music options?

heycal · Jun 5, 2014

I'm using an iphone 4, and recently decided I'd like to listen to music when I walk or run. Never really used a phone for music before, so new to this world. The two options I've figured out so far, listening to songs from my itunes library, or listening to 'radio stations' playing the type of music I like, both have drawbacks -- I'm sick of my itunes library songs, and the radio stations have commercials, get spotty reception while out wandering around and can be otherwise glitchy, and don't have tons of songs anyway.

My ideal scenario is some app or service that provides a huge collection of commerical-free music in the genres I'm interested in, such as 1960's rock and roll, or 70's pop music, with no reception or listening quality issues, and ideally one where I can skip the songs I don't like.

My cable TV offers something similar to this, commerical free music stations playing random songs in different genres. I like it a lot, although I can't fast forward.

Anything similar available for iphone?

madsci954 · Jun 5, 2014

iTunes Radio, Pandora, Spotify to name a few. However, these have ads unless you pay a subscription.

heycal · Jun 5, 2014

madsci954 said:
iTunes Radio, Pandora, Spotify to name a few. However, these have ads unless you pay a subscription.

I might be willing to pay a small fee if any of these could deliver the following: Tons of random songs in my chosen genre without any reception problems while I wander through the woods or run on trails. I would think anything dependent on wi-fi might be an issue? Not sure -- the technology aspect of things is definitely over my head.

My only experiences with this stuff so far is with itunes radio, and it has not been good. Sometimes won't work at all, stops for no apparent reason, etc. I'm looking for something that offers me the same dependability and quality as my own itunes library if possible.

iMacBooked · Jun 5, 2014

heycal said:
I might be willing to pay a small fee if any of these could deliver the following: Tons of random songs in my chosen genre without any reception problems while I wander through the woods or run on trails. I would think anything dependent on wi-fi might be an issue? Not sure -- the technology aspect of things is definitely over my head.

My only experiences with this stuff so far is with itunes radio, and it has not been good. Sometimes won't work at all, stops for no apparent reason, etc. I'm looking for something that offers me the same dependability and quality as my own itunes library if possible.

Then I would go for Spotify.

heycal · Jun 6, 2014

iMacBooked said:
Then I would go for Spotify.

I'll look into it, thanks.

What about the wi-fi issue? Do these services need wi-fi reception to stream the music, or will regular cell service do it fine?

iMacBooked · Jun 6, 2014

heycal said:
I'll look into it, thanks.

What about the wi-fi issue? Do these services need wi-fi reception to stream the music, or will regular cell service do it fine?

Both will work fine.

heycal · Jun 6, 2014

iMacBooked said:
Both will work fine.

Looked at the descriptions of it. They seemed to imply that the paid version would be better quality, but 10 dollars a month is more than a small fee in my book. I was thinking more like 4.99 for a lifetime of use as a 'small fee'

T5BRICK · Jun 6, 2014

heycal said:
Looked at the descriptions of it. They seemed to imply that the paid version would be better quality, but 10 dollars a month is more than a small fee in my book. I was thinking more like 4.99 for a lifetime of use as a 'small fee'

Nobody is offering a $5 lifetime subscription to a huge library of music. It just isn't going to happen.

iTunes radio is free, it should work fine over cellular data.

I pay $8 a month for Google Music All access(I believe the current price is $10 a month). This gives me the ability to store 20,000 of my own songs online AND access to the whole google music library.

If you have poor coverage where you live, none of the streaming options are going to work well for you.

nburwell · Jun 6, 2014

heycal said:
Looked at the descriptions of it. They seemed to imply that the paid version would be better quality, but 10 dollars a month is more than a small fee in my book. I was thinking more like 4.99 for a lifetime of use as a 'small fee'

$10 is around the price you're going to pay for a subscription service like Spotify, Rdio, Beats, etc.

Spotify does offer a student subscription to it's premium service, but you obviously need to be student to receive the discount.

BJMRamage · Jun 6, 2014

Cell Service could be an issue with this but unless you are listening straight from your device...all streaming services will be spotty if no or little cell service.

Look up Radio stations that you like and see if they have an app or streaming service.

I like WTMD (a local college station) and they have an app to listen to the radio live or their second stream. They will have commercials but the College radio doesn't have NEARLY the same amount as a regular (Infinity-backed) radio station.

Go to the library and get more CDs and import into iTunes? buy more music?

madsci954 · Jun 6, 2014

heycal said:
I might be willing to pay a small fee if any of these could deliver the following: Tons of random songs in my chosen genre without any reception problems while I wander through the woods or run on trails. I would think anything dependent on wi-fi might be an issue? Not sure -- the technology aspect of things is definitely over my head.

My only experiences with this stuff so far is with itunes radio, and it has not been good. Sometimes won't work at all, stops for no apparent reason, etc. I'm looking for something that offers me the same dependability and quality as my own itunes library if possible.

This will rely more on your cellular coverage than the app or service. IF you have crappy coverage, all the streaming services will be bad.

heycal · Jun 7, 2014

Thanks for the info, guys. I'll figure something out now that I have a better grasp of the options.

