Viewing 31 posts - 1 through 31 (of 31 total)
  • music streaming services
  • sweepy
    Free Member

    I have recently had my spotify account taken over and to be honest support has been well below what I would expect.
    Its turning into such an epic getting it back that I’m thinking of just cancelling payments and walking away, and going to another service.
    I’ve always liked spotify but the constant updates and ‘improved’ functionality were getting a bit wearing anyway.

    Thinking of giving google play a try, is it any good and does it support chromecast?
    Any good alternatives?

    Cougar
    Full Member

    I’ve never used Play Music, but given that the Chromecast is also a Google product I’d be very shocked indeed if it didn’t support it.

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    I found Deezer to be the best for me. There are normally deals knocking about for cheap subscriptions.

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    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    I liked the Spotify interface/breadth of choice/curating/ but the sound quality (ogg/vorbis 320kbps) wasn’t good enough for me.

    I am currently with Tidal, who offer lossless streaming at £20 a month. The sound quality is fine (straight into my NAIM streamer) but I recently discovered that Spotify will soon offer a “HiFi” lossless quality service to compete with Tidal directly, at something like £18 per month.

    I’ll give it a while to bed in and if the cost is still lower than Tidal/Qobuz/Deezer, then I’ll probably migrate…

    I tried Chromecasting through my system to compare Deezer lossless to Tidal (my streamer does not support Deezer) , but the dongle bridge degraded the sound quality to an unnacceptable level. IMHO, of course…

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    I found Deezer to be the best for me. There are normally deals knocking about for cheap subscriptions.

    +1

    sweepy
    Free Member

    Well i’ve given google play a trial, just cos it’s free for 60days. If that’s no good i’ll try Deezer. I’m not hugely concerned with quality, it’s all cast to the telly or through earbuds anyway.
    Thanks all 🙂

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    the difference i found between google play and deezer/spotify was that GP just plays the music you already have doesnt it? dont you upload it first?
    whereas deezer/spotify play whatever you like whenever you like.

    could be wrong but thats how i see it, be interested to try GP if im wrong.

    aracer
    Free Member

    I’m only seeing 30 days free. Presumably such a free offer works with any google account on your phone though…

    It’s claiming 35 million songs on demand

    sweepy
    Free Member

    No mate, seems to play on demand,
    Aracer- was 30 on the phone but for some reason on the laptop I got 60 and plays on all my devices.
    Just got to rebuild my playlists and i’m away i think.

    CraigW
    Free Member

    There is an offer for 4 months free on Google Play, though it may not be available for everyone.
    http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/four-months-google-play-music-for-free-9-99pm-thereafter-poss-new-users-2629372

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    ah just googled it, seems i was (parlty) mistaken. whereas spotify/deezer do a paid and free sub, with just ads and no skipping tracks being the difference, google play has paid and free too. looks like paid version is roughly the same, but the free version limits you to your own uploaded music.

    that must be what i was thinking of as i flit between paid and free on deezer depending on offers/my mood.

    EDIT: just taken advantage of that offer, thanks craig.

    sweepy
    Free Member

    Where were you an hour ago tho 🙂

    Jamie
    Free Member

    Deezer here.

    Support will be just as pap as Spotify I imagine.

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    I’m not hugely concerned with quality,

    😯

    Why not?

    sweepy
    Free Member

    Like I say, I just cast it to the telly or have it on earbuds as wallpaper at the gym. I probably wouldn’t notice if it was on wax cylinder on those so the quality is good enough for me.
    If i ever got another hifi system it might be different, but I just don’t use music like that nowadays.

    stilltortoise
    Free Member

    I notice no one’s mentioned Apple Music. If you’re into the Apple ecosystem that’s a good choice. If not, I’m not sure it has any significant advantages over the others.

    chvck
    Free Member

    Spotify has more than 30 million songs in its library, which reaches 58 countries, while Deezer has 40 million songs that reach more than 180 countries. The amount of songs available in each country varies, so it’s likely that the reason for the higher song-count in Deezer’s library is local music not available for the UK market. Tidal has 25 million songs in its library and 75,000 music videos, and is currently available in 31 countries.

    Like Spotify, Apple Music also offers 30 million songs, though there are 45 million in the iTunes Library itself so 15 million of those are unavailable to stream. Apple Music is the only streaming service to have won Taylor Swift over so far, exclusively offering her bestselling latest album 1989. Apple loses out to Google by 5m songs though, as Google Play Music currently boasts a library of 35 million tracks across 58 countries.

    If library size matters to you (taken from http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/audio/deezer-vs-spotify-tidal-apple-music-amazon-prime-music-amazon-music-unlimited-google-play-music-comparison-review-3523953/ publish in dec 2016).

