I have Apple Music as well and my family prefers it to Qobuz for a number of reasons. Historically, my issue with Apple Music has been with a lack of hi-resolution files and/or issues using them outside an Apple environment. Has this improved?
Don’t think so, I’d jump ship if they did offer hi res via my streamers.
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You can choose your quality through your iPhone Settings.
High Quality AAC256 Kbps
CD Quality Lossless ALAC 16-bit/44.1kHz
Apple Music Lossless ALAC up to 24-bit/48kHz
High Res Lossless ALAC up to 24-bit/192kHz
What I consider the greatest deficiency of Apple Music is its lack of Artist biographies. TIDAL does a super job of this.
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It’s a service provided by almost every other streaming service so there’s nothing unique to Apple there and it wouldn’t be a reason why people would select Apple ahead of say Qobuz or Tidal.
Apple also isn’t integrated into most streaming apps in the way those two can be either via a Connect service or actual total integration like Innuos Sense.
Finally there’s just the fact that for every person who likes being curated or told what they might like there’s someone like me who thinks that curation just gives you obvious links you knew anyway; tepid facsimilies if mystic you like, ir, stupidly recommends stuff it should really know you already own.
What a good question, I am always on the lookout for new music. I find that my most rewarding listening is from a rather extensive playlist that I have created (currently 1,376 tracks coming in at over 138 hours and probably over 800 artists). No artist is allowed more than one track in 60, and tracks are carefully selected. I try to maintain a broad spectrum of genre, but more significant than what is included is what is out on the basis that it does not meet my tastes (hence very little commercial pop, rap, or opera). The objective is to be able play it on shuffle so that the music I listen to is all greatly pleasurable to me but without the same track coming up too frequently and not on a predictable basis. It certainly works well for me. I add to the playlist virtually on a daily basis, and imagine I will still be searching when the playlist doubles or trebles in size. New additions absolutely must match the current content in quality as that quality must not be diluted. It would also, ideally, expand the envelope with regards the diversity of the music. To search for new music I tend to:
Follow Naim forum threads such as this one.
Check the Tidal “My daily discovery” and their other suggestions each day (diminishing returns though, as my likes are so broad I now seem to receive suggestions that do not work for me. I give most of this stuff at least a quick listen. As a result, Tidal seems to think this is what I like and will suggest more of the same, and less of my likes).
Listening to Radio Paradise. (I often just open up the RP playlist which details the tracks played for the last hour. I then play those tracks that interest me on Tidal to see if they appeal.
Search out public playlists on Tidal. There is an interesting one that comes up for Andy Kershaw, but this line of research is not as fruitful as it could be.*
Listen to the Andy Kershaw podcast (This requires a subscription now in order to listen to full podcasts but a significant part of each one is available free).
Various online reviews, and in particular “Allmusic”.
I will sometimes check out reviews of hi fi equipment just to see which tracks were used by the reviewer to assess the equipment.
Ask friends who have specific musical interests to recommend from those interests (they have to realise that I often reject those recommendations though).
- I suggest that anyone who considers that they have interesting Tidal playlists themselves make those playlists public (providing that’s ok with them) and then let that be known on these threads. If anyone is interested, they can find my playlists from my username “pp mitch”, the big playlist is titled “A tune or two”. As stated previously probably 800+ artists, including the likes of Sekou Bembeya Diabate, Moishe’s Bagel, The Roaches, Bela Fleck, Al Di Meola, Carolyn Mas, Gov’t Mule, Leema, Avi Avital & Omer Avital, Esbjorn Svensson Trio, Hedvig Mollestad and Gwyneth Herbert - and so on. I think there will probably be new names there for most, and hopefully some delights.
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Thanks for this! Not sure if it’s a function of living in Canada or under a rock, but I’ve never been exposed to Andy Kershaw. Looking forward to digging into this for a while.
I find Allmusic a great source for aggregating the work of an artist and providing some guidance, through ratings, on where to go next in their catalogue. I haven’t historically uses their site for news on new releases but I was just on there and discovered a couple new things. For example, I had no idea Lauren Mayberry had a solo project. I’ll probably check in on this page a bit more in the future.
Andy Kershaw could be described as a disciple of John Peel (if, being based in Canada, that name means anything to you). Andy had a weekly DJ slot on BBC Radio 3, which often included interesting stuff that no one else played. Artists regularly recorded sessions for the show. He was particularly fond of world/African music but his interests extended beyond that. Unfortunately, nearly 20 years ago he had relationship problems with his partner and issues involving a restraining order resulted in his show being taken off the air. Official website of Andy Kershaw, broadcaster, journalist & writer » Podcast
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I note that for the latest podcast and “patrons only” podcast Andy refers to one song sung to the tune of another. I don’t know what Andy plays, but I can think of no better example of this sort of thing than the version of Talking Heads “Once in a lifetime” recorded by Big Daddy.
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Andy Kershaw’s ‘More Great Moments…’ is a terrific compilation album.
(I’ve never seen the predecessor, ‘Great Moments Of Vinyl History’
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Hi I have a copy of “More…”, my fav track is the version of “Dancing in the dark” performed by Jim Eldon. Unfortunately not available on Tidal.
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Mine too.
You can ask Tidal to add music using this link:
Doesn’t always work and they don’t advise either way.
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Sources are:
Naim Forum: What are you listening to in 2024 and why might anyone be interested?
What Was The Last Vinyl You Bought
What was the last CD you bought
What releases are you looking forward to
Recommendations from friends, newspaper articles, Qobuz listings
My memory, which is not what it used to be at 73…
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New sources is quite diverse.
- this forum
- review magazines (hifi magazines and specific review magazines for classical, rock and pop)
- allaboutjazz website
- YouTube review from people like Dave Hurwitz
- concerts or festivals which expose me to new music
- looking at earlier collaborations of an artist I like now
- friends pointing out you have to hear this
……and many more…
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Many thanks for the info on your big playlist. I have just favourited it and look forward to exploring it when I am lacking in inspiration.
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Thanks for the eclectic playlist. Not often I see two favourites of mine - Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch and The McGarrigles’ Mendocino in the same list. Prompted me to revisit Malicool, an album I had forgotten about.
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I have the predecessor on vinyl which is highly recommended. As someone who eventually found Kershaw more to my taste than Peel I’m disappointed that I missed his podcast. Thanks to @ppmitch for alerting me. I’ll definitely give the podcast a go.
Completely different but I find Andy Edward’s YouTube channel (prog drummer & one time member of Robert Plant’s band) excellent for alerting me to what I’ve missed in the prog, fusion world. He’s an entertaining listen.
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Honestly, now mostly here. The music / what are you listening to threads are so rich. I’m very appreciative of this aspect of the community.
Also The Gear Page (guitar forum) and sometimes Stereophile or other hobbyist sites. But mostly here.
Edit to add: and now also @ppmitch’s Tidal playlist! Thank you, sir.
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I like the look of the Andy Edward’s YouTube. Only had time to dip my toe into a couple of the “most overrated” pieces (been a bit tied up getting my errant email address back), they seem interesting and a bit of fun.
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He’s extremely knowledgeable & amusing but some of what he says is said for effect I think & can be taken with a pinch of salt.
For the genre Progrock, the baby blue pages are the best place to go for new and old artists.
With Safari you can translate the German texts well into English.
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