I’ve been using Amazon premium music since the pandemic (global pandemics are how they getcha, it’s econ 101) but after a year in a job where I can listen to music 8 hours a day I’m getting tired of it. Not enough variety, not enough spiderwebbing out into stuff I haven’t heard based on what I like.
So what do y’all use? I’m specifically looking for a robust recommendation system. I read an article the other day about YouTube premium being a surprisingly good service for the money.
I also don’t particularly care about podcasts, can’t really get into them.
I use Pandora. If tried others but just got use to Pandora’s mix and sort of like giving control of my mix to their algorithm most of the time, it’s just easier to leave the driving to them.
For me youtube prenium has been good. I first got it when it was simply youtube music and it got better as youtube premium because not only can you listen to music, but you can also see youtube ad free (well without using a plugin that does that for you). Additionally you can get it to put youtube videos, as opposed to simply music in your playlist which I have done when there is a video of a live performance that I like the sound of better than the album version.
Their recommendations seem to match what I like in general. I use some of their playlists like top 20 trending, etc, so that I can keep up with new releases, and they have those by genre so if there is one you particularly like you can add it to your list.
I like Tidal but it is quite expensive ($20/month). They have a free trial though so might be worth a look.
For that you get hi fidelity audio (up to 24-bit/192kHz) audio. I certainly haven’t thoroughly tested it but I have never failed to find a song I want on the service (they claim 100 million+ songs but doubtless they don’t have every song ever). They also have some exclusive backstage stuff and concerts if you like that.
Note, you need some really good audio from your computer to make this worthwhile. Those free speakers from Dell won’t cut it and a service like this would be a waste. I only use my headphones (which are very good). I have had people sit and listen to whatever music they want and they all get wide eyes. After being used to ear buds and their laptop’s shitty speaker it is a revelation how good music can sound.
They have other bibs and bobs (family plans, share music with friends I think…I dunno…never tried that stuff).
Some will say that humans can’t discern the difference of this quality. They might be right. But it sure sounds good.
But oof…that price…(OP did ask for premium…they have some lower quality, cheaper options if you have mediocre audio on your computer or do not care/believe in the hi fidelity streams…that costs $11/month).
Several years ago (so things may have changed) I did the free three months of Pandora, Spotify and YouTube Music (Google Play at the time). I preferred YouTube but it’s very subjective. Pandora was the worst in every respect.
They all have a function where they select music that they think you will like based on what you stream. I don’t use this function at all because that’s not how I learn about new music and I play a lot of different stuff that I might not like and that fucks up the algorithm. I did check it out a bit then and Spotify was the best. YouTube was very good. Pandora was awful.
They all have a thing called Artist Radio or something similar where you pick an artist as a seed and they play stuff that’s similar to that artist. I do use this. YouTube was the best. Spotify was very good. Pandora was awful.
All of them have a thing where you can trade playlists. If you have friends that do this or you want to use the play lists of celebrities or musicians, you are going to have significantly more options on Spotify since more people on Spotify use that option.
With YouTube Music you get YouTube Premium as part of the deal so no commercials on regular YouTube.
Apple Music for me, since it has the biggest selection of ATMOS mixes. Now, I understand this is not a consideration for most users, and you need an Apple TV to get the ATMOS stream, but if you have a capable system their library is the best and it sounds great.
YT Premium seems like a decent choice if only because you get the YT video benefits and YouTube is busy with its War on Ad Blockers. I use Spotify which makes paying for YT seem not worth it to me since the music service is redundant but, for someone without that baggage, it sounds like a solid pick.
Tidal supports Atmos and (AFAIK) has no restrictions on what you play it on (assuming the device you play it on supports Atmos). Does it have a bigger selection than Apple Music? I have no idea but, since Tidal’s whole schtick is hi fidelity music and they charge a lot for it I would expect that they have an extensive collection. You’d have to check to be sure.
But, if you have a setup that benefits from Atmos my guess is it is a very nice setup which may benefit from the Tidal service.
Another vote for Tidal. It’s $11 per month for the HiFi service, which is lossless 16bit CD quality. I’ve used the HIFi Plus level that has HiRes, Atmos, and 360 Reality Audio; and my opinion is that it’s not any better than the cheaper HiFi service. You really need to have a system that can play these formats, and that’s a bit of a pain unless you have a network streamer connected to your stereo system. It’s not hard, but it’s an extra expense. And I can’t tell the difference (and it’s difficult to do an A/B comparison between the FLAC and HiRes FLAC on the fly, as Tidal won’t change formats mid song, it will change formats when it plays the next track).
Enough on that. What Tidal is really good at is music discovery, and of course the more effort you put into it the better the results will be. I often randomly listen to tracks that are listed as new releases,editor picks, new playlists. They have good biography sections for most artists, and links to similar or related artists including influencing and related artists. If you show just a bit of curiosity, Tidal will reward you.
And if you are going to take advantage of free trials, give Napster a try. It also has 16bit CD quality and a good library. And while it may not matter to you, I believe Napster and Tidal both are among the services with the highest payout to artists. Finally, if you do like Napster, you get a bit of a discount for paying annually rather than monthly. I just renewed for one year for $103.63, or $8.64 per month. That’s nice.
I’m another Pandora user; their free service, specifically. The premium service does away with commercials and allows unlimited skipping of tracks but the commercials don’t bother me enough and my stations are fined tuned enough that I don’t need so many skips.
It seems the better format (whether worth it or not) is no longer an extra expense. Tidal will put their premium stuff into their $11/month price (starting April 10…with the free trial you should be able to start now…I think…I have not tested that). One price only for the whole service.
At $11/month I think Tidal is by far the best choice. Quality, available music, overall service. I’d take this over Spotify any day (same cost).
This is a timely bump because I was about to bump it myself.
I just switched from YouTube Music to Spotify because YTM no longer gives you free YouTube premium unless you pay an additional fee and Spotify is the only service that is native on my new vehicle.
I have Sirius/XM in my truck. Just found out a few months ago I can also listen through my computer and phone. I have access to about 136 channels. I have expanded the preset channels in my truck and rarely listen to any over the air stations. All that for $16 a month.
I’ve been enjoying YouTube; the dynamic mixes are much better than Amazon. Ad-free videos are a nice perk and I think worth the extra couple of bucks it costs on top of what just the music service would be.