Apple music - or other services?

[AngryScientist]

where do you folks get music from these days?

my mp3 player just died, and i need a new one. thinking of a new iPod touch.

will be used primarily for gym workouts. need to be able to listen to music "offline" and my current mp3 collection is getting a little stale.

seems with apple music, you can download playlists to listen when no wifi is available.

what are you guys into?

[ColonelJLloyd]

I subscribe to Apple Music. I use it in my car via my phone and via Sonos at home. It's comparable to Spotfiy.

I still pay for Sirius as well, though I really only listen to one station (LSUG channel 21), but also that's how I listen to StL baseball games as I live out of market.

I also use Wolfgang's Vault for some live recordings. They recently started offering a free service.

I use Apple Music everyday and nearly all day in the office as well.

[dbnm]

I have Sirius XM in both cars.

I have a Spotify family plan that is awesome.

[AngryScientist]

good feedback.

sirius or spotify though - can you download content for listening without a connection?

[ColonelJLloyd]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

good feedback.

sirius or spotify though - can you download content for listening without a connection?

Obviously not Sirius (live radio). I'm sure you can do that with Spotify's subscription services.

FWIW, I can't tell that there's a lot that separates Spotify and Apple Music. But, I use several Apple devices and services so I did the 30 day trial and stuck with it.

[mattnes17]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

good feedback.

sirius or spotify though - can you download content for listening without a connection?

Spotify allows you to download any song for offline play. I use this feature all the time and really like it.

[pbarry]

With Pandora Premium you can create playlists and download songs and playlists. Just upgraded from their Plus service, so no feedback yet.

[Gsinill]

Been a Spotify paid subscription user for several years and really like it.
As an Apple bigot, I checked into Apple Music but based on my limited research, I did not see a reason to switch.
Only downside: certain artists are not on Spotify but I am not sure whether there is a comparison between the different services that would allow to pick one over the other based on that.

[AngryScientist]

alright. i'm going to go with apple music for now. seems logical with an ipod purchase i guess.

ideally, i think the newest watch might be the best gym companion at this point, but i'm too attached to my garmin to swap, plus they are still pretty $$$.

[ergott]

I haven't looked into this in a while. What lead me to Google's Play Music was the ability to upload my own music and combine it with their content in playlists. Last I checked they were alone in this way.

Has it changed?

That was reason enough for me. I have lots of music that's not online (mostly classical and jazz).

[SpokeValley]

I'm an Apple music guy. iPhones all around at our house, and I like being able to play music stations and download the songs I like.

[jasonification]

I use Amazon Music. Comes free with Amazon Prime, and has about 80% of the music out there (not the newest stuff). If you want, you can upgrade to Prime Unlimited to get the new stuff as well. Also, music is downloadable for offline use!

[zlin]

+1 for Amazon Prime Music. Should have an app if you use an iPod or old phone. You have it included in your prime membership and you can download offline.

For the office, I use Spotify radio.

For wireless headphones, I've had a couple months in these and are great for music and the conference call later/earlier in the day. Prev I was using the wired version, there is a nice change to cutting the cord when you're moving around.

[benb]

I've subscribed to Spotify & Apple Music over the years, I put at least a year into those. I also had a Pandora subscription for > 5 years. I recently switched from Apple Music to Amazon Music Unlimited (similar service).

My take on it is:

- Apple Music & Amazon have significantly better music libraries than Spotify. Apple & Amazon seem comparable
- Amazon can be had a bit cheaper than Apple.
- There are some ecosystem advantages with an all Apple setup
- There are some serious UI problems with Apple Music + iTunes + the Phone/iPad apps, specifically if you both own music + subscribe to streaming
- Apple & Spotify have weaker "radio station" features than Amazon & Pandora.
- Download behavior is similar with most of these services. If you're not on Apple devices their services are not an option really.

I take guitar lessons.. that is one area that has really shown me the weaknesses in the spotify library. My teacher has spotify, we frequently are trying to play something that Spotify does not have. Never once have I seen that song not be present in Apple Music + Amazon music.

The other thing which is also special interest. I like to play along with music when playing guitar. If you have an iPad/iPhone there are apps which can let you repeat A-B sections and do other things like try to isolate parts of the mix. Those applications only allow you access music in the Apple Music Library, not the Spotify or Amazon libraries. (I think there may be some that work with Spotify though.) This is actually a thing with purchased music more than streaming, you generally can't stream through those apps anyway.

For purchased tracks pretty much anything is better than Apple IMO... dealing with iTunes is terrible especially if you have non-Apple devices and want to keep things organized your own way, backup your library to a non-apple device, etc..

[pff]

Google play music sub is $10/mo and it comes along with youtube red (no youtube ads, ever, on any of your devices). You can stream basically all the music, plus upload your own library and have it stored/streamable from the cloud.