Moving on from Spotify

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#2860215 1-Feb-2022 19:32

huckster:

Just got an email saying my YouTube Premium family plan price is increasing.....

Toyed with YT Music a while back but didn't like it as much as Spotify but and beginning to think having both is too much (when you add in Netflix, Apple TV....)

YT Music also going up - increasing from 12.99 to 14.99 Not sure its worth it at this point never really liked YT Music as much as Play Music.

darylblake

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#2860217 1-Feb-2022 19:37

No issues with any of this nonsense.

Will continue to use Spotify and Tidal.

Have a Tidal sub because of Serato. I enjoy both, no problem with neil young or joe rogan none of my business.

insane

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#2860218 1-Feb-2022 19:43

darylblake:

No issues with any of this nonsense.

Will continue to use Spotify and Tidal.

Have a Tidal sub because of Serato. I enjoy both, no problem with neil young or joe rogan none of my business.

That's not the thinking of the masses these days though. Agreeing to disagree, or walking away is no longer an option. Which is funny as by the same logic I should cancel my Geekzone subscription as I don't agree with some of the stuff I read on here.

tripp

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#2860222 1-Feb-2022 20:03

rphenix:
huckster:

Just got an email saying my YouTube Premium family plan price is increasing.....

Toyed with YT Music a while back but didn't like it as much as Spotify but and beginning to think having both is too much (when you add in Netflix, Apple TV....)

YT Music also going up - increasing from 12.99 to 14.99 Not sure its worth it at this point never really liked YT Music as much as Play Music.

I must be one of the lucky ones. no email and only paying $9.99nz month for youtube premium.

darylblake

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#2860224 1-Feb-2022 20:04

insane:

darylblake:

No issues with any of this nonsense.

Will continue to use Spotify and Tidal.

Have a Tidal sub because of Serato. I enjoy both, no problem with neil young or joe rogan none of my business.

That's not the thinking of the masses these days though. Agreeing to disagree, or walking away is no longer an option. Which is funny as by the same logic I should cancel my Geekzone subscription as I don't agree with some of the stuff I read on here.

I have learned critical thinking and analysis, and I am not taking any sides in this debate. Sometimes my opinion will side with the masses. Sometimes it will not. But I won't be a sheep, and in the grand scheme of things what is really important? In my mind not any of this hysteria, this is flavour of the week level stuff.

ANglEAUT

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#2860225 1-Feb-2022 20:21

MaxineN: ... I actually get to listen to new stuff and it discovers stuff much like a very old service that isn't here anymore, PANDORA.

If I ever get to the point of installing VPN for location altering & privacy, I would sign up for Pandora again. Been stuck in this hell hole of trying one service after another that S.O. approval in a mixed Apple / Android household since they pulled back to the US.

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freitasm

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#2860242 1-Feb-2022 20:56

Removed a post of someone defending a couple of anti-vaxxers. Banned.

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fizzychicken

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#2860330 1-Feb-2022 22:55

So after youtube premium priced itself out of contention......

signed up for Amazon Music Unlimited trial, only to find it can only cast to amazon devices, not just dictate the command...so I cant leave issue the play and kill the app, and the casting didnt even work on any of the 5 echo devices I have, all I ever got was 'sopmething went wrong, please try again later'. I had the desktop app die twice, had the android app lockup every single time I used it, and the browser doesnt buffer ahead enough to stop pauses in every other track. I like that the andorid app had its own equivalent of spotify's genius data, but that couldnt be seen on the desktop. The lyrics were a better experience than on Youtube, on par with Spotify. All the music I was used to was there, nearly all of the podcasts I listen to were found, the sound quality was good, the price was good.....just a shame that out of the box amazon echo integration wasnt anywhere near as good as the Spotify experience, so there wasnt anything to make me want to persist with resolving performance issues.

I took a look at apple music, and like I said before, I'm doing this just to try things out for personal benefit, but they had 'home of Neil Young, home of Joni Mitchell' everywhere and promoted playlists and interviews etc.......all I could think was 'Yeah Apple....like you're the beacon of all things ethical and good', it actually turned me off immediately, or should I say it enhanced the pre-existing bias I had against them. Their lack of clarity on pricing or the family plan or lack of ease of searching content (podcasts) without signing up made me just skip them.

Tidal doesnt do podcasts and isnt priced in a range to make me consider a change to them.

Deezer seems like it hits all the marks in comparison to Spotify but it wasn't clear on pricing, 17.99 is a good deal for NZD, a bad deal if its USD......it doesnt say what it actually charges in anywhere on their site so I contacted their support who told me 'I think its in NZD, check out the website'.....storming out of the gates with a poor experience....but I will keep digging and try and find an accurate answer and I might give their trial a go.

But right now, Spotify has reclaimed the spot of best-fit for my needs.

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ArcticSilver

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#2860331 1-Feb-2022 23:06

freitasm: Removed a post of someone defending a couple of anti-vaxxers. Banned.

Isn’t this a form and hence shouldn’t it be a open discussion?

Maybe I saw the wrong post but it seemed reasonable and no offensive to me and I’m not anti vax.

We need to stop blocking views we don’t agree with, rather having a open discussion about them and why they are wrong (assuming they are). We’re creating division in the community which is just bad for everyone.

michaelmurfy

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#2860338 1-Feb-2022 23:27

@ArcticSilver It is an open discussion and always has been but we have zero tolerance of misinformation which this was.

At the end of the day, I'm a music listener. I have zero desire to listen to podcasts on Spotify. To me, this is a music streaming platform but them allowing music creators to leave (remember they're a music streaming service) over a controversial podcast AND advertising this podcast to most of its users when it is sharing (potential) misinformation is enough to make people like myself leave. That is the discussion, we're looking for real music streaming services who are still about the music.

