Explain it to me like I am 53... music streaming edition

June 20, 2018 1:37 AM

I received new bluetooth headphones as a gift. Yay! However, now it is glaringly obvious I now literally nothing how to listen to music in 2018. The last gadget I used was an I-pod preloaded by my husband. Before that records and albums (yes I am that old, never learned to call them vinyl) and later a cassette tape walkman followed by a CD walkman. WHen it became complicated I basically stopped listening to music except live concerts. These days if I listen to any music at all, it is either on the radio (my old kitchen radio from 1990s) or on my mobile using you tube.

I would like to use my mobile and new headphones to listen to music on my commute. My attempts in the last few days showed me I need to be able to do this offline and also that Spotify is it seems not suited to my age group. I made a free subscription and hated it immediately, as it seems it will not play an entire album without shuffling. I loathe shuffling, partly because I listen to live recordings (eg Joni Mitchell's Shadow and Light) and partly I am so used to the "right order" it is annoying if it changes.
I do not want playlists, either my own or worse other peoles or generated by a machine who thinks it knows what I want...
So my question is: what do I need to do in order to listen to music on my mobile (older Huawei model, I think P6), youtube style - eg I look for the album and play that album?
Cost is ok, but perferable not more than 10 Euro per month, I live in the EU if this makes a difference, exact location in my profile.
Thank you!

posted by 15L06 to Computers & Internet (23 answers total)

I'm 46 FWIW, so almost in your age group. I've used Spotify a lot over the last seven or eight years. It will actually do everything you want. It doesn't shuffle everything, there is a shuffle option and I suspect you may have hit that without noticing. It's easy to do, just a small icon to the left of the play and rewind buttons.

While Spotify hypes its playlists, you definitely don't have to use them - I mostly just listen to albums (or to playlists of multiple albums) not individual songs. You can use it offline if you use the paid version (which should be about 10 euros/month).

Apple Music, Deezer or Google Music might also be worth a shot - I'm considering switching to Apple Music having heard good things, and I see they have a three-month free trial.
posted by Pink Frost at 2:27 AM on June 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

It's the paid-for version of Spotify that lets you not shuffle. Current pricing is £9.99/month in UK, prob roughly the equivalent in EU I guess? After a three-month trial for £0.99.

That's too much for me to want to pay, so I use free Spotify for playlists when I don't mind shuffling, and I use iTunes Match when I want whole albums but that is a pain in the butt that I would not recommend to anyone. Maybe Apple Music is better but I'm too tight to pay for that too. So tbh it leaves me not listening to much music via mobile, but hey podcasts & audiobooks are still pretty good, right? And if I'm desperate for tunes I still have 6Music via the iPlayer Radio app.
posted by rd45 at 2:42 AM on June 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'm not normally a defender of Spotify, but it sounds like it'll do all you need if you go for a subscription. You can download albums to your phone and listen to them (in track order) away from the internet. I use Spotify more for discovering new music, but it works just as well if you're more of a 'stick with what I know' sort of listener.

Once you've 'followed' your favourite artists or 'saved' your favourite albums, you can pretty much just stick to the 'Your Library' part of Spotify and ignore the other stuff.
posted by pipeski at 3:13 AM on June 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

Spotify / Apple Music will do exactly what you need but you will need to pay for each if you want to skip ads and not have shuffle pushed upon you (Spotify) or want it to work at all beyond a three month free trial (Apple).

YouTube has just launched its own version of this kind of music streaming service which is available in your country - videos if you want them, if not it just streams audio. Again, it has a three month free trial.

