Latest / Hip-Hop Now Podcast / State of the Streaming Services 2024

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State of the Streaming Services 2024 · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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  Coming up on this week's episode of hip Hop Now podcast, it is the
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  State of the Streaming Services twenty twenty four. If you know, you know,
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  let's do it. Welcome to jip Hop Now, pot fat as.
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  If you from the future, you know what to do, show ass out
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  of our life. Don't disrespect the leg lack night hip hop is say this
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  today. Let's get right into the business. What up, y'all? I
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  am your host Vegas and this is hip Hop Now Podcasts, a podcast design
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  specifically to keep you caught up on all things hip hop music and culture that
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  happened throughout the week. Big shout out to the supporters past and present of
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  this podcast when it was in audio form and now while it is in video
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  form on YouTube. If you would like to learn more about my Patreon account,
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  visit the link in the description Patreon dot com slash hip Hop Now.
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  So you know, just to just to get into it real quick, this
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  is not the typical episode. This is more of a bonus, more of
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  a special episode. And it's a topic that I've done since my podcast,
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  well not my podcast, since my blog from back in the day's hip Hop
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  politic dot com. If you know you know which still sort of exists through
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  my tumbler, which is no longer called hip Hop Politic but is now hip
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  Hop Now, And it really just aggregated for all the things I post across
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  the internet. So find it, check it out, you know, if
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  not, follow me at Vegas World. I n C on all social media
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  platforms. But back when and I wrote about the state of streaming services originally
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  on my blog. Before then, it was like there weren't many people who
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  were using streaming services. A lot of people were still buying physical media.
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  There was a transition happening with physical media into streaming platforms. Right. Spotify
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  was big outside of the US, but it had finally came to the US.
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  Jay z and the whole title thing that just kind of popped off Apple
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  Music was new, and at that time I saw it fit to say,
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  well, I've been using some of these for a long time, and I
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  know there's plenty of hip hop heads who listened to my show or read my
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  blog that haven't, so let me make a show to show them what the
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  options are. Right And throughout my time with this podcast, I've basically looked
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  at the state of streaming services music streaming services, I should say over time,
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  and twenty twenty four is no different, but it kind of is right.
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  We went from the beginning like I just mentioned, but then we got
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  to a point where there was like this divide amongst who liked what right.
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  There was a lot of people who dealt with Apple Music because they have an
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  iPhone and it's there, which was Apple strategy. There were some of us
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  like myself who preferred Spotify because the catalog was huge as far as the music
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  goes, right, it was bigger than all of them, more users,
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  more music, period. And then there were those who championed Titled because they
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  kind of looked at it as artists first, which it was, and each
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  had their strengths for one reason or another. But now we live in a
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  world where everybody's chosen what they like to use right, whether it's Title or
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  Apple Music, which to me are still the top three, and I don't
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  think it's as clear cut as it used to be for those who don't know.
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  I believe all three have some form of a free version that may come
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  with ads right and less access as far as features and stuff like that.
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  The user base is still Spotify at the top. Apple with a healthy user
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  Base and then Title. All three offer some form of hogh quality listening,
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  obviously for a premium price. Right Spotify has it, Apple has you know,
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  the lossless audio, and Title has High Five. Also. I think
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  Spotify and Title referred to it as the same thing, like high fi fidelity
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  music. I have tried all three throughout the years, off and on with
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  Title, like every time I get a free you know, trial situation,
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  I'll try to see what's changed, to see what's better. You know it
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  is it better? I was hardcore with Spotify for years, mainly because again
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  they had a bigger catalog of music and artists, and they had High five
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  premium way ahead of time. But then I started, you know, I
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  switched my phone because I go back and forth. You know, if you've
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  seen this podcast, you didn't see me holding Android flip phone, like not
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  flip phone, but you know the flip the one that bends you know what
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  I'm talking about. You don't see me holding iPhones. And it wasn't really
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  based off of the phone I had, because when I had the iPhone,
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  for years, I was using Spotify. But then I decided, well let
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  me use Apple Music because I have a MacBook. I had an iPad and
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  I have an iPhone, and it just was convenient to use it, right,
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  and I started to prefer it over Spotify, And so like a year
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  or two ago, maybe four years ago, I just like went heavy into
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  the Apple Music side of things because it was doing enough for me to feel
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  comfortable with it. Right, I have iTunes on my MacBook. You know,
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  It's just it was just more seamless, right. It wasn't this other
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  app that you had to access these playlists and stuff like that. It was
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  like your music library, your digital music library, along with you know,
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  the playlist you create and then plus finding an app that was a goal.
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  Between that, I took all of my Spotify playlists and was able to transfer
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  them over to Apple Music. So it just became my one stop shop.
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  But as I indulged in the world of Apple, I started to notice there
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  were features that I felt were a little bit better on Spotify, right,
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  And then when I tried Titled more recently, I was like, wow,
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  I could actually hear the high fidelity a little bit more without headphones through Title
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  than I can the other two. And you know, like these phones.
