Seeking music streaming service - any Tidal users?

[Jeff Roltgen]

Amazon just pulled a super nasty trick to leverage Prime listeners to Unlimited. All my play lists are now unplayable and lost for good. Permanently set player to random through their entire library, meaning, I can click a song to play , but it will not play that song. Shifts to another song from that artist at best, or, more often, something of similar genre that I don't know and don't want to hear. Anyone else with Prime (non-unlimited) will experience this as soon as you allow it to install latest version of the player. Random cannot be switched off, and a random arrow icon now appears on most tunes, instead of a "play" arrow icon.

Based on this tactic, with no advanced notice, I am done with Amazon. Sadly, i need to seek a new service, and all the latest tunes/artists I've discovered lately must be sought out again. And there were hundreds. No, cannot buy the songs from the playlist. Have to shop through Amazon proper if I want to do that. One song at a time. Also, told that new Unlimited player cannot be expected to preserve those lists. Maybe 2 personal lists, at best, but frankly, I can no longer trust them.

So- Back to Bandcamp to buy some music (in)directly from the artists there, if available. Resigned myself to understand, you want fresh new music streamed? $120 a year.

Looking to Tidal, as a cursory search says it's the best, and I am definitely an audiophile, so that appeals.

Open to anyone else's suggestion/favorites, naturally.

Jeff

[Jeff Roltgen]

UPDATE: well, after what must have been a nightmare day in customer service world, Amazon appears to have relented some, and my playlists are working again. Yay!
Still, much distrust remains, so still open to hearing other's suggestions.

jeff

[Michael Drew]

Can't say I've tried Tidal. However, I do have subscriptions to Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and Amazon Prime. Pros and cons to each. Of them all, I would give the nod to Spotify if I had to chose one. It is somewhat irritating though, as you are forced to pay more if streaming at more than one device at once. That means that is I am listening to something in the garage, and my better half wants to listen to something else in the living room - one of us will have to stream songs that have been saved. Or, I can upgrade the service to a party service and stream from two locations at the same time. Pandora allows streaming at multiple locations, and it costs a lot less. Pandora just doesn't have near the amount of songs as Spotify. YouTube Music is OK, but I don't like the interface. As far as sound quality goes, I think YouTube is the best, followed by Spotify, then Pandora. Amazon music streaming seems to work fine, but I just don't use it enough have an option.

[roger wiegand]

Very little of the weird music I enjoy is available from any of the streaming services (or from any other commercial source I'm aware of). I'll continue to seek out bands I like, buy their CDs directly from the bands at shows, and stream them from my computer to my devices. Works very well, no ads or other fees ever, and helps the bands pay their bills.

[Prashun Patel]

I finally caved and switched from Amazon Unlimited to Spotify. I like it better. More songs (so it seems), easy to share playlists. Seems to play better with Sonos and my car.

[Jeff Roltgen]

FWIW - in their infinite battle for domination, Amazon has flipped the switch once more, and my previous update is fully negated. Original post regarding Prime music is correct as stated. Random play, any playlist you have will not function. Pay for Unlimited, or go away.

Roger- You sound like me. Not a fan of streaming, as I always knew - renting the ability to listen means it can go away at any time. Check out Bandcamp. That appears to be where the obscure artists connect with fans like us, including the ability to "follow" for new releases and shows.

[Jim Koepke]

Very little of the weird music I enjoy is available from any of the streaming services (or from any other commercial source I'm aware of). I'll continue to seek out bands I like, buy their CDs directly from the bands at shows, and stream them from my computer to my devices. Works very well, no ads or other fees ever, and helps the bands pay their bills.

Some of my music is not available on line. Much of it was digitally recorded from vinyl years ago.

The idea of paying rent to listen to music is offensive to my senses. I wouldn't mind listening to a few commercials if there were any independent or decent radio stations still on the air. Almost all of the broadcast stations in the US are owned by seven companies.

Yesterday a 64GB flash drive cost me $7. The radio for my shop that will play music from a CD or a flash drive cost ~$100. My wife's car and my truck both have radios that will play playlists from a flash drive.

I can have my playlists and my wife's on the same flash drives.

Why pay rent when you can own?

jtk

[David Publicover]

I have Tidal. I upgraded from Spotify a couple years ago and prefer the sound quality. I did not particularly enjoy the user interface with Tidal but accepted that as a compromise. Last year I started using Roon as a way to find music on Tidal and to coordinate my own music library with Tidal’s. I really like that.
Spotify was a satisfying service and user friendly. It depends on your system and listening preferences which path to take. If you listen mostly in the shop, I’d go Spotify.
I’ll apologize in advance for the wormhole I may have lead you to….
David