The streaming service/services I use and why.

eljr

eljr

Koyaanisqatsi
A few months ago I terminated my Tidal streaming service. I was very unhappy with their selection of new releases in the classical genre. Plus, I did not like that service was so POP centrist. Every time I logged in I felt like I was logging into a tabloid newspaper's home page.

So after much contemplation and free trials I settled on Primephonic. Cd quality streaming with a great library of new release classical.

But now I find I need a second service as I had in the past. Guess I'll go back to Tidal Masters as a compliment to Primephonic.

How about you?

What service/services do you use and does it suit your streaming needs fully?
 
I really don't love how opening the Tidal app always seems to throw up a splash screen about the newest Jay-Z or Beyoncé single. If it isn't pop or rap, Tidal almost feels like it isn't for you. Roon helps with music discovery in conjunction with Tidal, and corrects that deficiency.

I can't justify paying for another digital service directly, but I do have Amazon Prime which comes with low quality streaming.

So I guess the answer is Roon, Tidal, Amazon, and YouTube. I'm not sure there's anything I've been looking for that I couldn't find between those four. I've used Zune, Apple, Pandora, and Spotify in the past, and this combination seems to be the best I've used. But I can certainly see how classical would be a tougher nut to crack.
 
MurrayLives said:
I really don't love how opening the Tidal app always seems to throw up a splash screen about the newest Jay-Z or Beyoncé single. If it isn't pop or rap, Tidal almost feels like it isn't for you. Roon helps with music discovery in conjunction with Tidal, and corrects that deficiency.

I can't justify paying for another digital service directly, but I do have Amazon Prime which comes with low quality streaming.

So I guess the answer is Roon, Tidal, Amazon, and YouTube. I'm not sure there's anything I've been looking for that I couldn't find between those four. I've used Zune, Apple, Pandora, and Spotify in the past, and this combination seems to be the best I've used. But I can certainly see how classical would be a tougher nut to crack.
Click to expand...

Good post, thanks.

I strongly agree that Tidal makes a non pop/rap music enthusiast feel like an afterthought.

1 Roon is a streaming service? I thought it was a music server that fuses your library with Tidal's. ???

2 When you say you use Amazon, do you subscribe to their unlimited music service or do you simply have the Prime music offerings?

3 Do you buy YouTube (is it called red????) or do use it as I do, with the commercials?

-------------------------

I think I need to try Roon. I have been a little hesitant because so much of my music is so bad with the metadata. Albums cover are missing or from old releases. Even basic album names and track names are sometimes missing. ... I wonder how Roon would handle all this?
 
I use Apple Music because it works best with all of my Apple devices. Siri, Appletv app, Music matching, home sharing, etc.

I use Amazon Prime and pay $25 or so a year to have it match my library, for my Amazon Echo Dots. I also subsribe to you YouTube Red which give me access to Google Play Music, but rarely use it.

I would love to get a lossless tier from Apple, but outside of that, it works best for my needs.
 
eljr said:
Good post, thanks.

I strongly agree that Tidal makes a non pop/rap music enthusiast feel like an afterthought.

1 Roon is a streaming service? I thought it was a music server that fuses your library with Tidal's. ???

2 When you say you use Amazon, do you subscribe to their unlimited music service or do you simply have the Prime music offerings?

3 Do you buy YouTube (is it called red????) or do use it as I do, with the commercials?

-------------------------

I think I need to try Roon. I have been a little hesitant because so much of my music is so bad with the metadata. Albums cover are missing or from old releases. Even basic album names and track names are sometimes missing. ... I wonder how Roon would handle all this?
Click to expand...
Roon is just a library management and metadata tool... really helps with music discovery. It should "fix" your bad metadata, but it won't actually change any of your files, just take care of it in its own database.

I don't pay anything extra for Amazon or YouTube, just what I get with Prime.
 
I've been using Tidal (320k AAC). Tidal offers a military discount for both their tiers ... so I have no plans to switch to any other services in the foreseeable future.

I'm a die hard album guy ... so I don't pay attention to user interfaces/playlists ... what's on Tidal's main page ... :dunno: ... have no clue, never stop there .... I just move right onto
search. Select the album I want to hear and have a seat ... like a virtual reality TT.

I listen to mostly modern contemporary artist on Tidal w/ some occasional Classic Rock albums
that I don't own on Vinyl.

Classical Music is not main stream ... so I don't expect there would be much of a selection on
any of the major streaming services who tend to cater to the mass market taste.

I do occasionally listen to Bebop Jazz (not mainstream) ... have not had a problem finding any Blue Note RVG remasters ...which is what I like to play mostly in that genre.
 
Last edited:
Pandora’s premium service in the car, the only service that fully integrates with my car’s touchscreen and allows album play there.

I liked Apple Music a lot for its well curated playlists, but as an Amazon Prime and Sonos user, Amazon’s premium service makes the most sense right now. Voice control of any album to my QUADs is pretty terrific, and Alexa understands me far better than Siri does.

I can also completely avoid the services’ apps, nearly all of which push garbage that I have zero interest in, by using the Sonos app. It allows searching across all my subscribed and free services, including SoundCloud, etc, by multiple parameters (artist, album, station, show, etc). Sonos users well understand just how superior this is vs having to put up with multiple apps with completely different UIs.

When Google Assistant and Airplay 2 are integrated into Sonos next year, I will re-evaluate which service to use, but Amazon’s lower price will still be to their advantage.
 
