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Amazon Prime Music

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Re: Amazon Prime Music

#71

Post by theplaz »

swombat wrote: post #64
psychometry wrote: post #63

Isn't anyone interested in owning their music anymore? Have we all become such casual consumers of music that the concept of building a permanent library of music they like is unnecessary? I will never understand the appeal of subscription music services.

You're not alone. My blood congeals at the idea that access to the music I love is somehow restricted by a third party with a different agenda to mine. I have zero interest in a third party streaming service. Now, if I could install my very own self-hosted Spotify-alike, stick all my music on there, and stream it to my devices with a smooth wireless connection that works even when I'm in tunnels, then you've got me a…

The old version of Cloud Drive was pretty much that (except it was hosted on Amazon).

Before Cloud Drive, I used Subsonic, which is self hosted. Though it never really worked all that well.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#72

Post by theplaz »

__david__ wrote: post #65
andrewguenther wrote: post #12

This is seriously a usability disaster. I have to go through the normal Amazon store to add music to my prime library? I have to leave the player to find music to listen to? No thank you.

Their iOS app seems to be a much better experience than the web site, where I kept getting accidentally shunted to the "digital music" department where the prime music wasn't highlighted.

The Windows Desktop app is much better as it's all in one place (like the iOS app). However you still have to "add" the music to play it.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#73

Post by baddox »

psychometry wrote: post #63

Isn't anyone interested in owning their music anymore? Have we all become such casual consumers of music that the concept of building a permanent library of music they like is unnecessary? I will never understand the appeal of subscription music services.

Well, I don't really "own" my music in a legal sense, although I do own some licenses to music as well as some plastic discs and flash chips that store digital copies of music.

I do have the same intuition that you do that subscription music services are unsatisfying, but I think the line is starting to blur. I use iTunes almost exclusively as my music library, through iTunes Match and my own iTunes purchases. Other than the songs that happen to be cached on my devices, this is not physically any more permanent or "owned" than a subscription service like Spotify. Granted, I can download and backup music from iTunes, but that's an additional step that most people presumably don't do. (I do keep fairly recent backups of my music, and much of my especially cherished music is backed up from CDs, though I refuse to purchase physical media these days.)

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#74

Post by veidr »

Cool. Unlike most things Amazon, such as Prime video, this service works in Japan, using a US Amazon account.

(I tested quickly using the Mac client for it.)

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#75

Post by veidr »

psychometry wrote: post #63

Isn't anyone interested in owning their music anymore? Have we all become such casual consumers of music that the concept of building a permanent library of music they like is unnecessary? I will never understand the appeal of subscription music services.

I totally hear you; I have around a half terabyte of albums (and complete discographies for my favorite artists), and I physically control the devices that actually store the bits, because that's how I like it.

But still, I fuck around with streaming services (the ones that work here in Japan, anyway) as a way to explore newer music -- the best of which ultimately ends up in my permanent collection.

You can do both.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#76

Post by dueprocess »

psychometry wrote: post #63

Isn't anyone interested in owning their music anymore? Have we all become such casual consumers of music that the concept of building a permanent library of music they like is unnecessary? I will never understand the appeal of subscription music services.

I use Deezer (a music subscription service) and I get serious usage out of it. Sure, I don't own music anymore, but that's because it seems so unnecessary.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#77

Post by rajivm »

derefr wrote: post #46
L_Rahman wrote: post #13

1. Given my listening habits, the library feels limited. Tried searches for the three albums I listened to the most this month ( http://www.last.fm/user/labibrahman/charts ): Sylvan Esso - Sylvan Esso Chet Faker - Built on Glass Tycho - Awake None are available for streaming. For a standalone service, this would be damning. As one of the perks offered with Prime this has the potential to become a compelling part of t…

> Next episodes don't auto play. There are actually some very strict legal requirements preventing streaming-video services from providing "linear content" (i.e. anything that works like a TV channel.) Anyone that seems to do so (e.g. Netflix) still stops every few episodes to get you to press a button to continue. Happily, this is entirely irrelevant to within-home streaming. Plex can auto-play for as long as you li…

I've worked in the online video streaming industry and I've never heard of such a restriction. I have heard of such restrictions for music streaming, however. (i.e. to be a "radio" service, a.la Pandora, you cannot have a predictable linear playlist).

Even if you have "auto-play", this is vastly different than the "scheduled content" of traditional TV.

Netflix stops every few episodes because there are per-stream costs, whether bandwidth or licensing (it's a waste to leave shows playing all night while someone's left their computer).

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#78

Post by tonyblundell »

avalaunch wrote: post #18

For those wanting to compare this to Spotify, Amazon Prime Music has about 5% of the number of songs that Spotify does (1 million vs 20 million). Most notably, it's missing the entire Universal Music Group catalog as well as most new releases. At 20 dollars less per year than Spotify, while also offering Prime shipping and Prime movies, I can't imagine Amazon will be able to reach any sort of licensing arrangement wh…

They'll probably run it at a loss until they have the subscriber numbers to make profit.

As long as they get usable web/phone/xbox apps this will kill Spotify.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#79

Post by tonyblundell »

psychometry wrote: post #63

Isn't anyone interested in owning their music anymore? Have we all become such casual consumers of music that the concept of building a permanent library of music they like is unnecessary? I will never understand the appeal of subscription music services.

To buy the amount of music I listen to on Spotify would cost hundreds of pounds each month, so I prefer to subscribe for £10. I can still buy the obscure/local/unsigned music I want to listen to that isn't available on there.

To me the idea of owning music is tied to the need for physical media, which we don't have any more. We don't worry about owning TV shows for example because they weren't traditionally broadcast that way.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#80

Post by stephenc_c_ »

swombat wrote: post #64
psychometry wrote: post #63

Isn't anyone interested in owning their music anymore? Have we all become such casual consumers of music that the concept of building a permanent library of music they like is unnecessary? I will never understand the appeal of subscription music services.

You're not alone. My blood congeals at the idea that access to the music I love is somehow restricted by a third party with a different agenda to mine. I have zero interest in a third party streaming service. Now, if I could install my very own self-hosted Spotify-alike, stick all my music on there, and stream it to my devices with a smooth wireless connection that works even when I'm in tunnels, then you've got me a…

You can do that with Subsonic: http://www.subsonic.org/pages/index.jsp
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