Favourite streaming service

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  • Vice.Destroyer 1 Jan 2017 17:48:36 7,437 posts
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    I'm just being nosey. I guess there is not very much to choose between Spotify, Google Music, Apple Music and Amazon Music.

    For me, Google wins it slightly, because their free tier allows you to upload 50,000 songs to your account and stream them for free. And their paid tier lets me stream any artist I can think of. The only downside is that their curated playlists are not as good as I want for hip-hop. Basically stuff that has been in the UK top 40. And that is not where you will find good hip-hop. But all other genres seem to be decently curated.

    What are your favourite streaming services and why?
  • Deleted user 1 January 2017 18:28:27
    Deezer. Best quality for Sonos
  • Dougs 1 Jan 2017 18:44:12 100,414 posts
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    Only really have experience of Deezer and Google Play. I like the fact that you can upload your own tracks to Google but Deezer's playlist support is great. To the point that I can't be arsed to swap to Google even with a 4 month free offer from Google.
  • THFourteen 1 Jan 2017 18:57:15 54,987 posts
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    Spotify

    Because never tried any other one and I get it as part of my phone contract with Vodafone

    Edited by THFourteen at 18:57:44 01-01-2017
  • ModoX 1 Jan 2017 18:57:48 3,480 posts
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    I've been stuck in Spotify for years now, so many playlists that I would hate to lose. Their integration of your own music isn't great, but other than that I think it's a really good service. It has loads of discovery options and curated playlists etc, I've got a family subscription so it's cheaper for me and the missus to have our own accounts. Also it's the most supported service, so you can pretty much access it from anything with no issues - PlayStation integration, there's an app on my TV, Amazon Echo can use it, it's all over the place.

    I'd be willing to put the work in on transferring playlists if another service had a USP important enough, but I haven't seen one yet.
  • Vice.Destroyer 1 Jan 2017 19:17:12 7,437 posts
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    I have to be honest, I'm irked that there is no way to play Google Music whilst playing on my Xbox. You can only use Microsoft's offering, Groove if you want custom soundtracks. Which is so much shit. But I'm not quite ready to go writer Spotify. I'm hoping that YouTube Red will appear in the UK soon. The promise of having to never see ads on YouTube is keeping me in their stable.
  • LittleSparra 1 Jan 2017 19:29:27 7,926 posts
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    There are other music apps on xbox, but groove is the only streaming one iirc. Can use it free with OneDrive.
  • Deleted user 1 January 2017 19:33:48
    I use Groove, mainly because I have an xbox.

    It's pretty good to be fair and certainly a lot better since the update a few months ago. Sound quality is decent and I can find most things although some albums are purchase only despite the one streaming option and no option to purchase confusingly..

