I’m not a music aficionado, I like music playing while I’m working just for the background noise. So switching music streaming services shouldn’t be a big deal.
A few years ago I became a Spotify subscriber and although I tried other services I always came back to it. The user-curated playlists and the ability to easily find music was always nice, but one lacking feature was the ability to listen on more than one computer on the same network.
Every day, it seemed like someone in my family would start playing music on another device kicking me off. I finally had enough and decided to add a family plan but with a family of four, I didn’t like the pricing. $5 for each additional member would push my bill to $30 a month and I am unwilling to pay that.
After doing some research, I found Apple Music had a family plan for $14.99 for up to six people. Cutting the monthly bill in half sounded like a win/win so I made the switch and got everyone set up.
My wife and kids love it. They have a list of artists and genres that they only want to listen to and after learning the basics they were all set.
For me, the situation is different. I’m really missing the “Spotify Weekly” recommendations, the numerous user-created playlists, and the whole UI on Apple Music is basically terrible.
The “for you” tab, which is supposed to highlight music I would be interested in, is basically horrible. I’ve not found anything in this section that I’ve actually liked.
I think a lot of this comes from the fact that I am not that into music and Apple focuses on the artists, where Spotify focuses on the playlist. That is a big difference.
Here is an example from the “Curator Playlists” page. This shows the first nine curators, all of whom I’ve never heard of, and clicking into it then shows their lists.
For as simple and gasp revolutionary as the iPhone is, they have missed the mark with the design of Apple Music. Even though I have these complaints I’m holding out with the hope they release new updates and make it friendlier. Only time will tell.
Eric L. Barnes 
I am always interested in what people listen to as they code.
Another route may be checking out the Label the artists they are on (once you find several artists you like). Moods vary and depending on the current task (programming, styling, researching, etc) I change what I am listening to. Lately I have been into Erased Tapes, Deutsche Grammophon, Morr Music and 4 Men With Beards.
Anyway, this may not be as applicable to your workflow, but for me music is one of the few things in life really worth spending money on!
Happy hunting!
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Thanks for the recommendations! I’ll give those a listen today.
For me, I always try to find some classical or jazz playlist with the hope it just plays all day. It’s like going to a baseball game only for a pretzel.
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Ha nice! If you want some cheese and jalapeños for the pretzel then I suggest:
Jazz:
Chet Baker – Chet
Miles Davis – Ascenseur pour l’échafaud
Classical(ish):
Daniel Hope – Spheres (Great compilation, don’t miss Ludovico Einaudi)
Max Richter – Vivaldi The Four Seasons
Avant garde, minimalist and modern compositions (that mix ambient and electronic):
Yann Tiersen – C’était ici (Tiersen’s first several studio albums are all outstanding, this is a live concert where he plays tracks across these albums)
Jeroen Van Veen – Tiersen: Pour Amelie Piano Music
Nils Frahm – Late Night Tales (at lease checkout track one: Nils Frahm Continuous Mix which basically fuses all the tracks into an hour long piece, very cool)
I could go on all day, but too many recommendations can be as useful as zero recommendations. I love music and have listened to thousands of albums. Organizing my music collection is why I learned to program!
If you do check out any of the above, let me know what you think!
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