What music streaming service should I get? Canadian Folkie Edition
June 30, 2023 4:08 AM Subscribe
I would like to get a music streaming service. I assume spotify or apple. I listen to mostly Canadian folk music -- figure the kind of people you hear at Stanfest. I would like to be able to listen on a google home mini, on an amazon alexa, and on my android phone. More requirements/preferences inside...
1. Music catalog: As states, lots of Canadian folk, 80s music (but I imagine that's easy to get).
2. Devices: Google home mini, amazon nest, android phone.
3.Streaming: I mean yes, but I have limited phone data before I get throttled so I'd like to be able to say -- make a giant playlist and have it download some random subset of that whenever I'm on wifi to play without using data when I"m not on wifi. is that how it works? how does it work? that's just how I'm imagining it would work. Open to another system of data-saving.
4. Library. I buy CDs. So many CDs. Can I just tell it which CDs I have so it knows what I like and what i want to listen to? I want to do that. I know it won't care that I own the CDs, but just as a way to seed my library.
5. Adding music: is this a thing I can do? If I have songs it doesn't have, can I upload them?
6. Making playlists. I assume anyone would have this? I'd like to do both picking specific songs and also either a list of artists or criteria (i.e. all the xmas songs in my library)
7. Music discovery. I am a creature of habit, so this is kind of low on my list, but sure...and especially if artists I already have release new stuff, please prompt me to add it to my library.
I am in Canada.
1. Music catalog: As states, lots of Canadian folk, 80s music (but I imagine that's easy to get).
2. Devices: Google home mini, amazon nest, android phone.
3.Streaming: I mean yes, but I have limited phone data before I get throttled so I'd like to be able to say -- make a giant playlist and have it download some random subset of that whenever I'm on wifi to play without using data when I"m not on wifi. is that how it works? how does it work? that's just how I'm imagining it would work. Open to another system of data-saving.
4. Library. I buy CDs. So many CDs. Can I just tell it which CDs I have so it knows what I like and what i want to listen to? I want to do that. I know it won't care that I own the CDs, but just as a way to seed my library.
5. Adding music: is this a thing I can do? If I have songs it doesn't have, can I upload them?
6. Making playlists. I assume anyone would have this? I'd like to do both picking specific songs and also either a list of artists or criteria (i.e. all the xmas songs in my library)
7. Music discovery. I am a creature of habit, so this is kind of low on my list, but sure...and especially if artists I already have release new stuff, please prompt me to add it to my library.
I am in Canada.
As far as I know, the only streaming services that let you upload your own music are YouTube Music and Apple Music… Spotify does let you add music, but it’s a neglected feature, and you probably wouldn’t be able to stream those songs on a smart speaker.
Of the two, I think Apple Music probably hits more of the other requirements than YouTube. There are no ads, music discovery is decent, and it should be available on all of your devices. If you install iTunes on a computer, you can import your CDs (and/or digital music) to start your library.
posted by boisterousBluebird at 5:40 AM on June 30, 2023
Of the two, I think Apple Music probably hits more of the other requirements than YouTube. There are no ads, music discovery is decent, and it should be available on all of your devices. If you install iTunes on a computer, you can import your CDs (and/or digital music) to start your library.
posted by boisterousBluebird at 5:40 AM on June 30, 2023
Is Joni Mitchell important to you? I don’t think much of her music is on Spotify, just in case that affects your decisionmaking!
posted by bijoubijou at 6:41 AM on June 30, 2023
posted by bijoubijou at 6:41 AM on June 30, 2023
Best answer: You'll have to go with Apple because YouTube Music is not available on Amazon Alexa. Personally, I use all three and vastly prefer the sound quality of YTM. It just feels richer.
So to answer your questions:
1. YouTube Music has the largest selection of random music, at least they do in the world of Kpop where I've been obsessed for the last few years. Spotify requires artists to give release in order for us to stream them and a few artists like Neil Young have declined to do so. Apple music also has a pretty big catalog.
2. Apple and Spotify will work on all three. YTM will only work on your phone and Google home natively. You can get it to play through your Echo speaker by connecting your phone to the Echo and playing that way but you can't get it by saying "Alexa play .... on YouTubeMusic."
3. For streaming you can download specific songs to your phone if you want to reduce your data consumption and then just play the downloaded songs on a playlist. However, these services don't eat a lot of data. I stream damn near constantly and I barely use 1GB of data for streaming.
4. All three will let you "add" albums to your profile and also like songs or whole albums. From there, all three have algorithms that will then predict what other things you might like. I've found YTM and Apple to be good at that, Spotify sometimes seems to force artists on me that I've indicated I don't want to hear more than I like.
5. You can upload your own music to Apple and YTM but not easily to Spotify.
6. All of them allow you to make playlists and will also create playlists for you. I kinda love the Spring 2023 or Year in Review playlists because it lets me go back and see what I was into in a previous period. You can also pick an artist or song and all three have the ability to create a playlist based on that artist or song. You can also have each of them fill in your playlist with similar artists after the playlist is finished.
