Streaming

[Guest]

Time to take the plunge I think.
Which service do forum members recommend?
Thinking wide selection of (‘classical’) music, value for money etc.
Amazon Unlimited is being offered for Next to nothing for 3 months.
Apologies if this has been asked before

[teamsaint]

Time to take the plunge I think.
Which service do forum members recommend?
Thinking wide selection of (‘classical’) music, value for money etc.
Amazon Unlimited is being offered for Next to nothing for 3 months.
Apologies if this has been asked before

If you are an Apple slave, and have an ipad/iphone, well worth trying out Apple Music. i just had a 3 month free trial and found it excellent. Very slick and a good range of music available I’d say. £10 Pm after the trial.

In my defence, I get my ipad and iphone through work, which makes it an easy decision.

Basic question Doc, have you tried Spotify free ?

[Bryn]

Time to take the plunge I think.
Which service do forum members recommend?
Thinking wide selection of (‘classical’) music, value for money etc.
Amazon Unlimited is being offered for Next to nothing for 3 months.
Apologies if this has been asked before

I think it rather depends upon the audio quality you desire. I use QOBUZ HiFi (a French subscription at €199 per annum currently) which offers lossless CD quality. They also have a high-resolution subscription at a higher cost. Bear in mind that some labels, such a Hyperion, do not conunternance streaming, and other restict somne of their releases.

[antongould]

If you are an Apple slave, and have an ipad/iphone, well worth trying out Apple Music. i just had a 3 month free trial and found it excellent. Very slick and a good range of music available I’d say. £10 Pm after the trial.

In my defence, I get my ipad and iphone through work, which makes it an easy decision.

Basic question Doc, have you tried Spotify free ?

I always agree with ts but Apple Music has IMVVHO a much wider classical catalogue than Amazon Unlimited .....

[Dave2002]

Time to take the plunge I think.
Which service do forum members recommend?
Thinking wide selection of (‘classical’) music, value for money etc.
Amazon Unlimited is being offered for Next to nothing for 3 months.
Apologies if this has been asked before

If you’ve not tried Amazon unlimited before it’s almost a no brainer to pay the 99p (I’ll check the price) for 3 months. Just remember to cancel before the end of the trial period. I think Spotify is also offering a very similar deal - also for 99p for three months for the ad free service.

If you want good/high quality audio then I think Qobuz or Tidal are considered amongst the best, but the cost is a a lot higher -£00s per year. I still have a Napster account - sometimes there’s stuff on that which is unusual and perhaps not on other services - but usually older material - perhaps only of interest to some - such as older Klemperer or Bohm performances.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, the first decision is the quality level: are you happy with lossy services (Amazon, Apple, Spotify etc) or do you want CD or higher resolutions?
Those big guys sell you lower quality, cheap-as-chips...because they can afford to.
Ask yourself: do you stream as try-before-you-buy (CD etc), or will you listen to it for longer-term, more involved musical pleasures?

If you want CD resolutions or better, forget Tidal and take the Qobuz trial to see how you get on; it is much more classically-focussed than most others. But it will work better from a dedicated, partnering music player, especially Audirvana+. (Direct off of the Qobuz site tends to occasional dropouts etc).
That combo makes for a seamless, stable, high-quality listening experience - as long as you have good fast broadband and feel you can afford it.
You get what you pay for I'm afraid. Even at the gloomy end of a very tough year financially, Audirvana/Qobuz would be one of the last things to go around here......

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/music/streaming/offers

https://audirvana.com

[gradus]

According to the ad on Classic FM just now, Apple Music has the biggest classical catalogue of all streamers. But I use Spotify and apart from its irritating use of the word 'song' to describe everything, it works well enough.

[richardfinegold]

I haven’t been able to try Quobuz for more than an hour (apparently the length of time for them to figure out that I live on the wrong side of the Pond), so I can’t truly comment. I did have free trials with two Classeical Music streaming services that claimed to offer High Rez and CD quality (Primephonic was one, and the other is extinct). I found the High Rez offerings sounded excellent, but the “CD Quality “ albums were not equal to the current state of CD replay (which is excellent) and I understand that this is true for Tidal as well. Tidal is also poorly organized for Classical.
So I use Apple (free subscription) and Spotify. They both have extensive catalogs and decent MP3 quality sound. Apple is easier to find offerings but neither is perfect. I use them when I travel and have Wi Fi availability or to scope out new recordings, which I then buy on CD if I like them. Spotify is around $10/month and I think Apple costs the same

[Old Grumpy]

I haven’t been able to try Quobuz for more than an hour (apparently the length of time for them to figure out that I live on the wrong side of the Pond), so I can’t truly comment. I did have free trials with two Classeical Music streaming services that claimed to offer High Rez and CD quality (Primephonic was one, and the other is extinct). I found the High Rez offerings sounded excellent, but the “CD Quality “ albums were not equal to the current state of CD replay (which is excellent) and I understand that this is true for Tidal as well. Tidal is also poorly organized for Classical.
So I use Apple (free subscription) and Spotify. They both have extensive catalogs and decent MP3 quality sound. Apple is easier to find offerings but neither is perfect. I use them when I travel and have Wi Fi availability or to scope out new recordings, which I then buy on CD if I like them. Spotify is around $10/month and I think Apple costs the same

Spotify cheaper in the UK at £9.99 per month at the moment given current exchange rates!

OG

[jayne lee wilson]

Hey RFG - it's....Qobuz, OK?

(Nothing to do with Quo Vadis, Status Quo etc etc....)

[johnb]

At long last I am going to try Qobuz (spurred on by this thread).

(I'll be playing it via my LMS/Squeezebox Touch, feeding the digital output to my audio system.)

[johnb]

Well that was remarkable easy to do. Already playing the 16/44.1 streams via LMS/Squeezebox Touch. (I'm not too sure how easy the navigation to various CDs will be though.)

[richardfinegold]

Hey RFG - it's....Qobuz, OK?

(Nothing to do with Quo Vadis, Status Quo etc etc....)

If they won't stream it here (currently 4 months past their announced arrival and holding), then I refuse to properly spell it...
My case might be unique, but they probably have lost a customer. I was hot to add it last fall, when it was due to come here, but with the realization that most streaming quality is in fact sub CD quality, and with thousands of the silver discs still in the house, I'm not willing to shell out the $300 that they want for a subscription for sub CD quality. No sense in taking a step backward and at a not inconsiderable cost.
Oh well, time to go see MTT conduct the Pathetique...

[cloughie]

Hey RFG - it's....Qobuz, OK?

(Nothing to do with Quo Vadis, Status Quo etc etc....)

Yes, Jayne but he wants them ‘Rocking all over the World’!

[Bryn]

Well that was remarkable easy to do. Already playing the 16/44.1 streams via LMS/Squeezebox Touch. (I'm not too sure how easy the navigation to various CDs will be though.)

Just use the search box, then when you find what you are looking for, switch to the Web Player for the actual streaming. I find the Web Player a lot more reliable but its own search facility less straightforward.