[ozarkcdn]

Following great advice here - I was using MOG for a while.  Good quality stream, works on my old Squeezebox SB3 and mobile.... but the android app is appalling, and development has ceased.
 
I used Rhapsody for a bit - major improvement on the android interface and, as a major plus, allows you to store local content on your external SD card.  Also works on my old SB3.  One downside is that if I use it on more than one device it's $15 a month.  I think the quality is ok.
 
Spotify doesn't work on my old SB3 (that I have hooked up to a stereo system for the living area) and does not allow changing offline storage location... and I'm not sure the streaming quality has been too great compared to MOG, but I wouldn't throw myself onto a sword over that opinion without detailed ABX.
 
Are there any other options along these lines that might work?  Seems rhapsody is about the best for this combination of Android / SB3 compatibility but there's been so many new services I wanted to check with fellow audio geeks here first.

 

[gtcharlie]

I am a long time Rhapsody user also looking for alternatives.   Seems to me they are very slow on the technology side although there arel the positives you mentioned.   I am a longtime iOS user who just switched to Android and do love their app on my Nexus 7.  Having an equalizer makes a huge difference to me. The quality of their streaming and off line music is fine although not great.
 
I did start a thread yesterday asking about the new Beats music service starting next week.   Piqued my interest for a couple of reasons.  First of all if you are an A T and T customer there are some pretty attractive pricing options especially with family plans covering multiple users and devices for a very competitive price.   Secondly if I remember correctly they were involved with MOG at least early on so I am hoping for high quality download and streaming.  I have not been able to find any details as far as that goes.
 
I too use an older squeezebox model quite a bit so I hope they are developing an app to allow me to continue to use the device without upgrading although it may be time given the age of my squeezebox.

 

[AladdinSane]

Maybe Goggle Play Music All Access (gawd can we change that name)? It would be a natural with Android device. 320Kbps with good connection, 20,000 songs matched from your device to Google Music Library. Can also be a cheap way to up your lower bit rate files to 320 (you can download tracks  from the service that are in your library). Not a great one for getting new music suggestions though. If they could enhance that feature I think it would be pretty formidable. I use it. I'm sure it is sitting on your device right now.
 
If you Google "which streaming music service" you will get many fun things to read.

 

[ozarkcdn]

  I did start a thread yesterday asking about the new Beats music service starting next week.   Piqued my interest for a couple of reasons.  First of all if you are an A T and T customer there are some pretty attractive pricing options especially with family plans covering multiple users and devices for a very competitive price.   Secondly if I remember correctly they were involved with MOG at least early on so I am hoping for high quality download and streaming.  I have not been able to find any details as far as that goes.
 
I too use an older squeezebox model quite a bit so I hope they are developing an app to allow me to continue to use the device without upgrading although it may be time given the age of my squeezebox.

 
Those are very interesting points.  Beats bought MOG some time back and the canned answer for why the existing MOG bugs were not being corrected was that they were dedicated full time into their new audio service.. Beats.  As an ATT customer myself, I will have to see what they have to offer.  I wouldn't hold your breath about the squeezebox either - even though you can enable the app via the squeezenetwork website, it doesn't not work with the SB3 (and spotify has been around a long time!).  I'm just waiting for the day they turn off the squeezenetwork and the SB3 goes silent... 

 
 

  Maybe Goggle Play Music All Access (gawd can we change that name)? It would be a natural with Android device. 320Kbps with good connection, 20,000 songs matched from your device to Google Music Library. Can also be a cheap way to up your lower bit rate files to 320 (you can download tracks  from the service that are in your library). Not a great one for getting new music suggestions though. If they could enhance that feature I think it would be pretty formidable. I use it. I'm sure it is sitting on your device right now.

 
That is very attractive - I have lots of poor 128 rips from waaay long ago that I haven't bothered to re-rip - but being able to replace them with a 320k file would be the cats meow.

 

[AladdinSane]

I might be a liar. I just tried it with some 192 stuff and it gave me back 192!  Could be 'cuz it couldn't match it originally (old Fugazi) and I'm just getting back what I uploaded. Time to experiment.
 
UPDATE: Not a lot of time to play tonight but I tried a few. DLed an existing 128 and got back a 256 (The Cult, She Sells Sanctuary). Tried another 128 (Beck, Nobody's Fault But My Own) and got back a 160! Tried a 256 and got back a 256 (Nelly Furtado, Turn Off The Light). Tried a 320 and got back a 320 so obviously varies. That's what you get for passing info along without trying.
 
I've been redoing my whole library and just about to tackle the low bit rate  stuff and was remembering what someone had written. However, still an improvement and a feature that certainly can be useful. Particularly if you're swapping 128s for 256s. I still put that feature in the PLUS column. Note that if you are streaming from Google Play it is 320 (assuming acceptable connection). Somehow knew it was too good to be true but not giving up yet. I will definitely take the 128-->256 swap if available or anything that is an improvement just on principle. Have to search for more info but time to rest now.

 

[gtcharlie]

  Maybe Goggle Play Music All Access (gawd can we change that name)? It would be a natural with Android device. 320Kbps with good connection, 20,000 songs matched from your device to Google Music Library. Can also be a cheap way to up your lower bit rate files to 320 (you can download tracks  from the service that are in your library). Not a great one for getting new music suggestions though. If they could enhance that feature I think it would be pretty formidable. I use it. I'm sure it is sitting on your device right now.
 
If you Google "which streaming music service" you will get many fun things to read.

If only google offered some kind of family plan I would be all over it.  Unfortunately at $10 a user and 3 or 4 users in my family it is just too expensive.  For that reason alone the Beats service could be the one I end up going with.   A T and T customers can have 5 users on up to 10 devices for $15.   Hopefully it does not fall short in the other important areas like stream and download quality.
 
Might be time to start shopping for a new hope streaming device other than my squeezebox which owes me nothing after performing extremely well for many many years.

 

[AladdinSane]

Beats "curated" music is an interesting concept. I'm an AT&T dude as well. Quality and depth of offerings will be key. I got in early on the $7.99/mo offer for Google Play so its not a bad deal. Their library is pretty extensive.

 

[gtcharlie]

Agreed.  Just saw an article in USA today saying streams will be at 320Kbps so that would be great.   Hopefully downloads will be of the same quality.   Guess we wait until Tuesday to find out.

 

[ozarkcdn]

I'm glad the free trials abound... also an ATT customer so the 90 day trial deal isn't shabby at all. However, I'm sure there will be no support for either google or beats for the old squeezebox.
 
As a side note regarding streaming...  I was just messing around with my e17 / HE400 setup and noticed that between the rhapsody and spotify versions of the same song (esperanza spalding radio song ) that there was some distortion in the right channel.  The rhapsody stream was the highest quality offline verion vs the extreme version of the offline spotify version (IIRC, 192 vs 320).  Not sure why that was, but I know in the past I was not able to ABX 320 vs 192 AAC compressed files reliably, so there must be some defect in some of the files.  Not sure who else might have compared offline versions with their streaming services or not.

 

[markbrauer]

Ozarkcdn, I don't know if you are still considering Spotify, but I have been using the Triode Spotify plugin on my older Squeezebox and it works great. More info here:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?94607-Squeezebox-Classic-and-Spotify