7. You can follow artists you like and you'll get notified of new releases as the happen on all three platforms. Each platform will also create a "new releases" playlist based off of your listening preferences so you'll get new stuff from Canadian Folk Music and not the latest release from KPop.
Overall, while I like YTM better, Apple music is the best fit for you.
posted by teleri025 at 8:29 AM on June 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
So to answer your questions:
1. YouTube Music has the largest selection of random music, at least they do in the world of Kpop where I've been obsessed for the last few years. Spotify requires artists to give release in order for us to stream them and a few artists like Neil Young have declined to do so. Apple music also has a pretty big catalog.
2. Apple and Spotify will work on all three. YTM will only work on your phone and Google home natively. You can get it to play through your Echo speaker by connecting your phone to the Echo and playing that way but you can't get it by saying "Alexa play .... on YouTubeMusic."
3. For streaming you can download specific songs to your phone if you want to reduce your data consumption and then just play the downloaded songs on a playlist. However, these services don't eat a lot of data. I stream damn near constantly and I barely use 1GB of data for streaming.
4. All three will let you "add" albums to your profile and also like songs or whole albums. From there, all three have algorithms that will then predict what other things you might like. I've found YTM and Apple to be good at that, Spotify sometimes seems to force artists on me that I've indicated I don't want to hear more than I like.
5. You can upload your own music to Apple and YTM but not easily to Spotify.
6. All of them allow you to make playlists and will also create playlists for you. I kinda love the Spring 2023 or Year in Review playlists because it lets me go back and see what I was into in a previous period. You can also pick an artist or song and all three have the ability to create a playlist based on that artist or song. You can also have each of them fill in your playlist with similar artists after the playlist is finished.
7. You can follow artists you like and you'll get notified of new releases as the happen on all three platforms. Each platform will also create a "new releases" playlist based off of your listening preferences so you'll get new stuff from Canadian Folk Music and not the latest release from KPop.
Overall, while I like YTM better, Apple music is the best fit for you.
posted by teleri025 at 8:29 AM on June 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
I have no idea if they're downloadable or not or whether they'll work with your devices, but have you looked at the CBC Playlists?
posted by sardonyx at 10:35 AM on June 30, 2023
posted by sardonyx at 10:35 AM on June 30, 2023
Something more people should consider is Bandcamp. The cost of a streaming service will buy you 1-3 albums per month, which gets you DRM free files that you can do what you want with in addition to unlimited streaming via Bandcamps app. The app, by the way, has been getting some love lately in the form of feature updates and is worth revisiting if you wrote it off previously.
For anybody willing to run their own server (or pay for a hosted one) then Plex is actually pretty good for music via their Plexamp app. You can host your own music collection in it, so it pairs well with Bandcamp or with physical collections. It can also be hooked into Tidal to allow for a full streaming library in addition to your own collection.
Not for everyone, but worth considering. It's interesting to reflect on how much what is available in a streaming library impacts our listening, even before we get into what goes on with algos and playlists.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 5:45 PM on June 30, 2023
For anybody willing to run their own server (or pay for a hosted one) then Plex is actually pretty good for music via their Plexamp app. You can host your own music collection in it, so it pairs well with Bandcamp or with physical collections. It can also be hooked into Tidal to allow for a full streaming library in addition to your own collection.
Not for everyone, but worth considering. It's interesting to reflect on how much what is available in a streaming library impacts our listening, even before we get into what goes on with algos and playlists.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 5:45 PM on June 30, 2023
Response by poster: I signed up for Apple music, but I might not stay. I might just keep buying and ripping CDs because this is pretty disappointing.
I was expecting to have to upload obscure stuff like old concert recording versions of songs that I downloaded back when Napster was all anarchy and free love, but I kind of thought anything with a record company and a recording contract would be on there. Instead I'm findings lots of well-known artists (I mean not top 40, but superstars of the folk world) with albums missing, sometimes one or two, sometimes almost all.
I'm not sure spotify would be any better and I'm hearing that at least with apple I can upload stuff...but the whole point was to maybe stop buying CDs. If I still have to buy CDs and feed them to Apple, I'm not sure I see a point to paying a monthly fee.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:58 PM on June 30, 2023
I was expecting to have to upload obscure stuff like old concert recording versions of songs that I downloaded back when Napster was all anarchy and free love, but I kind of thought anything with a record company and a recording contract would be on there. Instead I'm findings lots of well-known artists (I mean not top 40, but superstars of the folk world) with albums missing, sometimes one or two, sometimes almost all.
I'm not sure spotify would be any better and I'm hearing that at least with apple I can upload stuff...but the whole point was to maybe stop buying CDs. If I still have to buy CDs and feed them to Apple, I'm not sure I see a point to paying a monthly fee.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:58 PM on June 30, 2023
Tidal has decently complete discographies for the artists I'm interested in but can’t be certain that the Spotify discographies haven’t been updated since I switched. There doesn’t seem to be a huge difference between the services.
posted by brachiopod at 9:46 PM on July 1, 2023
posted by brachiopod at 9:46 PM on July 1, 2023
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posted by If only I had a penguin... at 4:22 AM on June 30, 2023