Music streaming service recommendations

[judas]

We have a new Marantz/Denon multi-room wireless music system arriving this week and we think it's about time to take the plunge and take out a streaming music subscription.

Neither of us has any particular audiophile tendencies, so we don't necessarily need uber-high-quality streams, but we do have gigabit fibre broadband, so bandwidth isn't an issue.

My wife has Amazon Prime, which is shared with me, but every time I look at their subscription options I can't make head nor tail of them.

We want a single subscription we can share and use on the new system, our phones, and desktop and laptop PCs. Must be ad-free, have skippable tracks, ability to create playlists, and not have entire albums auto-shuffling by default (Amazon seems to do this on the free service and the basic Amazon Music Prime offering.

Any recommendations? Any to avoid? Which has the biggest selection? I've just changed my phone from an iPhone to Android, so not clear if that rules out Apple Music.

(As the saying goes, I'm getting to old for this st! )

[phil4]

Spotify family subscription would do if you wanted to keep tunes separate (ie. you have your own list), or are likely to be listening separately at the same time.

It's quick, it's simple, it does all the things you mentioned needing, and it's platform agnostic and as popular supported by most things.

[judas]

Thanks! Looks like Spotify Premium Duo would be a cheaper and better fit for us. Will have a poke around the other services and see what's what.

[Corso Marche]

Spotify Duo or Family. Or YouTube Music, and create a family group and add some family members. Each has their own private listings, and anything can be shared etc, just as with Spotify.

We moved from Spotify last year (after 9-10 years) to YouTube Music as we view a fair bit of stuff on YouTube so going ad-free on YT and having YT Music included made perfect financial sense.

[Lucas Ayde]

Corso Marche said:

Spotify Duo or Family. Or YouTube Music, and create a family group and add some family members. Each has their own private listings, and anything can be shared etc, just as with Spotify.

We moved from Spotify last year (after 9-10 years) to YouTube Music as we view a fair bit of stuff on YouTube so going ad-free on YT and having YT Music included made perfect financial sense.

Also worth clarifying that Youtube Music is a full music streaming library in its own right and not just 'listening to the sound track on Youtube music videos' (although you can do that if you want) as the name would imply.

I don't think they market it seperately from Youtube Premium though so you do end up paying more than you would for a music-only service. I personally only ended up using it because it was 'free' with YT Premium but ended up making it my only streaming music library and now basically use it for all my music listening at home (even for stuff I already own on CD).

[HantsRat]

Lucas Ayde said:

Also worth clarifying that Youtube Music is a full music streaming library in its own right and not just 'listening to the sound track on Youtube music videos' (although you can do that if you want) as the name would imply.

I don't think they market it seperately from Youtube Premium though so you do end up paying more than you would for a music-only service. I personally only ended up using it because it was 'free' with YT Premium but ended up making it my only streaming music library and now basically use it for all my music listening at home (even for stuff I already own on CD).

Have they moved podcasts to it yet? That's what's kept me away from ditching Spotify

[Corso Marche]

HantsRat said:

Have they moved podcasts to it yet? That's what's kept me away from ditching Spotify

Podcasts are still within the Google Podcasts app, but podcasts are becoming available in the YouTube Music app before the end of this year.
Next year users will be able to transition from the G Podcasts app to the YT Music app, and the Podcasts app will shutdown later in 2024.

As per a mail I received from Google on it;

For now, nothing is changing, and you can continue to use Google Podcasts as normal. Podcasts will be available in YouTube Music by the end of this year, and in the first few months of 2024, we will start rolling out tools in your region that will enable you to transfer your podcast show subscriptions from Google Podcasts. In YouTube Music, you will be able to listen to your podcasts just like you did on Google Podcasts, with no paid subscription required. If YouTube Music isn't for you, the tools will include an option to download a file of your show subscriptions, which you can upload to an app that supports their import.

[Cloudy147]

Like you I cant make any sense of (pretty much anything) on Amazon Prime either!

I use Apple Music. No ads, skippable tracks on apple's own playlists, can make my own playlists and listen to anything in their library. I've got a family plan so wifey and daughter use it as well. Nice and easy.

It works on my iPhone (of course), but it also works on Android - there is an app on the Google store. I've got it on my work phone and as far as I can tell it works exactly the same as on my iPhone.

Also works on Windows via a web browser.

Hope that helps.

[funinhounslow]

As it happens the latest Hi Fi Choice magazine compares the top six streaming services - Qobuz won with both Spotify and Apple Music being highly recommended

I switched from Spotify to Apple Music a few years ago.

I prefer Apple Music for the radio stations it has with many shows presented by artists, in particular Elton John.

Some albums are also available on Dolby Atmos on Apple Music - this could be a consideration if you often use headphones - it can sound remarkable…

https://www.dolby.com/music/

[Tycho]

Cloudy147 said:

Like you I cant make any sense of (pretty much anything) on Amazon Prime either!

I use Apple Music. No ads, skippable tracks on apple's own playlists, can make my own playlists and listen to anything in their library. I've got a family plan so wifey and daughter use it as well. Nice and easy.

It works on my iPhone (of course), but it also works on Android - there is an app on the Google store. I've got it on my work phone and as far as I can tell it works exactly the same as on my iPhone.

Also works on Windows via a web browser.

Hope that helps.

I use Apple Music on an Android phone as well with no issues. The rest of the family are on iOS and we have no issues.

[the-norseman]

Seeing as you have prime already just stick with prime.