tldr: for me it's $4.99 a month + tax and if you're a student it's 50% off. have access to most songs you'd find on spotify + fun remixes.
SoundCloud is kind of a social media thing where you can follow friends and musicians. They let you comment on songs and sometimes the musicians will write back to you! If you find your favorite musicians, you can do a radio station based off of them and it's pretty good most of the time. They create a "Mixed for you" + "More of what you like" playlist daily and a weekly roundup.
But in addition to most of the songs you'll find on Spotify, you'll find independent musicians doing their own thing like on old myspace. SoundCloud's also good for hosting tracks that don't pass copyright laws (i think) so there's a lot of unofficial mixes and takes. There are podcasts too.
As a musician, I'm not very good at posting my stuff and sharing it around, I still use Bandcamp as lucius recommended, I like that a lot. So I'm not sure how other artists feel about SoundCloud.
Anyhow, it's $4.99 a month if you don't want ads and want access to all music.
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I've never paid for Spotify. I started with Grooveshark (as dubious as LimeWire) and moved onto Rdio before it was slaughtered by Spotify when it launched in the united states. I'll never forgive that.
Pandora - Yes, it still exists. Yes, it's radio stations are still far better than any other streaming services. I pay for ad-free stations and use these for music discovery. I listen to stations or full albums. I don't give a fuck about playlists.
Bandcamp - This is where I buy digital albums when I can (iTunes/Apple Music when I can't). Bandcamp allows you to stream songs a few times for free before asking you to pay so I preview albums with this service a lot. You can download music you buy to the Bandcamp app on your phone, but you'll need to download on a PC and transfer to your phone if you want the files in the stock music app (I believe that's only an iPhone limitation)
iTunes is still a thing but called the Apple Music App now. It supports all its old functions but kinda worse all around because it pushes an Apple Music subscription at every turn. Like seiji points out, you can "turn off" Apple Music (streaming) and use the iOS and MacOS Apple Music app as just an MP3 player. It's almost old school iTunes with all the playlist creating tools you could want.
Yes, you can still rip CDs! As long as you have a CD reader...
Longplay - MP3 player app for iOS that only allows you to listen to albums in full. No picking and choosing tracks! I almost exclusively use this for listening to music downloaded to my phone.
Vox - Minimal music player for Mac and iOS that also plays lossless audio codecs. Feels like iTunes with all the bloat stripped out. It's completely free. They have a premium subscription that will sync your collection to the cloud (but they don't shove it down your throat). Also supports Last.fm scrobbling.
Jul 29, 2024
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This is my fave website to transfer my playlists from platform to platform.
If ur like me and use Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music this is such a big help and time saver.
Tune my music let’s you transfer 500 songs for free and then it’s 25 bucks a year.
Me and my homies @ the radio station swear by it.
Not a sponsored ad just a strong endorsement from a Virgo 🥰
Jan 21, 2024
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A absolute must have. For so many reasons
Jan 25, 2024
Top Recs from @ronen
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I know burnout is real and sleep is important, but showing up for your friends and nurturing the relationships by taking them up on their kindness is real too. Go on that long drive to make it to your friend’s goodbye party, you could make new relationships there. Make a real plan to visit them in their new home. Or see your friend at work when they said they’ll give you free appetizers and tell them all the hot gossip. See their show. The culture in the US at least, makes it really hard to maintain friendships as you get older so when someone provides you a clear way of strengthening that bond, reconsider it. Caveat of course is level of friendship and if that kind of attention is wanted and also sometime you do really need to shut down for a bit … but make it up to them after, bake something or visit them later, etc.
Jul 28, 2024
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I’d look up different art residencies. Somewhere where there’s a nice pile of artists gathering together, taking turns making meals. Little hopeful moments.
Aug 15, 2024