Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Do u stream music?

T

Tech198

Cancelled
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
2,152
If so where ?

Just wanting to know how useful streaming music is (particularly at home), where u already have your MP3's u can plugin your local Hard dive and still be listening... to a much larger library u acquired *somewhere else*

With what massive libraries people tend to match up or what-not, they must have more music local than they do in the cloud, so, why would u rather settle for less of your favorite stuff, unless its only about discovery

It probably makes more sense where your out and about.

Not just talking Apple music, any music steaming service.
 
Tech198 said:
If so where ?

Just wanting to know how useful streaming music is (particularly at home), where u already have your MP3's u can plugin your local Hard dive and still be listening... to a much larger library u acquired *somewhere else*

With what massive libraries people tend to match up or what-not, they must have more music local than they do in the cloud, so, why would u rather settle for less of your favorite stuff, unless its only about discovery

It probably makes more sense where your out and about.

Not just talking Apple music, any music steaming service.
Click to expand...

No, I am serious about my music, and I am pretty old school, too.

I buy CDs - often from obscure labels, or from street musicians, or, even Amazon - and rip them to my iTunes library and thence to my iPods. Actually, I have never streamed music, and nor have I ever bought from iTunes.

Initially, this was on account of the relentlessly popular nature of what was available - the sort of minority interest music I liked wasn't at all available on iTunes in the early years. Moreover, the quality of what you downloaded was a rarely quite as good as what you could acquire in a CD format.

These days, I have concerns over the whole rentier model of music. Personally, I prefer to have it on my computer's drive, and to have bought the right to play it privately whenever the fancy takes me, rather than having to constantly pay for rental space - in essence, rent the right to play, rather than being able to buy outright.

So, in a word, no, I don't stream music.
 
I started on Spotify. For me, that was the initial best solution. Spotify has a huge library and a generally strong social piece.

When Apple Music launched, I took the three months free and gave that a whirl. Overall, the Apple Music format was good, but at the end of the day, the Music app was essentially ruined by it.

I returned to Spotify some time later. All the usual things I enjoyed with Spotify.

As of two days ago, I have switched again to Google Music. So far, the interface is reasonably usable, definitely moreso than Apple Music, but I kind of miss the various tabs Apple Music has. The kicker for me, though, was the inclusion of Youtube Red as part of the Google Music subscription.
 
No I do not, however I do stream my own rips via a couple of different services depending on my needs. Plex and Sonos, are the two that I use. I tried the iTunes (home content not the service) streaming in the house and it was horrible. The other three have proven themselves so that is what I am using.

I still purchase CD's and yes vinyl, and an occasional song from iTunres. I don't listen to the radio anymore unless the wife wants to.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scepticalscribe
rhett7660 said:
No I do not, however I do stream my own rips via a couple of different services depending on my needs. Plex and Sonos, are the two that I use. I tried the iTunes (home content not the service) streaming in the house and it was horrible. The other three have proven themselves so that is what I am using.

I still purchase CD's and yes vinyl, and an occasional song from iTunres. I don't listen to the radio anymore unless the wife wants to.
Click to expand...
Vinyl isn't all that unusual now. In fact, a number of albums are coming with electronic copies of the album with purchase. It's really a win-win.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scepticalscribe
AustinIllini said:
Vinyl isn't all that unusual now. In fact, a number of albums are coming with electronic copies of the album with purchase. It's really a win-win.
Click to expand...

Yup... I like the fact my local best buy has a small selection and then there are a few stores in one of the local malls that I go to! I went to a location in of all places New Orleans and had a field day. Had them ship me about 15 LP's! They had some stuff that was pretty hard to find!
 
Spotify Premium. Been with them since they first made it available. Worth every single penny.
 
Tech198 said:
If so where ?

Just wanting to know how useful streaming music is (particularly at home), where u already have your MP3's u can plugin your local Hard dive and still be listening... to a much larger library u acquired *somewhere else*

With what massive libraries people tend to match up or what-not, they must have more music local than they do in the cloud, so, why would u rather settle for less of your favorite stuff, unless its only about discovery

It probably makes more sense where your out and about.

