[Yesterdaysnews]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

I have a whole bunch of them but the only two I use these days are

a) Qobuz

I also use Spotify for in car music as 4G isn't good enough for either of the two above due to extremely high bit rates.

Apple Music now offers same quality as Qobuz or Tidal - at 24-bit/192kHz

Have you compared Apple Music and Qobuz?

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by Yesterdaysnews

Apple Music now offers same quality as Qobuz or Tidal - at 24-bit/192kHz

Have you compared Apple Music and Qobuz?

Apple music is limited to airplay or bluetooth which is the bigger issue. My streamer (Sonore Ultrarendu) doesn't support Airplay2 which is supposed to be lossless.

However from all reports that also is limited to 16/44 for lossless. In comparison, you can use Qobuz/Tidal over DLNA and Roon which are guaranteed lossless upto PCM 768/DSD 512.

[Evyas]

Voted Apple Music.

I’m not an audiophile but I absolutely love my music and I’ve just been on iTunes for years much before YouTube and even Spotify came to India. I loved the interface plus (in those early days) whenever I imported any of my old purchased CDs iTunes seamlessly included them, got the artwork and made it part of my library. Even today they are in my account and I’ve never felt the need to shift.

When YouTube Music came to India and Spotify, I did try them out but YT didn’t work for me and Spotify either. Also a huge deal was having to make new playlists again when for almost a decade I’ve curated my stuff on iTunes which quietly became Apple Music so guess Apple had first mover advantage Never felt the need to shift. Helps that we are completely in the Apple ecosystem so easier to share playlists between family and friends.

The only time I came close to shifting was when the legendary Neil Young introduced the Pono player for FLAC music files, if anyone remembers! Desperately tried to get my hands on one but sadly never officially came to India and then the project died a premature death.

https://www.noise11.com/news/r-i-p-p...layer-20170423


For me Apple wins on seamless convenience, its algorithm now knows my tastes so I get great recommendations and I love the UI. Guess nothing impressed me enough to want to change.

But so much to learn from this thread - looking at a lot of new streaming services and DACs now!

Now the only thing my nascent stage audiophile is coveting is the new Sony Walkman that seems to be a great gadget for those who love audio quality.

https://www.sony.com/content/sony/en...m-walkman.html

[flipflop]

I still don't have the voting rights but I do prefer Amazon music. I have used Spotify and tidal too and I find Amazon music more natural.

Mod Note : Please go through Posting Etiquette for better post composition.

Thanks.

[hamster]

Voted for Amazon Music, just because it comes along with Prime Membership and also caters to my other needs (shopping, movies etc).

Off late I see the circle going round (buffering/streaming) and also have to look beyond them for some latest releases (Jailer for example).

Spotify is spot on with respective to streaming, but have to still try it before confirming.

[IamNikhil]

Voted for Youtube/Youtube Music.

The ease of use is fantastic. The best part is that there's hardly a song in this world which is not on Youtube. Can't say this about the other platforms. Also, the audio quality has significantly improved while playing music from Youtube these days. Suffices when I connect it via Apple Carplay during drivetime.

My second preference is Amazon Music, as it comes bundled with the Prime Membership.

[Yesterdaysnews]

Thanks all for the delisted answers!

This post really provides a lot of insights to the companies on why people choose what, doesn’t it!

[ais]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

When it comes to such a hobby, nothing beats the Qobuz. Sadly, both are not able to purchase from India. If one has VPN, Tidal is possible, but for Qobuz, it's very tricky (overseas card etc.)

Posted here, though may not be relevant to most but if someone is into "these" things, get either.

Heartfelt thanks to Turbanator for mentioning Qobuz.

I was happily using Tidal, but now that I have managed to get Qobuz. The resolution is fantastic, as can be seen on Qobuz played through UAPP on Android.



Tidal was about 1800KBPS. Even for tracks of same resultion, Qobuz sounds better. So now I know how MQA etc was messing the quality and why so many audiophiles knew it was not what it claimed!

Qobuz doesn't have a radio button, but it automatically plays tracks similar to the ones we search for and play. It can download and create playlists as with Tidal or Apple. Library is better than Tidal, but not Apple, especially for Bollywood songs. So I will still continue using Apple for finding new songs, but unsubscribe from Tidal (which is more expensive). Qobuz also shows the quality of tracks, whereas Tidal was being vague about it.

