After RDIO, where to next for you?

Native AM UI is one of the least cluttered already, IMO, so not much to improve.

A few shots off my little cheapie LG phone; very usable even on a 4" screen.
Hmmm, really? That surely wasn't my impression. This looks pretty dang busy to me.

AppleMusicNewMusic.png


Thanks for the Sonos SSs. They're definitely parred down. How's the menus?
 
Well, the way Sonos works, you typically use the search, which is Google-like in that it searches across all the active services at once. There are multiple search categories, like Artist,Album,Station,Playlist... So, there are very few menus.

As a listener with very eclectic tastes, Rdio was a favorite for its thousands of eccentric playlists. Several hundred for fado and chanson, for example. Apple, so far, has zero fado and four chanson playlists... :(

Screenshot_2015-12-15-17-03-01.png
 
Just received this email:

"Goodbye… for now.
Over the course of five years, Rdio has grown to become a global community of music lovers — a place to discover, listen, and collect. We’re proud to have built that community with you.

As we announced last month, Rdio is being acquired. As part of the acquisition, the Rdio service will be shutting down worldwide on December 22, 2015 at approximately 5pm PST.

We know you want to find a home for the music you’ve discovered and collected on Rdio, so we’re providing ways for you to take it with you. Visit rdio.com/farewell and log in with your Rdio account for more information.

Thank you. We’re honored to have connected you with the music you love. And we look forward to bringing great music experiences to even more listeners in the future as part of the Pandora team.

Find export tools and more on the Rdio farewell site."
 
Hmmm, really? That surely wasn't my impression. This looks pretty dang busy to me.

AppleMusicNewMusic.png


Thanks for the Sonos SSs. They're definitely parred down. How's the menus?
Interesting. I don't pay much attention to that page other than scrolling down to the new releases. However, I pulled it up on my iPad to see how it looked and noticed a list of "Essential Classical Albums: Mastered for iTunes" at the bottom of the page.

Sure it adds to the so-called clutter, but I am happy it is there because I am not sure I would have just stumbled across it (I have searched for "Mastered for iTunes" and have always come up with less than desirable results.). The album list is impressive and I bet they sound fantastic. Check it out if you like classical.
 
So now Rdio has a page where you can download your "favorites", playlists, etc. They also have links to migration tools. Looks like one more week until they turn out the lights for the last time.
 
Well, the way Sonos works, you typically use the search, which is Google-like in that it searches across all the active services at once. There are multiple search categories, like Artist,Album,Station,Playlist... So, there are very few menus.

As a listener with very eclectic tastes, Rdio was a favorite for its thousands of eccentric playlists. Several hundred for fado and chanson, for example. Apple, so far, has zero fado and four chanson playlists... :(
OK. Hmm, So there's no real "browse" function within each individual service?

I guess what I was after mainly is what choices/options are available when you click the hamburger menu? :biggrin:
 
So, Sonos has an API, the music partners all write their own UI, so each one is different. As you can imagine, browsing through 35 million tracks would be unwieldy, so none of the services provides that, but the universal search works extremely well. Most of the UIs are similar, depending on the service type.

The hamburger menu just reveals the list of subscribed services, local and NAS browsers, setup menus, etc. On larger screens, this list is always exposed on the main screen.

Some samples:

Screenshot_2015-12-15-20-56-50.png Screenshot_2015-12-15-20-56-28.png Screenshot_2015-12-15-20-55-19.png Screenshot_2015-12-15-20-54-47.png Screenshot_2015-12-15-20-54-13.png
 
Drilling down into MixCloud, for example, it's a few clicks to get to someone I follow (our own poppachubby!), then could add all the playlists to the queue for a room. The queue can have tracks, albums, playlists, stations, etc from multiple providers at the same time, extremely versatile. They're nonvolatile, can be paused, edited, deleted, etc.

Screenshot_2015-12-15-21-19-05.png Screenshot_2015-12-15-21-20-42.png
 
Interesting. I don't pay much attention to that page other than scrolling down to the new releases. However, I pulled it up on my iPad to see how it looked and noticed a list of "Essential Classical Albums: Mastered for iTunes" at the bottom of the page.

Sure it adds to the so-called clutter, but I am happy it is there because I am not sure I would have just stumbled across it (I have searched for "Mastered for iTunes" and have always come up with less than desirable results.). The album list is impressive and I bet they sound fantastic. Check it out if you like classical.
Yeah. As I recall, the iPad was a tad more forgiving --usually the case with most iOS "elbow cramped" apps. heh.. rekon there is indeed something to be said about sacrificing forests for trees. It's akin to a Lewis & Clark expedition plus blind squirrels eventually finding nuts.
:rockon:
 
Yeah. As I recall, the iPad was a tad more forgiving --usually the case with most iOS "elbow cramped" apps. heh.. rekon there is indeed something to be said about sacrificing forests for trees. It's akin to a Lewis & Clark expedition plus blind squirrels eventually finding nuts.
:rockon:
Since I got the AppleTV 4 running Apple Music on a 100 inch projector, now my iPad Apple Music app feels cramped. Just kidding, but it is all about perspective. :)

Personally, I don't find clutter (at lease bad clutter) to encapsulate just having a lot of stuff. In this case, "new" is a kind of a catch all place that they drop new playlists, what albums/songs are on the top of the charts now, and just stuff they want to spotlight right now (like the classical albums I mentioned earlier). If the app has clutter, I think it is organized clutter.

Personally, I have always preferred having some organized "clutter" than a clean design with things I want that aren't there or are hard to find. For me, there is a logical approach to the app's layout, so when I am exploring, I know exactly where to go for the information I need. If it is clutter, then it is useful clutter, in my opinion. I should admit that I am a Photoshop user, so I am used to just ignoring the stuff that isn't useful to me.
 
My guess is that the resistance to MQA on blogs is due to folks who do not want to change their hardware or software configurations. Understandable ... does not mean anything to me since my use of computer audio has always been ephemeral.
 
I have been using Spotify's premium ($8.99) service for close to a year and I enjoy the content and convenience, the sound quality is just okay when compared to CD's and Vinyl, and comparable to itunes aac format.
I am trying Tidals premium service on their 30 day trial offer. I can tell a good bit of difference in the sound quality, the Tidal "HIFI" is definitely better quality than the other options. The Tidal is a little quirky when searching for things... I'm sure I'll get acquainted with it quickly.
I am using all of these through an iPhone 5, using an ipure docking station with a Maverick Audio Tubemagic D2 DAC, using the download or offline options.

The subscription for Tidal premium is $25.99 per month vs. Spotify's $8.99... quite a difference.
 
He probably subscribed via the iOS app. Tidal tacks on 30% to offset Apples cut for in app purchases.

Correct, I did subscribe through iOS app store.

I am having a bit of trouble dropping the Spotify subscription... there is no mechanism for unsubscribing in the app. I sent an email to their support and I will call my CC issuer and disallow charges from Spotify. PITA
 
trying Tidal trial and wow is it brutal. Makes you-tube seem like heaven. The player says 320bit but it's actually under 100 and sounds amazingly bad. My Dragonfly dac is green.that's level 1 of 4. Spotify premium was 160 for the web player you get no high quality option. If I download the app on my strange device called a laptop with Google Chrome will I get the high quality option?? My membership just lapsed so I can't monkey with settings.
 
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