Music Streaming Services

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Neph_sl

shitlord
1,635
0
Titled this thread Music Streaming Services, but I'm more or less just plugging Apple Music. I've tried Spotify for free, but didn't really like the ads and it didn't have a great selection when I tried it a few years ago. However, my Apple Music 3-month trial is about to end and I'm probably going to fork over $10 a month to keep it going.

Integration between my computer, phone, and tablet (all Apple) is pretty awesome. I add an album or playlist to 'my music' and I can see it on any device. Speaking of playlists, the curators and the recommendation system at Apple are on point. Point: they recommended this playlist of hip-hop tracks sampling Black Sabbath (Sampled: Black Sabbath) and it's pretty good. Also, over the holidays, it was nice just adding random Christmas music and pushing it to my Apple TV.

So yeah, Apple fanboy here, but it got me thinking: what do you all use for streaming services?
 
Alex

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
14,503
7,425
I use Google Play. Love it. Will probably never switch from it. Being able to upload your own tunes is key. I also can't believe the catalog they already have. I've found local artists on there before. It's great.
 
Araxen

Araxen

Golden Baronet of the Realm
10,248
7,595
I use Spotify and I love it. It has a huge selection of EDM and it has almost everything I want to listen to. Discover Weekly is one of the most awesome features of the service. Auto-generated weekly playlist of similar music that you've been listening too recently. I always find new tunes I like with it.
 
Rangoth

Rangoth

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,562
1,706
Spotify here too. Can't speak to having a specific artist you may like but it certainly has enough to occupy my needs. It even has stories, some books, and language things to listen to. I've only found a handful of songs I wanted to hear not on there and all were by some obscure artist I saw at a dive bar(and even some of those I do find!)
 
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Neph_sl

shitlord
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0
Hm. Seems like I didn't give Spotify its due. Do you all pay for the download option / ad free or do you just go with the ads?
 
Alex

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
14,503
7,425
I've never used the free versions. Ads suck and Google Play is only $8/month. Totally worth it to me.
 
Rangoth

Rangoth

Blackwing Lair Raider
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1,706
Neph_sl said:
Hm. Seems like I didn't give Spotify its due. Do you all pay for the download option / ad free or do you just go with the ads?
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I did adfree for almost a year and then they had some 2.99 a month for 6 month promotion and I fell for it. Now my price is the normal 10$ which I do feel is slightly overpriced, but I use it enough and 10$ is low enough where I just ignore the cost honestly.
 
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Neph_sl

shitlord
1,635
0
Another factor for music streaming is the royalty payout.

What Streaming Music Services Pay | Information is Beautiful
rrr_img_122258.png


Terribly designed infographic, but one of the takeaways is that Google Play pays out more per play (7.3 cents). Spotify and Apple Music both only pay an artist about 1 cent per play (1.1 and 1.3 cents, respectively).

The payouts are kind of sad, but I don't actually go to concerts or buy other merch, so moving to streaming only would actually put less money into artists' hands. Yeah, I'd get to experience more / varied music, but that sucks for the music makers.
 
opiate82

opiate82

Bronze Squire
3,078
5
I subscribed to Google Music when they were running a 3 months for $1 promo a few weeks back. I've had all kinds of problems with it. It plays all of my music I've uploaded just fine, but I'd say maybe 25% of the time I try to play something from their catalog it actually works correctly. Most of the time I just get an immediate "cannot load this station" message, other times the songs stutter the entire time. This problem exists both when I'm on WiFi or LTE service (project Fi). Currently on a Nexus 6P.

I've used Google Music a long time to play my own personal library flawlessly but cannot get their stations to work worth a damn, it has been frustrating.
 
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Tortfeasor

Molten Core Raider
1,008
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I got my wife her own Spotify account for Christmas because there were doing a promo where the first 3 months were $0.99 each. I haven't really looked at Apple Music; does it give you access to standup comedy albums? I like that I can listen to Louis CK and Bill Burr on Spotify.
 
Rangoth

Rangoth

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,562
1,706
Neph_sl said:
Another factor for music streaming is the royalty payout.

What Streaming Music Services Pay | Information is Beautiful
rrr_img_122258.png


Terribly designed infographic, but one of the takeaways is that Google Play pays out more per play (7.3 cents). Spotify and Apple Music both only pay an artist about 1 cent per play (1.1 and 1.3 cents, respectively).

The payouts are kind of sad, but I don't actually go to concerts or buy other merch, so moving to streaming only would actually put less money into artists' hands. Yeah, I'd get to experience more / varied music, but that sucks for the music makers.
Click to expand...
Neat graphic, but I think you read it wrong....they do not pay 7.3 cents, or 1.1/1.3 cents, they pay .0073 cents and .0011/.0013 cents per play. Which makes far more cents.

This means that if your track on spotify gets you a million plays you earn: .0011 x 1,000,000 = 1,100$. This isn't bank, clearly, but if it's truly per "play" and not "per user who once listened to your song" you'd make plenty of money, far more than you ever would have in record sales and that's just from spotify alone.
 
N

Neph_sl

shitlord
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0
Rangoth_sl said:
Neat graphic, but I think you read it wrong....

This means that if your track on spotify gets you a million plays you earn: .0011 x 1,000,000 = 1,100$. This isn't bank, clearly, but if it's truly per "play" and not "per user who once listened to your song" you'd make plenty of money, far more than you ever would have in record sales and that's just from spotify alone.
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Oh oops. I did read it wrong. It's 0.11, 0.13, and 0.73 cents per play, so tenths of a penny per play. Still not great for the artists though, I'd have to play a song 10 times to get them a penny.
 
N

Neph_sl

shitlord
1,635
0
Tortfeasor_sl said:
I got my wife her own Spotify account for Christmas because there were doing a promo where the first 3 months were $0.99 each. I haven't really looked at Apple Music; does it give you access to standup comedy albums? I like that I can listen to Louis CK and Bill Burr on Spotify.
Click to expand...
Louis CK and Bill Burr are both on Apple Music. But I think the selection might be incomplete? Only two albums for Louis CK: Hilarious (2011) and Chewed Up (2008), and three for Bill Burr: Let It Go (2010), Why Do I Do This (2008), and Emotionally Unavailable: Expanded Edition (2007). Wikipedia shows more albums for them, but it looks like Apple Music is just missing live stuff.
 
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