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  Now, I have an iPhone thirteen Pro right, which isn't even the latest,
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  but they have great speakers. And I'm not typically a person to just
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  blast music on my phone, but I am the type who will turn that
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  on because I'm going to take out the trash and I just want to hear
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  some music. But I don't really want to go get headphones and all of
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  that, so I'll just have it, right, especially when the weather breaks
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  and it's nice, you just kind of want to play it. And I
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  thought it was nice, and you know, also, all three have like
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  these generated playlists based off of your musical taste what you've listened to, right,
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  so it could be like your daily mix, and some of them are
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  really good. Right. Title has some really good algorithms for your music.
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  It's pretty on point and it sounds good. Same thing with Apples, even
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  though sometimes here and there they may miss. But Spotify has this DJ function
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  that's like this AI DJ that's doing the same thing, but they're talking to
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  you, right, and you kind of communicate with it to not only create
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  your list because they've already kind of got your list based off of your listening
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  habits, but you can kind of fine tune it by working with this AI
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  DJ. And I think that's really dope. I'm so really annoying sometimes.
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  So I'm saying all this to say that, just to give you an example
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  of what my experience has been. Right now, I am still within the
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  Apple Music ecosystem because it works for me. It just works for me.
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  It works for me being within this ecosystem and making everything comfortable, which is
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  what Apple does, and kind of feeling like, can I go back to
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  Spotify? I could, but I don't have a hardcore reason to do so.
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  I just don't. So titles sound quality may be very tempting, but
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  the other two aren't bad, So why would I leave just for that reason?
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  You know all my music, and I know you can do this Spotify,
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  and I believe you could do it with the title all of my music.
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  It's tied to being in cloud right now. I have it everywhere else
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  also, but it's specifically tied to being an iCloud. So when I open
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  up Apple Music on my phone, and you know, I check and see
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  what's out and stream and blah blah blah. But also I could just click
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  my library and there's my entire library. I don't have to do anything else.
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  I don't have to tweak any names or titles or make sure everything is
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  there. It's all there now. I say all of that to say this
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  doesn't mean that you can't set up the same situation either too write either title
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  or Spotify, because you can. But the convenience of owning devices made by
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  a company where the music service is streamlined for you to have the experience whether
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  you're on your backbook or you're on you know, your phone, or if
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  you have an iPad, if you're on it, it's just undefeated and as
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  Spotify, like he was his one example of me more recently looking at the
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  others to see if I needed to change or switch up. I went back
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  to Spotify and I saw they had like actually, I bought a phone right
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  when I got when I test drove basically the Galaxy S twenty four plus.
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  It came with like a Spotify premium for like three months something like that.
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  So I was like, well, I'll take it. You know, because
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  one of the things is I shared my Apple account with my family. My
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  wife is the only other one that listens to music. So when you know
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  how you get those year end you know your year review of what you listen
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  to, it's mad. Chris Brown on my list, and I don't listen
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  to Chris Brown like that, almost not at all, because my wife does.
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  So you're kind of sharing, you know, this ecosystem of music.
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  So I figured what Spotify, Well, I'm gonna be the only one using
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  it, let me check it out. And one thing that they had at
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  the time that now Apple has it as well. But I think Spotify has
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  it on more music than Apple does because I've noticed that in a couple of
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  cases is instead of just having the album cover, you have this visualization of
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  the album. Sometimes there's animation within the album, right like the album cover
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  they just got. Like for example, Ransom and Harry Freud's last album,
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  what was it, Lavish whatever? I listen to it every day. The
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  cover, you know, the I think the skeleton kind of moved and blah
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  blah blah. It was like a motion album cover. But Spotify had it
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  where they even have the videos playing from certain albums, Like if you listen
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  to an old album, that old album cover doesn't have motion gras they add
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  all these other elements that happened, like videos and stuff like that that just
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  look good while you're listening to it. You know, it's more immersion for
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  myself, for people like me who like stuff like that. Am I staring
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  at the album cover the entire time? No, but for a high quality
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  device and a premium that you pay a subscription that you pay every month.
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  I like the idea of it looking cool. Now Apple recently did more of
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  that, so obviously I didn't go back to Spotify for that reason, but
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  that's kind of what it's been, And a lot of the reasons why I
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  choose to do these is because I think now we're in a space where everybody's
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  listening to music because there's so much music, whether it's older music, it
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  doesn't matter if it's physical media or whatever. And not that everybody has a
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  premium service. Some people still use Pandora, some people use the free version
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  of Spotify. It's just the simple fact that it's become more normalized today for
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  everybody to be able to stay up at midnight and hear an album from,
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  you know, one of their favorite artists without purchasing it right away, right
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  like that was something that at one point when in the physical media era,
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  you could go to a record store like Tower Records and listen to it,
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  or you can even go to a mom and pop joint and they would have
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  an album to listen, but streaming services makes it so you can listen to
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  any album. One of my routines on release day, which is Fridays,
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  like even before I go to the gym, you know, you open your
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  phone, you wake up, long goo off, You wake up on your
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  phone, you start looking at social media messages you might have missed, maybe
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  email, you know what I'm saying. Sometimes for me YouTube. But one
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  other thing I do specifically on Fridays is brows what's new and every genre and
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  not every album is featured on like Apple Podcasts feature page, so sometimes you
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  gotta go within the genre like hip hop and see what's new there, and
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  then you know there are other ways to find out what else is available,
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  but you can't beat that. You're talking to someone who like most people who
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  are my age or even older, who were used to finding out about music
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  through the radio or some kind of print publication, and decide either deciding to
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  go to the record store or purposely to purchase something they heard or someone told
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  them about right or just like I used to do back in the day,
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  sometimes just showing up at the record store and seeing what's new seeing what's out,
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  and usually it was you know, probably your favorite genre, right,
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  But now I could go and look at what's new in hip hop, I
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  could look at what's new in R and B, what's new in jazz,
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  what's new in rock, electronic, whatever. And for a music fan like
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  me, it opened up my palette even more than it already was, because
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  now I'm discovering music. And honestly, it's kind of the gift and the
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  curse for streaming services because we know they do not pay the artists in the
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  way they should, but that hasn't stopped fans and detractors from using them.
