[SoAmusing777]

  Google has one dealbreaker problem: it ANNIHILATES data on cell. If you pull up a playlist or an album it starts caching the entire thing. This is a slight problem when I'm at the gym and bouncing between stuff because within 2 minutes I've used up 100mb of data. 
 
Used it on my iPhone and literally a minute into the first song on a playlist I'd burned up 40mb. Absurd. 

I see. I have unlimited 4G with Sprint and 50MBPS Comcast at home. I'd just save for offline use if data is a problem. That caching then can actually be a pro for some. Good to note though.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

 
I see. I have unlimited 4G with Sprint and 50MBPS Comcast at home. I'd just save for offline use if data is a problem. That caching then can actually be a pro for some. Good to note though.

 
Caching is obviously a good idea, but one track ahead is plenty. Google seems to cache EVERYTHING for some reason. 
 
The thing is, the whole point of a streaming service is to be able to pick music on the fly. Being able to be out and go "I feel listening to indie for a while" and boom. Indie playlist. Heck it's why they offer different streaming levels, to save data costs. Just doesn't seem to work so well, haha. 

 

[SoAmusing777]

Caching is obviously a good idea, but one track ahead is plenty. Google seems to cache EVERYTHING for some reason. 

The thing is, the whole point of a streaming service is to be able to pick music on the fly. Being able to be out and go "I feel listening to indie for a while" and boom. Indie playlist. Heck it's why they offer different streaming levels, to save data costs. Just doesn't seem to work so well, haha. 

ah, right? Well, I bet it's been suggested to Google already

 

[uzi]

 
RDIO - just upgraded all it's stuff to 320kbps AAC
- Over 30mill songs
- Who knows if it's upsampled or original 320kbps. I emailed them.
- No offline song limit as well as NO DEVICE LIMIT (only one to do this)

I can only speak from my experience at Rdio, but it's likely the same for all services.  As far as I can remember, almost all of the labels and aggregators deliver flac to the streaming services, with one or two exceptions that deliver something like 320kbps mp3.  From there, they mostly stream compressed audio because in some cases it's in the contract to do so... but also most customers either won't care about compressed versus uncompressed or won't want it due to the higher bandwidth usage. At any rate, the streaming services are at the mercy of what they're delivered.
 
In Rdio, you can select up to 320kbps, but you can also select lower bitrates if you want to conserve bandwidth... like on your phone.

 

[SoAmusing777]

  I can only speak from my experience at Rdio, but it's likely the same for all services.  As far as I can remember, almost all of the labels and aggregators deliver flac to the streaming services, with one or two exceptions that deliver something like 320kbps mp3.  From there, they mostly stream compressed audio because in some cases it's in the contract to do so... but also most customers either won't care about compressed versus uncompressed or won't want it due to the higher bandwidth usage. At any rate, the streaming services are at the mercy of what they're delivered.
 
In Rdio, you can select up to 320kbps, but you can also select lower bitrates if you want to conserve bandwidth... like on your phone.

Interesting. Good to know, and yeah, that's really common among the subscription services.

 

[SoAmusing777]

http://www.head-fi.org/t/746037/best-music-subscription-services-compared << Give this a read. Google is my choice for best.