If you're on Android, I'd recommend Spotify or YouTube. The decision really comes down to 'which has the best user interface?' unless you have a bunch of friends on one or the other and want to be able to share content with them.
posted by humuhumu at 3:41 AM on June 20, 2018

I need to be able to do this offline

Yeah, just copy your own CDs onto your computer and then download them from your computer to your mobile. No streaming at all, just you playing your own music on your mobile. Exactly how you will do this will depend on what specific computer and mobile you have, but it's not hard at all. Enjoy.
posted by JimN2TAW at 4:35 AM on June 20, 2018 [7 favorites]

^ I strongly agree with this but I think the OP also wants the possibility of discovering and getting new music and that would require something else in addition.
posted by Bangaioh at 4:49 AM on June 20, 2018

If you pay for a Spotify subscription (I do, and it's highly worth it in my opinion) -- not only do you not have to listen to ads (or shuffle, yikes), but you can save albums to your phone for offline listening. You totally want Spotify.
posted by woodvine at 5:17 AM on June 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Here to add to the Spotify yaysayers!

I pay the UK subscription rate, and it's cheap at the price for me. I have my favourite albums saved to listen to offline, and a massive selection of playlists that I've created for myself over the last ten years. I honestly don't know what I'd do without it.

Furthermore, its algorithms are often pretty good at suggesting new music for you. It automatically creates you a "new music you might like" playlist every week, as well as a general "music you might like" one, which I've got great stuff from before. But my favourite way to find stuff is just to go to a band I like, and check out the 5-10 recommended similar ones in the top right of the browser. I've not just found a ton of new stuff that way, but rediscovered a ton of old stuff - whether a one-hit-wonder from years ago, a record I liked but never got round to buying at the time, or something I actually own but forgot about.

Sigh. Spotify, never leave me.
posted by greenish at 5:43 AM on June 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

I primarily use Spotify and was skeptical of machine algorithm-driven playlists, but I've found the ones they've made for me shockingly good. I'd recommend trying before dismissing it, if you haven't yet.

If I recall, Apple Music leans heavily on human-curated playlists, so that may be better for you.

I'm also a big fan of Bandcamp, which also has human-curated albums of the day and so on. Often emphasizes under-the-radar music that's just as good as, or better than the more commercially visible releases coming out. And it's free (with some limitations).
posted by naju at 6:07 AM on June 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm 51 and I use the paid version of Spotify. I can listen to music that my Mom remembered her Dad liking (Harry Lauder is on Spotify!). There is a lot available. You can download and listen to entire albums or you can set up a playlist or you can check out their suggested playlist. Spotify has a family plan. Perhaps your husband is interested or already subscribes?
posted by TORunner at 6:18 AM on June 20, 2018

I’m 52 and I use the paid version of Spotify. I download full albums to my device. I listen to classical, jazz, occasionally classic rock, and contemporary musicians like Janelle Monae, St. Vincent, and Neko Case. After you’ve listened for a while, their algorithmic playlists get pretty good.
posted by matildaben at 6:55 AM on June 20, 2018

I'm 58. I have the paid version of Spotify: add me to the list of its supporters. I download music to my phone so I can listen to it offline. Mostly I just shuffle songs to randomize my library, but I sometimes create playlists so that I can listen to specific songs in a pre-defined order.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 7:10 AM on June 20, 2018

We couldn't live without our Spotify subscription and it is definitely worth the money. The algorithmic playlists are shockingly shockingly good.
posted by nerdfish at 7:40 AM on June 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Do you already have a large analog music collection (CDs, tapes, records)? If so, those can all be digitalized and then put onto an ipod or your phone. I'm younger than you, but still prefer to just listen to my own collection of music.

I like using ipods because they have a longer battery life and they're dead simple to use. You can get old ipods on ebay for a good price.

Why move away from the ipod if it works for you?
posted by hydra77 at 7:42 AM on June 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Paid Spotify for sure. The other thing you may try is to see if your local library offers any music streaming services that you can access through your mobile.
posted by WeekendJen at 7:50 AM on June 20, 2018

Paid Spotify. You don't have to shuffle songs. Also, I feel like my discover weekly knows me better than any friend or family member. The music is always exactly right. But you can listen to anything from T. Monk to T. Rex. I can't think of a reason to not use it.
posted by bluespark25 at 8:11 AM on June 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

I stopped listening to music because it seemed hard.. and then I got Spotify. Love it. Downloaded playlists for off line listening.
posted by Ftsqg at 8:52 AM on June 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Nthing Spotify for reasons listed above.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 11:30 AM on June 20, 2018

Response by poster: Thank you all - you are great!