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  That hasn't stopped publications who support the music from creating playlists and say listen here.
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  You know, and we know streams help, but they don't help that
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  much and it depends on the platform. So it's kind of like, as
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  a music fan this era of streaming services, it's great if you have the
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  money to pay for the service. If you're a simple person, and I
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  don't mean that in a negative way, but if you know you like simplicity,
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  right, you only mess with those artists you like, So you're not
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  listening to new music all the time. Something new comes out and you like
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  that artist, you like that album, you rocking with it for a while
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  before you go back and listen. So a streaming service may not suit your
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  needs. But for those people who see all of the music coming out want
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  to sample all of it in some shape or form, streaming services a great
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  Now, looking at the three, what would I suggest to a music fan?
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  Honestly, I would suggest what is your music listening experience? Like?
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  Right, do you listen to a bunch of albums? Do you care about
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  new releases every week? Do you care about the quality of the sound.
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  Do you care about the ease of use? Right? You know? Do
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  you want to just well, I already have an iPhone. I'm gonna just
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  get Apple Music and open up the world anyway. That may be very easy
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  for some people. Some people may feel like, I don't really care for
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  Apple Music because when I sample title, I just thought the music sound better,
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  and I like their mixes and the people you know in the what is
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  it the credits and things that people write on that right, all the bonuses
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  around that. And also you may feel like, well, I also listen
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  to podcasts, and if I can have an app that does all these things
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  why not. So it's really about you locking down the comparisons between I'm pretty
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  sure somebody's already did it a million times, where you can look at how
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  the three compare and then you can figure out what you like. But I
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  will say this, there is one service that could potentially trump them all,
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  and I don't know if that would have anything to do with the quality of
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  music, but for damn sure the catalog and the ease of use, and
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  that's YouTube Music. A lot of people listen to music through the YouTube channel
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  alone, but YouTube and YouTube Music and Premium, it's all like integrated.
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  And they also have a function where your library can be your personal music library.
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  Digital library can be integrated seamlessly, and it's kind of dope. I
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  don't really know how to navigate it sometimes. But when you talk about what
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  you know is on the on YouTube channel, being able to access that through
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  YouTube Music, and YouTube is owned by Google, and Google's got rid of
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  Google Podcasts to put podcasts within YouTube Music. You're not only getting videos from
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  YouTube Music. And when I say music, I'm not just talking about the
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  license stuff. I'm talking about You know, you could Google right now,
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  go on YouTube and type in the search bar. Like you know NAS's original
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  demo which doesn't really exist on streaming services because it's not an album, it's
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  not on a label or nothing like that. But because somebody up loaded it
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  to YouTube for people to listen to, it becomes available through the YouTube Music
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  app. So then for those deep cut hip hop heads. And I'm not
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  just talking about now, you can think of anybody or anything that you know
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  is not available on streaming services like Spotify and Apple and title, it is
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  available on YouTube music via YouTube you get what I'm saying. So, honestly,
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  YouTube music is a platform to watch for the various reasons I mentioned.
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  Honestly, I'm not moving anywhere again. I'm the type where I'm here with
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  Apple Music, but I'm sampling this, that and the third to see what's
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  what. But it will get interesting, you know, as we go along
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  in the streaming service wars street music streaming services wars start to pick up.
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  What do you use? Are you a Pandora user? Still? Do you
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  use Spotify, Apple Music? Title? Have you always been on YouTube music?
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  Leave your comments in a comment section below on YouTube, hit me up
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  on social media at Vegas World, I n C and also don't forget I
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  have other things in the tank right like that time and hip hop with Tony
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  from Into the Dome dot Com. We just did a WU Tank Forever kind
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  of review and recap on our show, which is available exclusively on YouTube.
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  But also I have a book and I wrote it a long time ago,
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  and I've chosen to release chapters on substack, So all you have to do
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  is look for the link in the description of this episode and go check it
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  out. Man, the prologue was released, but the first chapter will be
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  available, and the first chapter is about my favorite, my all time favorite
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  hip hop album of all time, Death Certificate by Ice Cure, and it's
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  gonna be even more Decline, so stay tuned for that until next time,
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  y'all. I'm not a critic, I'm a fan Pace