plan to request the ones I really wanted.

I like the idea of the higher tier giving extra money to artists you play the most but that’s further than I want to go. Also I’m using the family plan.

Hey man. Life has kicked me around pretty good lately, but my spirits are optimistic. Hope you and yours are doing well. nd thanks for the SongShift recommendation.

So I've been dicking around with Apple Music and Tidal all night. My initial impression is that I won't be leaving Spotify. I use voice commands and stream from my laptop almost exclusively. Voice commands with Tidal are a complete mess. Just flat does not recognize my playlists. It strikes me as a bit of a boutique service, obviously aiming for a wealthier or more discerning audiophile. I'm still sitting in coach with my Echo and honey-mustard pretzels from Amazon.

Now Apple has a much better shot at making the cut. The best interface (remember, I'm on my laptop) of all. This is no contest. I have a healthy amount of live/obscure stuff from YT that I've converted to mp4. Apple Music handles the integration so nicely.

This brings us to Spotify using Spotify Connect to control all 3 of my Echos with one click or voice. Huge advantage is that Spotify uses wifi and for the other services you have to use Bluetooth. I could get into it but I know you use things differently. I'm thoroughly enmeshed with the Amazon ecosystem. Spotify buries the competition here.

Anyway, here's a free 6 months for Apple music...

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-free ... Id=6451501

One thing I forgot was that iTunes was starting to bug me before I switched to Spotify. Apple was doing anything and everything with it - iPhone sync, movies, tv shows, local music files, online music. Less of an issue with the Music app probably. I go in there once in a great while because I still have music unavailable on Spotify.

[Tambourine Man]

One thing I forgot was that iTunes was starting to bug me before I switched to Spotify. Apple was doing anything and everything with it - iPhone sync, movies, tv shows, local music files, online music. Less of an issue with the Music app probably. I go in there once in a great while because I still have music unavailable on Spotify.

Just out of curiosity, what device do you use to stream and what is your output device(s)?

Here's something I've noticed. On Spotify, some bands come across as particularly loud or particularly quiet. I've been playing a song in succession to see if this applies for all services. It does. Pink Floyd is quiet across the board. MGMT is really loud.

[ghostrunner]

One thing I forgot was that iTunes was starting to bug me before I switched to Spotify. Apple was doing anything and everything with it - iPhone sync, movies, tv shows, local music files, online music. Less of an issue with the Music app probably. I go in there once in a great while because I still have music unavailable on Spotify.

Just out of curiosity, what device do you use to stream and what is your output device(s)?

Here's something I've noticed. On Spotify, some bands come across as particularly loud or particularly quiet. I've been playing a song in succession to see if this applies for all services. It does. Pink Floyd is quiet across the board. MGMT is really loud.

iPhone or on the Xbox most often. I think I have noticed this, but I couldn't name a specific song at the moment.

[TGantz]

One thing I forgot was that iTunes was starting to bug me before I switched to Spotify. Apple was doing anything and everything with it - iPhone sync, movies, tv shows, local music files, online music. Less of an issue with the Music app probably. I go in there once in a great while because I still have music unavailable on Spotify.

Just out of curiosity, what device do you use to stream and what is your output device(s)?

Here's something I've noticed. On Spotify, some bands come across as particularly loud or particularly quiet. I've been playing a song in succession to see if this applies for all services. It does. Pink Floyd is quiet across the board. MGMT is really loud.

iPhone or on the Xbox most often. I think I have noticed this, but I couldn't name a specific song at the moment.

I tried Spotify on Xbox and it was super glitchy. This was 3 years ago. Is it better these days?

Edit- to be more specific, music would stop playing randomly, switch songs in the middle of last song, artist not shown, etc

[ghostrunner]

One thing I forgot was that iTunes was starting to bug me before I switched to Spotify. Apple was doing anything and everything with it - iPhone sync, movies, tv shows, local music files, online music. Less of an issue with the Music app probably. I go in there once in a great while because I still have music unavailable on Spotify.

Just out of curiosity, what device do you use to stream and what is your output device(s)?

Here's something I've noticed. On Spotify, some bands come across as particularly loud or particularly quiet. I've been playing a song in succession to see if this applies for all services. It does. Pink Floyd is quiet across the board. MGMT is really loud.

iPhone or on the Xbox most often. I think I have noticed this, but I couldn't name a specific song at the moment.

I tried Spotify on Xbox and it was super glitchy. This was 3 years ago. Is it better these days?

Not that I've noticed. I use it either to play music in the house for everyone to hear or when I'm playing a game I'll have it on in the background. Works fine in both cases. My Xbox is one of the few things that's still wired to the modem so that may help consistency. No issues as far as it freezing or whatever. Sometimes a little tricky to find things and it's more limited than the phone app. No playlist folders if you have those, for example.

None of what you mention. Occasionally it won't show album art in one area when playing a track, but that's no big deal. I've had some weirdness with Daily Mixes which change every day - it will play song 1, song 2, etc but the ones shown don't necessarily match changes that were made since the last time it loaded them. So you have to quit and reopen the app. No issues with set playlists.

[ghostrunner]

After Tidal not working out when i made this thread, it took a while but I switched over to Apple Music this week. Spotify's been stacking up the reasons to move lately though.

Found another app to move all my playlists and most of it went over.

Not that Apple is totally ethically superior to Spotify, but I've got a few other things in the Apple ecosystem already and I think you could make the case that Spotify is now punching above it's weight in [expletive] behavior. But all that aside, I was tired of Spotify putting podcasts in front of me, and playlists that aren't tweaked to be "made for you" are harder and harder to come by. And they apparently have continued dropping their artist payouts over time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVXfcIb3OKo&t=867s

Watched the video above from a musician who goes into more detail but this is what he came up with for payouts per stream. Peloton being the highest payer was pretty interesting.



And this is how Spotify payments per stream have gone down for him over time




So Apple was the most practical option for me. They've got an Xbox app and that's basically our main entertainment device (streaming apps, blu-rays, music, games, etc...) so that was important. Not a big fan of Apple's desktop app vs Spotify's but it seems about the same on the phone. Folder creation on the desktop app is kind of awkward, and I had a lot of folders, so I had to come up with an AppleScript with some help from AI that would make multiple folders at once so I could organize that the way it used to be. Otherwise, so far so good.

[CardsofSTL]

Lately I've just been streaming from the Sirius app on my phone. I dropped Spotify premium last year but haven't really missed it.

[Fat_Bulldog]

I use youtube music for $9.99 a month and have access to everything and anything with no commercials, etc. I love it.

[Leroy]

I got a pretty rad 90 minute mix tape I recorded of Rick Dee's top 40's and I'd be happy to copy it and share.