[Closed] Spotify/Deezer etc - Whats Best?

I'm on Deezer but only because I got it for 25 notes last Jan.
Forgot all about it and have just been stung for 120 smegging quid!!!
Not happy

Apart from that its okay but I think spotify is slightly ahead

Forgot all about it and have just been stung for 120 smegging quid!!!

You say stung, but is it not worth it? Look at it this way, it's been £145 for 2 years 😉

I am also on Deezer. I am aware Spotify is the daddy of them all, but I just prefer the Deezer iOS app. Also the Flow feature, ability to add tracks to favs (rather than whole albums) and ban artists makes it better for me.

If you have sonos then spotify is very good. You can now play to the Sonos speaker direct from the Spotify app so you now can access all the spotify playlists and channels and browse via the nice spotify app.

You can download stuff to the iOS/Android app for offline listening too.

As mrchrispy, I got a year free on Deezer with Sonos, then subscribed on an offer for a year at £50 and just been stung for £120 - I'd attempted to cancel too and my emails are going unanswered. Service is good- allows downloads etc and works seamlessly with Sonos, but watch out for renewals if you go with them. No experience of the others apart from a month's free trial of tidal.

I'd attempted to cancel too and my emails are going unanswered.

You can cancel through the online account, no?

I just cancel via http://www.deezer.com/account/subscription and account will just run through to whenever the promo ends, and at that point the account reverts to a free one.

I did have Deezer with my EE contract but then lost it when I renewed so now got Spotify.

Much prefered deezer, I used the flow feature loads, and it would be pretty good at learning what kind of music you like via the like / dislike buttons.

Cant find an equivalent on spotify, it has the recommended for you but can't see how to teach it what you don't like?

i use deezer purely for the black type on white background. when ive been looking at the spotify screen for a while my eyes go funny with shadows.

Cant find an equivalent on spotify, it has the recommended for you but can't see how to teach it what you don't like?

Radio stations, either song/artist, is what you need. Bit more focused that Flow, as will play similar artists to what the original artist/song was, but that can be a good thing I guess. Also has thumbs up/down to learn your preferences.

Jamie- yes, found that nice easy link after it renewed onto (an expired) credit card and after I thought I'd cancelled via their mobile site.... oh well!

It is a nice app, works well, flow is good, just no response to emails and difficulties cancelling leave a bit of a sour taste. Overall price for 3 years use not bad.

I've got spotify family package £15 for 5 accounts so all my kids can have their own account and stop clogging up mine with their taste in music....

Spotify streams directly to my Cambridge amp. I like it.

OP, you can just download them both & try them for free before committing to one or the other. Just be aware of what the limitations of the free ones are before getting stroppy that they won't let you do certain things.

Most of it will come down to personal preference & the free versions should give you enough of an idea to make a decision.

FWIW - I installed Deezer after a glitch with Spotify meant it would just randomly stop playing music, even though the app thought it still was; Spotify said it was due to my old phone & tough (even though lots of people with newer versions of Android seemed to be reporting the same problem).
Deezer was awful on my phone though - kept crashing, really glitchy & constantly buffering when Spotify/Youtube etc would play seamlessly so I stuck reluctantly with Spotify, and they have finally fixed the glitch so it's all good again.

Tidal. Pays more to the artists than other sites, huge range, lossless music files for £20 a month.

Could be a cheap pressie - http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/psa-spotify-premium-a-quid-for-3-months

I'm using the 99p Spotify deal. I'm trying my best to like it. But I just don't. I'll use it to find new stuff to buy then cancel after the 3 months.

Thought you could save tracks locally, but it looks like only to play through the Spotify app.

On a positive note, I will say that there is a f of a lot on there. Nearly everything I've searched for has come back with results.

Cheers all. I was kind of swaying towards Spotify and I think thats the way I'll go and just cancel after the cheap trial period if I don't get on with it...

I've got spotify family package £15 for 5 accounts so all my kids can have their own account and stop clogging up mine with their taste in music....

The family accounts, both on Deezer and Spotify, is where you really can get a decent deal.

It is a nice app, works well, flow is good, just no response to emails and difficulties cancelling leave a bit of a sour taste. Overall price for 3 years use not bad.

Oh I agree. Their customer service is atrocious. I was trying to find out some technical info, and I just had to give up in the end.

