Just replaced my old mobile with a iPhone.

whats the best set up for music?

i used iTunes to create a ringtone and I’ve loaded on about a 1000 tracks for starters but the days of physical cds seems to be waning.

so, what music app?

Apple Music would be an obvious choice. Will it screw with my existing stuff (and ringtone?).

Spotify?

i was talking with a yout today and was seeing the benefit of being able to access old tracks that I just fancy having a listen to (Tina Charles and Candi Staton were mentioned… 🤣) as well as the Rosalía and Maria José Llerga that isn’t physically available. Plus I’m heavily into bulerías at the moment.

any recommendations and why?

Spotify, Deezer or any other streaming platform. Take a free trial of each DVD stick with the one that has the interface you prefer

Apple music had 3 months free when I signed up last week.

I find spotify the best interface for recommending tracks for playlists that I create.

soundiiz is an online app that imports your collection/playlists between the different apps as you try them out,

Both make valid points. Especially re. interface.

Playlists (and downloaded tracks?) probably most likely benefits.

Apple has 3 months free trial (as does deezer) Spotify only 1. Hmm.

Might just start off with Apple and see how it goes. Can always try Spotify once I’ve the hang of this modren technology

I had about 130Gb of music on my iPhone, which is stuff I ripped from CD, along with occasional tracks purchased from iTunes.
However, I decided to try Apple Music, as there was a five month free offer, so worth checking out. I don’t stream, but I found that just finding albums and tapping ‘add+’ downloads onto the phone, so no issues with lack of signal, data etc. I’ve now got 340Gb of music on my phone, about 36,000 tracks, and it’s been encouraging me to download all kinds of things that I wouldn’t buy on CD, bands like Ghost, NWA, Black Country, New Road… just stacks of stuff, and as I can now have my EarPods in at work, so I can hear my work radio, putting my phone on shuffle is like having the perfect personal radio station, I have folk, classical, indie, classic rock, metal, country, electronica…
No jazz, though.
I use an app called EQu, which has a multi-channel graphic EQ, which lets me tweak sound curves to suit different earphones or headphones.
The only issue is that once you’re using Apple Music, you can’t add any more music from the iTunes app where you’ve ripped stuff, you have to turn off the Apple Music link, which allegedly means you lose all the playlists, etc.
However, that’s with streaming, I don’t know about music that’s actually been downloaded into the phone’s storage; I’ll have to ask someone at Apple – it may be it’s like turning on airplane mode, but I’m not too bothered at the moment, because there’s only one legacy album I have on cd that I can’t find in Apple Music, I’ve found so much more obscure stuff by artists I already have a few recordings by it more than makes up for it.
There’s talk that the next iPhone might have 1Tb of storage – I might need it…
Oh, and playlists? Can’t be bothered, I just enjoy totally random play of what’s on my phone, with 36,000-odd tracks, I’m constantly surprised by what gets played.

Apple Music is £99 a year if you have the solo account. You can have 10 devices but only listen to one at a time…unless you put one device on airplane mode.

Apple Music is the best if you want to integrate your existing music with streaming. Spotify is my favourite for recommending new stuff, but harder to choose what you listen to. Spotify does seem to have some songs that aren’t on the other services.

I’d probably go Apple Music if it was my choice but we’re on a family plan and it’s 3-1 to Spotify.

I keep a few tunes saved to my phone on Apple Music to use with my watch and incase of no internet.

Like others have said really, I find Spotify good at recommending things and finding new music to listen to (Although the more I use it the more I find it repeats a lot). I’m currently using it as it plays nicer with Sonos most of the time.

Apple Music is better if you know what you want to listen to or want to listen to albums. Also better for adding your own music to if there’s something you can’t find.

I’m going to give Apple another go soon as the Spotify queue infuriates me sometimes.

5 Months (for new users) free here: https://www.shazam.com/promotions/upto5mo/555614468

Install Shazam
Install Apple Music

Click that link and then when you click to listen to 9 to 5 it should take you to the promo page.

It’s just given me a month free as a previous user.

Right, I think you’ve all helped me arrive at what I need.

I primarily want to listen to specific stuff (and often that is an album).

I’m not desperate to find ‘new’ stuff but the ability to hear stuff I’m interested in finding out about properly.

Sounds like Apple Music fits the bill. And three months to decide.

Thanks all!

So this thread prompted me to try out Apple Music again with my free month…

Reinstalled app, started subscription and…. all my music is gone! Grrr!!

When I switched back to Spotify last year I logged in to my account that hadn’t been touched for about 5 years and all my music was still in there waiting for me. No such luck on Apple.

I preferred Apple Music to Spotify but wanted to sync playlists onto my Garmin forerunner 645 music. Apple not compatible so I’m on Spotify now. I don’t like it so much but it does the job I guess.

Ringtones?

I haven’t noticed anyone have music or a song as a ringtone for years. Usually just default ring or vibrate. Is playing the Jaws theme when the boss calls still a thing?

I’m sure that Crazy Frog will be on all music services.

Anyway, big fan of streaming and Spotify seems to do everything that I would want it to. Don’t be tricked in to the fallacy of thinking that as you spent ££££ on CDs in 1990s-2000s and hours of your life ripping it to MP3 between 2000-2010 that you should need to carry this digital burden forever. Let go of it and stream.

I’m a big fan of Deezer family, and like the various suggested streams. But the problem with this is the identification of what you like. Without rating with that heart, one forgets the tracks! I can’t be bothered with that level of continuous interaction.

And BBC Sounds.

Ringtones?

Yeah, I mean why would anybody want a means of recognising that it’s actually their phone that’s ringing (or even that someone might be trying to get in touch with them)… Just crazy.

Don’t be tricked in to the fallacy of thinking that as you spent ££££ on CDs in 1990s-2000s and hours of your life ripping it to MP3 between 2000-2010 that you should need to carry this digital burden forever. Let go of it and stream.

dont be tricked into thinking just because the track you love is there today that it will still be three next week/month/year.

I don’t use my phone as my main source of music (in fact, using it for music at all is a move ‘forwards’. I normally ‘consume’ music via my cd player & speakers or by MP3 player. Integration of phone with my van is the main (ahem) driver behind this. That and realising that I can access old and new music that I don’t already have.

Dont assume you will always have access to be able to stream. Don’t assume everyone has unlimited data.

Im looking to augment, not replace.