OT: Streaming music services

[William]

Question: Do services like Tidal, Roon, Qbuzz (sp?), etc... cut off tracks when playing full albums? On Amazon Prime Music albums that have songs that bleed into the next are always cut off and start again as another track. For example the Space intro on Steve Miller's Fly Like An Eagle Album bleeds into Fly Like an Eagle. Pink Floyd's The Wall has just about every track bleeding into the next. It creates a flow to the album that is killed (to me anyway) every time the tracks cuts off and then the next one starts.

Maybe that's just me but I'll gladly use another service if they don't do that.






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[vincenz]

I have Tidal and I don’t experience that. Not sure if I’m understanding. Are you referring to crossfade between tracks? You can always turn that on and off in settings.

[William]

Some albums have distinct pauses/cuts between tracks, other have tracks that bleed into the next track...no distinct pause or cut between the tracks. The Wall is a good example of what I'm refering to. At least on Prime Music they distinctly cut/seperate each track. In the case of The Wall the sound is abruptly cut, then slight pause and then the next track starts continuing where it cut off. If you know what listening to 8-track tapes is like then you can use that as an example.

I don't see anything in settings that allows me to change it.





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[Ozz]

I use both Pandora and Spotify....neither cut off tracks AFAIK.

FWIW - My 18yo son believes Spotify is the superior service.....

[Blue Jays]

Whatever the free flavor of Spotify is, it is entirely sufficient for accompanying Zwift. :banana:

[William]

I use both Pandora and Spotify....neither cut off tracks AFAIK.

FWIW - My 18yo son believes Spotify is the superior service.....

Pandora doesn't let you play full albums, but if they are playing one of the songs from the Wall or any other track that does what I'm referring to...it does abruptly end.





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[Ozz]

Pandora doesn't let you play full albums, but if they are playing one of the songs from the Wall or any other track that does what I'm referring to...it does abruptly end.

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yeah, Pandora is not great for albums.....I mainly use it cuz I am too lazy to make playlists/mixed "tape" for dinner parties....I just pick an artist (e.g. Andres Segovia) and it picks songs that are in the same genre....

Still figuring out Spotify....

[William]

yeah, Pandora is not great for albums.....I mainly use it cuz I am too lazy to make playlists/mixed "tape" for dinner parties....I just pick an artist (e.g. Andres Segovia) and it picks songs that are in the same genre....

Still figuring out Spotify....

Yeah, I use Pandora as well, discovered a lot of new music that way. Sometimes though I like listening to full albums, especially if it has a theme running through it.

I have not tried Spotify yet.




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[dan_hudson]

I think the term you're looking for is "gapless". Important for AOR-era rock and especially classical. Apparently it is a hard problem to solve, guessing because it wasn't consider an important part of metadata when various formats came into being.

Some services do it, others don't. Also an issue for UPnP when saving your collection on a home server + playing back thru a device.

[azrider]

Yeah, I use Pandora as well, discovered a lot of new music that way. Sometimes though I like listening to full albums, especially if it has a theme running through it.

I have not tried Spotify yet.




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I'm a huge fan of Spotify. I've been paying for a Premium subscription going on 10 years now and have zero complaints. I have access to pretty much any song, any album and can create a playlist that's available online or off. I stream stand up comedy on road trips, podcasts for commutes to work. Love it. I think they give you month free to try Premium to kick the tires so to speak. That's how the lured me in and then it was something i realized i couldn't live without.

HA

[Dead Man]

I've been rockin' Spotify premium for years now... couldn't live without it. Never noticed any hangups between tracks on an album, but everything can glitch every once in a while. I'd guess the device plays a part in things like that too.

I switched from Pandora like 6 years ago. I have Prime and have attempted to use it for music, but the selection sucked and I didn't like the interface. I haven't tried any others.

[sitzmark]

For iTunes depends. For the most part albums play as original vinyl. There is a definite track demarcation for track selection, but start of track will have “fade” from previous track. For example the “we fall” fade of Hey You echos under the track start of Anybody Out There. Think that is what you’re looking for.

[skiezo]

I just buy the CD on ebay for a couple of bucks and upload it into mac mini using apple lossless. That way I do not lose any of the fine detail.
I can than use icloud to listen to anything in my cloud which is over 20K songs.

[Ozz]

I'm a huge fan of Spotify. ....

They also do podcasts.....there is an NPR one ("Your Daily Drive"?) that gives you news, music, and music reviews....found it last week and been enjoying it quite a bit...

[William]

For iTunes depends. For the most part albums play as original vinyl. There is a definite track demarcation for track selection, but start of track will have “fade” from previous track. For example the “we fall” fade of Hey You echos under the track start of Anybody Out There. Think that is what you’re looking for.


Correct. Not a huge deal, but I just find it annoying when the mood/feeling of the musical flow is cut off and then starts again on the next track.






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[William]

I agree that Amazon Prime HD music's interface sucks (same with Prime movies). The streaming quality isn't bad though. I'll have to look into some of the other services as well...

https://www.soundguys.com/best-streaming-services-17247/






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