Best Ever Albums

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

RoundTheBend — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 23:55:18 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 02/12/2019 04:55

I should just test it myself, but have folks using Spotify and then moved to Apple Music found a bump in the quality of music?

I realize this is apples and oranges, but I just put on my iTunes ALAC or M4A of The Joshua Tree and I was blown away by the quality, even though I've been listening to it in my car as a CD. It's crazy how details pop in a good "media" form.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

RoundTheBend — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 19:16:28 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/28/2019 00:16

If only...?

This could fit in a car:

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

An I had one of these?

Side note, listening to music in a car is probably 2nd to listening to it in a dark room with your eyes closed.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the ro

Romanelli — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 19:09:18 GMT

Author: Romanelli

Posted: 01/28/2019 00:09

StreetSpirit wrote:

When it comes to listening to music and podcasts, I'm very old school, so pardon me if I sound out of touch.

Preface: I had to buy a new [used] car in Nov after my previous one failed on me. Everything's cool with the new car, except for one thing you can never tell from a test drive...the CD player doesn't work.

Bummer. I could get it fixed, or replace the whole stereo, whichever's cheaper. But let's be honest, CDs are outdated. I own about 300 CDs, but I've heard them all over and over again, and I don't buy new ones nearly as often as I used to. So I don't know if I want to fix this problem. I see it as opportunity to change the way I listen to albums.

So now my question for you is 'what other options can I explore?'

I've considered buying a new or used iPod or iPod Touch and getting Apple Music. But do they allow downloading for offline listening? I have an old 2008 iPod Nano that I barely use anymore. You can sync that with Apple Music, right? Or is that iPod model too old? I also know some Apple products now aren't compatible with aux cables (seriously, wtf Apple?).

What about Pandora, Spotify, XM Radio, (or pirating but I prefer not)? I know very little about these. BEA, tell me about these platforms, and which one(s) could solve my dilemma. Is there another platform I don't know about? Do these allow downloading albums/podcasts for offline listening? Do these apps play music in the background while other apps are open? Are their bit rates good, because I was told Spotify's bit rate is only 96 (which is frankly terrible)? Has it improved?

Here's what I have:

1. Current car stereo with a working aux input, and cable
2. A Smartphone that isn't an iPhone, if that matters
3. A 2008 iPod Nano
4. An old Kenwood car stereo, with aux and USB input.
5. Income (yes I'm willing spend a little dough :))

Here's what I don't have but may be willing to spend $ on:

1. A subscription, as long as it's reasonably priced
2. A new or used portable device such as an iPod, iPod Touch, or portable speaker, preferably compatible with aux cable, but I'm open to other ideas.
3. Whatever else you can think of that might be helpful, as long as it's reasonably priced.

It sounds like Apple Music or Spotify are likely the best options. Which is better? Or is there a better option out there than both?

Okay BEA, fire away.

You want background noise and music to have on while you do other things? Go online.

You want quality? You want to REALLY listen to the music? Buy physical products. Spend your money on albums and do a better job of supporting artists than giving them the 0.0084 per stream (split between artists and labels and publishers) that ripoffs like Spotify pay, (about 0.0075 for Apple) and you get lesser quality in return. CD's. Vinyl. You want throwaway meh quality that nets the artists minimal return? Rely on getting your music online.

IMO, of course. It amazes me still that people who are so into music are willing to listen at such low quality and support the artists at such a low rate, or even for no cost at all.

IMO, of course.

EDIT...listening to albums from your phone is like having sex with a hooker who is actually a mannequin...

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

RoundTheBend — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 18:54:08 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/27/2019 23:54

Yeah - I had to use DBPowerAmp to convert to the variable bit rate stuff. Sometimes it doesn't actually matter because the range is really flat, and other times you totally can tell. It's ok, it's for when I'm in the car and sounds way better than the radio.

But alas, I'm not happy with much of the options.

I mean the other option is just do what Jimmy's done and just play it direct from your phone. The only reason the cloud option is appealing is you have everything... but if you have a phone with 500GB or whatever for all your music, not a bad way to go either.

Good luck all... let me know when you find the holy grail.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

rkm — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 06:04:06 GMT

Author: rkm

Posted: 01/27/2019 11:04

sethmadsen wrote:

rkm wrote:

Is anyone here streaming there own music library from a cloud, via another app?

