Music Streaming - and the alternatives

[Bee8190 10]

Most are probably familiar with streaming services like Grooveshark, Spotify and iTunes - some allow you to listen for free with some adds thrown in and some require a monthly subscription but you can buy any song at anytime from them all. The main difference is probably their library content. For instance iTunes may not have your favorite artist or a song but you might find it on Spotify instead.

The quality in the streamed music slightly differs too ( ie - the original [Master] recording used ) and as such some songs may sound better than others, however the difference is quite subtle in most cases. For instance I despise iTunes Mp3 files can sound butchered compared to the same song available on Spotify or anywhere else and the reason is that apparently records are specially made for iTunes and are made to sound as loud as possible, which is not necessarily a good thing. Other formats such as AIFF should be available on iTunes however when buying a song and should not be butchered as their Mp3 files so the choice is there. Other formats worth mentioning are WAV and FLAC which should be true to the full range original record over compressed Mp3.

There are quite few music streaming providers available in the EU and one that stands out is a French streaming service called www.qobuz.com[/size]/fr-fr/"]Qobuz

They have a neat Desktop application that can be changed to english if you prefer, however subscription will probably be required

Outside of the EU the streaming service might have more variety, especially the US and I'd like to hear what do you use when listening to music or where do you buy your music from :)

[jakerod 254]

I tend to buy my stuff off of iTunes. I don't really notice any quality issues. I also haven't compared it to anything else though so that might be why. I am generally happy with the quality I get from it.

As far as streaming goes I generally use Pandora. It sounds a bit like Qobuz. There is the free version which is browser based and the paid version which can be either browser or desktop based. Plus there is an app for phones too.

[Bee8190 10]

As far as streaming goes I generally use Pandora. There is the free version which is browser based and the paid version which can be either browser or desktop based. Plus there is an app for phones too.

I completely forgotten about Pandora. Unfortunately revisiting Pandora is still access restricted for anyone outside of the US :( and I don't see much point in proxy thinkering. Another service is Rhapsody - Napster ( in EU I presume ) unfortunately it appears as their streaming is only 128kbps which is far below the already not so impressive 320kbps

[PuFu 4600]

I tend to use soundcloud and mixcloud as well. most of the music i stream is via soundcloud, i love their ios app (both for ridding bike and car). Grooveshark doesn't have a proper app for ios, and my music is ussualy played using my iphone or ipad (home, work and on the move)