Streaming services which one do you inest in or pay for?

[jomari]

Just curious. I'm back to figure out if Sirius xm is worth the investment. I also was considering Spotify, but pandora still is the cheapest at 5 dollars a month.

Sirius xm has a promo 5 dollars a month. Up to 12 months then 16/month also considering this one since I have the new car.

Just reaching out for your opinions.

 

[Botch]

I got six free months with my car, and really liked the service. When they tried to raise the price, I wrote and told them I'll keep it at $5/mo, but not $16. They said No, so I said No.
Six weeks later they wrote and offered me $5/mo for a year, I accepted. And I've been taking an annual six-week break ever since, and getting it for $5/mo.

Yet to try pandora/spotify/apple etc.

 

[mcad64]

We had Amazon Prime HD since I figured if I am going to stream at least it should be the same fucking quality as my own CD's ripped to my Squeezebox. Daughter and mother didn't like the interface for Amazone Prime. Now we are using Spotify and paying more for less. I hate these streaming fucking services!!! I told them when Spotify HIFI hits Canada we are signing up for that. I don't give a fucking shit how much it costs, if I am going to listen to the fucking streaming service it should be at least as good as the MY OWN FUCKING CD"S I have ripped to my Squeezebox.
Mike
PS: Whew....that got ugly in a hurry didn't it!!

 

[PaulyT]

We had Amazon Prime HD since I figured if I am going to stream at least it should be the same fucking quality as my own CD's ripped to my Squeezebox. Daughter and mother didn't like the interface for Amazone Prime. Now we are using Spotify and paying more for less. I hate these streaming fucking services!!! I told them when Spotify HIFI hits Canada we are signing up for that. I don't give a fucking shit how much it costs, if I am going to listen to the fucking streaming service it should be at least as good as the MY OWN FUCKING CD"S I have ripped to my Squeezebox.
Mike
PS: Whew....that got ugly in a hurry didn't it!!

Yeah I hear you. Supposedly "hi res" streaming services are available but at a premium, for sure. I only ever use streaming in the car, where I don't give a crap about quality.

 

[Botch]

Mike, are you able to play Amazoid Prime in your car? I wasn't able to figure out how to do it, and since I'm already paying for it I could drop Sirius...

 

[mcad64]

Mike, are you able to play Amazoid Prime in your car? I wasn't able to figure out how to do it, and since I'm already paying for it I could drop Sirius...

Botch,
Don't quote me on this...but I believe if you have a vehicle that can do android auto than Amazon Prime music could be transmitted from said phone to your vehicle.
I believe!!! Without our beliefs what are we? Neanderthals???

 

[Botch]

I guess I could see if I could get Amazoid Prime on my iPhone (I can and do use Googlez Mapz on my iPhone in the car).
And after I posted the above, I remembered I did listen to Prime's jazz channel a couple days on my Echo, and it was terrible. Sounded like the same band playing thru a bunch of blues tunes, not so well, and virtually no famous artists/tracks. For $5 I'll stick with Sirius.

 

[Kazaam]

I pay for the Plus plan of LiveXLive, which is basically the old Slacker Radio.

It’s just radio with the Plus plan. No on demand. But it’s dirt cheap. And it gives you ad-free radio with unlimited skips. I’ve trained it to give me about as good of a mix of genres on my “favorites station” as I’ve found on any service. Plus I get fewer repeats than I used to with Pandora.

Anyway…. If you pay annually upfront it’s $30/year, which I think is cheaper than Pandora. Better yet LiveXLive frequently discounts that to $20/year or less. I pay $10/year.
I was worried about LiveXLive going out of business, but apparently the pandemic has been good for their stock price I thought I read.

Downsides are that it’s a bit of a data hog at 320kbps. And the next level down is only 128kbps which I sometimes hear as bad sound. Another downside is that it doesn’t support Siri voice commands when in CarPlay which is a little weird because they added Siri support when just using the phone. Android Auto voice commands worked last year for me, though. Assume they still do.

 

[jomari]

I pay for the Plus plan of LiveXLive, which is basically the old Slacker Radio.