I’ve been thinking about this lately, because while I’m happily using Apple Music, I’ve continued maintaining an Apple Lossless iTunes library offline at home. I’ve got about 1500 Albums there, that I know sound better than Spotify or Apple Music streaming. It sounds exactly like the 1500 CDs on the shelves.

The whole library is about 500GB. So, for me the cloud storage costs are prohibitive. Plus, the cellular data usage would go up considerably (but, I’m often connected to other wifi at different places of work, so it’s not that big of a deal).

As a collector, the dream is to take MY library with me everywhere I go.

It sounds like Google is not your first choice? Just curious because they allow 20,000 songs (doesn't matter how big).

If you had an average track length of 13, that'd be 19,500 songs.

But if Google is the devil, no I don't know anyone else who does that for free/low cost.

I hadn’t really looked into google properly, so thanks for the heads up. They actually now allow 50,000 songs, and you’re right, the file size is unlimited, but whatever file type you upload gets converted to a 320kbps MP3, unfortunately...

https://support.google.com/googleplaymusic/answer/1100462?hl=en

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

RoundTheBend — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 21:01:48 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/24/2019 02:01

rkm wrote:

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

rkm — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 16:07:57 GMT

Author: rkm

Posted: 01/23/2019 21:07

Is anyone here streaming there own music library from a cloud, via another app?

I’ve been thinking about this lately, because while I’m happily using Apple Music, I’ve continued maintaining an Apple Lossless iTunes library offline at home. I’ve got about 1500 Albums there, that I know sound better than Spotify or Apple Music streaming. It sounds exactly like the 1500 CDs on the shelves.

The whole library is about 500GB. So, for me the cloud storage costs are prohibitive. Plus, the cellular data usage would go up considerably (but, I’m often connected to other wifi at different places of work, so it’s not that big of a deal).

As a collector, the dream is to take MY library with me everywhere I go.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

Jimmy Dread — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 07:01:14 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 01/23/2019 12:01

sethmadsen wrote:

@ Jimmy - slightly off topic, do you rip your vinyl?

Nope. I think I’ve probably got no more than a dozen LPs I haven’t got either on CD or digitally, and despite having the LP120 with its built-in USB all set up for ripping (though not for much longer as I’m on the verge of upgrading it) I haven’t seen the need to yet.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

rkm — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 06:31:05 GMT

Author: rkm

Posted: 01/23/2019 11:31

I’ve got s large collection of CD’s and Vinyl, but for on the go I’ve totally embraced streaming. I prefer Apple Music over Spotify.

One of our cars has an 1/8th inch aux input, so I just connect an iPad to that. I could download what I want to listen to before leaving the home wifi, but I’ve got more than enough data limit on my cellular plan to cover all the listening I do.

Our other car is a beater, and the stereo doesn’t work. I don’t want to put any money into it, so I simply grab a bluetooth speaker from home and stick it on the dash. I wouldn’t mind finding a bigger and better sounding Bluetooth speaker, as this is a really neat solution in a lot of circumstances. I sometimes take it down to the garage if I need some cave time under the guise of working on something, and get some listening done there.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

RoundTheBend — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 21:30:02 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/23/2019 02:30

@ Jimmy - slightly off topic, do you rip your vinyl?

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

carpents — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 07:48:20 GMT

Author: carpents

Posted: 01/22/2019 12:48

OK, so I put together my complaints for a RYMer who was trying to create his own app, updated after spending a month with Deezer & Apple Music (and Amazon Unlimited):

(1) Spotify's "add to queue". This adds the song to play next, in the middle of what is already playing. UPDATE: Deezer has two buttons (1) Add to Queue, which properly adds a song to the end of what is playing; (2) Play Next, which properly plays a song next!

(2) Artists who have a shared/common name. In addition to poor searching capabilities (try finding the post-rock band named "Tone", it's harder than it should be) but the worst part is after finding the right artist, it shows the wrong albums! (Seriously, you couldn't add an "artist ID" field to your database?) The band "Sophia" is a good example, you will see their albums and a bunch from other artists named Sophia.

(3) Would it really be so hard to add columns so that I can sort by what I want? How about # of plays? UPDATE: Deezer has a sort option by # of plays, but they still don't have proper columns for sorting. I guess Apple Music does have this.