I don't use Spotify, Amazon or YouTube Music as quality is paramount for me.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by ais

I was happily using Tidal, but now that I have managed to get Qobuz. The resolution is fantastic, as can be seen on Qobuz played through UAPP on Android.

Glad it worked for you. As I mentioned in DM, for setting up a Qobuz account, one needs to be physically in any of the countries where Qobouz is officially available and also, one has to use a credit card issued in that country. VPN does not normally work (including paid Nord etc.). However after the subscription, one can listen in India.

If you have a home stereo setup, try Roon as well. It will further improve the listening, especially if you have a streamer.

[infiniteenigma]

Originally Posted by GTO

We can allow this fresh discussion as the older thread was from 2019, and a whole lot has changed since (music world & tech world, both).

My only two platforms:

- YouTube Music. Amazing algorithms. Play one song and the similar songs that follow just take you places! YouTube Music forms 60% of my streaming music time. YouTube Music has a far more extensive library than Spotify and - in Hindi music - has a lot of smaller artists who aren't present on Spotify. I also love alternate / cover / remix versions of popular songs & there is a lot more of this stuff on YouTube than Spotify. Like 10X more.

- Spotify. Balance 40% of my music streaming time. Only for English music, primarily House, Dance, Electronic & Alternative / Indie.

It's a unique situation in music streaming Vs TV shows. The same music is available across multiple platforms, unlike on TV streaming where say, Netflix & Hotstar have their own exclusive shows.

(YouTube Music. Amazing algorithms. Play one song and the similar songs that follow just take you places!)

The above according to me is a feature which keeps you calm and not throw around. Apple Music has a marginally better audio with Spatial/Loseless (not all songs come in this format). No idea about Spotify. Never used Amazon Music though it’s standard with Prime.

[pankajn1702]

Originally Posted by Yesterdaysnews

What’s your favourite and why?

Best to worst for my used case:

1. Youtube music - Some artists for eg., DJ Nyk - all songs are not available on other platforms. For the sheer availability of small artists that make good music, ranked it at # 1. I think 129/- per month only for music is expensive. Nearly 1600/- annually

2. Apple music - Lossless audio, it has by far the best sound quality. Although the difference is much more vs other music platform when you listen on really good quality speakers or AirPods
Rs.99/- per month is decently priced, plus offers thrown at you if you. Like I am getting subscription offered for 3 months for paying only for a month.

3. Spotify - they lost me as a customer after their deal with zee broke last year. I cannot imagine what they can do this with one label, therefore they can do with any other too. Leaving subscribers on their own. Trust issues to be honest, as I used to listen to lot of hindi audio.

4. Amazon music - App crashes have become very common with this app. A friend of mine too complained about it and switched to Apple music after using Amazon music for years. Plus I no longer subscribe to Prime. There are other quick delivery app for convenience (Zepto, Blinkit etc) and I am not much into web series/binge watching anyways.


5. Others, like Saavn, Wynk etc I have not tried so cannot comment but I do not think they would be any better than #1 or #2

With this, I think after writing this, I might as well go back to and renew Apple music subscription due to seamless connectivity on Carplay and lossless audio with the offer.

[rajeevsulu]

I am using Apple music these days. I had voted for Amazon music but after listening to Apple music,there is no going back. It works awesome with my car audio via Android Auto and works at home as well.

Cheers

[14000rpm]

I'd been using Spotify all these years but there were a few things nagging me -
1. Shuffle - only 10-20% of tracks from my playlist played when in Shuffle mode. This was not so much an issue later and wasn't noticeable but it soon became very repetitive.
2. Range- Not a great selection of Hindi music- Perhaps it's a region thing.
3. Artists - As many have already mentioned, there are many artists who have, perhaps, not signed up to Spotify and are only available in Youtube.

Naturally, I made the shift to Youtube Music and built my full playlist again. Here's what I noticed.
1. The app is quite clunky. Keeps crashing. This is a google product. How can it be so bad? Spotify was very robust and never failed.
2. The Expletives filter doesn't always work well. Many tracks filter through even with this filter on.
3. Shuffle - This, however, is noticeably better than Spotify. Rediscovering many old tracks that Spotify never bothered to play.
4. Artists- This has unlocked a lot of new tracks from artists not on Spotify and I love it.