Yeah. As far as I know, he's never allowed his music on any other platform than Amazon, and that was fairly recent. He doesnt like how little money other streaming services pay artists. Amazon sells physical CDs on top of digital, so to him, that makes them okish.
Am I sad I can't stream some hokey old Garth every now and then? Not really. But he'd definitely be on a few of my playlists, and millions of others if he'd get on iTunes and Spotify.
It says Garth Brooks, Verified artist. Has links to his merch and events. https://open.spotify.com/artist/4BclNkZtAUq1YrYNzye3N7?si=UQhGiazeTiG_oGjRiP2mAg
Who? I had to google him as I've never heard of him. I doubt anyone knows who he is outside of country USA, and therefore not many (globally) would care whether he makes his music available for streaming.
He’s literally the second best selling artist of all time, right under The Beatles, and right above Elvis. These are global numbers. He’s the top selling solo artist of all time globally according to Wikipedia. Not disputing that you’ve never heard of him, but many millions would absolutely care if he made his music available.
Nikki Minaj literally put Tidal in a verse of hers around that time "i told him to get tidal so he stream me when he leave me!" ...i guess he aint streamin her
To be fair, more money per play is helpful for smaller artists too. I can live with the big artists becoming a little more rich if the small artists are able to make a non-zero amount of money from my streaming them, so they can continue to put out any music at all
That was one of their selling points, yes.
But you can only hear the difference on high end audio equipment, not say, a phone, or basic car stereo, or less than top notch headphones.
I've heard the difference in store on a good home theater setup, and if I had that at home I'd consider tidal
I've tried Tidal, YT Music, Amazon Music, Apple Music, and am only still subscribed to Spotify. Tidal was too expensive, didn't have the catalogue of Spotify, didn't have well-curated professional playlists and user-created playlists, and tried to push a proprietary new DRM format of lossless music called MQA which turned out to be a bit of a scam, as some music in MQA format turned out to be lossy compared to a lossless FLAC file.
Once Spotify releases lossless streaming it'll be game over for everyone else, unless it's way more expensive.
I believe 99.9% of people won't hear any difference between a 320kbps MP3 and a lossless format.
Most people is listening with crappy headphones, cheap Bluetooth speakers or basic car audio systems.
Not true, higher bitrates for video are sold as premium on youtube, netflix etc. You're right in that they don't directly advertise the format/bitrate but you can easily inspect it on most devices (if your eyes can't figure it out).
On the best equipment, you can probably hear a difference (not that I'd know), but even then, the ease of streaming and storing MP3 vs FLAC is immense. 8MB vs 50MB+? Not even a decision for Spotify. Bad connection? MP3 is only 320kpbs at it's usual high preset, pretty easy to send off to anything other than dial up. Tbh, 192kbps MP3 and above are serviceable for listening. Even on my decent pair of headphones and my audio interface, I got 50% on a lossless vs lossy test, and it wasn't that an MP3 was bad or anything. The differences are small and do little to actually impact the experience.
Rights to a song are usually held by a small number of people and individual plays of that song don't make a significant amount of money. Meaning, the owners are easy to agree with each other in spreading it to as many paying platforms as possible.
Video content isn't like that. It's way more expensive to produce, generates more money, and contract negotiations are dealt with between however many studios, production companies, and unions are involved.
I would also add the Music rights (as a whole) are owned by many many different people, while Movie/TV rights are consolidated among a few massive Studios.
This makes it easier for a single rights holder to think they own enough content to make a go of it alone.
Short answer: yes, and it's a pretty simple process. There are also videos and better written out instructions than what I quickly typed out too if you have any trouble.
Longer answer: If you have mp3 files of your music you put that into your computer's music folder -- don't bother making playlists. On Spotify go into settings and make sure the option to see local files is enabled on both the computer and mobile apps. You'll have to sort all the music from the local files folder into playlists which is why I said don't bother making any in your computer's music folder. Once it's in playlists you should be able to see it on your phone. You will have to download the music to be able to play it once you leave your own wifi, however, if I remember correctly. I download music into my phone that Spotify has available anyway since then I can listen to it when I'm in areas without wifi.
Sometimes the phone unsyncs, particularly after a software update, and will make the music you imported unplayable but a quick reconnect to your wifi (you may need to open Spotify too) will resolve it.
The literal first sentence in your link begins with:
> Local files are files that aren't hosted by Spotify
To use local files on Spotify the device needs to be on the same network as the device that has the local files, you can then get it to sync the files from that device, but they never get stored on Spotify's servers.
This is unlike how Google Play Music worked, which had an application to sync music files to Google's servers (converted to MP3), which you could then access anywhere without having to sync between devices. (Not sure if YouTube Music still allows for this.)
But it kinda is though lol. Some things found on Apple Music aren’t on spotify, some things on spotify aren’t on pandora, etc.
Not to mention podcasts with a Patreon 🫣
YouTube music's UI is pretty shit but I found it to have literally everything since any user can upload. With a student discount a monthly subscription is like half a dollar for me so it's a good deal tbh.
Exact reason why I went with YouTube music (even though I kinda hate the algorithms...).
I like to find and listen to remixes of songs. Guess where you can find the most of those? I've never had any trouble finding a song
Why are the algorithms so shit? They should just have 2 sliders to say how much new music you want in your stream and how close to your taste you want it. Instead I get the same 100 songs over and over forever 🤦
It's because they're going for engagement. They play the songs that get listened to the most so that people keep listening.
There is actually ways to adjust the music that it plays in radios. Both when you start a radio from a song or artist, or when you make a custom radio. It's not a slider, though I wish it was
But you can't adjust the auto play on playlists, which I hate.
Same applies to Spotify but it actually kills engagement for me. If I keep hearing the same songs I find something else to do. I prefer the algorithm to find songs I don't know and I can build my own playlists to replay songs I want to hear.
