Coming from Pandora -- a couple questions

[Mercule]

I'm a long-time Pandora user. Overall, I love it. In fact, I'm finding myself listening to it enough that I'm looking to go from the free to pay tier. My oldest daughter also uses Pandora a ton. With a $10 price tag for both of us on Pandora, and four other folks in the family who all use an iPhone or iPod, it's worth my giving Apple Music a spin for the three month trial to see whether the $15 for the family plan wouldn't be a better buy. I'd love to get some advice from users of Apple music.

The biggest pro for Apple Music is the ability to grab tracks and build my own playlists for certain moods and/or when I really, really want to hear a certain song.

The biggest pro for Pandora is the wonder of discovery. I absolutely love listening to a station around a theme that has a lot of familiar music that I like or love and suddenly hearing something totally new and awesome. This is how I've discovered most of my favorite music over the years. I do not want to lose the discovery.

The biggest thing that's bugging me, right now, is the "just play me some music". I do not like any of the curated stations I've found -- and the list seems pretty small, all things considered. Maybe I'm missing something. This is one of the big reasons why I don't listen to Sirius -- even when they give me free service; their definition of "good" and "bad" music, frankly, sucks. So, I feel like I'm stuck building my own playlists, which takes up-front time and reduces my discovery.

My ideal music service would be one where I can listen a station that learns from me (like Pandora) and snag tracks that I love, as they come by, to build my own focused playlists for when I want more focus. I'm willing to live with a bit weaker algorithm to get the playlists, but I'm not really seeing anything that even seems to nod in that direction. For me, the learning stations are the main course for a music service, with the offline playlists being the dessert.

Is Apple Music the wrong service for me, or is there something I can do to get in the ballpark?

 

[pkcable]

You have pretty much summed up the differences, Apple music is MUCH better IF you want to create your own specific playlists, plus play any song you want any time. They also have an excellent selection. You will often find that Apple Music has stuff no one else has example Beatles music, and the VERY latest Radiohead release. And NOBODY does music discovery as well as Pandora, no ands IFS or BUTS!!!! Spotify is better than Apple Music at discovery, but it's no Pandora. Spotify also has an excellent catalog, and SOMETIMES has stuff others don't have although not as often as Apple Music, and not much that Apple doesn't also have. Amazon Music catalog SUCKS, but they do have something from most artists and it can be ok IF you already have access via an Amazon Prime subscription. (DON'T subscribe just to get Amazon Music).

No reason NOT to do the free trial, it's FREE! Just don't forget to turn off automatic renewals.

 

[rdmartin1]

I haven't used Pandora since discovering RDIO. Now that RDIO has exited the business I have Apple Music, Google Play and Tidal. I have the three because of pesky exclusives. I think you will like Apple Music. You can listen to just about anything.

 

[Mercule]

You have pretty much summed up the differences, Apple music is MUCH better IF you want to create your own specific playlists, plus play any song you want any time. They also have an excellent selection. You will often find that Apple Music has stuff no one else has example Beatles music, and the VERY latest Radiohead release. And NOBODY does music discovery as well as Pandora, no ands IFS or BUTS!!!! Spotify is better than Apple Music at discovery, but it's no Pandora. Spotify also has an excellent catalog, and SOMETIMES has stuff others don't have although not as often as Apple Music, and not much that Apple doesn't also have. Amazon Music catalog SUCKS, but they do have something from most artists and it can be ok IF you already have access via an Amazon Prime subscription. (DON'T subscribe just to get Amazon Music).

No reason NOT to do the free trial, it's FREE! Just don't forget to turn off automatic renewals.

Exactly my thoughts on trying it. The kids are out of school. Should be able to give it a good run.

I played with Spotify for a while and even did the 14 day trial (not even close to enough time to be fair to it). The discovery seemed passable, but it was too expense for what I wanted to do with it (dabble with tracks, focus on discovery). That was before my daughter got into music as much, but it still seems a bit high. The other four in the house, combined, would get about as much use out of the service as my daughter or me, individually. Apple Music is just the right price point for that to be intriguing.

As you say, I've got the time to try it. I'm definitely open to whatever suggestions come. Who knows? Maybe I'll find that I prefer curating my own lists with a dash of discovery.