It does store "locally", DezB (Offline store) like all the others, but you can only access the local files through the website app...

I used to use Spotify free, never really liked it. Nothing specific, I just didn't like the interface and apps.

Currently trialling Tidal (premium, not hifi) and getting on with it pretty well. I'll probably keep on going when the trial ends.

To update my comment above - I did a factory reset on my phone over Christmas.....almost 4 years old and figured a wipe & start again might perk it up again.

I just re-installed Deezer & it now seems to be playing without issue.

Might try it free for a week or so in tandem with Spotify (which I pay for) and see how I get on....

[i]It does store "locally", DezB (Offline store) like all the others, but you can only access the local files through the website app...[/i]

In't that what I said?

Thought you could save tracks locally, but

It does store locally, but... 🙂

If you keep things locally you have to listen to them via the app.

In't that what I said?

We did trials of a few and decided Deezer was the best. Spotify just did not work as naturally so Deezer has me exploring new music far more. Google music was awful to use we dropped it after a week despite having six months free.

We have two accounts for Deezer and keep getting three months for 99p by switching between the accounts and not logging on to the dormant one until the other three months is nearly up.

Apparantly if you use a vpn you can subscribe to these in South Africa etc. for a vastly reduced monthly rate

I really like Spotify, but why the **** can't they ****ing have a pissing expletive language blocker.

I don't want my bloody kids surrounded by foul language.

DrP

We have two accounts for Deezer and keep getting three months for 99p by switching between the accounts and not logging on to the dormant one until the other three months is nearly up.

Apparantly if you use a vpn you can subscribe to these in South Africa etc. for a vastly reduced monthly rate

£10 a month is really quite reasonable for 24/7 access to millions of songs delivered to several devices.

Why is it people seem so against paying for music, even when there is fair means of consuming it?

Spotify is great, their platform is crap. Hasn't worked on windows phone for about three weeks now and no sign of it getting fixed.

Spotify is great but we are leaving unfortunately as the kids are now getting in to music and we need a family product.

Apple music at least try to filter out explicit songs so the kids can browse and discover artists and check out curated playlists like "UK Rap" and I can see that 80% of the songs are blocked for them.

Spotify let everything through and just show the word "explicit" next to it but refuse to add any filtering (despite the 6000 comments on their forum requesting it).

The irony is that is that I probably wouldn't have noticed if they hadn't launched a product called "Family" and then not allowed children to register so more: "Flat share" than "Family"... which seems a bit short-sighted IMHO.

If this is not on your horizon though then Spotify is great. I download tracks to my phone and stream to the car or listen remotely as well as through Sonos at home. Apple music allow this too.

Does Deezer have an explicit music filter setting, then?

That would be handy...

I use Apple Music, it works well and is totally integrated into my iPhone / Apple TV.

Does Deezer have an explicit music filter setting, then?

Nope.

Apple Music seems to be the best bet for those with kids.

Balls....not an Apple user and don't really intend to start.
Don't understand why Spotify don't want to implement it...

Not read all the posts but Spotify gets my vote. I have two high end hifi components that have Spotify connect built in and the quality (320kbs) and conevience trump anything else.

Balls....not an Apple user and don't really intend to start.
Don't understand why Spotify don't want to implement it...

me too. seems crazy to ignore:

a) professional market where inappropriate lyrics are unacceptable
b) the next generation of customers

feel free to add your vote to the 7000 other votes... just don't expect much progress. 🙂

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Explicit-button/idc-p/1407697#M84990

quality (320kbs) and conevience trump anything else.

Except Spotify quality doesn't actually trump everything else since both Deezer and Tidal have lossless options that Spotify lack

Deezer has the better front end, music flows and family option. The family option can not yet be accessed by Sonos.

Tidal for sound quality.

While Google Music's interface might be inferior I love the feature of adding your own albums.

I know Apple Music and Microsoft's Groove have this function but the uploading just didn't work half as well.

Also I like the little essays that Tidal music sometimes put on its own curated playlists. I also prefer their monochrome look.

For the record, you can add your own music to Deezer as well.

Jamie - Member

For the record.....

What about the CD? Or cassette?

Ahem.....

*adds stumpy to the list*

I was on Spotify for a few years then moved to Deezer because the UI was better, and it had better integration to the car system.