It’s just radio with the Plus plan. No on demand. But it’s dirt cheap. And it gives you ad-free radio with unlimited skips. I’ve trained it to give me about as good of a mix of genres on my “favorites station” as I’ve found on any service. Plus I get fewer repeats than I used to with Pandora.

Anyway…. If you pay annually upfront it’s $30/year, which I think is cheaper than Pandora. Better yet LiveXLive frequently discounts that to $20/year or less. I pay $10/year.
I was worried about LiveXLive going out of business, but apparently the pandemic has been good for their stock price I thought I read.

Downsides are that it’s a bit of a data hog at 320kbps. And the next level down is only 128kbps which I sometimes hear as bad sound. Another downside is that it doesn’t support Siri voice commands when in CarPlay which is a little weird because they added Siri support when just using the phone. Android Auto voice commands worked last year for me, though. Assume they still do.

i have to look this up. thanks kazaam! the app is called livexlive?

sounds like a pornsite.

 

[jomari]

I got six free months with my car, and really liked the service. When they tried to raise the price, I wrote and told them I'll keep it at $5/mo, but not $16. They said No, so I said No.
Six weeks later they wrote and offered me $5/mo for a year, I accepted. And I've been taking an annual six-week break ever since, and getting it for $5/mo.

Yet to try pandora/spotify/apple etc.

me like this strategy. i might consider. did you talk to someone over the phone, or all online?

 

[jomari]

We had Amazon Prime HD since I figured if I am going to stream at least it should be the same fucking quality as my own CD's ripped to my Squeezebox. Daughter and mother didn't like the interface for Amazone Prime. Now we are using Spotify and paying more for less. I hate these streaming fucking services!!! I told them when Spotify HIFI hits Canada we are signing up for that. I don't give a fucking shit how much it costs, if I am going to listen to the fucking streaming service it should be at least as good as the MY OWN FUCKING CD"S I have ripped to my Squeezebox.
Mike
PS: Whew....that got ugly in a hurry didn't it!!

it did get ugly... hihihi... but thanks for making my day dude.

 

[Botch]

me like this strategy. i might consider. did you talk to someone over the phone, or all online?

The first time, I spoke to someone over the phone. NOT recommended if you have a full schedule (as you do); every time I put my foot down and said, NO, CANCEL, they’d say “I need to put you thru to my supervisor, stand by”. Ten-minute wait. Go Thru the exact same exchange, ending with NO, CANCEL, they’d say “I need to put you thru to my supervisor, stand by”. I went thru four levels of supervision before I got what I wanted (you can see what actually happens). Even with all kinds of time in retirement, I’ll give my ultimatum in writing from now on; the six-week break is a nice chance to play a CD and take a jazz break.

 

[Kazaam]

I went thru four levels of supervision before I got what I wanted

With the chip shortage and the corresponding drop in new car production leading to a drop in sales of new cars with SiriusXM, I suspect they’ll probably cut some of those middle manager jobs. Next phone call to cancel/negotiate might very likely start with the kid next door working his first real job and jump straight to a deal with the company CEO.

 

[Kazaam]

i have to look this up. thanks kazaam! the app is called livexlive?

sounds like a pornsite.

Kinda does! Moreso than Tumblr.

I’ll add that one thing I like about LiveXLive is that most stations have adjustable “sliders” to fine tune “song popularity” played. The “favorites radio” station also has sliders for “favorites” and “artist discovery”.

I can’t find the $10 thing anymore. I got mine through Groupon, but it does appear the $20 deal is still showing up on LiveXLive’s website, fwiw. Anyway… could it be better? Sure. It’s maybe not as easy to use as SiriusXM or anything that might have reliable voice commands. But the music and the price are decent. I mostly stick to the “favorites radio” station when I’m in the car since it’s kind of a pain to navigate to different stations on LiveXLive with CarPlay.

 

[Haywood]

I get YouTube Music with my YouTube Premium subscription. It replaced Google Play Music, but I do not like it nearly as well. I mainly use it because I don't want to pay for two subscriptions. If I every get my Plex server back up and running, I might try to Tidal integration.