I’m mostly an album person too but listening to a playlist reminds me of when I used listen to a great radio station and would discover new music.
There’s always something nice about not knowing what’s going to play next. But for the new discoveries, I then usually listen to their albums all the way thru. So sort of like in the old days of then going to buy the album.
I was an avid listener of the much missed John Peel in the UK. He presented an eclectic mix of interesting gems that opened my eyes to the joy of undiscovered artists!
Only came across him when bands released special John Peel albums.
Certainly not alone. I mostly do not use playlists, and listen to whole albums all the time. The exception being that I have constructed a few playlists based on setlists from concerts (remember them?) of my favourite artists that I’ve been to and really enjoyed - that can be kind of fun.
So even if you don’t need Spotify’s playlists, would think their huge catelog would be appealing. I don’t know how it hold up for jazz and classical but would think those would be just as good or if not better than Tidal and Qobuz.
I just trying to really figure what I’d have to give up if I switched. Hires Qobuz files not that important over cd quality. Don’t want Tidal’s MQA format. All the new features in 1.8 of showing the breakdown of what I was listening is not that important. More interested in what I’m going to listen next that what I’ve already listened to. I guess biggest part would be the album reviews. I do enjoy reading those. Could still find same ones on all music.com though.
Another pro for Spotify is they have more band photos and some bios are actually written by the bands. We get to see the photos the bands want us to see instead of the most recent photo that doesn’t show what band looked like during their heydays. Or look at Smashing Pumpkins on roon. It’s got pic of female bassist that wasn’t part of original lineup and is no longer with current lineup. No other band members are shown.
That’s the point. Figuring out what the trade offs would be vs the benefits. My streamer can already do Spotify connect, so there would be no hardware changes. I don’t expect Spotify to be integrated into roon. Maybe it will push Amazon HD to do so. I also assume it will cause Apple Music to offer lossless but don’t have easy to stream that service with current equipment.
Any streaming sub will run about $100-150 per year. A nice dinner out. Or about 5-15 cd’s (vs access to millions). How many times has one bought a new cd, got home, played it once and then it sits on the shelf as it wasn’t quite what you expected (or really only worth a song or two) or one already has so music there’s no time for what you just bought? Sub to Mac many services as you need, do the artists a favor, and then use something like Soundiiz to transfer playlists to Tidal or Qobuz and then on to Roon.
I’m going to assume it will be offered in the US since they had an American artist talking up the benefits of lossless music. Cant imagine it would be more than Tidal and probably more in line with Amazon’s pricing. If they are not offering hires, doesn’t make sense to price higher than others.
And the decision is not about money. It’s about leaving roon to switch to Spotify. Think I’ve been a lifer since 2015. Don’t see any reason to still keep Qobuz and roon if I start using Spotify.
I figure Spotify comes in at 15/month .Tidal will be forced to drop their price to 15 /month. So you pay an extra 10 bucks a month and keep both. Thats my plan.
Tidal is horrific with Apple Car play and Spotify is spectacular so I would mix up playing both services.
At my desktop , I would use Roon.
You can get it to link to your local files but it just gives a huge list of tracks, better to keep it streaming only I think, I’m going to try it with fewer files.
I like that you can see on any device what’s playing where and control it rather than having to use the device you started play on.
Works really well in the car with CarPlay.
You can just save the playlist so you can go back to ones you like, or just select one of the suggested ones.
Great for when you don’t know what to listen to or just select something random and see where it goes.
As long as your endpoint supports Spotify Connect you don’t need Roon, it works very well without it.
'M an old fart as well, but I was a pirate radio DJ in the eighties. Building a playlist takes me back to those days. Like making good radio it’s an art. Deciding on a theme, segueing songs, rhythm, building on artist relations, creating atmosphere…
The prefab playlists on Tidal stink. They’re randomly thrown together. Qobuz’s prefab playlists are not much better. Spotify gives access to other users’ playlists. There are some gems to be found there.
Other users playlists! Well said and that’s why Spotify shines on playlists.
Actually when I first started with Tidal, I used my free Spotify account to favorite a dozen of so playlists. I then brought them into Tidal with Soundliz. I remember at the time Tidal only having about an 80% match. I haven’t bothered to bring in anymore playlists since then.
I found several 120 minutes MTV playlists from the late 80’s on there, which was how I found new bands at the time. So looking forward to just having direct access to all these playlists.
Yeah me too. I would make tapes. It would take some considerable thought and time to get the theme and track sequence right. It had to have a reason for being on my tape and a reason for being where I placed it.
Wow… if this really appears, I will be officially finished with both a locally curated music library and “hi-res” music.
I know I can’t hear the difference between Redbook and Hi-Res (and neither can you) and the Spotify Connect architecture is everywhere (literally, even in my car). So, I will be finished “collecting” music and will finally fully give in to the dark side.
Good Luck, Roon…
For playlist fans, I’m trying to get Roon to move the needle.
I’m pretty sure no one can tell the difference between 320 kbps lossy and 16/44.1 lossless while driving in their car†. So the introduction of Spotify lossless doesn’t change anything material there.
On the other hand, you did (up till now) find value in subscribing to Roon in addition to a lossless streaming service (whether Tidal or Qobuz). So it’s not quite clear why that value would be diminished by the introduction of (another) lossless streaming service.
I can see why one might not be willing to pay for all three. But, at least for me, I’d sooner pay the extra $10/mo to listen to Spotify in my car than give up the value that Roon adds to my music experience at home.
† If you’re paying that close attention, you’re a menace to others and should get the &#%$ off the road.
The more options the better.