Your go to music app?

[saulgould13]

What is the most well rounded Music app you use?.. Im an avid music lover and like trying out different services and apps. Im really curious what you all find overall well rounded experience

 

[eric12341]

The built in Xbox music app is what I use to satisfy my music needs, auto generated playlists using smartDJ and the ability to select any song from the music store to stream sets it above the competition even despite the current sync issues some are facing.

 

[saulgould13]

I have yet to try Xbox music.. From what I hear its a hassle.

 

[HYDR0SH0K]

Zune is the best. The Music Player that comes on the RT and Pro is awful.

 

[Laura Knotek]

What device do you have? You could try Nokia Music if you have a Nokia device.

 

[anon(5370748)]

Spotify. The WP experience isn't as good as Android or iOS yet because it just came out, but the service itself is solid. I love it.

 

[eeewing]

I tried to love Xbox Music, and have used it for the past few months...but we've broken up. Our relationship was done-in by the app's deficiencies in regard to playlist management; specifically, the inability to edit playlists on-the-fly (you can add songs via a clunky work-around, but you cannot remove or reorder songs; worse, the changes made to playlists on the phone do NOT get sync'd back to the Xbox Music apps on Windows 8 or Xbox 360). If not for that specific lack of functionality, I'd still be using Xbox Music today.

So...I've gone back to Spotify (for now). Since on-the-fly playlist editing is the #1 feature I'm looking for, it fits the bill...and it works really well. Changes I make to playlists on the phone immediately appear on my Windows machines. That said, it's not perfect -- the current Spotify app for WP8 lacks the service's Radio feature, which I find to be quite an omission. I'm also not enamored with the visual design of the app, but that's really neither here nor there. I'm hoping Spotify brings this app to feature parity with its iOS and Android siblings, but given the lack of love they previously showed to their WP7 app I'm not holding my breath.

So, like you, I'm still searching for the "perfect" music app!

 

[saulgould13]

Nokia mix radio is ok just not sure the plus is worth the $ 4 bucks monthly I'll wait and see how it ripens, still cheaper than Spotify's $$..

 

[Keith Wallace]

Xbox Music really does have a **** of a time getting my attention on my PC. On my phone, it probably takes up 80% of my time or more, simply because I just need it to play my music library. The other 20% (realistically, probably less than that) is spent using Nokia Music, just to listen to a few things that come up in playlists that I don't have already.

Over on the PC, I'm using Zune. For starters, I like using ZuseMe to scrobble to my Last.FM account (I use ScrobbleMe on my Lumia 920 with Xbox Music for the same function), and the Zune interface is just MUCH better. Their are two big things for me to rant about with Xbox Music, so here you go:

1. Sorting and labeling music sucks. I've had Xbox Music mislabel a BUNCH of my music. I had to turn off the auto-sync feature to stop that, and it STILL has trouble with a few things. That, and it will duplicate some songs on my PC software as well, though they disappear if I use the auto-labeling feature Xbox Music has. By the way, that thing is BAD as well. It seems to have a MUCH deeper library, but it still does a kind-of-poor job with it, as syncing the info on my PC won't fix the files themselves, so I STILL have to manually edit the files to get them to show up properly on my phone at times (meaning the auto-sync is 100% useless for me, EXCEPT to get rid of the mysteriously-duplicated tracks on my Xbox Music software).

2. As bad as the above it, just TRY to make a playlist. First off, there needs to be a way to put Zune's playlist files on Windows Phones, since Zune does a MUCH better job of handling and creating playlists. Over on Xbox Music, it's a hassle to do complete this simple task, not really sure why. I think the software just has a messy interface that is the exact OPPOSITE of the smoothness you find on the Zune (the player, not the desktop software) and Windows Phone music players.

BONUS. There is a third issue that I remembered mid-comment, skipping through a track. You cannot easily (if at all, not sure) skip through part of a track. I don't do it much, but when I want to jump to a specific part of a song (mostly to identify it or something), I can't easily do that (if I can at all, I'm not sure).

Overall, I'd say the Zune desktop software's a solid 9/10, while the Xbox Music desktop software's probably a 4 or a 5.

For the phone, the Xbox Music software will handle your music library well, while Nokia Music and its free streaming offline is the only other application I've liked.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Nokia mix radio is ok just not sure the plus is worth the $ 4 bucks monthly I'll wait and see how it ripens, still cheaper than Spotify's $$..

Nokia Music+ is a major disappointment, in my opinion. I posted that sentiment elsewhere, but it's really not worth paying for unless you REALLY want the higher-quality audio and have low standards for mixes. For starters, you have to be online to use the lyrics feature. That defeats my interest in the platform, which is to use it offline. The unlimited skips also break (at least in the trial I am using) while offline, meaning you don't get that feature while offline. Oh, and those lyrics? They only show up for about 30% of the songs that my playlists give me. The REAL problem I have, though, is that you have almost no control over the created playlists. They're often filled with music I dislike, despite picking bands I like (I'd say I skip at least 60% of tracks and have spent 5 minutes skipping music on several occasions), and there is no filter for either explicit tracks or simply bands/tracks you don't like. Even the ability to have unlimited playlist downloads is useless, as playlists are HEAVILY-redundant if you make multiples with similar (not the same) artists.

Overall, Nokia Music is a solid free service. Nokia Music+ is really just what a future update to Nokia Music should be, not an actual paid subscription. If I am going to pay for a music service, I'd like to not hate what comes up every time.