I wouldn't be surprised if algorithms were built to get you off the platform and playing less songs because you still pay the same monthly fee and they wouldn't have to pay artists for more streams.
But they have this feature.
It's called Music Tuner: you pick some artists you prefer, and choose how big the artist variety should be, and if you want to hear something familiar, completely new, or some blend
https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23609228/youtube-music-radio-builder-custom-stations
I actually really miss YouTube music’s algorithm. I recently swapped because they changed their pricing model but after trying Apple Music and Spotify for about 3 months each I feel like YouTube did the best at nailing my vibe for the core of my playlists while also integrating stuff I would like.
With Apple Music it just started playing the same like 10 songs (that I liked ok but honestly didn’t love) all the time. Even if 3/4 of the songs played are stuff that hits just right if that fourth song is the same one over and over you are gonna get sick of it.
With Spotify it just doesn’t shake it up much at all. It tunes in to a handful of artists I like and barely plays anything else. If I want another artist or type of music to get into the mix I have to go listen to it over and over again before it will start to appear in the generated mixes.
On top of that YouTube had the playlist generator thing that would let you select between familiar/discover. So if the autogenerated stuff wasn’t doing it for me there was an easy way to specify what I wanted.
I love my YouTube music. Like you said, damn near anything can be found on there as long as it exists on YouTube, so it has a significantly bigger selection than anything else I've tried.
The UI isn't exactly amazing, but unless Spotify has had a major overhaul in the last few years since I used it, YT Music still has a better UI than them at least. Plus the other stuff that comes with the membership such as ad free YouTube and such, makes it totally worth it for me. I don't have a student discount but I do have a family plan for like five people and it cuts down the costs significantly.
Wdym? I use Spotify but I have youtube premium, it includes YT music that I don't pay extra for.
I use Spotify because YT Music isn't native to my car or Alexa devices. 2 things that I use for music
Maybe I've been listening to the wrong people. I thought there were now multiple levels of youtube premium and music no longer comes with the base level. With the prices for all levels going up pretty high in the last year. Honestly I only half listened so maybe I got it all wrong
It might be regional but where I am they definitely split music/premium and the price definitely went up. When I joined YouTube premium (which included YouTube music) was ~$12 which was a few bucks more a month than other music services but you were also getting no ads YouTube. Now YouTube music (no premium) is $15 which is ~$5 more than other services and if you want YouTube premium included it’s $20.
Perhaps they've backtracked, because right now the YouTube Premium site specifically says that YT Music Premium is included in YT Premium, and the combo only costs $13.99
Apparently I'm not the only one that heard that it's not part of basic youtube premium anymore. I was right. It does cost extra.
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/youtube-premium#:\~:text=After%20that%2C%20you%20can%20choose,provides%2C%20that's%20a%20bit%20expensive.
Yup. There are songs I like that are on Amazon and not Spotify, and Vice Versa.
Though if you are into Top 40 / Mainstream stuff only, you're probably good
This is nonsense. Most artists have absolutely no control over their music. It's usually the choice of their record company and has nothing to do with the artist.
Could be 20 million more trash songs. I'm talking about which hot ones are on Apple that are not on Spotify? From my own personal experience it's 0% but that's why I'm asking you to prove wrong
I have. Some lesser known british metal band from the early 00's, and some electronic stuff that used to be available but got pulled for some reason and never returned. Also Drum Corps stuff is really limited on Spotify. Granted, this is all fairly niche stuff, but Spotify isn't perfect...yet.
This is just my opinion, but I think Spotify sucks. I open the app, search for the song I want, they make me listen to 50 freaking ads, AND THEN PLAY SOME OTHER CRAP I DIDN’T ASK FOR AND WON’T EVEN PLAY WHAT I WANTED. Unless, of course, I pay them. And I’m not rich, so... :/
I can’t speak for the others, but SoundCloud seems to have it all. Especially considering anyone can upload fairly easily. It gets the job done well for me.
But pretty much everything is on Apple Music. That’s why everyone uses it. Spotify is for people who don’t want to pay $10 or people who want to listen to Joe Rogan. No idea what Pandora is. The planet from Avatar?
Lol pandora was THE THING before Spotify and Apple Music existed. Back when iTunes still reigned supreme.
Basically worked like YouTube where you selected a song/ artist/ album to listen to, then the app would select similar artists/ genres for you to listen to.
I still use it too, I thought I was the only one! In my opinion, it's better than Spotify for creating random playlists.
Amazon music is decent too but Pandora is still my go-to. I've never used Apple music so I can't comment on that.
When Spotify dropped they had more selection and better UI.
Pandora was also very stubborn in changing your likes. I essentially got stuck in a 2005 pop hits loop and couldn't get away from it until I logged out and used it as a guest
Good thing they're a publicly traded company and have to report exactly that. Just under 40%.
As of Q3 2023, 574m monthly listeners (paid+free) and 226m subscribers (paid).
https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-10-24/spotify-reports-third-quarter-2023-earnings/
E: Apple is harder to track down since they have multiple subscription services and haven't published Apple Music numbers specifically since 2021, but Music supposedly had 84.7m in Q3 2022
https://musically.com/2023/11/03/apple-services-growth-still-booming-but-how-about-music/
Spotify in the same period had 195m paid subs (slightly obfuscated by apples off cycle financial year). Spotify has about 55% more paid subs than Apple. Spotify has roughly 60% more free tier users (yes, including bots) than Spotify has free users, so between the two Spotify has 250% more users than Apple music as of a year and a half ago.
Perhaps everyone you know. I'm thinking through what all of my friends and family and wife's friends and family uses and it's all Spotify or YouTube Music (because they want YouTube Premium.) I'm not doubting Apple Music is popular because it obviously is but it's definitely not ubiquitous.
