Teach me about streaming music

FORANE

FORANE

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FORANE
I've done a little music streaming with a couple Grace radios at home but not with my phone or outside the house.
How does one stream with the phone and play through the cars radio?
Are the paid streaming sites worth it? Are there good free sites?
Which are the best? Why? Do they offer lifetime or only monthly?
Do you prefer to just go to a radio stations website to do it?
Tell me about streaming.
 
Do you have Amazon Prime? I've found they do a decent job of refining what they suggest based on your history. There's a basic streaming included with Prime, and one with a subscription. They have a "my soundtrack" that has stuff that is based on your history, which I use most of the time. You can pick specific genres and time periods as well.
On your car question, someone will ask what car, what radio? If you have bluetooth, that will take care of it. I don't know how much data music uses, something to be careful of if you are using your data plan vs home wifi.
 
I do have Amazon prime.
Multiple cars, some with bluetooth capability and some without.
Unlimited data plan, I think.
 
There's an Amazon Music app in the app store or whatever the android equivalent is depending on what phone you have. Load that and it will ask you for your Amazon info. Once that's in look around and play some stuff you like. Over time it will populate/suggest music.
 
spotify, pandora……….pandora is probably like the myspace of streaming (old and no one uses it) but if u can deal with an ad or two, it's free, u can create your own 'stations' and cycle thru them. like I have Hendrix, metallica, led zep, Floyd, blues, porn flick theme songs, etc...and it'll just keep randomly cycling thru them.
 
I like Pandora... enter a few things you like and it will play similar things, based on acoustic analysis. I've discovered numerous great artists I'd never heard of before, stuff you won't hear on the radio. Pandora is free with ads, or a paid version which isn't that expensive.

If your car stereo has bluetooth, pair your phone to it and that's it. If not, and it has an aux in jack, use that. If neither, you can get a bluetooth-FM transmitter like this one.
 
I use either Pandora or Amazon Prime. I have 40 stations in Pandora and put it on shuffle. As I have wide music tastes and can get Frank Sinatra followed by Van Halen followed by The Cure followed by....who knows. Makes it interesting. I also pay the $40/yr or whatever it is for the paid subscription. No commercials, almost unlimited skips, and much higher quality steaming.
 
If you are a paying subscriber to streaming apps, many (such as Spotify) allow you to download songs to your device so the app can play them when there is no sustainable internet connection.

Very useful during flight.


@Bill Jennings ... check out an artist I just discovered, Odd Chap. Also a genre called Electro Swing. Good stuff when you want something to tap your toe to.
 
I use Pandora and Spotify. Pandora does a better job of finding new stuff for me and Spotify does a better job filling out the catalogs of artists Pandora recommended.

Nauga,
enjoying ramen and the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
 
I heart radio works (mostly) well. I play it through the bluetooth when the local stations have too many commercials. My needs are modest, so it is free.
The mostly is that I have to log on the phone to change stations, then press play to start the new station. I suppose I could ask Siri to change the channel, but she probably spies on me.
 
I've done Pandora, Spotify and Amazon prime music. (All in past 12 months)
Amazon did the worst job presenting/suggesting music.

I'm now a Pandora subscriber, it also gives me 3 stations for offline listening
 
Spotify is what I've been using. I create playlists for all types of situations like summer driving, night driving (nice oldies to take it slow), pump music, rap, etc. Premium/subscription isn't really needed unless you don't want to sit through ads every 5-10 songs (I can't remember). I'm frugal though so if you want to spend it go for it, its not much at all ($9.99 per month). I just don't like subscriptions ($9.99 per month * 12 months = $119.88 every year). Spotify also has a good "radio" so you can select a song you already know and like and it'll find similar songs.
eman1200 said:
pandora is probably like the myspace of streaming (old and no one uses it)
Click to expand...
This ^
 
I've used Spotify premium for about 8 yrs now. I prefer it to Pandora because I just make playlists of songs I want to listen to, not suggest some song and then inevitably be led down some road of music I hate. Premium also has a nice feature where you can stream your saved music for up to a month without connecting to wifi/cell service. Came in handy on the boat, at least back when port calls happened with that kind of regularity.
 
Another Spotify diehard for going on 7 years or so.

They had a student discount that made the subscription only 4.99 a month and I milked that for a long time. For the amount of music I listen to and add to my saved lists, even at full price 9.99 it is cheaper than buying the music independently at 1.29 a song or whatever they got up to when I switched from buying music. Everything syncs up between my laptop and phone so it is convenient to use at work and then get in the car without missing a song I was looking forward to.

I like the playlists that Spotify and independent users curate. But will admit, it isn't always great at recommending new music, Pandora has that figured out. I have a hunch Spotify is a bit pay to play for the studios to promote new music coming out.

Also a good place to get podcasts, I listen to 3 or 4 every week and can start and stop them freely.

Another downside is there are a few artists that don't let their stuff on Spotify, but it's pretty rare.
 
Our Pandora works on my wife's phone but stops playing after a couple songs when Pandora is played on the grace digital receiver. We don't know why.
I am not familiar with Spotify but read of ++, premium and lifetime on some sites. Appears they have had hacking trouble.
 
I also use Spotify. I don't agree with their business practices in how they treat artists, but they are the most prolific and easiest to use streaming platform, and honestly the rest of the streaming platforms aren't much better in that regard. I have a family plan, and it works well for me and my wife. I use it on my phone, my computer and my iPad. It seamlessly works on all of those. For example, I will be listening on my laptop, and then get in my car to go somewhere, and the song I was listening to starts playing on my phone right where I left off on my laptop.
 
I use Pandora, but only at home, not on the road. It works OK for me, and the price is right (free). After reading through this thread I may try something else. There are a few streaming radio stations that I've tried over the years, but there always seems to be a catch somewhere with those.
 
FORANE said:
Multiple cars, some with bluetooth capability and some without.
Click to expand...
Adding bluetooth connectivity is cheap and easy IF the radio has an aux input jack. Still doable without an aux input jack but can be a little wonkier IME.

I have a paid Pandora account that I use most of the time. I have a spotify account but I don't use it much because I'm too impatient to go through and setup playlists.
 
My family use the Spotify family plan for $14.99/month which works perfectly for us because you can have 6 accounts.
 
Along with all the above, RadioParadise.com is better than average background music, though slightly heavy on 60's & 70's hippie stuff for my taste. I particularly like the offline capability when transiting the continent.
 
I find the Amazon unlimited plan to be pretty adequate. Not a glowing endorsement, I know, but it does what I need/want it to do. The app (iPhone/iPad/computer) is pretty well put together and easy to use. I can download music for offline listening (in the plane, mostly) and the combination of playlists, stations and a good search function make finding music I want pretty easy. . I find it does a pretty good job of suggesting stations/playlists/artists based on what I've been listening to, despite my pretty wide ranging tastes (from classic rock, to modern rock, to alternative, to country, and some rap). I've got a family plan for around $15/mo so my wife can use it to (though I'm dragging her kicking and screaming away from her CDs).
 
Tidal is out there for those that want the best fidelity. Catalog has a similar count to Spotify though a different mix of artists. Noted for being the most artist friendly with their royalties.
 
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