[jasonb]

Hey guys.
 
Ever since getting an Android smartphone, which was about a year ago now, I have become addicted to music subscription services. First I tried Rhapsody, then Mog, and now Rdio. At first I was only really using them on my phone but now that I have a DAC and a nice set of headphones to use at home I have been using Rdio on my laptop as well. The Rhapsody service was fine, but eventually I got fed up with the Android app. I hear the Android app has improved since then, so don't dismiss Rhapsody just yet if you're an Android user. I then moved onto Mog until the Android 2.2 update came along and initially messed up audio on a lot of streaming music apps. There was some kind of bug in the 2.2 software that created problems for streaming AAC+ format audio. During that issue I had tried and switched to Rdio, which was working fine with Android 2.2, and I have been using that ever since. I've been using Rdio for probably about 4 or 5 months now.
 
Anyway... I find the sound quality on Rdio to be excellent. I have done some quick A/B comparisons with some CD's that I own and had ripped to FLAC against the same CD streamed on Rdio and I can't hear any difference at all. Thats good enough for me. Using Rdio and the other ones I had used in the past has lead me to discover some really great music that i otherwise probably never would have ever heard. LastFM has also been a great way to discover new music, but LastFM works quite a bit differently. I also think that once you sign up for one of these services you may end up never buying a CD ever again, that's how I feel anyway. I have not bought a single CD in over a year now. For the 5-15 dollar a month price (they vary a bit) it has been very worth it, and honestly at 10 bucks a month almost feels like a steal. For the price of one CD a month, or in some cases the price of half a CD you can listen to almost anything you want whenever you want to.
 
Pretty much everything is available on these services, with the exception of some lesser known and rare stuff. I guess there are also some artists that don't want their music available online, same with itunes. You may have recently seen the itunes commercial stating that the Beatles have now come to itunes. So there may be a few exceptions, but these streaming services have A LOT of music available, and new releases seem to be available the same day they are in stores.
 
So... that's how I feel about them. Does anybody else use one of these or another similar service? There is also Grooveshark, and Spotify as well and probably others that I can't remember. Once Spotify comes to the US I may try it. I know it can be used in the US anyway with some workarounds, but I'm happy with Rdio for now.

 

[tekdemon]

I sometimes use a premium Spotify membership and Grooveshark (VIP) but honestly I got a bit tired of having to tunnel my IP to an English one for Spotify to keep it active and so far Grooveshark is having a *lot* of growing pains.  They seem to mean well but their rollout of an html5 site wreaked havoc on everything...you can't even renew your old VIP account without e-mailing them.  That said they did seem to be giving out free months to people affected, and at $3/month the grandfathered rate is by far the cheapest of the services (it's going up to $6/$9 depending on if you want mobile support).  I believe you can still get grandfathered by buying a code from their store and I have to say that I actually liked the T-shirts.  $18-20 for a year of music plus a decent T-shirt is pretty unbeatable.  And for what it's worth at least it seems like they've been making things right when things get screwy, it just gets screwy quite often (they forgot to send me one of my codes for example, but sent me another one right away when I e-mailed).
Still I'm gonna think of the cheaper grandfathered rate as a reward for basically being their beta-testing guinea pig while they try to get as polished as Spotify.  Really love the iOS app but I'd test it on your mobile device first since support is better/worse for some devices, but they do seem to be working on this as well (the iOS app got a lot better).

 

[jasonb]

I see. Maybe give Rdio a try. I think the "PC only" membership is only $5 a month. I pay $10 a month but that is so I can also use it on my Phone.
 
I'd say a good 75% or so of my music listening is done using Rdio, so I am quite pleased with it.
 
Quote:

I sometimes use a premium Spotify membership and Grooveshark (VIP) but honestly I got a bit tired of having to tunnel my IP to an English one for Spotify to keep it active and so far Grooveshark is having a *lot* of growing pains.  They seem to mean well but their rollout of an html5 site wreaked havoc on everything...you can't even renew your old VIP account without e-mailing them.  

 

[tekdemon]

Quote:

I see. Maybe give Rdio a try. I think the "PC only" membership is only $5 a month. I pay $10 a month but that is so I can also use it on my Phone.
 
I'd say a good 75% or so of my music listening is done using Rdio, so I am quite pleased with it.
 
Quote:

I sometimes use a premium Spotify membership and Grooveshark (VIP) but honestly I got a bit tired of having to tunnel my IP to an English one for Spotify to keep it active and so far Grooveshark is having a *lot* of growing pains.  They seem to mean well but their rollout of an html5 site wreaked havoc on everything...you can't even renew your old VIP account without e-mailing them.  

 

I already bought a yearlong membership from them for $18 (with a t-shirt) from their store.  I actually bought another one as a gift and the t-shirts were surprisingly decent.  I realized that my original post made it sound a bit like it's not worth it but it's so cheap that I do think it's worth it to get grandfathered at the old price.
And grooveshark is free for the website only and that works fine.  Most of the problems are related to billing, entering codes for the premium subscriptions, etc. That stuff is pretty buggy (i.e. I originally tried to buy a year on the iOS app, and it told me that I was signed up for a year but signed me up for a month instead-though that worked out in my favor since the T-shirts with the free year were cheaper), but the actual website is great.  I'd definitely check it out for free anyways.  