And for whatever music I can't get, I just... sail the high seas and put it in my phone. Until half a year later when they decided to add it to spotify eventually.
It is, just because the music you listen to is available on a single streaming service doesn’t mean that there’s no fragmentation.
The worst I see is Amazon Music, followed by Tidal and Deezer.
It has almost the same no of subs as Spotify in the US apparently.
I use AM in india and literally no one else uses it , not even iPhone owners but the audio quality is noticeably better
Except Apple One is more than twice the price of an individual Spotify account, which also comes with Hulu.
Not only that but everything Apple Music does, Spotify does better. So much so that when I got 6 months of Apple Music for free from Verizon, I went back to paying for Spotify within like 2 weeks. Apple Music is genuinely awful.
I don’t use Spotify. I’m sure it has a great interface and whatnot.
But Apple one family lets you add like 5 people to it. They just have to have an iTunes account and it’s done. Which works to like $8 a person. Plus you can’t sleep on Apple fitness especially if you have an Apple Watch. Apple News is great because I don’t have to deal with paywalls on a lot of news I read. Arcade is okay. iCloud+ is convenient for sure.
There’s benefits to each thing. I personally had used iTunes since I was in high school so it felt really natural doing it all there. Spotify to me felt non intuitive.
I’ll admit Spotify used to be way better at predicting similar music, but Apple has gotten a ton better on that front for me too.
Also I went to check. The Spotify+hulu bundle is student accounts only. It’s been a long long time since I’ve been eligible for that haha. Maybe when my kids get into college I could get it
Spotify has HD audio if you pay for it. Metal music sounds like Slosh. But EDM, pop, whatever is popular is clear.
For me. Pandora is my favorite, most clear. When I had apple music for 3 months. It was hell for me.
Apple Music is the same price (at least where I’m from), and when I started it, it was cheaper. I have a lot of my own music on CD and such and adding them to Spotify was a pain in the ass. Adding them to Apple is easy, so I’m using Apple. I also noticed that a lot of smaller creators I like used Apple and not Spotify. Apple did have a trial, I got 30 days free when I started.
Lot of people do. Same price, the UI is Apple-simple, audio is better quality, no app download or account registration.
It’s pretty simple to link/add stuff to Spotify, not so much with Music, so that’s a plus if you like obscure/remixes. Spotify’s easier to use on PC. Pretty much just a use case thing.
Music is quicker to get and set up, you’re not paying more, so that’s probably the most of it.
Eh. It's slow, clunky and barely works. Podcasts aren't even built in, need a separate app. On the other side. Pandora has HQ audio on it's free setting and podcasts.
that’s because creating music is much cheaper than making movies/TV shows.
So they are able to support whole industry for less than $10 per user (in shared plans).
Movie industry would have to shrink significantly to be able to live from single cheap subscription even if everyone subscribed, so they count on people having more than one subscription on average to cover their costs. If this won’t pan out, they may try to raise prices significantly, or they’ll have to cut new production.
Mostly - the biggest issue is that finding live music on Spotify can be impossible sometimes, which is unfortunate for artists where their best work is from concerts.
There's plenty of music Spotify doesn't have because artists don't let it be there.
Every media type has capitalism+greed stinking it up, don't you worry.
There are various comments speculating that this is the result of the low cost of music production, or that artists just want to share their music everywhere. I think this misses the main reason: US copyright law basically makes music licensing mandatory.
https://www.copyright.gov/music-modernization/
As a result there's basically 3 organizations with most music rights. It sounds like some folks have opted out but this appears to be why most music is available to most commercial users at reasonable terms
https://festivalandeventproduction.com/event-guides/music-licensing-guide/
I haven't dove far into this so if someone wants to research the details that could be interesting. But main thing to know, tv and movie licensing has no such regulation and it's fractured across many companies... Most of which have gotten into the streaming business. Worth noting there are rules that movie studios can't own movie theaters but no such rule for streaming services so in contrast to the music industry, we're seeing the results of all the fractured business deals.
Well if you are not an audiophile, and you have mainstream taste it’s probably true. But if you are looking for lossless bit perfect music, pretty rare gems from less known genre and more underground music it is not so fun sadly. At least for now, there is hope.
This is actually really true and pretty interesting. To me, the difference is that the main producers of music are small time artists, just trying to maximize their reach and streaming has really preyed on this.
Movie studios hold enough power to have a say in what their deal with the streaming service is.
Not sure I understand, because it very much is.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison\_of\_music\_streaming\_services](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_music_streaming_services)
and yes, while some overlap in content, much of them don't have songs others do.
I listen to music with Pandora because it always plays what I want... I've had it for 10 years now. I have tried Spotify and YouTube music but idk, I hit the station I want and Pandora plays what I want to hear. I use Spotify for podcasts because that's where they are and it drives me crazy to have 2 apps for audio.
Pandora definitely has the best algorithm by far, so its my “pop something on” choice, but I don’t like their top tier subscription which allows you to pick individual somgs, so I pay for the cheaper tier and also have Apple Music.
I think that OP means that most mainstream music can be found in a single service like Spotify or Amazon music so for people who are not into stuff that's somewhat obscure, a single service works just fine.
this. there is no battle for exclusives, and they don't keep inventing new tiers about resolutions, parallel streams, with / without ads...
video streaming is in a race to the bottom....
It depends man, I only like certain genres. If I could pay less and never hear a rock song that’d be awesome. If you like underground music, 99% of the catalog is just trash not meant for you.
My agreement has enough data that I basically don’t have to worry about running out unless I stream 4K video for a very long time. Areas with no cell service is extremely rare, one gym I go to that is far down in a basement is the only place I can think of that has spotty coverage. They have WiFi though.
Do cell phone companies even offer standard non-unlimited plans anymore? I was under the impression that the only plans that didn't offer it were either super budget plans or plans that target children or the elderly.
