Wi-Fi music streaming

[rob_s]

Anyone else messing around with this? Anyone else struggling with the various services and products and trying to get everything’s working together?

We are an Apple TV family, so originally I was hoping to just stick with that, and get Apple Music as a streaming service and stay all in one ecosystem. Problem is, or was, that you couldn’t stream to more than one device at a time, and the HomePod is going to be $350 if you want an airplay standalone smart-thingy (like Alexa).

Because of all of this, and because I already had two Vizio soundbars, and because they are chromecast enabled, I went with Spotify and for the most part things seemed good. I had to buy two little chromecast pucks to play on some older devices, but that was mostly ok. Downside is that when the pucks get unplugged they lose all of their memory and so when you wa t to go set up that speaker outside for a party you have to completely reprogram the thing.

Then I bought some Alexa devices because I knew they worked with Spotify. Turns out,however, that you can’t stream spotify to more than one type of streaming service at once. So you can’t chromecast and play on an Alexa device.

Then the new Sonos One with Alexa came out, and since the wife always wanted Sonos to begin with but I didn’t want to pay the premium, I bought her one. Works great, sounds great, I can turn on and off my smart lights from the kitchen, she can stream music when she’s cooking, etc. problem is that you also can’t stream Spotify to Sonos at the same time as chromecast or Alexa.

Oh, and I can still see my Apple TVs on the Spotify app, but I can’t stream to those as the same time as all the rest. But it still seems to want to only allow me to pick one or the other, not multiple airplay devices at the same time.

Oh, and you can’t play over Bluetooth and any other stream at the same time, nor more than one Bluetooth at the same time.

I’m somewhat tempted to scrap it all and just bite the HomePod bullet and stick with Apple, since our Apple TVs aren’t going anywhere, but it seems we still can’t play on more than one device at a time. I’m also tempted to bite the bullet and go all Sonos, but goddamn that’s going to be expensive as hell since every single device and location will need some sort of speaker or receiver.

Anyone come up with a solution that works? For the most part I’m haply with the Spotify and chromecast, so maybe I just need to trade in Alexa for Google Home...

[olstyn]

What keeps you away from Pandora? I haven't tried to do all the things you mention, but it's always streamed well to computers, phones, iPads, FireTV stick, Playstation, etc., for me.

[ranger]

We are reducing our subscription services and trying to get the most of the subscriptions that we are currently keeping. We use XFINITY for reduced cable tv package and internet. I was pleasantly surprised with the "tv" channels that play music - lots of selection and good song mix. I am paying for it and we are using it. Prior to that we used Pandora.

[blues]

I was a longtime Spotify premium subscriber and was pretty content for the most part. I'd use "Connect" to be able to change music in another room if I was playing on a remote device.

A few months ago I purchased an Echo for the missus as she hates to mess with my audio gear, (and is not an audiophile by any stretch but loves music), and she was thrilled with its simplicity when she wanted to hear tunes.

I ended up adding an Echo Dot to my component system to replace the iPod I had been using to play streamed music through that system. Instead of getting up to change selections on the iPod, I can tell Alexa to do it for me.

Now I've switched over to Amazon Music Unlimited from Spotify Premium as the deal was too good to pass up and you can set up "groups" via the Alexa app so that you can stream to multiple units at the same time. I have a couple of units tied in that way so I can hear the music I've chosen when I walk from one end of the house to the other.

It's also great for playing music in the 4Runner either via bluetooth or mini USB.

Amazon Music Unlimited seems to be getting better and better as time goes on.

[blues]

Can't edit the above post but another nice feature of Amazon's Music Unlimited is that you can download as much music as you want to your iPhone for playing without an internet or data connection. When I start up my vehicle and put the audio on "bluetooth" it automatically starts playing downloaded selections from my phone.

It works so well that I got rid of SiriusXM which seemed to be too repetitive for my taste overall.

[RoyGBiv]

Can't edit the above post but another nice feature of Amazon's Music Unlimited is that you can download as much music as you want to your iPhone for playing without an internet or data connection. When I start up my vehicle and put the audio on "bluetooth" it automatically starts playing downloaded selections from my phone.

It works so well that I got rid of SiriusXM which seemed to be too repetitive for my taste overall.
We switched to Amazon Prime Music Unlimited a few months ago and I really like it. My entire family (up tp 6 people) can run it on 4 (?) devices each (may be more actually) for $150/year. Download whatever you want to your phone and play it offline (no data), create/sync playlists, etc.

I run it the same as blues... Start the car, music plays once BT connects.

I've been trying to listen to the Free week of Sat radio this week... already gone back to music on the phone. No commercials, not talk, talk. No extra cost to explore whatever new weird stuff you want to try... Plenty of user-generated playlists available for download... Hard to beat.

[TheCarl]

What keeps you away from Pandora? I haven't tried to do all the things you mention, but it's always streamed well to computers, phones, iPads, FireTV stick, Playstation, etc., for me.

When Pandora tweeted support for BLM, my desire to support that company went nil.

[Clusterfrack]

We use Sonos with Apple Music and Amazon Prime. I hate Pandora. I didn’t know about their political bias but their algorithm is effed. Somehow no matter how many times I pressed thumbs down they still played the Beatles and Gratefuul Dead, which I freaking hate.

