What is your prefered way to listen to music on your smartphone?

[ZepTepi]

Streaming -vs- Download -vs- Cloud

This is to primarily help me decide which method will work best for me.

I initially assumed downloading files directly to my SD card would be the most reliable option as my ability to play my desired songs wouldn't be adversely effected by poor cell coverage and/or lack of WiFi. I then began reading a multitude of articles and found that alot of people believe downloading to be an outdated(or soon to be so) way of listening to music so I'm taking a deeper look at this.

I'm one of those people who often likes to listen to particular songs so services like Pandora usually fall short of meeting my expectations. I like the PC versions of services like Spotify & Rhapsody but have found their mobile versions to be lacking as I can't listen to what i want if I'm somewhere with poor or no cell signal or WiFi. I have not looked into cloud storage very much but would assume I would still need cell service or WiFi to play my music on my phone. If I'm wrong about that please set me straight.

 

[El Presidente]

I stream via deezer.

I have one or 2 play lists stored locally so if my network is poor, I've something to listen to.

 

[NYCHitman1]

Stream over Spotify.

 

[saptech]

All of the above actually!

 

[argedion]

I'm limited on data so I have my music uploaded to my phone via my computer. But I actually prefered Google Play Music. A couple of years ago when I went to visit my mother we turned it on when we left the house and it played continuously until we got there. Never lost the stream and I was on Sprint at the time Coming over the car speakers it sounded amazing.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Most of my music is ripped from my CD collection and transferred to an SD card. I use Pandora for some music streaming mostly Jazz and early R&B. I also use an app called XiiaLive Pro to stream Old time radio programs I get OTR channels from the Shoutcast music directory service.

 

[breadnatty08]

Only time I put music on my phone is when I had an S3 with micro SD card.
But, we have subscriptions to Google Music All Access, Rhapsody and now I have Spotify to stream music over wifi at work (though we do have unlimited data). Also, failing that, my Moto G has an FM receiver if I don't have a data connection.

 

[murzz]

Spotify

 

[mplevy]

This thread, 2 below yours wasn't enough?

I use Google Music, streaming from the cloud.

 

[mikedt]

Isn't one and three in the poll the same thing? You're either streaming from some on-line service, i.e. the cloud, or you're downloading or ripping CDs and storing your music locally.

All of the above actually!

I do both, often streaming when at home or at work from Baidu. When I'm out and about or travelling, it's music and/or podcasts on internal storage or SD as I don't have unlimited wireless data. Streaming can become quite expensive with metered data.

 

[mikedt]

Streaming -vs- Download -vs- Cloud

This is to primarily help me decide which method will work best for me.

I initially assumed downloading files directly to my SD card would be the most reliable option as my ability to play my desired songs wouldn't be adversely effected by poor cell coverage and/or lack of WiFi. I then began reading a multitude of articles and found that alot of people believe downloading to be an outdated(or soon to be so) way of listening to music so I'm taking a deeper look at this.

I don't think it's going to be outdated. If you're always on WiFi may not be a problem. But I think most of us have either metered or capped data plans, that all what carriers seem to offer now, except for those lucky enough to be on grandfathered unlimited plans. Streaming music you could soon go through a couple of GB in just a few hours, and if you're capped to say 2GB, that's it no more streaming.

I'm one of those people who often likes to listen to particular songs so services like Pandora usually fall short of meeting my expectations. I like the PC versions of services like Spotify & Rhapsody but have found their mobile versions to be lacking as I can't listen to what i want if I'm somewhere with poor or no cell signal or WiFi. I have not looked into cloud storage very much but would assume I would still need cell service or WiFi to play my music on my phone. If I'm wrong about that please set me straight.

I'm not familiar and never used Spotify, Pandora or Rhapsody because those are US only. I use Baidu Music, which is free unlimited high bit-rate(some FLAC) downloads and streaming. It's only available in China but has a lot of western music on it, as well as Chinese of course.

 

[mplevy]

Isn't one and three in the poll the same thing? You're either streaming from some on-line service, i.e. the cloud, or you're downloading or ripping CDs and storing your music locally.



I do both, often streaming when at home or at work from Baidu. When I'm out and about or travelling, it's music and/or podcasts on internal storage or SD as I don't have unlimited wireless data. Streaming can become quite expensive with metered data.

