Soundtrack Fans and cloud music services

[1977 1,743]

Anyone here make use of a cloud music service (such as Google Music or MyMusicCloud) to upload their legally purchased physical music releases?

 

I would like to have a cloud backup of my ST collection for archival purposes, and to have the option of accessing my collection if I travel or work abroad.

 

Any experience using these services? Any problems/issues?

[KittBash 282]

I tried google music when it first came out for the same reason. 

 

My my experience was it was slow, did’t always upload all the tracks and didn’t have enough device support for me to keep paying for it. (I have mostly apple devices). That said it was a couple years ago so someone else here might have a different opinion and the service may have improved. 

[Bayesian 1,359]

I don’t use cloud services anymore, but mostly because my music library is such a custom affair — after ripping a cd or downloading an album, I usually end up editing the metadata on nearly every track to suit my OCD compulsions. And I always opt to replace the artwork so that it gets embedded. Somehow, little of that effort would stay in place when using Apple’s cloud service. 

[Bilbo 3,709]

14 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

Anyone here make use of a cloud music service (such as Google Music or MyMusicCloud) to upload their legally purchased physical music releases?

 

I would like to have a cloud backup of my ST collection for archival purposes, and to have the option of accessing my collection if I travel or work abroad.

 

Any experience using these services? Any problems/issues?

 

Cloud and archival purposes don’t mix. 

 

I hope youre backing it up elsewhere.

[1977 1,743]

21 hours ago, Bilbo said:

 

Cloud and archival purposes don’t mix. 

 

I hope youre backing it up elsewhere.

 

Why would you say that? Is it concerns over reliability of the service?

 

On 08 April 2018 at 8:29 PM, Iron_Giant said:

I don’t use cloud services anymore, but mostly because my music library is such a custom affair — after ripping a cd or downloading an album, I usually end up editing the metadata on nearly every track to suit my OCD compulsions. And I always opt to replace the artwork so that it gets embedded. Somehow, little of that effort would stay in place when using Apple’s cloud service. 

 

I won't be using Apple's service for a number of reasons. Firstly, it's not free. Secondly, Apple has screwed up my iTunes library enough, thank you. I'm talking files that literally disappear from my hard drive. Thirdly, I don't want to be locked into Apple's ecosystem, as I don't (and never plan to) own any of their hardware. At present I'm using the iTunes store to purchase music (and not exclusively either, I also use Google Play Music). I also use an offline (meaning disconnected from my music library) iTunes to rip my CDs to ALAC for archiving.

[Bilbo 3,709]

15 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

Why would you say that? Is it concerns over reliability of the service?

 

 

You cant garauntee the service will continue to operate. 

 

If if you want to archive digital files you back them up on multiple hard drives and or on disk. 

[Wojo 2,453]

The cloud is just a hard drive in somebody else's computer. 

[Bilbo 3,709]

One you have no control over though 

[Bespin 8,479]

I'm a proud Spotify user and I don't stop to tell them to separate correctly JW from Guitar Williams... they corrected a lot of albums so far, but there are still some mixes.

 

https://open.spotify.com/user/12175214313?si=tfKV_gqjSFy8JmGtOEV9Qw

 

[KittBash 282]

I really enjoyed Spotify as well, they certainly take care of their library (as bespin noted) but when it came to needing access to a good library as well as mixing in my library of ripped physical releases Spotify just couldn’t do that.  Apple Music just made it seem less cumbersome. Especially, and this for me is the crutch that killed both Spotify and google music for me, where the vast majority of my devices are apple and there was, at least at the time (haven’t looked in some time), no Spotify app for the Apple tv’s hooked to my sound setups in the house and no good way to access my own library at the same time. 

Unless that’s changed I’ll stick with the not perfect but easy to use Apple Music, but I totally get people’s love for Spotify over Apple if you aren’t in the ecosystem!

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

On 4/10/2018 at 7:09 AM, Woj said:

The cloud is just a hard drive in somebody else's computer. 

 

Come on, they wouldn't call it a "cloud" if it wasn't an actual cloud.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I only use cloud services to store my vast collection of nude self-portraits.  What could go wrong?

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

My nude Bette Davis drawings are all stored there. It's exquisite work.

[Bespin 8,479]

I bump this thread, because I'm looking for a Cloud service which would allow me to copy all my FLACS on it, then to stream it on my phone.