Paid sub to JazzRadio for 320kb. No album selection, just different genres of Jazz.
Unpaid to Accuradio. They don't have paid service and list their streaming quality as less than CD quality.
With either service I can get instrumental or vocals to fit my mood of the time.
 
I prefer to listen via SACD, hi-res FLAC, and Blu-ray, because of audio quality. I use streaming services for exploring music that is new to me.

My opinion is that Tidal is not very smart from a marketing perspective. I listen to classical music and opera. Nonetheless, every time I logged in, Tidal pushed rap music (and associated imagery) at me. It seems to me that the smart thing to do would be to set the “theme” of the GUI (e.g., pictures of artists) - and the recommended recordings - based on the type of music that the CUSTOMER likes, not what the owners of Tidal like. Every time I accessed Tidal I got the impression that their service isn’t intended for me. (At least Tidal was smart in asking why I cancelled.)

I currently subscribe to Spotify Premium, but I seldom use it. This winter I need to either commit to using Spotify Premium to explore music, or cancel.

I use Youtube for exploring music - without thinking about it. I think that I naturally gravitate to Youtube because I'm used to using a PC keyboard and mouse (vs. a tablet) - and my office chair is relatively comfortable - so I gravitate to sitting at my desk and using my PC. Youtube has an amazing selection of classical music. For example, I've recently been exploring sacred music composed for the Eastern Orthodox Church. (I'll have to check to see if Spotify has any of the recordings that I bookmarked in Youtube.) The problem with Youtube is that without paying for their premium service it's difficult (or impossible) to cast via Chromecast Audio. IIRC, I can cast Youtube from the Chrome browser on my PC, but not from my Android tablet. (I vaguely remember that I found a way to "pair" devices, but it didn't work well.) And, of course, Youtube audio quality isn’t as good as top-quality hi-res.

P.S. I just accessed Spotify Premium from my PC. (I usually use my tablet.) When I click “browse”, Spotify presents ads for music that I dislike (to put it politely). :thumbsdown:
 
@robert_kc

I totally agree with you about Tidal.
"Every time I accessed Tidal I got the impression that their service isn’t intended for me."

well put.

----------------------------------

Sacred music for the Eastern Orthodox Church? I am intrigued. Please share your discovery with me. :)

----------------------------------

I think the bottom line is that I need two streaming services. One for classical and the other for popular music.

i have often had several services at once but I was hoping to move away from that. :(
 
eljr said:
@robert_kc

Sacred music for the Eastern Orthodox Church? I am intrigued. Please share your discovery with me. :)
Click to expand...

Here’s a few examples of sacred music composed for the Eastern Orthodox church that I found on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t7TFq5VAbY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8CpbSxBC_Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKLwutElZ-s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE1FzSC8DBs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=locW-9S00VU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Hres93mBs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI2yPR9pLEc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCKSkLAo6V4

I highly recommend this multi-channel SACD of Charles Bruffy conducting Rachmaninoff’s All-night Vigil. Excellent audio quality. https://www.amazon.com/Rachmaninoff-All-Night-Vigil-Op-Vespers/dp/B00TEN28TA/ref=ice_ac_b_dpb?ie=UTF8&qid=1507524925&sr=8-1&keywords=rachmaninoff+all+night+vigil


81Z%2BJEOw5jL._SL1393_.jpg



Here’s a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbRDQScRG94
 
Since I'm cheap, I go with free streaming links. Sure, I don't have as much control over what is played. If I want control, I simply go to my music collection on my hard drive. Most stream at either 320 or 192 kb. Some favorites:

Sinatra Media Radio 320
http://yp.shoutcast.com/sbin/tunein-station.pls?id=1669316

WKAR Radio (Michigan State University Public Radio):
Classical: https://streaming.wkar.msu.edu/wkar-classical
Folk: https://streaming.wkar.msu.edu/wkar-folk
Jazz:https://streaming.wkar.msu.edu/wkar-jazz

WRCJ - (Public Radio Station - Detroit Public Schools)
http://66.55.143.200/stream/wrcjfm.pls?mp=/stream

Also, Radio Paradise is on a lot here.
 
robert_kc said:
Here’s a few examples of sacred music composed for the Eastern Orthodox church that I found on YouTube:


I highly recommend this multi-channel SACD of Charles Bruffy conducting Rachmaninoff’s All-night Vigil. Excellent audio quality. https://www.amazon.com/Rachmaninoff-All-Night-Vigil-Op-Vespers/dp/B00TEN28TA/ref=ice_ac_b_dpb?ie=UTF8&qid=1507524925&sr=8-1&keywords=rachmaninoff+all+night+vigil


81Z%2BJEOw5jL._SL1393_.jpg



Here’s a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbRDQScRG94
Click to expand...

Thanks, already own it, love it. :)

I likely own other things in this sub genre but don't realize.

Good post, thanks. (I have not checked out the other YouTubes yet. I will.)
 
I like Tidal a lot, though I agree that the splash page is annoying. I use the app at the office, play through a Bluesound Node 2 at home. I gave up my Deezer subscription when I realized I wasn't using it nearly as much as Tidal. When I don't feel like choosing my own music at the office, I use SiriusXM over the internet - sound quality is fine for the levels I can listen at the office.
 
YouTube Red is the perfect companion while getting wound up on beer and spiced rum. The interviews, shows, and non music offerings sort of cleanse your palette before the next slammin' song and when it's almost over and you're getting horizontal you can dig up a "Rip Van Winkle Caper" or "The Midnight Sun."
 
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