 

[V-DiV]

I listen a lot to Pandora at work, away from my main rig and most of my music.  You can build "radio stations" with nice varieties.  And the sound quality at 192k (Pandora +) is better than most other web radio streams.

 

[jasonb]

thats not really the kind of service i'm talking about.
 
Quote:

I listen a lot to Pandora at work, away from my main rig and most of my music.  You can build "radio stations" with nice varieties.  And the sound quality at 192k (Pandora +) is better than most other web radio streams.

 

[V-DiV]

Quote:

thats not really the kind of service i'm talking about.
 

Do you mean because Pandora chooses the music based on examples that you select rather than you building your own playlists?  It's actually a pretty cool way to do it.  A "station" gradually drifts through a bunch of related music, sometimes ending up pretty far afield from where it began, but all seeming to grow from an initial seed.  It is also a good way to discover new stuff because they have a lot of the typical artists and plenty of lesser knowns as well.
 
I just checked out Rdio and see it streams 256k files.  That's getting pretty good for mp3s.  But $10 a month is pricey compared to $36 a year for Pandora or free for lower bit rate.  Pandora also has a mobile app for smartphones.

 

[jasonb]

yea, pandora and all the similar music radio thingy's aren't quite what i am talking about. i'm talking about the services where you can stream whatever song or entire album you want whenever you want to. not the "Radio" way pandora and the like do it. i have used pandora in the past and thought it was great. i also have discovered tons of stuff using pandora. when comparing pandora against lastfm and slacker though, i prefer lastfm. lastfm also scrobbles with all my music players whether it's on my laptop or my phone. so it keeps a history and recommends stuff.
 
Rdio streams all their content at 256 or 320, most at 320kbps mp3. it sounds CD quality to me. like i stated earlier i did some testing with Rdio against songs i have ripped into FLAC and i hear no obvious difference. the $10 a month is worth it to me because i use it in place of buying CD's. i have not bought a CD since using it. i also use Rdio on my smartphone in my car. i have an aux input in my car so it works out great.
 
other than Rdio i also stream some music from a few shoucast stations as well. Rdio, lastfm and shoutcast are all great. the combination of these three are working out great for me. i have my favorite CD's ripped to FLAC on my laptop as well, but i am loving all the online music.
 
Quote:

Do you mean because Pandora chooses the music based on examples that you select rather than you building your own playlists?  It's actually a pretty cool way to do it.  A "station" gradually drifts through a bunch of related music, sometimes ending up pretty far afield from where it began, but all seeming to grow from an initial seed.  It is also a good way to discover new stuff because they have a lot of the typical artists and plenty of lesser knowns as well.
 
I just checked out Rdio and see it streams 256k files.  That's getting pretty good for mp3s.  But $10 a month is pricey compared to $36 a year for Pandora or free for lower bit rate.  Pandora also has a mobile app for smartphones.

 

[dsissitka]

I use Mog and Rdio.
 
If you are a Chrome user my "Last.fm recommendations for Rdio." extension might be of some interest to you.
 
Quote:

Rdio streams all their content at 256 or 320, most at 320kbps mp3.

Where did you get those figures from? Every time someone asks them what bitrate they stream at they just say CD quality. See:
 
http://www.google.com/#&q=site:help.rdio.com+cd+quality

 

[jasonb]

Macworld did a write up comparing Napster, Rhapsody, Mog and Rdio. They claimed that Mog and Rdio are anywhere from 256 to 320. i dont know where they got this info from. it sounds CD quality to me though. i have done some A/B testing. http://www.macworld.com/article/154757/2010/10/music_subscription_compared.html
 
i use firefox on linux, no chrome for me.
 
Quote:

I use Mog and Rdio.
 
If you are a Chrome user my "Last.fm recommendations for Rdio." extension might be of some interest to you.
 

Where did you get those figures from? Every time someone asks them what bitrate they stream at they just say CD quality. See:
 
http://www.google.com/#&q=site:help.rdio.com+cd+quality

 

[ChipnDalebowl]

I would never pay for a radio subscription services.  With sites out there like Pandora or Slacker Radio, you don't need to pay to get music online.

 

[V-DiV]

Quote:

I would never pay for a radio subscription services.  With sites out there like Pandora or Slacker Radio, you don't need to pay to get music online.

That's great if you're happy with LoFi.  But if you want higher resolution, you gotta pay.

 

[jasonb]

Rdio, Rhapsody, Mog, Spotify and all the rest dont work like Pandora. Pandora is radio, these other services are NOT radio. you type in an artist and can stream songs by that artist or full albums by that artist. it's not random radio like Pandora.
 
once again, its NOT radio, you stream 256 or 320kbps mp3's of whatever song or album you want.
 
Quote:

I would never pay for a radio subscription services.  With sites out there like Pandora or Slacker Radio, you don't need to pay to get music online.