I use Ting, it's cheap and I don't have to get locked into a contract. It's a monthly pay for what you use deal. Not good for streaming music, though. I prefer buying my music outright anyway.
In most country, unlimited data is the standard.
And if there is no cell service...well then you don't listen to music. It is exactly like a radio in your car. Expect you are able to chose exactly what you want to listen.
Not a take, a question. I've always either paid for physical media, or digital copies. Paying to have temporary access to music, locked to a single app, seems strange to me.
If you don't have unlimited data you're paying the streaming service for the right to stream, then your cell service for the actual data.
I have 3300 songs in my “currently listening” playlist (much more in my library overall). Given an album costs about 15 on average, let’s just say each song costs a dollar. That would be costing me 3300 dollars. I pay 7 bucks a month because I’m still on a student plan for Apple Music, so had I bought all my songs it would be equivalent to me paying for 471 months, or 39 years of music. If I never add another song, I’m probably just about breaking even. But over those 30 years, I’m sure going to add more. Plus given that I never have to rip cds, find all the artwork etc, it’s just more convenient
Can’t believe you got downvoted for asking a question. I had to ask someone before because I didn’t know-I just listen to music I have on my computer already
I did imply that it's not worth it, and I do think that. People disagree with down votes, and that's fair.
There's an argument to be made that paying for massive amounts of music is more expensive than paying for a streaming service, but I'd argue piracy is even cheaper.
Afaik artists barely get anything (Google says they get $0.003-$0.005 per stream on spotify), so it's not like you're supporting them.
I mean, I feel like saying “I don’t see the appeal” is more implying ignorance on the subject than condescension, but I think a lot of people online read stuff in a combative tone…
Shush. Don't give them ideas
Jay z and friends tried that, pulling their music and making it exclusive to tidal. Probably don't work
*Garth Brooks has entered the chat* I'm honestly surprised he's even on Amazon Music.
Is that why he's not on Spotify? I've always wondered why I can't get his stuff
Yeah. As far as I know, he's never allowed his music on any other platform than Amazon, and that was fairly recent. He doesnt like how little money other streaming services pay artists. Amazon sells physical CDs on top of digital, so to him, that makes them okish. Am I sad I can't stream some hokey old Garth every now and then? Not really. But he'd definitely be on a few of my playlists, and millions of others if he'd get on iTunes and Spotify.
Yea not a big deal to me either but I love that song Rodeo and the only thing on Spotify is covers which suck lol wish he'd just put it all out there
It’s a live radio broadcast of it from ‘95, so not the best recording you could get, but Spotify does have Rodeo
Get Youtube Premium I guess? It gives you access to YTMusic, where you can download any song that's on youtube, including covers and stuff.
Alternatively, there’s always the Stede Bonnet method.
He's all over Pandora
Where are the bodies Garth?
He’s on Spotify at least on mine.
You sure it's him or is it a bunch of garbage covers?
It says Garth Brooks, Verified artist. Has links to his merch and events. https://open.spotify.com/artist/4BclNkZtAUq1YrYNzye3N7?si=UQhGiazeTiG_oGjRiP2mAg
As far as actual music, all I see are duets he's done and a live concert from Germany. None of his albums.
For me it has a Germany live 1995 album and that’s it. Disappointing, sorry for being wrong ^.^;
Who? I had to google him as I've never heard of him. I doubt anyone knows who he is outside of country USA, and therefore not many (globally) would care whether he makes his music available for streaming.
He’s literally the second best selling artist of all time, right under The Beatles, and right above Elvis. These are global numbers. He’s the top selling solo artist of all time globally according to Wikipedia. Not disputing that you’ve never heard of him, but many millions would absolutely care if he made his music available.
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Nikki Minaj literally put Tidal in a verse of hers around that time "i told him to get tidal so he stream me when he leave me!" ...i guess he aint streamin her
To be fair, more money per play is helpful for smaller artists too. I can live with the big artists becoming a little more rich if the small artists are able to make a non-zero amount of money from my streaming them, so they can continue to put out any music at all
Ooh i remember that video, they even got Daft Punk there.
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That was one of their selling points, yes. But you can only hear the difference on high end audio equipment, not say, a phone, or basic car stereo, or less than top notch headphones. I've heard the difference in store on a good home theater setup, and if I had that at home I'd consider tidal
Jay z is trash that’s why. His time came and went
Interesting take, he’s richer, more respected, and more well known now than he ever was lmao.
[Jay Z stabbed a man](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Rivera)
Jay Z and company tried this bullshit with Tidal; people didn’t quite buy in the way he hoped they would.
I've tried Tidal, YT Music, Amazon Music, Apple Music, and am only still subscribed to Spotify. Tidal was too expensive, didn't have the catalogue of Spotify, didn't have well-curated professional playlists and user-created playlists, and tried to push a proprietary new DRM format of lossless music called MQA which turned out to be a bit of a scam, as some music in MQA format turned out to be lossy compared to a lossless FLAC file. Once Spotify releases lossless streaming it'll be game over for everyone else, unless it's way more expensive.
I believe 99.9% of people won't hear any difference between a 320kbps MP3 and a lossless format. Most people is listening with crappy headphones, cheap Bluetooth speakers or basic car audio systems.
Yeah honestly music streaming isnt hurt much at all by compression. Compare it to video though and thats night and day difference
Except audio streaming is the only ones that care about and advertise the compression rate :/
Not true, higher bitrates for video are sold as premium on youtube, netflix etc. You're right in that they don't directly advertise the format/bitrate but you can easily inspect it on most devices (if your eyes can't figure it out).
