I’m currently using a popular music player app on my iPhone (I won’t say which one just yet so as not to influence the responses).
It’s OK, but my main complaint is that it’s been getting too repetitive. I switch up the seed artists on my custom stations from time to time, but there are always songs that come up nearly every time I use the app, which is annoying. One of my seed artists apparently has only one song available (which is OK since he leads to other good music), but that one song always played within a half-hour EVERY time I used the app. So I reluctantly ditched the artist.
Also, it tends to throw the SAME obscure artists at me over and over. Yes, I like discovering new music, but the app decided that I absolutely LOVE this one particular blues guy whom I’d never heard of. He’s not bad, but I finally had to ban him because he popped up way too often. Maybe it’s time for a change.
What app do you like and why? I’m currently paying $3.99 a month for no ads and unlimited skips. I’m willing to pay that to somebody else, but no more than that.
When iTunes Radio came along, I switched to it from Pandora. It was slightly cheaper for the ad-free version, and the library it drew from seemed a bit larger, but otherwise felt similar. However, it did have one feature that seemed like it should be an industry standard - a slider with three positions: ‘Hits’, ‘Variety’, and ‘Discovery’, to indicate how ‘far’ in musical terms it should try ranging from the stuff you’d already approved for the station.
I’ve only tried those two, so there may be something better out there, but it meets my needs.
I’ve only been using music apps for about a month. I’ll listen to the Kerrang! radio app for a while and if I hear something I want more of I search for it on the free version of Spotify. Spotify also has pre-built playlists in loads of genres and sub-genres so I’ll pick one that looks interesting. I’m currently listening to Killswitch Engage on the Metalcore list.
I’ve been playing around with iTunes Radio, but it may not be what I’m looking for. Is there a way to create a custom station completely from scratch? Even if I add lots of artists to a station, the first one I choose always dominates the playlist (and can’t be deleted). I like a hodgepodge of music and I don’t want one genre or artist to be too prominent. In other words, I don’t want “Johnny Cash Radio” plus some other artists, I want “Wheelz’s Favorite Music Radio” that includes Johnny Cash in equal measure with everybody else.
Other than that, I’m liking iTunes, but without this feature I may have to forget it.