Not just talking Apple music, any music steaming service.
Click to expand...

I use Apple Music, with Spotify before that, and Rdio before Spotify. A lot of it is music discovery but also having all my playlists synced between devices.
 
I started with Spotify and was really impressed having all this music but then I realised I was just mainly streaming stuff that I owned and with the yearly cost of £140 it just wasnt worth it for me. So i cancelled and bought a load of 2nd hand CD's of the stuff I was missing..
 
I don't understand the appeal of owning music anymore. I am a pretty casual music listener and I have over 200 songs in my library from this year alone. I understand that people don't want to let go of the music they already purchased, but I imagine very few young people buy music anymore. 10 years from now music consumption is going to be dominated by streaming.
 
This year I've turned to streaming music almost primarily compared to using my local library. Spotify is my source for streaming music I like and for finding new music, playlists, and mood music.

I'm paying for the premium service and I can easily justify the $120 per year for it to get access to more music than I would just buying albums/songs from artists I already know and like and for getting the ad-free experience.
 
I personally don't stream any music. It consumes too much data on my phone. And as far as listening to music at home or on wi-fi - I prefer to have higher quality "hard" files stored on my local devices. I feel the sound quality is better, and obviously playback reliability is going to be better since I'm not relying on a network connection.
 
sdilley14 said:
I personally don't stream any music. It consumes too much data on my phone. And as far as listening to music at home or on wi-fi - I prefer to have higher quality "hard" files stored on my local devices. I feel the sound quality is better, and obviously playback reliability is going to be better since I'm not relying on a network connection.
Click to expand...

Most streaming services allow you to download high quality files for offline use.
 
Nope, I have years of content I like in my library. New content takes care of itself from overhearing other sources of music ( Friends, family, public locations)
 
nolankvn said:
I don't understand the appeal of owning music anymore. I am a pretty casual music listener and I have over 200 songs in my library from this year alone. I understand that people don't want to let go of the music they already purchased, but I imagine very few young people buy music anymore. 10 years from now music consumption is going to be dominated by streaming.
Click to expand...


I guess the same reason why Apple or Spotify can pull your favorite song/album when licenses expire.

In these situations, what *may* be possible, not to say will, but could be pulled, would this offer the solution to have that music from CD and/or upload if needed ? or would u just say "I've had it" and use another streaming service for that one album/song or switch entirely to one which does that favorite album?

Although a convenience, across all streaming, I keep thinking about what happens if said service pulls said album/song that i really like. would u just get the CD and now u own it ?

I don't mind iTunes although purchased movies do, and can, dissapear as well for the same reason, but when u "purchased" to stream something, it kind of gives u a sense of "ok, Apple will be more likely not be able to remove this"

Basically which direction do you turn when this this does happen, if it happens?
 
I have never seen anything pulled from Spotify's library after the fact. I don't know the exact terms of their licensing deals, but it's not like Netflix where content gets rotated in and out on a regular basis.
 
nolankvn said:
Most streaming services allow you to download high quality files for offline use.
Click to expand...
Oh really? Any idea how that works? Is it a permanent file that you just keep? Or does it have some sort of expiration or self terminating aspect to it? I could see someone just signing up for a month subscription, downloading all the files they want, then cancelling the service?
 
The files are stored in cache so if you cancel the service you will no longer have access to them.

I save my music library on my phone so that I can play it in the car without eating any mobile data.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sdilley14
I use SoundCloud, 8tracks, and YouTube sparingly. I'm not the kind of person that buys new music immediately, I wait until the second or third singles. Why give any money to an artist who only came up with one good song?
 
I'm looking into this right now too. With a family of 4, the Apple Music Family Plan is the most likely candidate since then we can all stream concurrently and it costs $15/mo. However, in reality, I'd be shocked if we ever have more than 2 streaming at time.

From what I read, Spotify, Rhapsody, and Google Play music only allow 1 device to be streamed at a time. Is that correct? Or do any of them allow for 2 simultaneous devices on a "single" (non-family) account?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back