 

[saulgould13]

Yea I agree, I've always been a fan of last fm never liked Pandora for its algorithmic way of choosing songs.. Keith have u used Spotify?

 

[Keith Wallace]

Yea I agree, I've always been a fan of last fm never liked Pandora for its algorithmic way of choosing songs.. Keith have u used Spotify?

Nope, and I don't intend to. None of these services are worth $10/month, in my opinion, and without offline streaming, Spotify offers nothing for me over Nokia Music.

 

[EBynum]

I really like Slacker Radio. Their mixes are good (curated by DJs), and I rarely have to skip songs. I just upgraded from Slacker Radio Plus ($3.99/mo) to Slacker Radio Premium ($9.99/mo). So in addition to no ads, unlimited song skips, downloading stations on mobile, and song lyrics available on Plus, you also get the following features with Premium:
Play songs on demand
Play albums on demand
Play single artist stations
Create playlists
Download playlists on mobile

I also like that Slacker lets you mark songs as favorites, as well as ban songs and artists you don't like. Slacker also automatically creates a station with all the songs you've marked as favorites, which I think is really cool. You can also create your own stations by adding whatever artists you want to the station, and you can edit the stations you created by adding more artists or deleting them.

Slacker's new desktop interface is very nice and easy to use. I don't believe all the features are available on the current Windows Phone 8 app, but hopefully they will update the app soon. I've heard it's in the works.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Nope, and I don't intend to. None of these services are worth $10/month, in my opinion, and without offline streaming, Spotify offers nothing for me over Nokia Music.

last.fm has a free version. I use the free version, not the paid version.

 

[Keith Wallace]

last.fm has a free version. I use the free version, not the paid version.

Same issue as with Spotify, the lack of offline streaming kills it for me. I use Nokia Music offline only, as when I'm around WiFi, I am usually:

1. At school.
2. At a family member's house, visiting.
3. At home, where I have access to my desktop for streaming or my general music library.

Online streaming without the current existence of unlimited data plans is just a no-go for me, because I have SO MUCH music on my phone to use anyway (over 15 GB), and I'm fairly picky as to the music I listen to, from a lyrical standpoint.

 

[ninjaap]

My go to app is Nokia Music and it's Mix radio. If I want to listen to my collection I use Xbox Music. My collection is stored in my VAIO's harddrive and are magically synced through the cloud to my phone through Xbox Music. I also like to use Vevo when I would rather watch music videos while running on the treadmill.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Same issue as with Spotify, the lack of offline streaming kills it for me. I use Nokia Music offline only, as when I'm around WiFi, I am usually:

1. At school.
2. At a family member's house, visiting.
3. At home, where I have access to my desktop for streaming or my general music library.

Online streaming without the current existence of unlimited data plans is just a no-go for me, because I have SO MUCH music on my phone to use anyway (over 15 GB), and I'm fairly picky as to the music I listen to, from a lyrical standpoint.

Ok, I get what you're saying now. I do not need offline streaming, since my data plan is more than sufficient for my needs. I do not have any paid music apps, but I use: last.fm, Graffiti Radio (Pandora), iHeartRadio, Nokia Music (free), Slacker Radio, TuneInRadio.

I also added some of my own music to SkyDrive, so I stream that too.

I do not use Spotify on my mobile, since that is a paid app. I only use the free Spotify on desktop PC.

 

[contributorM]

Spotify.

 

[GSOgymrat]

I tried to love Xbox Music, and have used it for the past few months...but we've broken up. Our relationship was done-in by the app's deficiencies in regard to playlist management; specifically, the inability to edit playlists on-the-fly (you can add songs via a clunky work-around, but you cannot remove or reorder songs; worse, the changes made to playlists on the phone do NOT get sync'd back to the Xbox Music apps on Windows 8 or Xbox 360). If not for that specific lack of functionality, I'd still be using Xbox Music today.

So...I've gone back to Spotify (for now). Since on-the-fly playlist editing is the #1 feature I'm looking for, it fits the bill...and it works really well. Changes I make to playlists on the phone immediately appear on my Windows machines. That said, it's not perfect -- the current Spotify app for WP8 lacks the service's Radio feature, which I find to be quite an omission. I'm also not enamored with the visual design of the app, but that's really neither here nor there. I'm hoping Spotify brings this app to feature parity with its iOS and Android siblings, but given the lack of love they previously showed to their WP7 app I'm not holding my breath.

So, like you, I'm still searching for the "perfect" music app!

I agree with everything you wrote. I have been on the fence between Xbox Music and Spotify. Currently I am sticking with Xbox Music because I use it to stream my playlists through my home theater receiver. I can live with the Xbox Music app in Windows 8 but I really want to be able to manage my playlists from my phone.

If Spotify had an Xbox app I would just use Spotify.

 

[Keith Wallace]

I agree with everything you wrote. I have been on the fence between Xbox Music and Spotify. Currently I am sticking with Xbox Music because I use it to stream my playlists through my home theater receiver. I can live with the Xbox Music app in Windows 8 but I really want to be able to manage my playlists from my phone.

If Spotify had an Xbox app I would just use Spotify.

Spotify DOES have an app, but it's technically in beta, and you have to have a premium subscription to use it (not sure if you do). I agree that there needs to be playlist management on the device, especially with how poor playlist management is on the PC software.