Best music streaming sites, pay or free

[fredr123]

I was a big fan of Songza. I logged into Google Play Music for the first time in a long time after they announced Songza was shutting down and all my favorite play lists were already there. It also let me see all the songs I'd listened to and allowed me to purchase them quite easily if I wanted to. Guess that's one way Google might be able to monetize Songza without necessarily charging for the service. Fingers crossed.

I would like to try out spotify more thoroughly but whatever weird ass ports it uses are blocked at my office so there's no hope of streaming it there.

I tried Apple Music and had really high hopes since we are pretty much locked into an Apple ecosystem at home. I found it took forever to load, there were huge gaps between songs, and caching in the middle of songs was pretty much a deal breaker. Now, my iPhone had been having some wifi issues so maybe the problem was on my end and your results may vary (but I do note that songza, spotify, and google music did not have the same problems on the same device).

[V]

I just stream off the CBC music website.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by fredr123

I was a big fan of Songza. I logged into Google Play Music for the first time in a long time after they announced Songza was shutting down and all my favorite play lists were already there. It also let me see all the songs I'd listened to and allowed me to purchase them quite easily if I wanted to. Guess that's one way Google might be able to monetize Songza without necessarily charging for the service. Fingers crossed.

I would like to try out spotify more thoroughly but whatever weird ass ports it uses are blocked at my office so there's no hope of streaming it there.

I tried Apple Music and had really high hopes since we are pretty much locked into an Apple ecosystem at home. I found it took forever to load, there were huge gaps between songs, and caching in the middle of songs was pretty much a deal breaker. Now, my iPhone had been having some wifi issues so maybe the problem was on my end and your results may vary (but I do note that songza, spotify, and google music did not have the same problems on the same device).

If there's one thing about Apple Music, it's that NOBODY seems to have the same problems. It's almost impressive. I've literally never seen the same bug present in two separate users.

[The Reverend]

After the fiasco i had with iTunes Match, Apple Music is not on the radar. I like owning my music and making my own playlists so streaming services have never appealed to me.

I used to be with it but then they changed what "it" was.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by The Reverend

After the fiasco i had with iTunes Match, Apple Music is not on the radar. I like owning my music and making my own playlists so streaming services have never appealed to me.

I used to be with it but then they changed what "it" was.

I love that quote.

You actually sound a lot like me. My iTunes Match experience was a mess. I assumed Apple Music would be different, but I found the same problems persisted. I'm not saying this is the be-all-end-all fix, but I went through my library and did some serious cleaning. I found a bunch of curious duplicate tracks and even a video file sitting in there as a sound file. Once I got rid of those my issues largely went away.

The main reason I like Apple Music now is that it allows me to own my own music, create my own playlists, and still jump into streaming when necessary.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Russic

The main reason I like Apple Music now is that it allows me to own my own music, create my own playlists, and still jump into streaming when necessary.

Yup that's reason #1 I switched to Apple Music. My biggest beef with Rdio was that I couldn't use songs I had that they didn't in their library. Being able to use both is fantastic.

I switched to apple when Rdio got bought out. For the most part I prefer it. Finding more new music I actually like, and more varied than Rdio was. 2 biggest gripes are playlists seem to be limited when I'm searching, and I miss being able to create playlists/listen via a website.