 

Is it possible? And if yes, with which product?

[1977 1,743]

Wow, a lot can change in three years.

 

On 4/8/2018 at 10:13 AM, JTWfan77 said:

I would like to have a cloud backup of my ST collection for archival purposes, and to have the option of accessing my collection if I travel or work abroad.

 

Well that ain't gonna happen.

 

On 4/9/2018 at 10:40 PM, JTWfan77 said:

I don't want to be locked into Apple's ecosystem, as I don't (and never plan to) own any of their hardware.

 

Lol. I now own an iPad and a Macbook Pro and am thinking about getting an iPhone.

 

I still don't have a cloud storage service for my music though.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Whatever you do, don't try iTunes Match.  Complete garbage that simply does not work.  I tried it for a month and never once did it successfully complete an upload cycle and the ones that it "matched" to the store to avoid uploading mostly blocked me from even playing them on my phone saying "this song is not available in your region."  I bothered Apple Support until they gave me a refund.  I don't know how they get away with continuing to offer a service that literally doesn't work.  I think it's meant for normies that have a library of like 200 tracks by major label pop artists.

[Bespin 8,479]

I don't use iTunes, or any other iThing from Apple!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Well, even if it did work, iTunes Match doesn't allow lossless uploads.

[danbeck 123]

I have my iTunes library at an external HD and have been transferring my CDs in the Apple Lossless format. My HD Tracks digital purchases are also on that same external HD as Flac files and also transferred to iTunes converted to Apple Lossless. 
I uploaded my library to Apple Music to listen to on my phone - but it is not lossless (except on certain titles that Apple Music streams as Lossless or hi-res / Dolby Atmos), so it is not the ideal backup.
For proper backup of the lossless transfers of my CDs I’m intending to buy another external HD. 

[Jay 37,287]

On 6/28/2021 at 9:06 AM, Bespin said:

I bump this thread, because I'm looking for a Cloud service which would allow me to copy all my FLACS on it, then to stream it on my phone.

 

Is it possible? And if yes, with which product?

 

I'm not sure about uploading your library to the internet and then streaming it from there; that's probably an expensive venture.

 

Instead, you can leave a computer in your house running 24/7 and easily stream losslessly off that.  Just install Plex server on that computer and PlexAmp on your android phone.

[ymenard 54]

hosting a PLEX server with your files is the way to go.  You can now use PRISM for CarPlay!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Plex seems so perfect for what I want to do (not be limited by the hard drive limit of my phone for on-the-go listening) but as I've posted many times here over the years, I'm so addicted to the iTunes metadata (play counts and last played date-time first and foremost) that I just can't leave.  I'm in a voluntary prison of my own making.

[Positivatee 327]

33 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Plex seems so perfect for what I want to do (not be limited by the hard drive limit of my phone for on-the-go listening) but as I've posted many times here over the years, I'm so addicted to the iTunes metadata (play counts and last played date-time first and foremost) that I just can't leave.  I'm in a voluntary prison of my own making.

 

Ahem.

 

[Jay 37,287]

I don't really understand what play counts matter for.  You want to listen to music, just listen to it.  Who cares how many times you've heard it in the past?

And if you do want to track plays, why not use a cloud-based service like Last.FM, which tracks your playcounts across all apps you listen to music on and combines them together?

 

Plus I believe last.fm can import your apple play counts, maybe Plex can too?

[Bilbo 3,709]

Just now, Jay said:

I don't really understand what play counts matter for.  You want to listen to music, just listen to it.  Who cares how many times you've heard it in the past.

And if you do want to track it, use a cloud-based service like Last.FM, which tracks your playcounts across all apps you listen to music on and combines them together.

I don’t get it either. I dunno what purpose it serves.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Music listening is a huge part of my life, I'm a data guy, and I like having objective information on my personal history with music.  It matters a lot to me.  It's like being able to revisit past versions of myself.  As an example, the track "Modern Girl" by Sleater-Kinney I have listened to 28 times (in iTunes at least, I used to listen to that CD in my car a lot back in the 2000s), but I haven't listened to it since March 2015.  It's fascinating to me to see music that was once so important to me and just naturally became less so over time.

 

Also, I've tried Last.FM play count tracking and it sucks.  This metadata tracking is the one thing iTunes is great and reliable at doing that nobody else does as well.

