Spotify alternatives

dfk41

As much as I refuse to pay the asking for any of these services, YouTube (if you can find a way around the adverts) is very good at quickly finding music you like via playlists. I prefer video to audio as I am usually not doing much else as opposed to working with music on in the background

Teaboy

I used to use Spotify, loved the UI but changed to Apple Music, I have iPhone so UI is good and the music is lossless something that’s missing from Spotify and it’s amazing sound.

Cuprajake

Best ui i have found is deezer it really does recommend good stuff

I only moved to yt music as we pad for add free to.

But its not as good as deezer

dfk41

Back in the days before streaming services, working from home with spare server capacity and websites like The Piratebay were largely free of virus and nefarious internet people, I used to spend hours browsing and nicking music of all genres. I have 150 GB of assorted music. I had some small Bose speakers for the lounge and playing music was simple.I often long for those days! My tv is 6 years old. I have it hooked up with my old server that I do not run but I cannot get it to see the TimeCapsule which is connected. When I replace the tv no doubt technology will catch up. But I have a large music library containing a lot of stuff I have and never will play. Happy days!

HarveyMushman

Thanks all. I think what I’ll do is try a month with each of the mentioned services and stick with whichever I like the most.

The discovery part is the important bit for me. One of my favourite things to do is hear new music/artists via a digital platform while at my desk and then buy the vinyl from Bandcamp/Discogs etc and enjoy it on my main hifi.

When I lived in London I’d enjoy discovering bands from thumbing through one of the many good record shops but sadly doing that in my local shops now there’s not much to discover between seven warped copies of Dylan’s Christmas album and Bing Crosby’s greatest hits.

Cuprajake

HarveyMushman deezer is perfect for that imo

DavecUK

HarveyMushman One of my favourite things to do is hear new music/artists via a digital platform while at my desk and then buy the vinyl from Bandcamp/Discogs etc and enjoy it on my main hifi.

One of my big problems is listening to 95% of anything produced after roughly 1980. The youngsters editing the music in software think we all want to hear pitch corrected kazoos and Melodyne enhanced vocals. I can hear it, I hate it and I can’t listen to it as it grates on my soul. Even worse the “music services” are now providing curated crap as they have pitch corrected stuff from before those years. The Beegees, Chris Isaak and many others. So the only music you can reply on now is anything you got and stored or electronically ripped from CD etc.. before they got their grubby little hands on it.

Pitch corrected and NOT live

Not P{itch corrected, and so much nicer for it…and yes, live.

HarveyMushman

DavecUK

Yes! When I said ‘new music’ I meant new to me. Outside of some interesting things happening in jazz and some Americana, I rarely hear ‘new’ music I enjoy.

And on top of that, production just seems to have gone downhill in general. It’s even more noticeable on any half-decent speakers. I hear a track on Spotify thinking ‘I’ll look forward to listening to this on vinyl’ and then it ends up sounding almost worse than the digital version as all of the flawed nuances are somewhat highlighted.

JammyDodger

Hey @HarveyMushman - fellow audiophile here! I agree with you that Spotify is good for discovery, but horrible in terms of business practices and musical fidelity. I switched over to Tidal who offer a HiFi version of their streaming service. It’s almost all high-resolution and they pay artists a better cut than most other platforms I’m aware of.

HarveyMushman

JammyDodger

Thanks! I remember reading about the higher quality files when Neil Young was getting behind Tidal early on.

Excited to check it out.

MattH

HarveyMushman And tidal have reduced their price - think its a standard £10 now for the only tier (whereas they used to charge £20 to get all the lossless and other stuff…..)

Also if you can join via the US site (which I did) then it works out a bit cheaper after the conversion from dollars to pounds :)

Cuprajake

Need to check how you stream it however

Anything through android can be bit limited by the phone, sometimes this was bypassed if you had say a sony

I had to bus usb audio player pro to get lossles on my phone, as i use the phone into an amp/dac then to my audeze cans

HarveyMushman

Cuprajake Need to check how you stream it however

It’ll mainly be played from the desktop app, which goes to an amp/speakers.

It’ll also need to stream through a few Sonos speakers using AirPlay which seems to be available on most apps.

Bonus points if there’s a CarPlay app too.

I don’t have a means of streaming to my main hifi as the only input is a turntable but I guess I could use a usb cable to the amp if needed.

ManicAsif

Another vote for Tidal. its recommendations based on your listening is quite good (perhaps not quite as good as Spotify, but close).

I have been running Tidal & Spotify side by side for the last couple of months (Tidal subscribed and Spotify on a 3-month trial) and interestingly, despite my listening to be pretty much the same on both apps, the playlist recommendations have been quite different.

I have “discovered” more new bands/artists with Tidal and IMO better match than Spotify

I HATE the new DJ feature on Spotify :)

MattH

HarveyMushman Tidal are in CarPlay… :)

HarveyMushman

Nice one! Thanks guys, signing up for Tidal now!

drdre89

Please let’s get rid of streaming platforms and go back to cd’s with full albums and artwork or minidisc 💽.

Streaming creates a throwaway society for music. They don’t appreciate the music.

It’s much better inserting a cd into a car stereo and enjoying an album from an artist. Then take the time to listen to another cd.

HarveyMushman

drdre89

As I said, I buy the vinyl of any music I discover and enjoy. Firstly to support the artist but also to enjoy the record itself along with the sleeve notes.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t disagree with how easy-access streaming has made music more disposable in many cases, and has certainly worked out far worse for the artist, but without it there would be a lot of bands I’d never have discovered.

MattH

drdre89 I dont totally agree - its definitively a generational thing.. I still buy cds but streaming is convenient and a good way to discover new music. My sons use spotify constantly - way more than me - and their musical taste is so eclectic the playlists they have crosses genres and years. It does amaze me.

Plus I do rip all my albums to have them on my roon server so best of all worlds there 😂

FadedFrontiers

+1 for tidal, they pay artists more than the others (still not enough though) and offer hi-res streaming, it’s pretty good and no frills app.