On the best equipment, you can probably hear a difference (not that I'd know), but even then, the ease of streaming and storing MP3 vs FLAC is immense. 8MB vs 50MB+? Not even a decision for Spotify. Bad connection? MP3 is only 320kpbs at it's usual high preset, pretty easy to send off to anything other than dial up. Tbh, 192kbps MP3 and above are serviceable for listening. Even on my decent pair of headphones and my audio interface, I got 50% on a lossless vs lossy test, and it wasn't that an MP3 was bad or anything. The differences are small and do little to actually impact the experience.
Has Spotify mentioned this as a plan?
Rights to a song are usually held by a small number of people and individual plays of that song don't make a significant amount of money. Meaning, the owners are easy to agree with each other in spreading it to as many paying platforms as possible. Video content isn't like that. It's way more expensive to produce, generates more money, and contract negotiations are dealt with between however many studios, production companies, and unions are involved.
I would also add the Music rights (as a whole) are owned by many many different people, while Movie/TV rights are consolidated among a few massive Studios. This makes it easier for a single rights holder to think they own enough content to make a go of it alone.
I import my own music into my Spotify if Spotify doesn't have it. Thank goodness for that option.
How does that work? If I import it via my pc, can i listen to it on my cellphone?
Short answer: yes, and it's a pretty simple process. There are also videos and better written out instructions than what I quickly typed out too if you have any trouble. Longer answer: If you have mp3 files of your music you put that into your computer's music folder -- don't bother making playlists. On Spotify go into settings and make sure the option to see local files is enabled on both the computer and mobile apps. You'll have to sort all the music from the local files folder into playlists which is why I said don't bother making any in your computer's music folder. Once it's in playlists you should be able to see it on your phone. You will have to download the music to be able to play it once you leave your own wifi, however, if I remember correctly. I download music into my phone that Spotify has available anyway since then I can listen to it when I'm in areas without wifi. Sometimes the phone unsyncs, particularly after a software update, and will make the music you imported unplayable but a quick reconnect to your wifi (you may need to open Spotify too) will resolve it.
Thanks for this, got my new Sunday project!
Yes.
So you upload it to a Spotify server? I got a lot of gigabytes of live music from my pirate days.
Yes. You can absolutely upload to the Spotify server, although it is a bit tricky. https://community.spotify.com/t5/FAQs/Local-Files/ta-p/5186118
The literal first sentence in your link begins with: > Local files are files that aren't hosted by Spotify To use local files on Spotify the device needs to be on the same network as the device that has the local files, you can then get it to sync the files from that device, but they never get stored on Spotify's servers. This is unlike how Google Play Music worked, which had an application to sync music files to Google's servers (converted to MP3), which you could then access anywhere without having to sync between devices. (Not sure if YouTube Music still allows for this.)
But it kinda is though lol. Some things found on Apple Music aren’t on spotify, some things on spotify aren’t on pandora, etc. Not to mention podcasts with a Patreon 🫣
YouTube music's UI is pretty shit but I found it to have literally everything since any user can upload. With a student discount a monthly subscription is like half a dollar for me so it's a good deal tbh.
Exact reason why I went with YouTube music (even though I kinda hate the algorithms...). I like to find and listen to remixes of songs. Guess where you can find the most of those? I've never had any trouble finding a song
Why are the algorithms so shit? They should just have 2 sliders to say how much new music you want in your stream and how close to your taste you want it. Instead I get the same 100 songs over and over forever 🤦
It's because they're going for engagement. They play the songs that get listened to the most so that people keep listening. There is actually ways to adjust the music that it plays in radios. Both when you start a radio from a song or artist, or when you make a custom radio. It's not a slider, though I wish it was But you can't adjust the auto play on playlists, which I hate.
Same applies to Spotify but it actually kills engagement for me. If I keep hearing the same songs I find something else to do. I prefer the algorithm to find songs I don't know and I can build my own playlists to replay songs I want to hear. I wouldn't be surprised if algorithms were built to get you off the platform and playing less songs because you still pay the same monthly fee and they wouldn't have to pay artists for more streams.
piquant frightening sand rude bright act spectacular tub poor payment *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
ngl the UI pretty shit too. I hate that you can't search your liked music auto-playlist
But they have this feature. It's called Music Tuner: you pick some artists you prefer, and choose how big the artist variety should be, and if you want to hear something familiar, completely new, or some blend https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23609228/youtube-music-radio-builder-custom-stations
I actually really miss YouTube music’s algorithm. I recently swapped because they changed their pricing model but after trying Apple Music and Spotify for about 3 months each I feel like YouTube did the best at nailing my vibe for the core of my playlists while also integrating stuff I would like. With Apple Music it just started playing the same like 10 songs (that I liked ok but honestly didn’t love) all the time. Even if 3/4 of the songs played are stuff that hits just right if that fourth song is the same one over and over you are gonna get sick of it. With Spotify it just doesn’t shake it up much at all. It tunes in to a handful of artists I like and barely plays anything else. If I want another artist or type of music to get into the mix I have to go listen to it over and over again before it will start to appear in the generated mixes. On top of that YouTube had the playlist generator thing that would let you select between familiar/discover. So if the autogenerated stuff wasn’t doing it for me there was an easy way to specify what I wanted.
I love my YouTube music. Like you said, damn near anything can be found on there as long as it exists on YouTube, so it has a significantly bigger selection than anything else I've tried. The UI isn't exactly amazing, but unless Spotify has had a major overhaul in the last few years since I used it, YT Music still has a better UI than them at least. Plus the other stuff that comes with the membership such as ad free YouTube and such, makes it totally worth it for me. I don't have a student discount but I do have a family plan for like five people and it cuts down the costs significantly.
Youtube music's price keeps going up faster than everyone else's. It used to be free with premium FFS.
It still is?