 

17 minutes ago, Positivatee said:

Ahem.

 

I will investigate this!

[LongTallJodie 59]

3 hours ago, Jay said:

Instead, you can leave a computer in your house running 24/7 and easily stream losslessly off that.  Just install Plex server on that computer and PlexAmp on your android phone.

 

I can verify that Plex is a great solution if your computer is running 24/7.  They've actually made huge strides in improving their music library functionality in the past year or so.  PlexAmp on mobile in particular has some stellar "radio" algorithms.  The negative, of course, is that while Plex actually has an incredibly robust metadata library that automatically matches music, it's imperfect for soundtracks, as most databases tend to be.  And obviously it'll never match any bootlegs you might have.  Luckily there's a checkbox you can tick for "Prefer Local Metadata" that'll catalog all the music with your own tags as needed.

[Jay 37,287]

19 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I've tried Last.FM play count tracking and it sucks. 

 

Huh, that's not my experience at all.  It's continually tracked my music listening since I signed up for it 15 years ago.  It has the playcounts for everything I've listened to in iTunes, off my old iPod, off my old iPhone, through WinAmp, through Spotify, and through PowerAmp on my android phones.  It's perfect.  I'd be curious to hear what you thought didn't work about it.

 

 

14 minutes ago, LongTallJodie said:

 

I can verify that Plex is a great solution if your computer is running 24/7.  They've actually made huge strides in improving their music library functionality in the past year or so.  PlexAmp on mobile in particular has some stellar "radio" algorithms.  The negative, of course, is that while Plex actually has an incredibly robust metadata library that automatically matches music, it's imperfect for soundtracks, as most databases tend to be.  And obviously it'll never match any bootlegs you might have.  Luckily there's a checkbox you can tick for "Prefer Local Metadata" that'll catalog all the music with your own tags as needed.

 

Yup!  Their music integration used to be kinda crummy but they've really been focusing on it recently

 

And yea, no need to even attempt having plex identify your music for you, just have it use the internal tags you maintain yourself

[Disco Stu 15,495]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

Huh, that's not my experience at all.  It's continually tracked my music listening since I signed up for it 15 years ago.  It has the playcounts for everything I've listened to in iTunes, off my old iPod, off my old iPhone, through WinAmp, through Spotify, and through PowerAmp on my android phones.  It's perfect.  I'd be curious to hear what you thought didn't work about it.

 

It's been several years since I tried it so I don't remember the details of why I disliked it, just that I did.  One thing I do remember, but in my memory this was not all of why I didn't like it, I took issue with when a song was counted (when it counted as a "scrobble") and the accuracy of the data/matching.  Also I missed the convenience of having one database file that built my library *and* tracked my metadata in one place (ie, what an iTunes local library is).  Having that metadata built into the very structure of my music library file system/index.

[Bespin 8,479]

So I suscribed to a cloud service, mainly to backup my FLACs.

 

I can download any album anytime, anywhere to listen locally on my phone.

 

All Bespin's music is now in a cloud.

 

[Jay 37,287]

Which cloud service?

How was the pricing?

[Bespin 8,479]

iDrive, 5 TB, 4 dollars this year, 65 $ next year. That's not the fastest, but I like the price. I can't stream from it, it's really a backup cloud, I have to download the songs first in order to play them on my phone.

[Jay 37,287]

Yea the price is right but the functionality isn't ideal.  Streaming off a computer in your house on the fly combined with a solid cloud backup is probably the best of all worlds

[Bespin 8,479]

I didn't want to go with Apple, Google or Samsung... so I'll see next year, which cloud will be the cheapest! 

 

At least, my files are at last safely backuped.

[Positivatee 327]

10 hours ago, Bespin said:

I have to download the songs first in order to play them on my phone.

 

Friend, why not simply copy them from your computer directly to the largest microSD card that fits in your phone before leaving the house?

[Mr. Who 919]

I’m an iTunes Match user since many years and the service has always worked great for me. I keep my lossless files on my home computer where I listen to music most of the time but have access to stream and download everything to my iPhone or iPad etc!
 

Strongly recommended unless lossless streaming is a requirement.

[Bespin 8,479]

9 hours ago, Positivatee said:

 

Friend, why not simply copy them from your computer directly to the largest microSD card that fits in your phone before leaving the house?

 

All my CD collection don't fit on a single card!!!