[DougofTheAbaci]

I'm always on the lookout for new music but as it stands most of my acquisitions come from friends, TV shows or movie soundtracks. What I'm hoping is that there's a service out there similar to Pandora or Spotify that streams a higher than the standard 128–192 kbps, paid or otherwise.
 
I'm not sure if Spotify qualifies but last I heard they still weren't in the US.

 

[craig134]

Rdio streams around 256 kbps and mog streams at 320k bps. Both are $5 per month.
 

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

Quote:

Rdio streams around 256 kbps and mog streams at 320k bps. Both are $5 per month.
 

Thanks for the tip on those. I'm going to have a look and see what their catalogue is like. There's a rumor that Google is going to team up with Spotify (thus bringing it to the US) and that Apple might have something to offer soon as well. I'm hoping both of those happen.

 

[J.Pocalypse]

I'm not exactly sure on the bitrate but there is Last.fm and Grooveshark available.

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

 
Quote:

I'm not exactly sure on the bitrate but there is Last.fm and Grooveshark available.

Last FM and Grooveshark do lower-bitrate music (192 Kbps). And in the case of Last.fm it's actually rather restrictive in what you can and can't play. Some tracks you have to pay for access to, even if you have their top-subscription account.

 

[mark2410]

spotify streams at 320k if you pay for it, are you in the US?

 

[nagual]

I like listening to .977music.com.  It´s low kbps, just 128, but the playback is in AC3, and it supports WMP11 (w/ Asio),  so, here,  the audio experience is better than Grooveshark, and other free on-line radios, where you can´t choose the player.
 
http://www.977music.com/channels2/oldies/wmplayeroldies.php

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

@mark2410: Yep, USA. That's why I'm so excited about talks between Spotify and Google. Spotify does everything I want and I wouldn't mind paying for it at all especially since that includes on-the-go with my iPhone.
 
@nagual: Mac user so no WMP for me. Still, thanks for the tip about online radio, I hadn't considered it too much as they all tend to be lower-bitrate. Though, now that I think about it SomaFM might have had a higher-bitrate stream.

 

[bgupton]

I love Rdio. It's like a mix of the best things about Pandora, iTunes and Facebook rolled into one.  You can add pretty much any album to your collection and synch it to your mobile device for $10 per month. I rarely run across an album that I want that they don't have. I haven't bought an album since I joined. Also, you can follow friends and people with similar taste in music to get recommendations. They have a Mac and iPhone apps, so you are not limited to streaming from the browser.  I've discovered tons of bands I would have never found and rediscovered albums that I would probably not have purchased.  It's probably the best money I've ever spent.  

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

Rdio looks pretty sweet, I have to say. Gonna give that a much closer look. Thanks for the recommend!

 

[Poohblah]

I'm trying the Rdio trial right now. The streaming rate sounds much lower than 256kbps to me. Rdio doesn't seem willing to share its streaming bitrate, either. Might just be the particular albums I'm listening to - some albums sound higher-quality than others. Or maybe they stream at a lower bitrate to trial users. I'll give mog a try as well.