Music - streaming vs buying

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I have seen a lot of people requesting and talking about music streaming service support.

I have tried Apple Music when they offered a trail period of a few months. But it didn’t stick. I noticed I played a lot of the songs I already had. Favourites come and go but it is always limited to a few albums/artists. Buying music via iTunes since 2003 I have collected hundreds of albums. Some aren’t even on the streaming services. Since 2009 all songs are DRM free.

One of the reasons I still buy music is that a bigger cut goes to the artist directly.
Also: https://theconversation.com/even-famous-musicians-struggle-to-make-a-living-from-streaming-heres-how-to-change-that-151969

On the following stores you can buy digital music in a DRM free (so you can play it on every device you want) format.

Since the Mudita Pure will have a media player build in and you can sync music from your computer to the Pure. The solution is easy. Buy the 10 albums you want on your phone. :slight_smile: No need for music streaming services apps on the phone!

Sidenote: I still use an iPod Classic for music on the road :smiley: just music - nothing else!

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I think @kirkmahoneyphd mentioned on a previous post about re-purposing an old smartphone to use when steaming Audiobooks, This is exactly what I started doing, I dug up an old Android from 2014 & only use it for Audible & music on the road. It doesn’t have a sim card, so I just use my wifi to download the audiobooks & sync my music with a USB cable from ny laptop. When I’m on the road, I can either listen to music or Audiobooks. Sometimes I use it for podcasts. I really like this option for now.

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I like the other alternative: radio.

In Australia we have a couple of wonderful digital radio stations in ABC Classic and SBS Chill. The former has lots of classic artists, modern, indigenous, film scores, and more.
The Chill station is all mellow electronic style of music. Often international artists (primarily non English speaking in the Australian context, lots of Asian, African, South American artists).
Best part of digital radio is the display telling you the name of the artist and piece so you can buy it if you want.

I like support for musicians, but radio is fantastic for discovering new artists to begin with.

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@iota I like listening to the radio as well, especially when I travel because I can listen to & discover different styles of music which are popular in that particular area. However, digital stations can be an issue if you’re trying to stay offline & limit your data/internet usage.

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@urszula:

Yes! I have re-purposed an old Android phone to use via Wi-Fi for:

  • Paid audiobooks downloaded through the Kobo Books app
  • Free podcasts downloaded through the Beyond Pod app
  • Subscription text+audio+video streamed through a publisher’s app

I also use it for synchronizing my Garmin Forerunner watch statistics with my Garmin account through the Garmin Connect app. I stopped using this app on my current Android phone when I dumbed it down and realized that I truly don’t need INSTANT, ALWAYS-AT-HAND access to my Forerunner watch data. Instead, I simply sync my Garmin data at the end of the day through the app on my old Android phone.

I will continue with the above approach when I switch from my current, dumbed-down Android phone to my Mudita Pure!

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There’s also Freegal, which provides hours of streaming plus 3 DRM free downloads per week through many public libraries.

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@thinkround Thanks for this info. I’m going to definitely check it out.

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I forget there are different types of digital radio.
I was referring to dab broadcast radio which is free to air. Not sure how widespread it is, globally.
No internet required for dab, but I assume your version of digital radio is what I call internet radio.

Probably just a difference in regional terminology :slight_smile:

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@iota Thanks for the clarification. I’ll definitely look into it.

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No worries. Dab stands for digital audio broadcast. Like a third option along am and FM radio.

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I prefer streaming music. I always want to listen to more music but I do not have enough money to buy all the tracks that I love. It is good to stream Apple Music or other streaming music services on smartphones but not on devices like your iPod Classic. For those devices, I choose to convert Apple Music to MP3 with an apple audio converter so that I can play Apple Music on these devices.

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Neat idea! Perhaps there’s a need for music-only devices that support Spotify/iTunes. I’ve seen 1 or 2 on the market with not-so-great reviews.

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@Jasraj_Hothi I think people have become so used to the smartphone doing EVERYTHING, that many manufacturers don’t really feel the need to put out individual devices.

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Just an alternative thought: music is nourishing. Like stories in books. It really doesn’t matter how people get it, so long as the reader/listener or artist isn’t being exploited somewhere in the middle.

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There are literally tens of thousands of free radio streams of all genres that do not require any app nor money to be played with any media player. Many are even without ads.

Here are two Internet radio stream directories to cater for all your needs:

Personally, I love to listen to music streams while working (jazz and deep house). In the morning, I love to listen to news and talk radio streams. Here are some examples of direct streaming links:

Both stations do have smartphone apps, but these are not required when you have the direct streaming links.

Most streams are AAC or AAC+ nowadays. However, MP3 is usually also available for older devices. MP3 will consume a higher bit rate than AAC for a similar audio quality.

It would be great if one could listen to such streams using the Mudita Pure phone when on the move. Having a Mudita phone version with WiFi would be even better for my personal use case.

At home, I use a Fritz!Phone C6 1.2 GHz DECT phone to listen to direct MP3 or AAC+ streams in all corners of the house at all times. That phone also plays podcast series from RSS indices.

I really would like to recommend the Mudita team to lay their hands on a German AVM Fritz!Box and Fritz!Phone to get inspired. It really shows what is possible with a modest embedded microprocessor and a small battery that nonetheless lasts a whole day.

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Radio is indeed also a very good way to listen to music. I use it often to discover new music :slight_smile:

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I am personally a fan of Amazon Music. To get DRM-free Amazon Music for offline playback on all my devices, I choose AudFree Amazon Music Downloader, as this tool can be used to convert and download songs from Amazon Music to local computer in lossless quality without paid Amazon Music account.

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plays podcast series from RSS indices - this is neat! Would this work if I’m in the UK? Do you know other phones that offer this?

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If you have got an Amazon Prime membership, you can access 2 million songs for free. Also, you can upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited with a discount. But you can just download them for offline listening. To keep the amazon music tracks forever, it’s better to download them to your computer with Tunelf Amatune Music Converter. Once converted, you can easily move them to any device at ease,

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@Norah_H I have Amazon Prime, but if I cancel my membership & I downloaded the songs, do I get keep the songs?

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