Having then gone back to Spotify about a year ago I reckon that the two are now pretty much inseparable for nearly all features. The UI's are now pretty similar, integration with Sonos is equal, both offer download and play offline, streaming rate is the same and good enough for me, etc.

The list of compilation albums on Spotify is different to Deezer and definitely inferior. I really like the radio and Discover Daily and Discover Weekly playlists on Spotify which more than make up for the lack of the Deezer Flow feature. One thing I noticed about Flow is that it is not based on what you play, its based on favourites.

A key thing for me now is I have a new car with Apple Car Play which has direct support for Spotify but not Deezer

Deezer is on CarPlay, tho? Or at least I could use it on the last rental I had with the feature.

I use Apple Music, it works well and is totally integrated into my iPhone / Apple TV.

I'm trying Apple Music at the moment and not completely convinced:

- playing music from a phone to an Apple TV (or other Airplay device) is still streaming from the phone (so you gets interrupted if your phone rings or you use it to browse websites)
- using Apple remote on the phone to control iTunes on a Mac is better (and allows streaming to more than one Airplay device at the same time) but only allows you to play music you've 'added to your collection'. You can't then search for something new on Apple Music.
- Apple Music 'My New Music Mix' hasn't impressed me yet. A lot of music I really don't like (despite having access to my own music on iTunes)
- their servers seem surprisingly slow. Clicking on the "for you" tab in Music it takes a while to load. Search is slow and unintuitive. When you hit play on a track it takes a few seconds to start

Spotify has it's foibles as well but my main issue with it is that it will only play to a single Airplay device at a time. I've been using iTunes/Apple Music as my main interface for years but Spotify feels snappier and easier to use.
Spotify's Discover Weekly turns up a good playlist for me (though for some reason at the moment it's definitely not 'fresh' - it's almost all 60's related (it doesnt' seem to have taken any account of the stuff that's in my local files)

Another positive about Spotify: I've had a CD in my ebay watch list for a little while.. checked it out on Spotify and it's saved me £9, cos it's not worth buying. So that's good for 99p. 🙂

Dont get me wrong, i like Deezer but was rather annoyed at my own stupidity for not keeping an aye on the subscription. I'd rather have gone monthly that pay for the entire year, but the plus side is I'll have had 3 years premium for 145 quid....which isnt bad. just need to make sure I use it more 🙂

Except Spotify quality doesn't actually trump everything else since both Deezer and Tidal have lossless options that Spotify lack

I take it lossless streaming only makes a difference if you're listening to something directly to a speaker via WiFi (e.g. Chromecast), and not if you're streaming via Bluetooth from a device to a speaker?

It only makes a difference if you convince yourself it makes a difference.

Bluetooth is a lot better than it used to be, but it is still fairly heavily compressed and prone to interference.

Lossless is intended for when you are streaming to a DAC in your hifi and looking for CD quality (it is only lossless compared to CD, even CDs have limited dynamic range).

The 320 kbps most streaming services use has become somewhat standard because it's a point at which most people can't tell the difference from CD quality. I'm quite happy to believe that some people, on some equipment, can genuinely perceive a difference but mostly (as with much in the audio universe) it is primarily snobbery. A more grounded snobbery than unidirectional snake-oil cables because there is a physical difference, but still mostly snobbery.

If you want to know if you can tell the difference, you will find ABX tests you can do with a quick google. I mostly top out at 192 kbps depending on what I am listening with.

DezB - Member
It only makes a difference if you convince yourself it makes a difference.

Convinced of that, are you? 🙄

I take it lossless streaming only makes a difference if you're listening to something directly to a speaker via WiFi (e.g. Chromecast), and not if you're streaming via Bluetooth from a device to a speaker?

But even ignoring the inevitable lossless debate I stirred up, Deezer premium is 320k anyway, same as Spotify, so the suggestion that the quality of Spotify trumps anything else, is not true.

[i]Convinced of that, are you?[/i]

Well, as a drummer having spent a number of years performing live gigs, I'm sure your ears are much better attuned to fine sound details than anyone else's 😀

So, at 32kbps:

Chromecast to speaker = basically indistinguishable to CD

Bluetooth via device to speaker = not quite as good as CD

Have I got that right?

DezB - Member
Convinced of that, are you?

Well, as a drummer having spent a number of years performing live gigs, I'm sure your ears

Nice try at sarcasm, but irrelevant.