Pandora and other radio apps.

I just went to sign up to test out Spotify Premium and saw that they have a 3 month trial for only $0.99. I have no clue if this is new or not, but seems pretty reasonable to me.

https://www.spotify.com/us/

...

And the clear winner among the premium music services I've tried is definitely Spotify Premium. Keep in mind that my preferred way to listen to streaming music is to have a lot of control in the set up of playlists or radio stations. If you prefer to just listen to suggested playlists or radio stations, or just want to browse, then your results might be totally different from mine.

I would rate them in this order:

1. Spotify Premium
   Good: Customizable Radio Stations and Playlists, Intuitive UI, lot of functions and features, huge library of available music. Will play directly on Amazon Echos. Very easy and quick to play the music you want. Most songs have multiple recording options from multiple albums.
   Bad: I haven't really found anything bad yet
2. Pandora Premium
   Good: Customizable Radio Stations and Playlists, Intuitive UI, quite a few functions and features. Will play directly on Amazon Echos.
   Bad: Uses only a handful of the artists you place in a radio station and plays mostly their songs. Smaller library of music than Apple and Spotify. Tends to emphasize live recorded songs.
3. Apple Music
   Good: A lot of functions and features, huge library of available music
   Bad: UI is non-intuitive and clunky. Whatever you want to do can probably be done, but it will take forever trying to figure out how. Won't play easily on Amazon Echos.
4. Amazon Unlimited
   Good: Supposedly will play directly on Amazon Echos.
   Bad: I was unable to get it to play directly on Amazon Echos, so I quickly cancelled it. I think it has a much smaller library like Pandora Premium.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by jswinden

And the clear winner among the premium music services I've tried is definitely Spotify Premium. Keep in mind that my preferred way to listen to streaming music is to have a lot of control in the set up of playlists or radio stations. If you prefer to just listen to suggested playlists or radio stations, or just want to browse, then your results might be totally different from mine.

I have Spotify. The only two premium services I considered were Spotify and Amazon Music because they're the only ones recognized by Alexa.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I would rate them in this order:

Sad that Slacker Radio isn't on your list. Slacker kicks Pandora's ass in breadth and depth of content with ~300 stations programmed by professional DJs as well as custom stations based on artist or song seeds, and custom stations tend to offer better variety for the same seeds courtesy of the larger library.

Originally Posted by ratinox

Sad that Slacker Radio isn't on your list. Slacker kicks Pandora's ass in breadth and depth of content with ~300 stations programmed by professional DJs as well as custom stations based on artist or song seeds, and custom stations tend to offer better variety for the same seeds courtesy of the larger library.

I don't care for DJ designed radio stations. Apple Music uses that method too. For my tastes and use, I prefer to have control over what is played and not rely on a DJ who is totally clueless to my personal tastes. For all the AI talk we hear these days, the algorithms for creating radio stations just don't produce ones I like very much.

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I have Spotify. The only two premium services I considered were Spotify and Amazon Music because they're the only ones recognized by Alexa.

Alexa recognizes Pandora Premium, but it was sometimes a PITA to get her to play a Pandora radio station rather than an Amazon one. Just like most things Alexa, you have to get the command worded pretty much verbatim to get a good result.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Alexa recognizes Pandora Premium, but it was sometimes a PITA to get her to play a Pandora radio station rather than an Amazon one. Just like most things Alexa, you have to get the command worded pretty much verbatim to get a good result.

Pandora (free and premium) is recognized as a station service (radio stations), not a music library (songs, albums, playlists). To get Alexa to recognize Pandora instead of Amazon, go to:

Settings --> Music & Media --> Choose default music services

By selecting a default, Alexa will automatically use that service without you specifying the service name.

Default music library
* Amazon Music
* Spotify

Default station service
* Amazon Music
* Pandora
* iHeartRadio

My defaults are set for Spotify (music library) and Pandora (station service).
.

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Pandora (free and premium) is recognized as a radio service (radio stations), not a music library (songs, albums, playlists).

To get Alexa to recognize Pandora, go to:

Settings --> Music & Media --> Choose default music services

By selecting a default, Alexa will automatically use that service without you specifying the service name.

Default music library
* Amazon Music
* Spotify

Default station service
* Amazon Music
* Pandora
* iHeartRadio

Unfortunately the terms "radio station" and "playlist" are used differently by various music services. Sometimes they mean they same thing, sometimes not so much. On Pandora Premium you can create custom radio stations that are built on selected songs and/or performers. That can be played on Amazon Echos and related devices via voice command, depending of course on whether you can get Alexa to understand your command. For example, I created the Pandora Premium radio station titled Jack Radio and I can get Alexa to play that station, depending on what mood she is in. As I recall though, with Pandora Premium you cannot request a specific song when using it on an Echo or related device. Pandora Premium does definitely have a limited capability on said devices. And setting Pandora to the default station service did not allow me to say "Alexa, play Jack Radio" as she would reply that she couldn't find it. If I said "Alexa, play Jack radio on Pandora" she would usually find it, but not always.