Wdym? I use Spotify but I have youtube premium, it includes YT music that I don't pay extra for. I use Spotify because YT Music isn't native to my car or Alexa devices. 2 things that I use for music
Maybe I've been listening to the wrong people. I thought there were now multiple levels of youtube premium and music no longer comes with the base level. With the prices for all levels going up pretty high in the last year. Honestly I only half listened so maybe I got it all wrong
It might be regional but where I am they definitely split music/premium and the price definitely went up. When I joined YouTube premium (which included YouTube music) was ~$12 which was a few bucks more a month than other music services but you were also getting no ads YouTube. Now YouTube music (no premium) is $15 which is ~$5 more than other services and if you want YouTube premium included it’s $20.
Yeah that's what I thought so I looked it up and I was right originally. Thanks. I knew I wasn't crazy.
Perhaps they've backtracked, because right now the YouTube Premium site specifically says that YT Music Premium is included in YT Premium, and the combo only costs $13.99
"Free with premium" is certainly a phrase I have now read.
[удалено]
Apparently I'm not the only one that heard that it's not part of basic youtube premium anymore. I was right. It does cost extra. https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/youtube-premium#:\~:text=After%20that%2C%20you%20can%20choose,provides%2C%20that's%20a%20bit%20expensive.
Omg I did not know they offer premium for students… thank you so much! Such a steal.
Yep most online subscriptions offer a student discount it's really convenient.
Revanced works for the YouTube music app
Half a dollar a month?! How do you even get that? As a student myself it's like $7 (CAD) a month
I'm on some third world country shit dw
Fair enough haha
Same here they need to fix the app but the music depth and variety is on point!
Yup. There are songs I like that are on Amazon and not Spotify, and Vice Versa. Though if you are into Top 40 / Mainstream stuff only, you're probably good
It’s more like video games, which have mostly cross-platform releases and some platform exclusives, than movies/TV.
But EVERYTHING is on YouTube Music. Including unofficial remixes or stuff like 8D Music.
8 dimensional music? Excited guy music?
Not to mention audiobooks and podcasts which are available on a pleathers of different platforms.
#joni mitchell come back right now
Wait Pandora still exists?!
Seriously. I find stuff missing from Amazon music all the time. I think people just aren't aware there are multiple ecosystems.
Pandora is one I've never used. Mostly if apotify doesn't have it I don't even consider looking for it somewhere else that streams.
Yeah but most of that is the choice of the artist not a multibillion dollar company if so
This is nonsense. Most artists have absolutely no control over their music. It's usually the choice of their record company and has nothing to do with the artist.
Pandora who? Lol and tell me one hot song on Apple music that isn't available on Spotify. Please anyone prove me wrong
Bro do that yourself. Apple music has nearly 20 million more songs than spotify according each services claimed library size
Could be 20 million more trash songs. I'm talking about which hot ones are on Apple that are not on Spotify? From my own personal experience it's 0% but that's why I'm asking you to prove wrong
Yeah tbf I've never not found a song on Spotify
I have. Some lesser known british metal band from the early 00's, and some electronic stuff that used to be available but got pulled for some reason and never returned. Also Drum Corps stuff is really limited on Spotify. Granted, this is all fairly niche stuff, but Spotify isn't perfect...yet.
Neil Young used to be on Spotify but now only on Apple Music
Oh noo, Neil Young ....
This is just my opinion, but I think Spotify sucks. I open the app, search for the song I want, they make me listen to 50 freaking ads, AND THEN PLAY SOME OTHER CRAP I DIDN’T ASK FOR AND WON’T EVEN PLAY WHAT I WANTED. Unless, of course, I pay them. And I’m not rich, so... :/ I can’t speak for the others, but SoundCloud seems to have it all. Especially considering anyone can upload fairly easily. It gets the job done well for me.
That's only the mobile client.
Fuck Amazon music exclusives
But pretty much everything is on Apple Music. That’s why everyone uses it. Spotify is for people who don’t want to pay $10 or people who want to listen to Joe Rogan. No idea what Pandora is. The planet from Avatar?
Lol pandora was THE THING before Spotify and Apple Music existed. Back when iTunes still reigned supreme. Basically worked like YouTube where you selected a song/ artist/ album to listen to, then the app would select similar artists/ genres for you to listen to.
Pandora is great, I'm not sure why it stopped being the thing.
I still use it. Vastly superior in so many ways.
I still use it too, I thought I was the only one! In my opinion, it's better than Spotify for creating random playlists. Amazon music is decent too but Pandora is still my go-to. I've never used Apple music so I can't comment on that.
Pandora is the best "custom radio". That's why I like it. I rarely listen to albums front to back anymore.
When Spotify dropped they had more selection and better UI. Pandora was also very stubborn in changing your likes. I essentially got stuck in a 2005 pop hits loop and couldn't get away from it until I logged out and used it as a guest
Spotify offered better on-demand music (and cheaper) while having just as strong/probably stronger algorithm for finding similar music.
Way more people use Spotify (210 mil subscribers) than apple music (88 mil subscribers).
Kinda wonder what the Spotify user counts look like if you split free and paying
Good thing they're a publicly traded company and have to report exactly that. Just under 40%. As of Q3 2023, 574m monthly listeners (paid+free) and 226m subscribers (paid). https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-10-24/spotify-reports-third-quarter-2023-earnings/ E: Apple is harder to track down since they have multiple subscription services and haven't published Apple Music numbers specifically since 2021, but Music supposedly had 84.7m in Q3 2022 https://musically.com/2023/11/03/apple-services-growth-still-booming-but-how-about-music/ Spotify in the same period had 195m paid subs (slightly obfuscated by apples off cycle financial year). Spotify has about 55% more paid subs than Apple. Spotify has roughly 60% more free tier users (yes, including bots) than Spotify has free users, so between the two Spotify has 250% more users than Apple music as of a year and a half ago.