Scarpad · Jun 9, 2014

If you pay the $25 yearly fee for ITunes Match then ITunes Radio is Commercial Free, I use it and it works fine over wifi or 4g

takeshi74 · Jun 9, 2014

heycal said:
I might be willing to pay a small fee if any of these could deliver the following: Tons of random songs in my chosen genre without any reception problems while I wander through the woods or run on trails. I would think anything dependent on wi-fi might be an issue?

Yup. Woods and trails typically aren't outfitted with WiFi.

heycal · Jun 9, 2014

Scarpad said:
If you pay the $25 yearly fee for ITunes Match then ITunes Radio is Commercial Free, I use it and it works fine over wifi or 4g

Perhaps the iphone 4 I'm using is suffering from lack of 4G and that's contributing to my reception issues?

takeshi74 said:
Yup. Woods and trails typically aren't outfitted with WiFi.

I'm a little uncertain about how to handle the settings when I leave the house. Should I be turning off the wi-fi when I go out to walk or run in woods or trails and want to listen to radio or podcasts? Leaving it on? Same with the GPS walking trackers -- some apps advise turning off wi-fi -- but then iphone gives a prompt advising to turn wi-fi on for better accuracy. (Not that either way seems to deliver great precision.)

I notice both with the itunes radio and the podcasts I listen to, they often seem hard to get started, and turn off for unknown reasons, and I have to keep hitting buttons until they get going again, though they usually come around and play out okay after bit of futzing. This is particulary weird for the podcasts, since I'm listening to episodes I had previously downloaded, and I would think that reception issues or wi-fi or celllular data issues wouldn't come into play at all.

Can someone illuminate what might be going on here?

iolinux333 · Jun 9, 2014

Try ooTunes or TuneIn, select low bitrate streams. You'll be amused for years, for free.

heycal · Jun 12, 2014

Anyone know whether you should turn off your wifi or leave it on when you go out walking or trail running, or whether it matters for things like music streaming and gps tracking?

Menel · Jun 12, 2014

heycal said:
I'm using an iphone 4, and recently decided I'd like to listen to music when I walk or run. Never really used a phone for music before, so new to this world. The two options I've figured out so far, listening to songs from my itunes library, or listening to 'radio stations' playing the type of music I like, both have drawbacks -- I'm sick of my itunes library songs, and the radio stations have commercials, get spotty reception while out wandering around and can be otherwise glitchy, and don't have tons of songs anyway.

My ideal scenario is some app or service that provides a huge collection of commerical-free music in the genres I'm interested in, such as 1960's rock and roll, or 70's pop music, with no reception or listening quality issues, and ideally one where I can skip the songs I don't like.

My cable TV offers something similar to this, commerical free music stations playing random songs in different genres. I like it a lot, although I can't fast forward.

Anything similar available for iphone?

They all cost. But Beats Music, Google Music, and Spotify all have huge commercial libraries.

Im going to recommend Beats or Spotify because they both have great curated playlists.

You can toggle to cache the playlist while on wifi, storing it on your device so data connection is irrelevant.

Altemose · Jun 12, 2014

heycal said:
Anyone know whether you should turn off your wifi or leave it on when you go out walking or trail running, or whether it matters for things like music streaming and gps tracking?

Leaving Wi-Fi on will do no harm when walking or trail running. GPS is hardware based for some applications like NavFree and data based for apps like Google Maps. When connected to a Wi-Fi network, the location is more exact.

I recommend Pandora...

heycal · Jun 12, 2014

Altemose said:
Leaving Wi-Fi on will do no harm when walking or trail running. GPS is hardware based for some applications like NavFree and data based for apps like Google Maps. When connected to a Wi-Fi network, the location is more exact.

The "Map my walk" app recommends turning wi-fi off for better accuracy. Anyone know why?

Altemose · Jun 12, 2014

heycal said:
The "Map my walk" app recommends turning wi-fi off for better accuracy. Anyone know why?

Same reason. Wi-Fi is easier to pin point rather than going off of Location Services over cellular data. Though the internal GPS is actually better, few apps employ that.

Tip: if you want to use your phone as a GPS on a limited data plan, use Navfree. You download the maps beforehand for each state you need but it uses the internal hardware GPS.

heycal · Jun 13, 2014

Altemose said:
Same reason. Wi-Fi is easier to pin point rather than going off of Location Services over cellular data. Though the internal GPS is actually better, few apps employ that.

To reiterate, the MapmyWalk app recommends turning wi-fi OFF. Why? And should I follow their advice?

Altemose · Jun 13, 2014

heycal said:
To reiterate, the MapmyWalk app recommends turning wi-fi OFF. Why? And should I follow their advice?

I would be led to believe that it is because your phone would try to jump on every hotspot that it could despite the data rate being too slow for the app.

Menel · Jun 13, 2014

heycal said:
To reiterate, the MapmyWalk app recommends turning wi-fi OFF. Why? And should I follow their advice?

It could trigger iOS to report your location near a wifi accesspoint, that causes location to jitter, effecting run tracking accuracy.

Running along a sidewalk, getting good satellite GPS. You pass a house with an accesspoint in Apple's database, your wifi chip sees it, Apple's location stream glitches you over closer to it overwriting GPS data. *shrug*. Grasping at straws.

Givmeabrek · Jun 13, 2014

If you are an Amazon Prime member they have a new service called Prime Music. Free with no ads! Online or stream to your phone with an app.

music options?

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