Looking for a safe place to discuss best alternatives. Anyone have any solid alternatives that get back to a minimal and high quality music app mindset?
Spotify or Apple Music, neither of them is perfect, both are cheaper and have larger library. Still on fence here. I’m open to other suggestions as well.
I’m thinking about Youtube Music. My biggest problem with Spotify is the fact that if you go into an artist’s page, you cannot get a list of their top tracks. You just get their 5 most popular tracks. This is the ONLY thing keeping me on Deezer rn to be honest hahaha
Probably be Tidal for me
I went with Tidal. The UI is actually very similar to pre-update Deezer. Even slicker in some cases, but behind in others.
I checked out Apple Music and Spotify before deciding on Tidal. This might sound crazy, but Apple doesn’t have have a basic “Favourited Songs” list (!!!) and neither it nor Spotify really support “disliking” songs, so not a replacement for Deezer. Luckily Tidal supports both.
FWIW, so far Tidals “Track Radio” and “Artist Radio” features seem to work better for me than Flow.
(Also, you can bring your entire library from Deezer across in a couple minutes using a tool that Tidal recommends on their website)
Music streaming services features
- Support for LMS-server
- HiFI quality
- Family sub
- Great or good user interface
- Play local files or from a network
- Android TV HiFi support
- Chromecast (working, deezer does not work)
- A real Connect feature (deezer version is complely dysfunctional)
I checked out Apple Music and Spotify before deciding on Tidal. This might sound crazy, but Apple doesn’t have have a basic “Favourited Songs” list (!!!) and neither it nor Spotify really support “disliking” songs, so not a replacement for Deezer. Luckily Tidal supports both.
I just signed up to Apple and am trying it now. It does have a favourited songs list, but it's admittedly a bit cluncky to use. To get it, you select Songs in library, then use the Favourite filter (top right corner) to see your favourite songs only.
You can unlike (suggest less) songs, but it takes extra steps and i haven't used the app long enough to see how their algorithm uses them. One thing I haven't found is an option to download favourite songs automatically. I was also surprised that the setup routine didn't ask me to pick songs and genres i liked to establish a baseline profile for me. I just took it for granted that all music apps would do this these days.
It does seem to have most of the features I've been waiting on Deezer for (lossless+, exclusive mode on the Android app for hi-res lossless, support for hardware I own including Chromecast and Roku). There's no native Linux app but Google says their API is solid and that there are 3rd party options available. I haven't tried any yet.
I tried Tidal during the summer and found that although it had a decent library, the UI was definitely geared towards pop and rap music and I had to go looking for music that interested me myself. I ultimately canceled the subscription. Apple music seems pretty good so far but i think their app could use some work - I don't find their UI to be as intuitive as Deezer or Tidal (or Spotify from what I remember - it's been years since i used it). Deezers former UI, and even the current one for the most part, is really quite good and, IMO, intuitive. I've been using it since 2015 so anything else is going to take some getting used to.
I have a Tidal subscription for some time already as I use it directly on my Teufel boxes (liked to use Deezer for work because of the Flow). I don't like Tidals MQA but it seems they are replacing it by HiRes Flac now. Might also give Qobuz a try.
Currentky trying Qobuz. A bit expensive but very quality-focused.
I have YTM included with premium so I’ll just go back to using that. I paid for Deezer yearly like an idiot so I don’t want to pay for anything else yet.
I’m going back to YTM. I love the upload music feature, and I can live with the web app interface. I love Deezer but I don’t think they care about the Android app issues. It’s apparent that they are ok with the way it is. I still think Deezer has a really compelling set of features and a great web app. I just really can’t use it very well on my Android.
I might also look at Tidal since there’s an option of using Plex + Tidal to have local files stream alongside.
I've returned to piracy and am using Jellyfin on my home server. As a musician, I know exactly how much each stream pays. I will donate directly to the musicians I love.
I've returned to piracy and am using Jellyfin on my home server. As a musician, I know exactly how much each stream pays. I will donate directly to the musicians I love.
Check out link! I am using it with my Emby server since the deezer redesign and it’s the best music app I have ever used. On desktop I’m using link which is very bare-bones, but it does work.
I've gone back to listening to my mp3 collection as well. I've been using the “musicolet” app on Android and just putting all the files on my phone. As a bonus, it doesn't need an Internet connection and I get actually-working gapless playback, which is something I've never gotten to work in any streaming app!
I've returned to piracy and am using Jellyfin on my home server. As a musician, I know exactly how much each stream pays. I will donate directly to the musicians I love.
Check out link! I am using it with my Emby server since the deezer redesign and it’s the best music app I have ever used. On desktop I’m using link which is very bare-bones, but it does work.
Cool. I didn’t know navidrome. Thank you! Based on your suggestions I’ve made this combo:
- Docker with Navidrome on my server
- I found also mStream which is really similar but i don’t like the mobile iOS app.
- Link as windows desktop client
- The UI is similar to the old deezer
- Link as mobile iOS client (symfonium is android only)
With collaborative playlist coming to Apple Music pretty soon, I have already moved there. I hate Spotify. Think the UI is butt ugly. So far Apple Music is rather good. Used Soundiiz to move all my playlists. By the way, Siri works so much better with Apple Music with Deezer it never found any of the music I tried to make it play
I’m sad leaving Deezer, as I really liked them before the new design, and the idea of supporting someone other than the big tech companies.
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