Music Streaming: Which is the best?

[TitaniumTroy]

Would like to see what other forum members think is the best music streaming service via the web for home use?
Criteria would be:
#1.Sound quality/speed=kps, hey if it sounds like crap who cares about the rest.
#Size of music library, a limited playlist is boring :eusa-whistle:
#SoundTrack movie channel, do they even have one?
#Ease of use, is the software intuitive or clunky and slow.
#Does it allow skips, and banning of songs
#How much does it cost

Here are is link to some reviews:
http://www.mybestmusicplayer.com/best-m ... r-reviews/

 

[soundhound]

I use Pandora, but my needs are simple. The $30 subscription gives you 192kbps to your computer, somewhat lower to your smart phone.

 

[-B-]

Pandora and Slacker, but Pandora more for no particular reason other than it's not working with my Squeezebox as well. I think Slacker has more variety. Grooveshark is good for finding and listening to most any song you can think of, but is only onn a computer.

I've been considering paying the $36 for the Pandora 1. It helps them stay around and you don't have to listen to ads. They are louder than the music, so it's kinda a bummer when I'm using it to fall asleep and the Geico gecko screams at me.

 

[Botch]

The Geico gecko screams at me! WBAGNFARB!

 

[lulimet]

I use last.fm from my xbox 360 with good results.

 

[TitaniumTroy]

May 17th,
Online personal radio service Slacker today launched a premium service that it had first announced last year: Called Slacker Premium Radio, the new service ($9.99 a month) offers on-demand access to a music library of 8 million songs.

The new premium service is ad-free and offers unlimited song skipping, lyrics, news, and the ability to store stations and customized playlists on your mobile phone; you can also play songs and albums on demand, listen to one-artist stations, and hear entire albums in track order. Other existing Slacker services are the free Basic Radio and the ad-free Radio Plus, $3.99 a month.

My Sony S780 Bluray player has a custom Slacker Radio interface, and they do have a movie soundtrack channel. I do wish their internet speed was faster, 128k is a little slow. But will give the $3.99 version a try and see how I like it.

 

[heeman]

Basic Pandora...............typically will play it on the outside system when outside working in the yard or with friends over on the patio. Simple to use, never really looked into any of the others. If we are having a dinner party, we will put on in the background.

I have loaded a bunch of stations such as:

Rush
Yes
Pat Travers
Sade
Steeling Dan
Heart
Al De Miola
Dave Mathews
Pat Metheny

 

[mzpro5]

I just use the Squeezebox. Lots of Internet radio to choose from (80% of the time I listen to Radio Paradise) and can stream my own music. Great in the summer with Zone 2 hooked up to outside speakers.

 

[Kazaam]

I've tried both Pandora and Slacker. I found it easier on Pandora for me to do a nice "shuffle play" between genres, so that's the one I use. But maybe if I messed around more with Slacker I'd figure out how to activate shuffle play or be able to create my own station that does a good random mix of genres???

I don't know if Slacker has changed anything since I originally looked long ago, but if I recall correctly, I think (at least at the time) that Slacker's premium service still only got you 128kbps, whereas Pandora's premium service gets you 192kbps. But Slacker supposedly had a larger playlist. And I did like the fact that Slacker had lots of preset-type stations (alternative rock, classic rock, etc).

Oh... and it's been a long time since I've used Slacker, but I seem to recall feeling like the banner ads on screen were slightly more annoying with Slacker than Pandora; but that could have all changed. Heck, I haven't even used Pandora in some time, either.

 

[Kazaam]

Now that I think about it, what I've been listening to the most lately has been just a single radio station.

89.3 The Current

http://www.thecurrent.org

or

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/the_current/

It has local, indie, and alternative rock with a mix of eclectic other crap (even heard country like Kenny Rogers once). It's listener supported, so the occasional fundraising drives do get annoying, but I like the music. Admittedly, the station sucked when it very first started---it played too much of the weird indie stuff and not enough of the mainstream stuff---but now I find the overall mix to be quite good. I highly recommend it.

You can access the station directly from their website or from the radio feature in iTunes. I think the stream is at 128kbps.