(4) Some albums have gapless playback between songs. Every song isn't a single. None of these streaming services do gapless playback correctly.

(5) iTunes/Apple Music. I have an iPhone, and use iTunes on my PC. When I activated Apple Music, it started uploading my whole library. Why? Now all my local files are floating around Apple's cloud somewhere? Why? This is just stupid and invasive for no reason. My audio memos that I have on my computer are no business of Apple, and it's obnoxious. Then I receive an email indicating that "my iCloud is 50% full" and it mentions my photos?? Ugh. DELETE.

I have more, but this is getting me tired. Can't one of you please invent a new streaming service designed for people who listen to music? I'll buy a family account.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

carpents — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 07:24:48 GMT

Author: carpents

Posted: 01/22/2019 12:24

Jimmy Dread wrote:

On a related topic (although I'm not sure how it connects or what the data use charges would be), the Amazon Echo Auto might be worth a look if you listen to most of your music via streaming...

Why anyone would invite this spy machine into their life baffles me. I feel like I've already given up too much privacy to these mega corporations, but letting them record everything within earshot? No way.

As to Deezer vs. Spotify: I have both right now, and although I've only had Deezer for a month or so I don't have any complaints about the app compared to Spotify. They're very similar. That being said, Spotify's app is better than Amazon Unlimited (which I tried for a month) or Apple Music/iTunes IMO.

On the rights front, my Deezer URL has "/us" in it, so I think they provide different music here vs. elsewhere, just like Spotify and the others. I was recently in France and didn't notice anything different on my library, but I'm not stretching music boundaries or anything.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

Jimmy Dread — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 07:03:35 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 01/22/2019 12:03

Can't comment on podcasts, but for listening to albums in the car I swear by my iPhone. But this is where I differ from probably 99% of users on here - I don't use Spotify or Apple Music or any of the equivalent streaming services. My entire digital library consists of CD rips or albums 'obtained' in mp3 format (320kbps ideally) and stored on my phone via iTunes - luckily I've got a 256GB version otherwise this wouldn't be practical. I then bark instructions at Siri when I want to change what I'm listening to (thus avoiding getting pulled over by the fuzz for using my phone at the wheel). This has obvious issues when I'm trying to listen to something in Welsh, Swedish or Portuguese, but aside from that it's pretty effective.

I've never been a huge fan of streaming services personally - guess it's the collector/old git inside me - but I can see their advantages. But then having 1000 LPs available to listen to without data usage being an issue or making a playlist of stuff you've got remotely stored for driving has always worked for me. And if I'm not in the mood to listen to a specific playlist or an LP from start to finish I just stick the thing on shuffle.

On a related topic (although I'm not sure how it connects or what the data use charges would be), the Amazon Echo Auto might be worth a look if you listen to most of your music via streaming...

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

RoundTheBend — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 21:58:19 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/22/2019 02:58

I almost forgot:

My wife uses like 4GB on FaceCrack or InstaWasteLife a month... I really don't. Just emails, sometimes some YouTube/video chat, but like 80% streaming music and I use only 2-3GB a month (I have unlimited, so it really doesn't matter).

But if that matters, like I mentioned, you can just download your content to your phone (I got a $20 64GB SSD card or something), and then you turn on "stream only using WiFi" or whatever it so you don't accidentally do so, and you have 64GB worth of music just chillin on your phone.

I'll create a playlist of my music projects (like a baroque playlist) and it's like 50 albums or something before it is near full.

Also I feel ya on the decision making process - it wasn't really easy and like I said I just settled for Spotify. It meets the basic needs for sure and playlist management I like, but neither is it great and often feel the streaming is subpar quality.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

RoundTheBend — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 21:50:11 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/22/2019 02:50

Yeah - man, really the 30 day trial is where it's at. Only you really can make the decision.

As for streaming issues - you can upload it to their cloud, then download an album to your phone while on WiFi. This isn't unique to Google Music, you can do that with nearly any premium streaming service. But with Google Music you can do it without premium if it is your music. It really is a win win/worth doing in my opinion. You have a "cloud backup" of your physical music if heaven forbid something were to happen to it and then if you have an album not on any streaming service (it will happen), you can always go listen to it from Google Music. Really I just use it for my digital collection and then anything I haven't purchased, I still have Spotify. Another thing if you haven't seen it yet, is if you buy Vinyl or really any music from Amazon, they add it to "owned" music on the app. So that's a plus there, even if I'm not a fan of their app.