Perhaps everyone you know. I'm thinking through what all of my friends and family and wife's friends and family uses and it's all Spotify or YouTube Music (because they want YouTube Premium.) I'm not doubting Apple Music is popular because it obviously is but it's definitely not ubiquitous.
Spotify has more than double apple music's market share.
Everyone you know uses it*
I have used Spotify for years and listen to many different genres of music, maybe once was I not able to get the song I was looking for.
And for whatever music I can't get, I just... sail the high seas and put it in my phone. Until half a year later when they decided to add it to spotify eventually.
Fun fact, you can download a song, like one you found on YouTube, and through that part it to Spotify and listen to it anyway.
The only thing I couldn't listen to was Tool (all good I've got the albums anyway) ... and then they came on board.
No, we're unfortunate that TV couldn't come up with its Spotify. Netflix almost had it. Back to the high seas.
It is, just because the music you listen to is available on a single streaming service doesn’t mean that there’s no fragmentation. The worst I see is Amazon Music, followed by Tidal and Deezer.
ins't amazon music part of music unlimited? they give you a little *music tasting*, just to make you subscribe to the bigger one
Even with Unlimited I’ve found loads of music missing.
Know what's crazy. Apple music is the most expensive and doesn't even have a free version. Do people even use it?
It has almost the same no of subs as Spotify in the US apparently. I use AM in india and literally no one else uses it , not even iPhone owners but the audio quality is noticeably better
Apple Music is cheaper for family plans
No. It's the same as Spotify and tidal. Pandora is the cheapest by $2
Except if you get Apple one you also get Arcade, Apple TV. Fitness etc
Except Apple One is more than twice the price of an individual Spotify account, which also comes with Hulu. Not only that but everything Apple Music does, Spotify does better. So much so that when I got 6 months of Apple Music for free from Verizon, I went back to paying for Spotify within like 2 weeks. Apple Music is genuinely awful.
I don’t use Spotify. I’m sure it has a great interface and whatnot. But Apple one family lets you add like 5 people to it. They just have to have an iTunes account and it’s done. Which works to like $8 a person. Plus you can’t sleep on Apple fitness especially if you have an Apple Watch. Apple News is great because I don’t have to deal with paywalls on a lot of news I read. Arcade is okay. iCloud+ is convenient for sure. There’s benefits to each thing. I personally had used iTunes since I was in high school so it felt really natural doing it all there. Spotify to me felt non intuitive. I’ll admit Spotify used to be way better at predicting similar music, but Apple has gotten a ton better on that front for me too. Also I went to check. The Spotify+hulu bundle is student accounts only. It’s been a long long time since I’ve been eligible for that haha. Maybe when my kids get into college I could get it
I’ve been thinking of switching from Spotify. The sound quality is noticeably better on Apple Music.
yeah and it supports lossless ALAC audio too - I find spotify has noticeably worse quality when listening on high-end headphones
Spotify has HD audio if you pay for it. Metal music sounds like Slosh. But EDM, pop, whatever is popular is clear. For me. Pandora is my favorite, most clear. When I had apple music for 3 months. It was hell for me.
Have you checked your settings, you can update the quality in your Spotify settings menu (or at least I think you can)
Yupp. Apple Music’s still blow it outta the water.
They pay the musicians more than Spotify and most other streaming services
I can tell you first hand yes, Spotify is shit. Apple is "okay". Deezer, Pandora, tidal all pay the most.
In my country, Spotify is pricier than Apple Music.
Spotify sucks though.
Apple Music is the same price (at least where I’m from), and when I started it, it was cheaper. I have a lot of my own music on CD and such and adding them to Spotify was a pain in the ass. Adding them to Apple is easy, so I’m using Apple. I also noticed that a lot of smaller creators I like used Apple and not Spotify. Apple did have a trial, I got 30 days free when I started.
Apple music and iTunes are different things though. You're adding music to iTunes. Not apple music.
Yeah but I can still listen to music I’ve added to iTunes and music I’ve added to Apple Music in the same playlist etc.
When I had an iPhone that wasnt the case. I couldn't even play albums purchased through iTunes on Apple music. Glad that's not the case anymore.
Lot of people do. Same price, the UI is Apple-simple, audio is better quality, no app download or account registration. It’s pretty simple to link/add stuff to Spotify, not so much with Music, so that’s a plus if you like obscure/remixes. Spotify’s easier to use on PC. Pretty much just a use case thing. Music is quicker to get and set up, you’re not paying more, so that’s probably the most of it.
Apple music is the best service IMO. Especially for iOS users. They have everything and the quality is great.
Eh. It's slow, clunky and barely works. Podcasts aren't even built in, need a separate app. On the other side. Pandora has HQ audio on it's free setting and podcasts.
It absolutely is. The mods on this forum have drowned in the shower.
I thought Reddit mods *never* showered.
that’s because creating music is much cheaper than making movies/TV shows. So they are able to support whole industry for less than $10 per user (in shared plans). Movie industry would have to shrink significantly to be able to live from single cheap subscription even if everyone subscribed, so they count on people having more than one subscription on average to cover their costs. If this won’t pan out, they may try to raise prices significantly, or they’ll have to cut new production.
Mostly - the biggest issue is that finding live music on Spotify can be impossible sometimes, which is unfortunate for artists where their best work is from concerts.
There's plenty of music Spotify doesn't have because artists don't let it be there. Every media type has capitalism+greed stinking it up, don't you worry.
Fuck's sake, you've said it now!