    YouTube for the omissions.
  • Vice.Destroyer 1 Jan 2017 19:33:53 7,437 posts
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    I realise that this is my problem and fault, but since Google Music allowed me to keep 50,000 songs of mine uploaded for free, I don't actually have my music on physical media anymore. OneDrive streaming is useless to me.
  • Deleted user 1 January 2017 19:35:55
    I still buy CDs, I don'the listen to them much but a combination of nostalgia and the fact that there is still a noticeable difference in sound quality means I keep my racks.
  • Not-a-reviewer 1 Jan 2017 20:12:08 7,686 posts
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    If you don't care about getting auto recommendations or using the pre made playlists then Google play (free) if you already have a collection (way better than the iTunes equivalent). Same if you don't care about new music or only get 1 or 2 albums a year.
  • Deleted user 1 January 2017 20:24:54
    Recommendations and auto-playlists and radio stations and stuff on Google are great for me - it suggests things based on where you are, time of day, recent listening, etc. Girlfriend really likes it too, even my mum has signed up for the 4 month free trial.
  • gamecat 1 Jan 2017 20:43:31 1,230 posts
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    Going to try Tidal for the free trial, see if lossless is worth the £20 per month. Currently have Spotify mainly because it just works with a bunch of my devices.
  • Not-a-reviewer 1 Jan 2017 20:57:45 7,686 posts
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    monkehhh wrote:
    Recommendations and auto-playlists and radio stations and stuff on Google are great for me - it suggests things based on where you are, time of day, recent listening, etc. Girlfriend really likes it too, even my mum has signed up for the 4 month free trial.
    Those based on time of day etc didn't do anything for me, they seem to assume you'll always listen to a certain type of music at a set time and place every day. That's just odd to me.
  • Deleted user 1 January 2017 21:26:10
    Google's playlists are infinitely better than Spotify, although I use Spotify on my PC cause AdBlock an' ting, get all the music and no ads on the web player.
  • THFourteen 1 Jan 2017 21:32:23 54,987 posts
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    Spotify discover weekly playlists have been great for me.
  • ModoX 2 Jan 2017 00:46:38 3,480 posts
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    Yeah discover weekly, release radar, and now the daily mixes are all great. Particularly the latter, grouped by genre (quite tightly, so it tends to give me one regular hip hop, one UK grime etc, and one alt R&B), and containing mostly all your favourite tracks. You can just stick those on and very rarely come up against a track you need to skip.
  • Dirtbox 2 Jan 2017 00:54:47 92,595 posts
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    Post deleted
  • Deleted user 2 January 2017 00:56:59
    Spotify has a fantastic discovery queue and I picked up that 3 month premium membership for 99p which had already paid for itself thanks to some heavy use on NYE.

    I did love my time using Tidal, especially with a proper hi-fi setup but the sub was rather painful - although not as painful as some of the other high-end CD quality streaming services...
  • Anthony_UK 2 Jan 2017 03:12:27 3,094 posts
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    Spotify, again the discovery options are brilliant. Having the choice of a totally random what's new play list, a discover weekly playlist consisting of music similar to what I might listen along with playlists that contain my own music (within spotify) broken down into genres with new suggestions mixed in. It covers all my needs really.
  • craigy Staff 2 Jan 2017 08:05:58 9,500 posts
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    Discover Weekly is voodoo magic. Always comes up with some gems I've never heard. Really handy when combined with this IFTTT recipe:

    https://ifttt.com/applets/311873p-automatically-keep-a-playlist-of-your-spotify-discover-weekly-recommendations
  • -Amelia 2 Jan 2017 16:58:24 3,164 posts
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    I've tried Amazon, tidal and Spotify and out of them Spotify is the best. Tidal is okay, Amazon is crap. I won't touch Apple and to be honest I can't really find much fault with Spotify.
  • FrostPan 2 Jan 2017 17:42:52 1,626 posts
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    The new Amazon music unlimited is pretty good for international music (particularly Asian music), as I can't seem to find the particular ones I listen to available on Spotify. Otherwise, Spotify is the way to go.
  • OmniaVincitAmor 2 Jan 2017 20:32:10 2,375 posts
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    Finally considering after all these years of ipod classic to switch. However I'm confused. If I have an offline playlist on Spotify how can my missus access that. If she logs on as me on her phone will that offline playlist be available to her too. I don't get it.
  • Vice.Destroyer 2 Jan 2017 21:40:04 7,437 posts
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    -Amelia wrote:
    I've tried Amazon, tidal and Spotify and out of them Spotify is the best. Tidal is okay, Amazon is crap. I won't touch Apple and to be honest I can't really find much fault with Spotify.
    Just out of interest, did you try Amazon Music Unlimited (the new service with 40 million songs) or Amazon Prime Music (the older service that has about 2 million songs)?

    I am guessing you meant the latter?
  • pk1980 2 Jan 2017 21:43:18 1,231 posts
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    Used to use Spotify when it was free with my mobile contact. Really only used to see what things sounded like before I purchased them.

    Google music I use purely for the upload option, got about 20k songs on it.
  • thegrindilow 2 Jan 2017 21:56:39 65 posts
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    Spotify for me. The collaborative playlists, and discover features are spot on for me. Best £9.99 I spend a month.
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