Hydra77 - the Ipod is unfortunately beyond repair.

Jim2TWA - i will check into this, sounds great.
posted by 15L06 at 11:53 AM on June 20, 2018

I use Spotify, Amazon and Pandora (I used my favorite bands to seed my Pandora station, and that's helped me find loads of new and new-to-me music I like). I also ripped all my old CD's to my computer and downloaded them to my phone and then put them in storage.

If you're listening to music you already own, you will need an app to do so, either the one native on your phone, or I like Rocket Player. There are many.
posted by biscotti at 2:55 PM on June 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Well, I (42) am not as enamored with Spotify as others here are, but it is the only streaming service I actually use, and feel is worth paying for. The app interface is a bit convoluted to me, but with the subscription I am able to play full albums in order, and discover new music.

I also have hundreds of CD's ripped to MP3 or FLAC format, which are on an SD card in my smartphone. You can use any audioplayer, I ended up paying a few bucks for the paid version of one called "Jet Audio Plus," because I liked the EQ and filter options.

For headphones, I have nice over-the-ear cams with a little preamp, which I plug into my phone's headphone jack, and wireless bluetooth earbuds (cost about $50) that I can wear around the house while working or exercising, and a bluetooth speaker and also an adapter for my stereo. And I can plug it into my car stereo as well. So my smartphone has become my sole device for listening to music. I don't use any apps of software to manage the music I have stored on my phone, I just plug it into my computer's USB and copy the files over.

When streaming music to my phone, I make sure I have my phone connected to WiFi at home, so I'm not on my phone's data plan.
posted by ethical_caligula at 6:28 PM on June 20, 2018

I refuse to pay for a streaming music subscription; partly because I don't think the artists are getting compensated properly, partly because I prefer to own and curate my music, and partly because I refuse to use my limited monthly bandwidth to stream music.

I'm 63, male, not an audiophile, but I have spent years, nay, decades putting together my music library. Everything I own on CD has been ripped, and I buy new music these days from Amazon or Apple. I cheerfully pay for iTunes Match to keep my iPad and iPod in sync without having to open a computer. After years in the weeds of Android, I've moved entirely to Apple for my mobile devices (iPhone and iPad) and I could not be happier with the ease of music management.

Oh, and I mostly listen by album, but one of the reasons I'm glad to have rejoined the Apple world is the marvelous playlist management provided by iTunes (even though it's a horrible hog and abomination on Windows). Sometimes I just want to fill in a little time without starting a new album, so I'll use my "all pop/rock" playlist (literally everything in those genres, plus a little more) on shuffle. Mixing up the order of a single album never made sense to me (you're so right, when listening to an album you want stuff in the proper order!), but shuffling across a vast subset of my library is wonderful; I find odd juxtapositions of artist and song, and rediscover things I'd forgotten I had.
posted by lhauser at 9:26 PM on June 20, 2018

Another good option might be Google Music - lets you store songs from your personal library and stream then anywhere (for free!), or you can get a paid subscription and stream other songs. It's quoting me 10 pounds/month, so pretty close to 10 euro. Apple Music looks like it will do the same (let you stream anything in your iTunes library).

Another point about Spotify if you're interested in discovery, is that it shows you what other artists listeners of artist x listen to - so if you click on Joni Mitchell's profile it will show you Ricki Lee Jones, Carole King and a couple of dozen more - can be a good tool for finding new music without going though playlists or algorithms. [I really don't like Spotify's genre playlists, they are just so weirdly put-together...Kanye West as indie, Beach House as lo-fi...]

[PS thanks to those who pointed out that free Spotify now shuffles all albums - how annoying. It didn't do that when I first used it]
posted by Pink Frost at 5:55 PM on June 21, 2018