The way I see it, if you're too cheap to pay the ten bucks a month -- TEN BUCKS! -- you have no reason to complain about the ads and limitations for free users

Hey, we should all do some shared playlists/mixes again, like we did on that *other* forum that no longer exists. I vaguely recall you (Hokeyboy... maybe someone else) doing a "Dirty Pop" playlist or something like that, and I never got to save the link to it before that forum died.

Oh yeah, the Dusty Pop playlist! That was a fun one... sort of slightly-to-somewhat under-the-radar 60s power pop hits. I'll try to find the link but it's tricky at work.

I'm all for doing that entire exercise again!

EDIT: Found it -- https://open.spotify.com/user/hokeyb...HMG59JUxH0a5e9

Nice! I'm downloading the playlist now so I have something to listen to on my flights

If other folks are interested, we can start a new thread for our playlists. We can use the wikipost feature so people can update the links easier, too.

I'm not cheap. I'm just not a lemming who's willing to pay yet another of copious monthly fees simply to listen to music. If you are, A-OK.

I'll gladly be a lemming. I save thousands yearly with that subscription. I still buy some physically media, mostly vinyl, but my spending is way down with Spotify at my fingertips.

Has anyone checked out the Amazon service? $79 for a year for Prime members. Seems like a really nice deal if their library matches Spotify (34% savings over Spotify).

Unless things have changed recently, Amazon Prime Music has a very small fraction of Spotify's catalog and does not get the new releases like Spotify does. As a free add on to Prime Shipping and Movies, it may be worth trying out especially if you purchase music through Amazon that you can mix in your playlists.

I second that and add the interface isn't as "friendly" as Spotify. I haven't used Amazon in a bit, might be improved, but it was a chore to navigate.

Things indeed have changed, the music selection that is included free with Prime is still limited, but their new unlimited plan seems to have a music selection comparable with Spotify. It costs $7.99 per month, $14.99 a month for a family plan and only $3.99 a month if you want to limit play to a single Echo/Alexa device.

Ah, that makes more sense. So this isn't what was called Prime Music before, but a new service.

The only drawback I have with Spotify is that I can't seem to figure out how to rearrange songs in my playlists using the android app or the browser player. I can drag and drop songs using the PC app, but at work I'm not allowed to install programs like this on my work machine, so I have to mess around with my playlists at home.

10 bucks is "copious"? I suppose if you're already paying dozens of other subscription fees to various other services, maybe. The value of that ten dollars is unprecedented. I used to spend hundreds a month on music. Spotify is an incredible value.

"Copious" as in many other services and utilities for which one pays monthly. I would not pay a monthly fee to listen to music, not even a mere $10, but if it's a good value for you and others, that's fine with me. I am not a music fanatic.
My "lemming" comment was an overreaction to your aggressive response to my post about the insufferable ads.

I've tolerated the ads for free, even though they play a lot that just promote music that I wouldn't even listen to on its own for free (I've had promos for rap albums playing in between easy-listening tracks!) I'd rather have any money I spend on music go to purchasing an actual CD that keeps my local record stores in business.

Here's a playlist of production library music tracks used for commercials, movie trailers and the like. It's fun to listen to these since they weren't meant to be heard on their own: https://play.spotify.com/user/8traxr...RtjlAX22l2KTIS

Songs I first heard on "Rock of the 80s" format stations, mainly new wave and related. The best songs are at the beginning, the ones near the bottom were taken from station playlists (KROQ and Live 105) near the later 80s that don't mean as much to me but thought I'd include them anyways:

https://play.spotify.com/user/8traxr...j5ko5ObjVPC6GI

Aagh- I see several songs have been REMOVED from Spotify! Good thing I didn't throw out my CDs!

In addition, there is currently a code for new subscribers: enter code AMAZONMUSIC by 12/3016 and after your free 30 day trial, you can get $10 off Amazon Music Unlimited. If you are a Prime Member and pay for the full year up front, that works out to $69 for 13 months. That is a deal that Spotify can't touch.

Offer info

I'm new to the Echo Dots (bought four for the house for Christmas) and have a question on how this works...

All Dots are currently linked through my Amazon Prime account. (My wife has Prime, but under my account. Devices link to my email) If I wish to subscribe to AMU, can i get away with using an individual account on all devices? Or do I need the family account, at twice the price?

Keep in mind, the Dots can't play music... you still need to have a bluetooth speaker nearby for the Dot to link with.

That's not correct. They can play music without an external speaker, but it sounds shitty.

Thanks for this. I signed up and will use the next couple months to compare with Spotify. Doing a spot-check, the Amazon content looks to be similar to Spotify's. I used a few lesser-known artists and albums to see what the differences were and didn't find any.

Amazon offers lyrics for some songs but besides that I think Google play Music is just as good and has better controls and better UI.

I only pay $8 a month for it.

Thinking of going with a Spotify subscription. Aside from free desktop use and Pandora I've have not used or paid for music services. Should I go all in, or look elsewhere?

I at least plan to sign up for the 3 month trial deal. As that's for premium, I assume it doesn't extend to the family plan?

link

Sounds like Prince will be returning to Spotify in the next few weeks. This is awesome because it's such a vast catalog that it's hard to explore without a streaming option.

That would be awesome! I'm guessing it would be Warner stuff only, but that's a great start...

Looks like the Warner material should be up on Sunday.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...albums-w466178

Hopefully the stuff covered in this Universal deal isn't far behind.