I’ve just setup my new Sonos system and I’m looking at various streaming services but can’t decide which to go for.

As far as I can tell, Apple Music won’t play through Sonos, Spotify looks good but I’m not sure if you can create playlists etc or you can only shuffle music? If so can you shuffle music from various genres etc? There are a few other options such as Deezer etc but I’m not sure how they compare?

I’d also like to have the capability to stream music from two different phones from the same account to the Sonos setup so if one of us is out the other can still stream music. I’m not too fussed about downloading for use away from home but it would be a bonus.

Cheers.

Apple Music does play through Sonos – you might need some sort of software update?

Rachel

Spotify does playlists and normal play just not in basic/free mode. Like it can’t complain and should use it more

Ah, thanks. I’ve not tried it but I’m sure I’ve read somewhere it doesn’t? Another option then as we’re all Apple users, cheers.

Deezer for me. Better app imo than Spotify and a larger catalogue…

Google Play Music for me. I find it easier to navigate/sort/arrange than Spotify, but then it has been a couple of years since I used Spotify. Does everything you need and allows you to upload/store your own personal music in “the cloud” so you can stream it from wherever there’s an internet connection.

Good features on Spotify. Extensive settings options. Attractive interface. Quality audio output.

It depends on your music tastes – try them all and see which has the best selection that suites you.

I use Spotify and really like it. You can create your own playlists, just save albums or search for playlists created by others. You can play on two separate devices but it is a faff. The only simple way is to add a separate account.

…and you’ll only get Taylor Swift on iTunes! 😀

Sounds daft but with any of these services, can you play preselected playlists such as ‘party music’ that contain pop music etc save making your own playlists up for when having parties etc?

Cheers muffin man, typed my reply as you posted. Might be an idea to swerve iTunes then having three girls in the house 🙂

Sounds daft but with any of these services, can you play preselected playlists such as ‘party music’ that contain pop music etc save making your own playlists up for when having parties etc?

You can with Spotify – playlists from all sorts of people including DJs, Musicians, Spotify themselves, friends, etc.

I use Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz (needed for work). Hard to argue with Spotify if you don’t need lossless and have reasonably mainstream tastes. I’ve heard good things about Deezer, but our product doesn’t support it so I haven’t tried that.

Qobuz is amazing for lossless and high res Jazz and Classical.

can you play preselected playlists such as ‘party music’ that contain pop music etc save making your own playlists up for when having parties etc?

Yes – as above.

Make sure you download the music for off-line playing though. The internet will always go down just as your house fills up!

When you use SONOS, you don’t use the app for the service in question, you use the SONOS app as a controller and link your system to the services. What I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t matter what app “a” or app “b” look like as you won’t be using them. Just worry about the content from each service, nothing else. I’m not sure the free versions of some of the services work with SONOS but I may be wrong.

You can use as many phones as you like with your SONOS system, they are just a controller.

i`m happy with google play.

does all teh shit i want. seems to have most stuff fairly current. i do feel bad about using it so i buy records from smaller artists if i like them as i know that most dont get anything for having their music published.

Just some info on Spotify for existing users:

Spotify denies hack; users subjected to weird music beg to differ

Might be an idea to swerve iTunes then having three girls in the house

I have three teenage girls in my house too – my commiserations! Spotify premium here and they use it 90% of their waking hours. Started off with iTunes but now 100% streamed.
They would literally kill me if I stopped paying.

[In fact the house is now 99.999% spotify, even MrsSB has figured out how to use it. Going to check out Deezer as well though]

You can use as many phones as you like with your SONOS system, they are just a controller.

… so you can start playing something and leave the house – it will carry on playing. We’re using an old iPod Touch as a controller as well.
If you didn’t know, the Sonos can also work as alarms so you can set them to come on at a certain time playing x playlist or a radio station. I find this really good.

Another vote for spotify – I use premium and love it. Playlists, ‘discover’ mode and artist radio station (Select an artist and it will play associated stuff that it thinks you’ll like. If you base the radio stations on your ‘liked songs’ playlist it gets even more interesting.) Loads of choice (as long as you don’t want Prince or the Beatles). Offline downloadability is useful too. All for a tenner a month – that’s what? two pints?

+1 bodgy (except the bit about The Beatles. Think all their stuff was added a few months back)

Where I live, I have rubbish mobile data coverage, so being able to make stuff available offline is essential. Spotify works well for this. I can choose a playlist or two, listen to it for a week or two, then maybe save a few tracks I really like off them, before switching to another playlist. I get to hear tons more variety of music then I ever would if I’d stuck with iTunes.

Spotify won’t work for free on SONOS. Much to my Bro-in-Laws annoyance which he only realised after he’d bought his SONOS speaker….

I can only comment on Apple Music as it’s the only one I’ve ever used, but it’s easy to use, sounds good and I can download stuff onto my iPhone to listen to when I don’t have a signal (assuming this is in anyway special) I suppose the best feature is that it integrates with my usual music app on my iPhone. When I first used it I like the radio station things, but Beats 1 is too cool for me, I don’t get it half the time and the others are short and repetitive playlists (like a couple of dozen versions of Radio 1 without the sockets talking in between). Their recommendations seem to be limited to “obscure b-sides and album tracks of artists you already have” I.E. cheap ones.

I hear Tidal is good, providing you want to listen to a load of Jay-Z, Kanye, Beyonce stuff a few weeks before anywhere else – it’s of limited appeal to me then.

Was on Spotify Premium, now pay for Apple Music. Not much between them perhaps; best thing about Apple IMO is the family plan so 4 more people can have it for only an extra fiver. Also (unlike above) I find the recommendations/suggested playlists really good & interesting.

Don’t most of them have 30/90 day free trials? Why not sign up and see what works for you?

For my part (STW – recommend what you have) – Apple Music works well for me. I’m sure there are plenty of others that’d work well enough for me (not exactly a demanding user).

If you’ve got a mobile on Three, Deezer are currently doing 6 months free….

euain – I’ve just signed up for the Apple Music trial. Please remind me in slightly under 3 months!

Thanks everyone, think I will give the Apple Music trial a go and take it from there.

I’ve just discovered Deezer lossless 1411 Kps. 15 quid a month or 10 a month if prepaid for a year, bringing it into the same price range as Spotify or Google Play Music.

Trialled it against Spotify 320 Kps on the way home last night (AKG noise-cancelling travel headphones).

Used “Dance of the illegal aliens” – Brand X. Good quality recording.

All of a sudden – clarity and music.

Only gripe is the crude interface, sometimes searching for specific albums can be a bit anti-intuitive, but the music reproduction is top notch CD quality.

So. Treating myself to one of these little sparklers…

Anybody want to buy a CD player and power supply? 😀

I honestly can’t recommend you buy a Naim, given that I do a lot of work for a competitor which sounds better 😆

Sorry, but I didn’t ask for any recommendations as I find my own judgement is more than sufficient.

Have a nice day.

Streaming would be great, if it only paid the musicians and artist something approaching a decent return. I know of one band who’ve had 1,800,000 streams on Spotify of one track. At 0.0016p/stream. Apparently they got £2880, I worked it out as a lot less, but anyway it’s still peanuts.
She said its ok considering that most of those would never have heard it without a playlist inclusion, but she said that’s the tricky bit; who chooses the playlist?
I think that return on close to two million streams is just downright insulting.