1 and 3 are not the same. 1 references playing music from a service with a subscription where you haven't actually provided or bought any of the music, you just have purchased the rights to stream it. Those act more like a radio station (except the cost part). 3 references uploading your music to a cloud (Google Music) then streaming that music to your devices.

 

[mikedt]

1 and 3 are not the same. 1 references playing music from a service with a subscription where you haven't actually provided or bought any of the music, you just have purchased the rights to stream it. Those act more like a radio station (except the cost part). 3 references uploading your music to a cloud (Google Music) then streaming that music to your devices.

So this is something you can do in the US? We don't have anything like that here, and when I looked at Google Music or Pandora, the stated "United States only", probably because of licensing. I wouldn't have thought of uploading my own music to an internet service, except perhaps for safe off-site backup. I downloaded most of my MP3s and FLACs from an internet service in the first place, Baidu.

I do stream music sometimes, but only at home or the office. Streaming via cellular wireless just not going to happen, not at equivalent 10$ USD/1GB, not with FLAC, probably be cheaper to buy the CDs...LOL.

 

[Rockman]

Stream over Tune In Radio or Shoutcast Radio on Winamp.

 

[FishenFool]

I prefer to listen to music with a dedicated Portable Music Device (32 gig Zune HD) and save my phone for navigation and phone calls.

 

[mplevy]

So this is something you can do in the US? We don't have anything like that here, and when I looked at Google Music or Pandora, the stated "United States only", probably because of licensing. I wouldn't have thought of uploading my own music to an internet service, except perhaps for safe off-site backup. I downloaded most of my MP3s and FLACs from an internet service in the first place, Baidu.

I do stream music sometimes, but only at home or the office. Streaming via cellular wireless just not going to happen, not at equivalent 10$ USD/1GB, not with FLAC, probably be cheaper to buy the CDs...LOL.

Yup, I have all my CD's (the ones I bought before the Internet craze hit) ripped to my computer. Then I used Google Music Manager to upload them to my Google account (does not count against my storage allotment in Drive) and can stream any of it, free except for data usage, to any of my mobile devices or log in to a web interface on a computer and stream it that way. I also have music I've purchased through Google Play (and iTunes after stripping the DRM) on my account and available to stream.

 

[!on]

Firstly I always have music on sdcard. Usually 320kbps AAC ripped from CD.

Now I stream music more often 'cos I have unlimited data.

My only dealings with 'clouds' is with dropbox & that's limited as I've not paid for the proper service.

 

[Italo]

The cap on my data plan is so low that I try to limit my data use as much as possible. So, I keep a small amount of music on the phone in case my iPod dies. I would love to be able to stream Spotify, though.

 

[sfbloodbrother]

Bluetooth speaker using the Slacker radio app.

 

[olbriar]

I've collected music all of my life. Once CD's came out I started ripping and saving them. Over the years... I have most everything I like saved on my PC. I make groups of around 10g in size and rotate them in and of my SD storage. I set my player on random play and listen all day most every day via BT stereo headsets. If I party on the patio of an evening, I BT them to a bose speaker box. All of that works well for me mostly because I'm stuck in the past with my music tastes.

 

[Oasish]

Deezer is quite good. I always used to just store a few albums or so & change them around but I have recently subscribed to Deezer after an inital trial period. Being a big music fan I tested their catalouge & streaming and was very impressed. Old & new music aloke. I now have a few playlists & albums synced so I can listen off line too.

 

[LizMac]

When I'm home on my wi-fi I'll use Spotify or Pandora (lately more Spotify), but in my car I'll play direct from phone.

 

[mojos]

I don't always have wi-fi access so I have to download or transfer the physical cd's contents to my phone. Additionally, our country does not have subscriptions to Spotify and the like, but it would be definitely cool to have those around here. And I hope there'd be Google Music here soon. From the Philippines by the way.

 

[Codegerm]

At home, if not listening to the radio (regular or satellite), I'll play it from my collection that I have ripped from my CD's, which I store on my 2TB drive on my LAN. In the car I often use mp3 CD's. The stereo in my Jeep handles CD-RW discs just fine. On the off chance I use the phone for music, it will be stored on the phone's 32gig SD.

 

[SiempreTuna]

Bit late to the party, but it's definitely putting the stuff directly on the phone for me. Reception round my way is way too flaky to rely on streaming .. besides, I'm way too tight to pay to listen to my own music