Believe it or not, I’ve tried numerous streaming apps and sites, and I’ve pretty much found them all wanting.
I know, I know…I’m picky about what I listen to if it’s not my own music collection. I’m not including streaming radio stations here, like those provided by Sirius XM or the numerous terrestrial stations out there that offer the ‘listen live!’ button at their website. I’m talking about sites and apps that are built for streaming music: Spotify, Groove Music, Tidal, and so on. I mean, they’re just fine for what they do best, and they have their own fans, but they’re not for me.
I know exactly why: my tastes and listening habits tend to vary widely, and most of these places just don’t offer enough music that would capture my interest. I’ve tried many, and with each of them I find myself constantly hitting the ‘next track’ button. [And even worse, if I have the low-end or free subscription, I have to wade through commercials every five or six songs. Don’t get me wrong — I grew up with terrestrial radio on every waking moment of my youth, so I’m used to the ads. It’s just that getting them after skipping too many songs pretty makes me like the app or site even less.]
Recently, however, I signed onto Amazon Music, and I think I finally found what I’ve been looking for. It’s essentially a rebooted, much more refined version of Amazon Prime’s music streaming, and it’s well worth it. It features streams of numerous complete albums available digitally at Amazon’s website (and where I buy most of my mp3s nowadays), across numerous labels and distributors. I get to listen to the entire album before deciding if I want to download it. It also offers curated playlists if I’m so inclined. I’m not one for listening to a randomly generated playlist — for that I can just listen to a regular radio station — so this really works out well for me.
The price isn’t that bad, either. It’s $9.99 a month ($7.99 for those already signed up for Amazon Prime), about the same as most streaming apps and sites.
Yes, yes, I know…giving more money to The Man by signing up with Amazon, but when the product provides exactly what I’ve been looking for and wanting, it does feel kind of silly to not use it on principle. [Noted, I’m a frequent visitor of local brick and mortar stores for all kinds of things, enough that I rarely use Amazon for ordering things on the regular. I also use other music downloading sites for my collecting. So I don’t necessarily feel guilty for using Amazon for this sort of thing.]
Has anyone else used it yet? What do you think?
Walk In Silence 
I’ve used Amazon Music for streaming albums that I’ve bought through them that had the Auto Rip feature and I tried Prime Music when I had the 30 day free trial but I haven’t been on it lately. I’ve stuck with Spotify since Rdio went under simply because it was easy but I’m not really a fan. I know a lot of people rave about their Discover Weekly podcast that the algorithm serves up but I’ve been underwhelmed, to put it nicely.
For me, a big part of it is also the interface. Spotify continues to disappoint me on the design front, which isn’t really a surprise since I feel it isn’t made for the serious music listener, rather the casual music-in-the-background kind of listener. It’s constantly pushing the shuffle button and just the hit singles. Are you using the Amazon Music mobile app mostly or the desktop?
I’m using the desktop — I rarely if ever listen to music on my phone, believe it or not. The desktop version works just fine…I use it maybe once or twice a week, but I usually use it for a good couple of hours to check out multiple albums. This, on top of hitting a few terrestrial stations and Sirius XM throughout the week. It’s my background music for my Day Job (yay working at home!), but it’s stuff I like rather than the usual harmless stuff you hear on “The River”-type stations. 😉
But yeah, I hear you on Spotify. I’ve just never been one for algorithm-based players since Yahoo Launchcast bit the dust years ago. And yeah, I’m definitely not your casual listener, so most of them really aren’t for me. 😉