For me personally, I don't listen to music on my Echo very often. I find the sound quality is not that good. My iPad Pro 9.7 has better sound quality. However, if I'm in my living room where my Fire TV is connected to my home stereo and TV, then listening to music through that set up really sounds great.

ETA: Interesting that you can select a 3rd party default music library and you can select a 3rd party default station service, but you cannot select the same 3rd party for both. You can of course select Amazon for both. A somewhat subtle wall to keep you from turning your Echo into a Spotify or Pandora music device, I guess.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I don't care for DJ designed radio stations. Apple Music uses that method too. For my tastes and use, I prefer to have control over what is played and not rely on a DJ who is totally clueless to my personal tastes. For all the AI talk we hear these days, the algorithms for creating radio stations just don't produce ones I like very much.

Slacker custom stations are seeded by artists or songs but are still randomish rather than curated. I've not had any of my Slacker stations go stupid like Pandora typically does. But then, addressing this shortcoming of Pandora is one of Slacker's founding principles.

Slacker's premium tier offers custom playlists: exactly the songs you want in exactly the order you want.

I cancelled my Pandora Premium subscription today. When the current month I've paid for expires it will be no more. I was paying $5/mo to test the Premium, and since I've been testing it for 6 weeks already I knew it was time to part ways with it. I also deleted the Pandora app off of my devices.

I almost cancelled the Apple Music trial subscription, but since it is free for 3 months I figure I will keep it until the trial gets close to running out. The trial is free, so no need to cancel now. I seriously doubt it will improve much, if any, but I'll hang on to the trial for a couple of months and periodically give it test.

I set up Spotify Premium as my default music service for my Alexa devices. I tested Spotify Premium with my Toyota 2015 RAV4 audio system this morning while out running errands. It worked perfectly with the iPhone 7 connected via BT to the RAV4 system. So unless Apple unexpectedly decides to pull the worm out of their backside and get Apple Music polished up substantially, I will be going with Spotify Premium.

[Fiat_Lux]

Originally Posted by cromag

I don't like streaming services. I prefer to "own" my music and listen on MP3 players.

When I tried Pandora, it didn't have the artists I listen to.
When I tried iTunes, it didn't have the artists I listen to.
When I tried Amazon Music, it didn't have the artists I listen to.
When I tried Google Music, it didn't have the artists I listen to.

With YouTube, it is hit or miss if it has the artists that I listen to.

OTOH, in brick and mortar stores, unused pirated CDs of the artists I listen to, retail for US50.00 and up.(I'm not talking about the street vendors here. I'm talking about places like the now defunct Tower Records.)

The pain of liking artists that never perform in the continent I live in.

[Alohamora]

When I want to listen to "stations", I use Pandora. Seeded off music I like, they do a pretty good job of matching my tastes. But the stations become repetitive very quickly.

I usually prefer to listen to complete albums, and for this, Amazon Prime music does a good job of supplementing my ripped CD collection. And I can see both prime music and my collection in the same app. I like that I can download when I'm on wi-fi instead of streaming.

Originally Posted by Alohamora

When I want to listen to "stations", I use Pandora. Seeded off music I like, they do a pretty good job of matching my tastes. But the stations become repetitive very quickly.

I usually prefer to listen to complete albums, and for this, Amazon Prime music does a good job of supplementing my ripped CD collection. And I can see both prime music and my collection in the same app. I like that I can download when I'm on wi-fi instead of streaming.

That last paragraph is true for Spotify as well. Even Pandora Prime will let you download your favorite songs to your device. Spotify Prime definitely does that too and has a generous 3333 song limit, I think. Spotify allows you to look at and play your ripped or purchased music and your Spotify music in one app.

[Alohamora]

Pandora is currently offering a 60 day free trial of premium, so I'm trying it out a bit. The offline capability is pretty good, but since prime music is included with Prime, I can't see paying for another service once the trial is over.

[tubemonkey]

Spotify Launches Your Time Capsule

This is a nifty feature. I'm listening to it now

We are excited to announce the launch of our latest personalized playlist: Your Time Capsule. Available today for all Spotify users* in 60 Spotify markets, Your Time Capsule gathers the 30 most nostalgic tracks from your teens and early twenties, creating the soundtrack for a trip down memory lane.

Your Time Capsule follows on the success of Your Summer Rewind, Spotify’s latest personalized playlist launched this summer, but is designed to evoke powerful memories from your youth.

Find Your Time Capsule at the top of Home or in the Decades section of Browse on Spotify’s mobile apps for iOS and Android, or by visiting timecapsule.spotify.com.