    Also, I’ve seen a IFTTT recipe thing for moving spotify library/playlist to deezer, same may exist for other migrations.

    seosamh77
    Free Member

    I’ve used google play for a long while now few year, happy enough with it. As per all these streaming services, bugs my tits that you can’t browse their full library, but still, seems to have most things when you search. Though some more obscure albums and the like are missing, but that’s the same with them all(I suspect they pretty much all have the same library anyhow, give or take.). I’d imagine all their libraries are much the same.

    Yes it works with chromecast. You can download for offline use too.

    Can’t comment on support, no idea why you’d use it.

    I pay the £9.99 a month, but they do a family deal, up to 6 users I think, but no idea how that works with personal libraries and stuff, it’s £15.99 i think.

    Jamie
    Free Member

    I pay the £9.99 a month, but they do a family deal, up to 6 users I think, but no idea how that works with personal libraries and stuff, it’s £15.99 i think.

    Most services offer a family tier. There is one master account, and you can provision sub-accounts which have their own personal libraries etc.

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    and they all work with chromecast 😉

    tomnavman
    Free Member

    and they all work with chromecast

    Except apple music!

    sbob
    Free Member

    I use YouTube, it’s ace! 😀

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    Except apple music!

    apple doesnt count, its a law unto itself 😉

    slowbloke
    Free Member

    It’s worth noting that only Spotify and Amazon Prime Music work with Alexa if you ever want to go down that route. I really wish Deezer did as I much prefer it to spotify!

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    I used Apple Music for a year (I think) it’s very good if you have an Apple Device because of the way it integrates into the normal Music App – I hate multiple apps for the same thing.

    Library size is a bit of a red herring in my experience, if it’s a mainstream it’ll be there, even if your chosen artist refuses to play ball with them, it doesn’t matter. For example for a bit one of the US Teen Pop stars was kicking up a fuss, Dead Eyes Swift or Big Boobs Perry I forget which, Son was gutted – but all their songs are there, but you might have to put up with compilation CD art work, if you like some weird and wonderful shit, it probably won’t be on any of them.

    Anyway, I used Apple for a year because I only stream via my iPhone or my PC, I also have Apple TV but I don’t use it for that. After a year Son had an Xbox and some of the games let you stream your music to listen to whilst you’re playing – but only via their Groove Service, they gave me a 2 week trial, which I pretty much ignored, then a 1 month trial which I used and finally a 4 month trail which I’m using now – I like the fact they have a dark and moody mostly black and white interface and use old library pics of the band instead of album art, but for the most part – who can tell the difference? It’s the same music. I might go back to Apple when the trial is up, or swan off to another one for a few months free.

    tomnavman
    Free Member

    I use YouTube, it’s ace!

    As long as you have an unlimited data plan this is great… an easy way to kill your data plan and phones battery on the move tho!

    apple doesnt count, its a law unto itself

    Too true 😆

    johnx2
    Free Member

    Google Play here. Still on free trial but hooked and will pay when trial period ends. Works well with sonos and has a lot more than Amazon’s prime streaming, though with some weird omissions (no “keep on rockin’ me babe” Steve miller for guilty soft-rockout when cooking…)

    nickc
    Full Member

    I’m not hugely concerned with quality,

    me neither,my spotify comes through a chromebook to a digital wireless speaker, as long as it’s clear, the idea that there is tone or clarity or nuance that I’m missing is laughable TBH

    sbob
    Free Member

    As long as you have an unlimited data plan this is great

    A ha, see other thread to note I don’t have a smartphone so I’m always on wi-fi the ponce. 🙂

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    as long as it’s clear, the idea that there is tone or clarity or nuance that I’m missing is laughable TBH

    So, in this context, what exactly do you mean by “clear”?

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    I see kids enjoying music on their speaker on their phone and that’s good enough for them. I despair.

    Anyway, Amazon has a catch that prime doesn’t get you everything. Have to pay more to get the full catalogue, and it’s still not that great.

    They all have flaws in that they can only offer what they have a licence deal for, so often things are missing. More annoying if you’re an old fuddy who likes to listen to albums, not just random tracks, only to find one particular track on an album has different rights because of who wrote it or something, and is missing.

    I just have my whole CD collection ripped and uploaded to my OneDrive account, then I can stream it all via Groove. And then everything is also on my NAS and can stream to my Hi-Fi.

    Random stuff for new tracks I use Spotify for though at the moment, but I mostly listen to old stuff or buy a CD of something I probably like and rip it, then stream that.

Viewing 31 posts - 1 through 31 (of 31 total)

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