Itunes Alternatives?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 7/15/18 at 12:18am

So I've  finally had it with Itunes.  I thought I'd try a month trial for apple music.  It asked me to turn my ICloud on, which I usually have off.  I decided to cancel the apple music trial before being charged, turned my icloud back off, and it then deleted random songs (I have a lot of music, but I think it was mostly from playlists) off of my hard drive.  Not just from itunes, but from the actual PC (and they're nowhere to be found in the recycle bin).  I was able to turn the icloud back on and get most of the songs back (still a few missing, I think).  I was able to download them back to the harddrive, but now they're in an itunes folder and not in their original folder with the rest of the albums they belong to.  After this nonsense, I'm done with Itunes.

Long way to getting to my question, sorry! I'm looking for an Itunes alternative that will allow me to update my Ipod regularly.  I was looking at Music Bee.  A bit overwhelmed by all the choices, and I've used Itunes for so long, I'm just not aware of what else is out there.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  I'm just done with this cloud nonsense and Itunes deleting stuff from my hard drive was the last straw.

 

 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/15/18 at 12:46pm

I'm not terribly "hip" with music sites, but I use Amazon Music.   You have all your music in your account, and choose what to have on your phone itself.  When using it, you can choose between listening from the device or using wifi.   All my music plays on my echo devices, and any computer I log into

[luvcaroline]

Posted: 7/15/18 at 4:28pm

I really like Tidal. It also allows you to download all the albums/songs that you want on your phone and/or computer, while still allowing unlimited streaming. It’s the only music service that features bit-perfect uncompressed downloads, just like listening to the CD (not MP3s). The difference in sound quality is noticeable. They also have a large selection of videos, concerts, short films, and the like. Apparently Tidal is having financial problems and so their long term future is uncertain, but I’m sticking with them until the end (they have a great selection of cast albums, if that’s important).

[Mr Kelly]

Posted: 7/16/18 at 6:19am

I also stopped using itunes recently, and am a fan of Spotify. It is fairly cheap per month and if you buy a year upfront it is even cheaper. Lots of theatre stuff which I am enjoying. 

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/16/18 at 9:13am

I, too, use Spotify and I love it. 

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 7/16/18 at 11:55am

Thanks for the suggestions, everybody!

I’m still clinging on to downloaded music. My collection is so massive that I just can’t give it up. I may bite the bullet eventually.

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 7/16/18 at 2:45pm

This might not be a popular take but go "download" your music. Artists see next to nothing financially from any of these services anyway. Buy a ticket to their concert or merchandise at a concert from your favorite artist/group instead if you really want to support them.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 7/16/18 at 5:23pm

I like amazon.  I also have samsung music on phone.  Pandora is good for dinner music.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 7/16/18 at 5:23pm

I like amazon.  I also have samsung music on phone.  Pandora is good for dinner music.

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 12:33pm

Broadway Joe said: "This might not be a popular take but go "download" your music. Artists see next to nothing financially from any of these services anyway. Buy a ticket to their concert or merchandise at a concert from your favorite artist/group instead if you really want to support them."

That's not totally accurate. For the longest time Spotify gave artists next to nothing in royalties. That changed when Apple Music came into the picture.A good, not to distant example would be Taylor Swift. She openly said that she would only allow her music to be streamed via apple music, and didn't allow her music to be on Spotify because she got a decent amount in royalties from Apple than Spotify. Keep in mind, that, in addition to allowing people to stream music in apple music, the artists get money from that plus sales as well.

Also, there is a feature on Spotify that allows you to upload your music (regardless of how you got it) and create playlists to share publicly. The artists get jack in royalties from that too. Another reason why some artists don't want their music on Spotify. 

[fillysun]

Posted: 7/9/20 at 10:56pm

As for me, I prefer to go to Tidal as the iTunes alternative as it offers high quality of music tracks. By the way, if you want to listen to Tidal music offline, then you should keep the Tidal Song Downloader with you. It can help you enjoy better Tidal music on your devices.

[MarthaNeilson]

Posted: 7/14/20 at 9:57am

I love the tide. You can download all the necessary albums and music from your mobile phone and / or PC during the transfer. This is the only music service that includes incomplete downloads, such as listening to CDs not MP3s. You see the difference in sound level. They have Adobe Zii 2020 video games, concerts, short films and much more. Tides seem to have financial problems, so the future is not clear, but in the end with the metal they have many choice of models we stay with them.

Updated On: 7/23/20 at 09:57 AM

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 7/14/20 at 2:42pm

I'm using Amazon HD. At a minimum, the music is encoded at CD quality and millions of tracks are also available in high resolution (which Amazon labels as UHD). If you're an Amazon Prime member, Amazon HD is $12.99 a month.

[Pauly3]

Posted: 7/15/20 at 9:38pm

.02 cents:  Sound quality between services is often hotly debated in both casual listener and audiophile circles.  I think some people can legitimately hear differences, but I think most who can exaggerate the significance of those differences - and/or also have very high end playback equipment.  I would do little or no better in a blind test than if I guessed 100% of the time, and many tests have shown I'm not the exception.  And if playing back through a phone, with no external DAC (Digital to Analog converter), then the chances of hearing any real difference is all the more futile.

Tidal's "HiFi" option is $19.99/mo.  I tried their 60-day free trial and enjoyed using it, but as I could tell little if any difference to Spotify's $9.99/mo. "MP3" quality, I cancelled Tidal.  Tidal has a similar $9.99 option, but Tidal can't be controlled on one device and played back on another like Spotify can.  Many of those who insist Spotify does not sound good, which is also debated, likely haven't changed the sound quality from the default Normal setting to the Very High setting in the app's preferences.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 7/15/20 at 10:47pm

I've become more and more of a Spotify user these last number of years. What a great music streaming platform, with a huge library to boot.

[Annie Yazbeck]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 6:36am

When it comes to iTunes alternative, the one I vote for Tidal, which is the streaming music service I'm using. The best highlight feature of this platform is that it offers HiFi CD-quality, MQA music. Besides, I get the best partner of Tidal, called AudFree Tidal Converter, which can download and convert Tidal music to MP3, FLAC at 5X fast speed. So I can listen to Tidal songs and playlists anywhere offline as I like.