Not sure if anyone has talked about the user interface, but by far Spotify has the best user interface, imo.

I think the only issue I have with Deezer is it isn't American... and I totally don't mean that in a dumb way. I think it's French... studied German lit for my bachelor's, lived in Germany and Austria... totally don't have a problem with that it's not American. Why that matters is rights - Deezer likely has different rights to music than Spotify because it's across the pond. I don't have anything to vet this other than some experiences looking up music. On the other hand Deezer might have more rights to stuff we don't have rights to... this is total conjecture, but loose experiences suggest it.

Good luck mate.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

CA Dreamin — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 18:51:33 GMT

Author: CA Dreamin

Posted: 01/21/2019 23:51

carpents wrote:

Those adapters...dunno, they don't look like they'd work. You say you have an 'aux' input, is that the 1/8" jack? If so, you can find a male-to-male 1/8" cable and run it straight from the iPod.

Aux, 1/8", and 3.5MM are all the same thing (at least I'm 99% sure they are). And yeah I have a male-to-male cable. So I probably don't need the adapter. The only downside is if a device is charging (whether it be iPod or USB charger), and has an aux cable coming out and into the car stereo at the same time, it can add an annoying buzzing noise to the music playing through the stereo. However I did a sound test yesterday with my phone and there was none of that buzzing.

I hope it stays that way, cause then I won't have to install anything or buy any new parts.

Which only leaves one thing left...picking a service.

sethmadsen wrote:

I ripped my CD collection and uploaded it to Google Music so I can have that where ever I go on my smart phone.

Wouldn't you still need wi-fi to prevent using a shit-ton of data? If not, how does that work?

elo, YouTube Music Premium looks promising in the future. It's $10/month and has the offline option, but they don't seem to have a standard bitrate across the board. But if it that changes and it can get bundled with another service, I'd def consider it in the future.

Anyway thank you all for the input. Based on what I've read here and my own research, I think Apple Music is out the question. It doesn't shock me to hear elo's story of Apple being a pain in the ass. Plus my smartphone isn't an iPhone and I can foresee the Apple Music app not working on it. Lastly, based on my research Apple Music's bitrate is lower than Spotify Premium and Deezer Premium.

So I'm def leaning towards those two. So far nobody's talked shit on Deezer. Unless anyone has something negative to say about it, or if seth can sell me on Google Music, or if anyone offers another option, I think a 30-day free trial to Deezer Premium is the direction I'm gonna take.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

RoundTheBend — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 23:37:32 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/20/2019 04:37

I ripped my CD collection and uploaded it to Google Music so I can have that where ever I go on my smart phone.

Otherwise I used Spotify. I've invested a decent amount of time into playlists, so I'm a little stuck here.

I remember having this problem when my iPod died in like 2010 and ended up just using my phone.

I will say I don't feel I've really solved the problem/happy with it, rather settled. But it works. Sometimes I get in sound quality wars with Google Music and Spotify. Sometimes I'll notice one sounds better with a certain track than the other, even though I'm a premium user in both. In the car AUX, Bluetooth, or on my computer... making sure I have the premium streaming setting set and it's not a A to A comparison like it really should if both services are streaming at the same rates, etc. I've heard Spotify uses it's own compression algorithm or something...idk. Apple Music does a treatment on the music as well I've heard. IDK - just passing on rumors and anecdotal experience (the best type of information, right?)

I'm a Prime member as well, but Prime always is the bottom of the barrel with movies and music for the streaming service, but usually top notch if you are willing to fork out the denari. If you have Prime you have their basic streaming service included. Then if you want anything more than the local library will give you (over-generalization), you gotta pay for their premium service.