For me that is Tidal - I've been loving it. And I've just cancelled my Spotify subscription. The other push was Spotify wanting to raise the price of my plan...

So yeah, I seriously don't want to hear about the controversial crap anymore. Thanks.

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MaxineN

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#2860340 1-Feb-2022 23:29

fizzychicken:

So after youtube premium priced itself out of contention......

signed up for Amazon Music Unlimited trial, only to find it can only cast to amazon devices, not just dictate the command...so I cant leave issue the play and kill the app, and the casting didnt even work on any of the 5 echo devices I have, all I ever got was 'sopmething went wrong, please try again later'. I had the desktop app die twice, had the android app lockup every single time I used it, and the browser doesnt buffer ahead enough to stop pauses in every other track. I like that the andorid app had its own equivalent of spotify's genius data, but that couldnt be seen on the desktop. The lyrics were a better experience than on Youtube, on par with Spotify. All the music I was used to was there, nearly all of the podcasts I listen to were found, the sound quality was good, the price was good.....just a shame that out of the box amazon echo integration wasnt anywhere near as good as the Spotify experience, so there wasnt anything to make me want to persist with resolving performance issues.

I took a look at apple music, and like I said before, I'm doing this just to try things out for personal benefit, but they had 'home of Neil Young, home of Joni Mitchell' everywhere and promoted playlists and interviews etc.......all I could think was 'Yeah Apple....like you're the beacon of all things ethical and good', it actually turned me off immediately, or should I say it enhanced the pre-existing bias I had against them. Their lack of clarity on pricing or the family plan or lack of ease of searching content (podcasts) without signing up made me just skip them.

Tidal doesnt do podcasts and isnt priced in a range to make me consider a change to them.

Deezer seems like it hits all the marks in comparison to Spotify but it wasn't clear on pricing, 17.99 is a good deal for NZD, a bad deal if its USD......it doesnt say what it actually charges in anywhere on their site so I contacted their support who told me 'I think its in NZD, check out the website'.....storming out of the gates with a poor experience....but I will keep digging and try and find an accurate answer and I might give their trial a go.

But right now, Spotify has reclaimed the spot of best-fit for my needs.

Deezer family plan is 17.99 NZD

They do regional pricing it's just not displayed correctly. For contrast I pay exactly 12.99 NZD from my paypal account every month for 1 user.

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fizzychicken

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#2860346 2-Feb-2022 00:14

Thanks for confiming @MaxineN

I signed up, immediate thoughts are, nice app, nice interface on mobile, desktop app and in the browser (bonus point for dark mode). Sign up and setup of accounts seems easy. Audio quality seems good. Lyrics playback are flat like in Youtube Music but at least they are there.

Then it fell apart a bit, its only once you connect up the services that it is clear that the alex skill for deezer lets you issue voice requests, but you cannot issue commands to target a specific amazon device from within any of the apps like I can on Spotify. There is a cast function just like in Amazon Music but on Deezer it doesnt support amazon devices. Which was a shame. The website pre-signup touted amazon integration as possible, but once logged in you get plenty of community posts saying that isnt exactly the case and they are still working on it. After searching in the app to import podcasts, it seems to have a lot less than spotify as some regulars are missing.

So all up, in comparison to Spotify, cheaper by $5, equal in interface experience/quality/stability, less in podcasts, less in Amazon device integration, lower quality lyrics, no genius function. So I think this goes into second place and definitely into 'check back in 6 months to see if things have improved'

For my purposes, mainly due to how many amazon devices I have around the house, Spotify remains the platform of choice.

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michaelmurfy

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#2860347 2-Feb-2022 00:22

fizzychicken:

For my purposes, mainly due to how many amazon devices I have around the house, Spotify remains the platform of choice.

Smart speakers are just a problem in general. I've got Google Home devices around the house which support Spotify and YouTube Music via the voice assistant but as my partner says we normally always cast to them which Tidal does well (I can see all the smart speakers and groups as streaming targets). This is worth it for me. So far Tidal has given me a better experience as a whole and it is supported by my new car.

I remember years ago I was using Google Play Music and loved it. The only reason I switched to Spotify was because of device compatibility but it is good that we're (mostly) seeing device compatibility on other services now. Switching isn't for everyone because at the end of the day you're the one who is using the service you signed up to.

Remember your music streaming app and podcasts app don't have to be combined. There are still great podcast apps out there like Audible, Google Podcasts and Pocket Casts.

freitasm

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#2860403 2-Feb-2022 06:33

@ArcticSilver:
freitasm: Removed a post of someone defending a couple of anti-vaxxers. Banned.

Isn’t this a form and hence shouldn’t it be a open discussion?

Maybe I saw the wrong post but it seemed reasonable and no offensive to me and I’m not anti vax.

We need to stop blocking views we don’t agree with, rather having a open discussion about them and why they are wrong (assuming they are). We’re creating division in the community which is just bad for everyone.

One thing is discussion of opposing views, a different thing is calling peddlers of misinformation as leaders.

There is no space here for misinformation.

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alasta

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#2860434 2-Feb-2022 08:35

michaelmurfy:

For me that is Tidal - I've been loving it. And I've just cancelled my Spotify subscription. The other push was Spotify wanting to raise the price of my plan...

How much is a Tidal subscription these days?

I used to pay nearly $40 a month for it back in the days when it was the only streaming service with lossless audio. In the end I decided it was too expensive and went back to paying $15 a month for Apple Music. Of course Apple Music have since introduced lossless at no extra cost.

I have to admit I quite liked the user experience with Tidal but I wonder if they will survive now that they have lost their point of difference.

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