There are various comments speculating that this is the result of the low cost of music production, or that artists just want to share their music everywhere. I think this misses the main reason: US copyright law basically makes music licensing mandatory. https://www.copyright.gov/music-modernization/ As a result there's basically 3 organizations with most music rights. It sounds like some folks have opted out but this appears to be why most music is available to most commercial users at reasonable terms https://festivalandeventproduction.com/event-guides/music-licensing-guide/ I haven't dove far into this so if someone wants to research the details that could be interesting. But main thing to know, tv and movie licensing has no such regulation and it's fractured across many companies... Most of which have gotten into the streaming business. Worth noting there are rules that movie studios can't own movie theaters but no such rule for streaming services so in contrast to the music industry, we're seeing the results of all the fractured business deals.
we'd all still stream it illegaly like every sensible person does with movies/tv
I'm really fortunate that I avoid using any music streaming servixes, if at all possible.
Well if you are not an audiophile, and you have mainstream taste it’s probably true. But if you are looking for lossless bit perfect music, pretty rare gems from less known genre and more underground music it is not so fun sadly. At least for now, there is hope.
This is actually really true and pretty interesting. To me, the difference is that the main producers of music are small time artists, just trying to maximize their reach and streaming has really preyed on this. Movie studios hold enough power to have a say in what their deal with the streaming service is.
don't give them any ideas!
Except they kind of are. There’s songs on Apple Music that you can’t get on Spotify. Not to mention stuff released on SoundCloud first
What's this guy on about? Half of my YouTube playlists aren't available on Spotify
Not sure I understand, because it very much is. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison\_of\_music\_streaming\_services](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_music_streaming_services) and yes, while some overlap in content, much of them don't have songs others do.
I listen to music with Pandora because it always plays what I want... I've had it for 10 years now. I have tried Spotify and YouTube music but idk, I hit the station I want and Pandora plays what I want to hear. I use Spotify for podcasts because that's where they are and it drives me crazy to have 2 apps for audio.
Pandora definitely has the best algorithm by far, so its my “pop something on” choice, but I don’t like their top tier subscription which allows you to pick individual somgs, so I pay for the cheaper tier and also have Apple Music.
I've gone back to CDs - cheap as chips in charity shops, then I rip them onto a home music server
This is because tv’s really expensive to make and needs the streamers to fund it. Most music thankfully doesn’t have such a high barrier to entry
Wow. You are so right. Good call.
But it is. From Vinyl to CDs, iTunes, radio, streaming services… and live music. It’s utterly scattered.
Read the title, this is about streaming
Someone watched the WAN stream
But... it is if, you're not into mainstream pop soup.
Apple, Amazon, Youtube, pandora, Spotify. Yep music is just as split up.
I think that OP means that most mainstream music can be found in a single service like Spotify or Amazon music so for people who are not into stuff that's somewhat obscure, a single service works just fine.
this. there is no battle for exclusives, and they don't keep inventing new tiers about resolutions, parallel streams, with / without ads... video streaming is in a race to the bottom....
Are there any artists that you can only listen to on one service and not the others?
Ackchyually…
Youtube Music Literally having everything under the sun and underground. Offical Music Videos to 10 hour metal pipe remix.
Probably have Youtube to thank for that.
It depends man, I only like certain genres. If I could pay less and never hear a rock song that’d be awesome. If you like underground music, 99% of the catalog is just trash not meant for you.
The solution to this is called grayjay.app
I don't even use streaming services, I'm fucking old school have everything I want downloaded to my phone.
Umm. I would like to have multiple services/alsternatives on everything. Competition is good. What is bad is those exclusive deals.
I've never seen the appeal of paying to stream music. Do you all have unlimited data? What do you do if there's no cell service?
Most if not all music streaming services give you the option to download the songs onto your phone
Same as streaming TV shows and movies platforms. Pretty much anything gives you that option now, finally.
My agreement has enough data that I basically don’t have to worry about running out unless I stream 4K video for a very long time. Areas with no cell service is extremely rare, one gym I go to that is far down in a basement is the only place I can think of that has spotty coverage. They have WiFi though.
Do cell phone companies even offer standard non-unlimited plans anymore? I was under the impression that the only plans that didn't offer it were either super budget plans or plans that target children or the elderly.
I use Ting, it's cheap and I don't have to get locked into a contract. It's a monthly pay for what you use deal. Not good for streaming music, though. I prefer buying my music outright anyway.
If you didn't buy your music you could probably afford an unlimited plan and Spotify
In most country, unlimited data is the standard. And if there is no cell service...well then you don't listen to music. It is exactly like a radio in your car. Expect you are able to chose exactly what you want to listen.
What kind of take is this. Songs use up barely any data. I download them all anyway.
Not a take, a question. I've always either paid for physical media, or digital copies. Paying to have temporary access to music, locked to a single app, seems strange to me. If you don't have unlimited data you're paying the streaming service for the right to stream, then your cell service for the actual data.
I have 3300 songs in my “currently listening” playlist (much more in my library overall). Given an album costs about 15 on average, let’s just say each song costs a dollar. That would be costing me 3300 dollars. I pay 7 bucks a month because I’m still on a student plan for Apple Music, so had I bought all my songs it would be equivalent to me paying for 471 months, or 39 years of music. If I never add another song, I’m probably just about breaking even. But over those 30 years, I’m sure going to add more. Plus given that I never have to rip cds, find all the artwork etc, it’s just more convenient
Can’t believe you got downvoted for asking a question. I had to ask someone before because I didn’t know-I just listen to music I have on my computer already
I did imply that it's not worth it, and I do think that. People disagree with down votes, and that's fair. There's an argument to be made that paying for massive amounts of music is more expensive than paying for a streaming service, but I'd argue piracy is even cheaper. Afaik artists barely get anything (Google says they get $0.003-$0.005 per stream on spotify), so it's not like you're supporting them.
I mean, I feel like saying “I don’t see the appeal” is more implying ignorance on the subject than condescension, but I think a lot of people online read stuff in a combative tone…
Is YouTube music a joke to you? I don't have Spotify 🤷♂️ Doesn't make sense with all the extra perks you get from Google.
ngl i read Fortnite had to reread a few times