I will say I'm glad I no longer have to manage my digital music because of Spotify/Google Music which is nice. If I buy a new device all I have to do is install the app and I'm done. Same for Google... I did the work like 8 years ago, so I'll never have to manage my physical music again... except for my vinyl, which a part of me feels dumb trying to fill the physical void by buying physical music again... there's something about the experience that makes it worth it... anyway I'm rambling.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

elo269megv — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 22:33:51 GMT

Author: elo269megv

Posted: 01/20/2019 03:33

I've used both Apple Music and Spotify. I have an iPhone and Macbook so obviously I thought Apple Music would be the most seamless. Unfortunately, my computer's iTunes library never properly synced with my Phone so I never enjoyed that compatibility (the thousands of songs I converted from CD onto my hard drive I NEVER listen to now). The cloud thing was always a hassle and seems sketchy (plus running out of storage is a b****).

I switched to Spotify about 6 months ago and am currently enjoying it more (plus you get Hulu & HBO for the price of one). Better playlists, better suggestions, better statistics, better mixes. One thing I don't like is that when I plug my phone into my car via USB it automatically opens my iTunes and plays the first song in my library. That is super annoying and it physically makes you switch to Spotify (might not be a problem for you without USB or an Iphone) plus it will eventually make you hate whatever the first song in the library is.

So from someone who's used both = Spotify > Apple

If you dont have an iPhone, i'd suggest using Spotify since you were aren't restricted to iTunes. ALSO, you will not be able to physically keep, save, or burn anything from Apple Music onto a CD or iPod. You will ONLY be able to stream songs. I'm pretty sure you cant plug your iPod into your computer and "slide a song over from iTunes into your portable iPod library from Apple Music" - (the good days) - hence why you need a newer IOS device.

Once again, I own Apple products and have had a hell of a time synchronizing them. I have not had a great experience.

Here are some other ideas that others haven't mentioned. YouTube Music - pretty sure its free or a one time payment and theres almost everything on YouTube, you can close the screen while listening, use other apps at the same time, etc. Downside is you'll constantly need data or WIFI (they might have a downloading option idk)

Soundcloud is free but its not meant for streaming albums. You can find playlists and individual songs but its usually a hassle to listen to collective albums. This is better for exploring new music/artists.

Here's what I do: listen to Spotify when I'm not home (or don't physically own a copy), YouTube for live versions or songs not on the platform, and vinyl whenever Im at home

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

babyBlueSedan — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 21:46:04 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 01/20/2019 02:46

I use Spotify at work and for streaming new albums, and it's not uncommon that you'll find artists or albums not on there. Most lists will probably be out of date because the Beatles, Prince, and most Drag City artists (minus Newsom) recently got added. I personally don't care because I like the service and only use my iPod classic (good luck getting one of those today) in my car, so i can supplement my listening by buying music or listening on YouTube at home. You could always sign up for Spotify with ads, which is free, and take a look at what's available, but be aware artists can be added and removed with no warning. I only know the ones I often want to listen to, but notably I know Jay-Z, Dr Dre, NoMeansNo, and most early Coil isnt there. And probably others I'm forgetting. I also will say that while I like Spotify's year end summaries well enough, their playlists are often lackluster and I dont use them much. Their daily mixes, which throw together a bunch of songs with a certain genre or vibe, are based on what you listen to and can be good. But I've noticed a positive feedback loop where if you listen to the mixes it will keep throwing the same songs on...because you listened to them...on the mix.

Unfortunately I cant speak for Apple Music or Deezer because I havent used them. And when my iPod classic does I'm sure I'll be much in the same situation as you as far as finding an mp3 player goes.

Re: ISO advice, a way to listen to albums/podcasts on the road

carpents — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 21:06:29 GMT

Author: carpents

Posted: 01/20/2019 02:06

Those adapters...dunno, they don't look like they'd work. You say you have an 'aux' input, is that the 1/8" jack? If so, you can find a male-to-male 1/8" cable and run it straight from the iPod.

Not sure about the nano, but there are apps to run Spotify, Deezer, etc. on iPods or phones. (Android too.) Obviously Apple Music runs natively in iTunes.

As for the missing artists, some notable artists (Joanna Newsom, Taylor Swift, Cracker) have boycotted Spotify because they pay less. However, like I mentioned, there are way more plays on Spotify so an individual artist might make the same amount of money based on higher volume. If you're Taylor Swift you don't really care. Tidal came about because of this, but they're more expensive and won't be around for long.

I actually just got set up with an Apple Music account today, part of a family account to try it out. It's a real pain, it wouldn't work unless I activated the "iCloud" crap. This is exactly why I hate Apple, and refuse to use them.