[ragnar_d]

We switched to Amazon Prime Music Unlimited a few months ago and I really like it. My entire family (up tp 6 people) can run it on 4 (?) devices each (may be more actually) for $150/year. Download whatever you want to your phone and play it offline (no data), create/sync playlists, etc.

I run it the same as blues... Start the car, music plays once BT connects.

I've been trying to listen to the Free week of Sat radio this week... already gone back to music on the phone. No commercials, not talk, talk. No extra cost to explore whatever new weird stuff you want to try... Plenty of user-generated playlists available for download... Hard to beat.

I've done the same. I just use the freebies on Amazon Music that are included with Prime. Eventually, I'll probably spring for Unlimited and then the wife can download a bunch of the music for the kiddo.

Ditto on SiriusXM. The channels I wanted to listen to were streaming only and on a long car drive, you'd hear the same music 3-4 times in one channel. Driving from Atlanta to Orlando with the wife, Alt Nation (wife chose the channel) repeated 3-4 times. Wasn't worth the money. The wife wants it back for Christmas music, but I'd imagine I could do something with Amazon music for less.


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[ranger]

I got tired of Sirius XM also. Tired of the "chatter" on the country channels. I actually called and complained about the chatter - it was obvious they did not care. Got tired of the cost too. I will have to look at the Amazon option.

[rob_s]

re: Amazon Prime Music...
That's an option I hadn't considered. Off the top of my head, my concern would be needing to add a Dot to almost everything, and then hoping it picks the right input. For example, I have a stereo in the shop and two soundbars in the house that we stream to during parties with chromecast (all sync'd, it's really nice) and then we add a speaker on the patio (requires me to re-set up the chromecast every time, pain in the ass). I'm assuming that to get Amazon music on my soundbars and shop I'd need new dots for all three locations. I suppose the good news is that the Sonos would automatically work since it's on the echo/alexa network.

re: offline music...
Spotify seems to allow me to do this. I have to play the offline music through the Spotify app but it's there. I absolutely loathe autoplaying music in the car, and can't seem to make it stop despite frequent googling of a solution.

playing at the same time on multiple devices/locations is huge for us. Since I've already invested in several chromecast devices, some of which have chromecast native like the TVs and speakers, I'm leaning towards staying with that. Unfortunately that means the Alexa-enabled $200 Sonos may be the odd man out. I suppose I could replace it with a Google Home, but the wife has always wanted a Sonos and I was happy to have been able to provide that for her, and was disappointed we couldn't add that to a group to have it play on that as well as all the Chromecast devices at the same time. i read that you can add a chromecast to the aux in on the Sonos but she's not going to be happy about that solution...

[rob_s]

Some interesting developments...
The Sonos is supposed to get Google Assitant and Siri in 2018 (https://www.cnet.com/news/sonos-one-speaker-blends-alexa-google-assistant-and-siri-for-200/). If that includes an ability to add the Sonos as a chromecast target that might really help solve my issue.

Airplay 2 allows streaming to multiple devices (https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-introduces-airplay-2-with-multi-room-support/). While this would still require some additional investment (The Homepod is $350 and my current shop stereo isn't aiplay I don't think), the only thing that might make the wife happier than a Sonos is to let her stay all Apple, all the time. We could ditch spotify and just go with apple music.

[theJanitor]

I'm on amazon unlimited program. We have very few devices, though. It seems simple enough, with a large enough playlist to satisfy me, my wife, and our 4yo. Bonus is the selection of white noise "music" is pretty good. My kid like to fall asleep to the sound of the ocean, or the rainforest. That ALONE was worth the cost of admission

[RoyGBiv]

re: Amazon Prime Music...
That's an option I hadn't considered. Off the top of my head, my concern would be needing to add a Dot to almost everything, and then hoping it picks the right input.
For a device without built-in Bluetooth, you can always use the headphone jack from your smartphone to the device. We did this for a long time from a laptop next to the stereo... Was great for letting friends pick whatever song they wanted to hear next from anything on the web... We had Napster at the time..

[rob_s]

For a device without built-in Bluetooth, you can always use the headphone jack from your smartphone to the device. We did this for a long time from a laptop next to the stereo... Was great for letting friends pick whatever song they wanted to hear next from anything on the web... We had Napster at the time..

that's going backwards from where we want to be.

What we're currently able to do, just not quite as easily as we'd prefer, is to stream the same playlist on two soundbars in the house, a speaker on the patio, and a stereo in the workshop, all wirelessly. My primary issue is that I've bought Amazon Alexa/Echo devices mistakenly thinking they were on the same system as the Google Chromecast we have everywhere else, and that's hampered my efforts.

I'm more and more thinking that sticking with Spotify and Chromecast is the way to go, and just getting something like the JBL Link 300 (https://www.jbl.com/home-speakers/JBL+LINK+300.html) for the kitchen and the JBL Link 20 (https://www.jbl.com/JBL+LINK+20.html) for the patio, and using Google Assitant/Home instead of Amazon Alexa/Echo. The JBL products appear to also be Google Assistant enabled.

Downside being the Alexa-enabled devices I already have won't work in this scenario.

[olstyn]

When Pandora tweeted support for BLM, my desire to support that company went nil.

Fair enough. I'm not pleased to learn this, but OTOH, it's not like I stop watching TV and movies because of the political leanings of the actors, so I guess as long as Pandora doesn't start actually playing ads for BLM on my stations, I probably won't look to switch.