Does anyone do the monthly subscription thing for music?

[mmntech]

Does Sirius XM count? If so, then yes.

It's still a streaming radio service. You don't get to pick the songs you hear. So I don't think it counts.

 

[Fritzo]

I pretty much use Pandora or Spotify. Their quirky live versions of songs is right up my alley.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I use Google Play for my own music collection....and Pandora free. Both have android apps and Ubuntu clients, so stream over bluetooth when in my truck or to my headset when roaming. I've got XM in there too, but don't subscribe unless it's a free week or something.

I don't pay for Pandora, but like the concept of having a radio-type service because then I listen to songs I'd not listen to otherwise. When I listen to my own cds, I typically get tired of the stuff I've been listening to for years.

 

[SheHateMe]

I use Pandora and Spotify. Good deal

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I love Google Play All Access. I use it all the time, plus I only pay $7.99/month for being an early adopter.

I got it at that price too.

It's pretty much of a convenience charge. I could "attain" the music else where, but Google has it pretty much at release or soon after and I don't have to worry about uploading or transferring the music. Plus anything I want in my library I can upload to Google Music as well.

Now if only they can make their search algorithms in their music app better. Right now you pretty much have to spell the exact name if it is not a popular name. I am really glad that they have some obscure titles as well.

 

[ControlD]

Pandora + AdBlock for me.

What do these pay versions get you? No ads? Ability to non-shuffle?

The pay versions allow you to choose what you want to listen to. If you want to listen to the new (insert artist here) album from start to finish you can do that.

I have used Spotify, Rdio and now Google's service. Rdio had the best Android application and Spotify had (by far) the worst. Rdio took a long time to get their app updated to work with the newer Android versions so it had to go. Now that Spotify has changed from playlist only music management I am tempted to go back because they seem to get new releases a little faster than Google.

 

[Carson Dyle]

MOG was great when I got it for $5 per month. Not sure I could justify paying any more than that to listen to Mp3 quality steaming.

 

[Mai72]

I'm surprised nobody has brought up iheartradio. The same as Pandora but without all those annoying ads.

 

[crashtestdummy]

I've been doing various forms of subscription music. I originally had the "legal" Napster, then Rhapsody, and now XBox Music. I've also played with Spotify and Rdio. They all essentially have the same catalog, so it's really a matter of what interface you like and how a particular service behaves on your platform. I have a Windows Phone, and the Rhapsody and Spotify apps weren't great, so I went with XBox. Supposedly, Beats Music is pretty good, but I haven't bothered to try it out.

 

[Ns1]

beats, $15/family account.

 

[Carson Dyle]

They all essentially have the same catalog, so it's really a matter of

Not really. Not once you begin exploring their jazz and classical catalogs.

 

[KeithTalent]

Not really. Not once you begin exploring their jazz and classical catalogs.

Or punk rock. They get all of the same new stuff for the most part, but once you dig deeper into specific genres, certain ones handle particular genres a little better than others.

KT

 

[bunker]

I've been using Slacker for about 3 years now. $3.99/month gets you unlimited skips, no ads and I can download stations for offline listening.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Sirius satellite radio subscriber here. Their music channels are commercial free and I'm a Howard Stern fan so I listen to him as well. I also listen to some of the talk like NPR, Bloomberg and POTUS.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

I've been using Spotify for about a year now and love it, though I hear that Beats Music is even better. I guess the reason I haven't tried switching is because of all of the playlists I've created. But the one downside of spotify is their "browse" section with themed playlists are generally pretty bad, and I hear that is where Beats is much better.

 

[Naer]

I got pandora one

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I'm surprised nobody has brought up iheartradio. The same as Pandora but without all those annoying ads.

I tried it. The problem is that Pandora's prediction really is better than any other provider. I rarely use my GoogleMusic for radio even though I have unlimited skips. Pandora just always seems to get it right.

 

[MrSquished]

I just signed up for Google Music subscription. It's $9.99 a month and basically you get all access to their 20,000 plus music library. What is everyones thought on subscribing to these music programs. For $10 a month or $120 a year you get access to just about any recording out there. I was buying cd's from Amazon's cloud service but that gets expensive quickly. I wanted to go a different route.

Are the monthly subscriptions worth it, or are they expensive and a waste of money?

I love Google Play Music All Access. I signed up early so it's $7.99 a month for me. Good library, good interface.

The app is great with an Android phone, you can make playlists and pin playlists to your phone, those tracks are downloaded and kept onboard so you don't need to use data to play music when not on wifi.

I am more than satisfied with my experience. It's a great way to find new music. I shazaam something, find it on Google Play and get to hear the whole thing. Since I am an avid music collector with very varied tastes, it just makes sense to have this huge library at your disposal, both at home and on the go.
I've also bought about 150 tracks since last summer via Google Play Music.

Plus the music you buy is in a high bitrate mp3, i think 320kbps.

In addition you can upload up to 20,000 of your own tracks and it seamlessly meshes with their own library.

 

[BeeBoop]

Pandora and Google Play are completely different as Pandora does not have On Demand music. Pandora is setup like a radio station. Google Play allows you to listen to any specific song you want and it includes an offline mode. You can download the songs to your mobile device.

Anyway, I just signed up today because of this topic. It sounds like a really good deal!

 

[TwiceOver]

Slacker radio.

 

[Imp]

YouTube and online radio...

 

[SheHateMe]

Sirius satellite radio subscriber here. Their music channels are commercial free and I'm a Howard Stern fan so I listen to him as well. I also listen to some of the talk like NPR, Bloomberg and POTUS.

Oh yea, I forgot about this. I have XM in my car. Its the bees knees. My station lineup is weird. I have alternative rock, pop, top 40, rap & hip hop, and R&B channels mixed into each other so I can surf and find some good shit when I'm trying to jam.

 

[JackBurton]

Sirius in the car, however at home it is iTunes Radio, but I mainly just buy my music off iTunes.

 

[Anubis]

I use Google play but I don't pay for the radio service. I just stream my own music. I have 19000 or so songs uploaded

 

[Wingznut]

I love Google Play All Access. I use it all the time, plus I only pay $7.99/month for being an early adopter.

Same here. Love it.