What is the best replacement for Amazon Music?
October 3, 2018 5:03 PM Subscribe
Can you help me find the best cloud-based service to host music so I can stream it via Amazon Echo or easily download tracks to my Kindle Fire HD 7?
For the past 10+ years I have used Amazon Music as my go-to cloud-based music system. Whenever I purchased an album (I'm one of those people who still buys albums!), I would do so through Amazon's website, then download the mp3 files to my PC for backup. And if I had an mp3 file from another source, I would upload it to Amazon and add it to the My Music collection.
This has been great for two reasons: I could play any of my music through my Amazon Echo just by asking, and I could download any song directly to my Kindle Fire HD 7 to be played in my car via Bluetooth. It has basically given me access to all of my music anywhere I want.
But a recent change from Amazon has ruined this happy synergy: they no longer allow customers to upload mp3 files into their cloud. So while I can still listen to everything I owned up until last month, I can no longer add music to my collection unless it is purchased on Amazon.
This week an album I had supported on IndieGoGo came out for backers ("Eve" by the band Emery) and the band emailed me a link to mp3 files. But since I didn't purchase the album from Amazon - which isn't even possible to do yet, as the album hasn't been released publicly - it isn't part of My Music in Amazon. This means the only way I can listen to this album on my Kindle is to plug the Kindle into a PC and transfer the files manually. And the only way I can listen to the album on my Echo is to turn on my Kindle, connect the Kindle to the Echo via Bluetooth, and stream it from the files I transferred from the PC.
This is too much work and sounds like a nightmare going forward, hence my question: what's the best service to use to host my music so I can still access it via wifi using my Kindle and Amazon Echo? I don't believe Spotify or Pandora let you upload your own tracks, but who does? I've considered Google Music, but don't know if it plays nice with Amazon products. Does anyone have any experience streaming this way?
For the past 10+ years I have used Amazon Music as my go-to cloud-based music system. Whenever I purchased an album (I'm one of those people who still buys albums!), I would do so through Amazon's website, then download the mp3 files to my PC for backup. And if I had an mp3 file from another source, I would upload it to Amazon and add it to the My Music collection.
This has been great for two reasons: I could play any of my music through my Amazon Echo just by asking, and I could download any song directly to my Kindle Fire HD 7 to be played in my car via Bluetooth. It has basically given me access to all of my music anywhere I want.
But a recent change from Amazon has ruined this happy synergy: they no longer allow customers to upload mp3 files into their cloud. So while I can still listen to everything I owned up until last month, I can no longer add music to my collection unless it is purchased on Amazon.
This week an album I had supported on IndieGoGo came out for backers ("Eve" by the band Emery) and the band emailed me a link to mp3 files. But since I didn't purchase the album from Amazon - which isn't even possible to do yet, as the album hasn't been released publicly - it isn't part of My Music in Amazon. This means the only way I can listen to this album on my Kindle is to plug the Kindle into a PC and transfer the files manually. And the only way I can listen to the album on my Echo is to turn on my Kindle, connect the Kindle to the Echo via Bluetooth, and stream it from the files I transferred from the PC.
This is too much work and sounds like a nightmare going forward, hence my question: what's the best service to use to host my music so I can still access it via wifi using my Kindle and Amazon Echo? I don't believe Spotify or Pandora let you upload your own tracks, but who does? I've considered Google Music, but don't know if it plays nice with Amazon products. Does anyone have any experience streaming this way?
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With Plex, I can play music/video on my Fire Stick (free app), music on Echo Dot ("Alexa, Ask Plex to play Robbie Fulks"), and music/video on mobile devices (which require a paid app, I forget, but something like $5-6 covering all my Android devices), as well as watching or listening through a web interface on PC.
It does appear that the app will run on some Android versions of Kindle, such as the HDX, and this reddit thread from /r/Plex indicates it'll work on HD 7. Some TVs have Plex app built-in, but mine didn't.
I use Plex exclusively at home within the local network, but it does have the option of internet access, meaning that you could access your Plex server anywhere you have internet connectivity.
posted by Sunburnt at 6:27 PM on October 3, 2018 [2 favorites]