Deezer or Spotify Premium (or something else)

[Dragonsword]

I'm not sure whether I should buy a subscription on Deezer or Spotify Premium. I had used Spotify Premium for 3 months before I decided to cancel my subscription and tried out other streaming services like Tidal, Qobuz, Google Play Music and Deezer. Tidal and Qobuz are too expensive for me ($20 a month) and too much music is missing on those services, so because of that I'm looking at Spotify and Deezer at the moment. They have the largest catalogue out of all streaming services and because I listen to underground music, a lot of music is missing on services like Tidal and Qobuz. I usually stream music via my computer, but I some times use my phone when I'm outside.

I like the Deezer web player and imo it has of the best interfaces for streaming music. Partially because it looks good. The Spotify web player is a lot worse. The Deezer desktop app is inconvenient to use, it takes a lot more clicks to get somewhere than it does with Spotify. The Spotify desktop app is decent, but all of my playlists are in a list which makes it disorganised. I like the screen that you see when playing a song on Deezer. On Spotify you still see the playlist and a small screen which includes the name of the song and some controls on the bottom. The Spotify desktop app's controls are more convenient, but it looks dull and quite ugly to me.

PS: I like using a desktop app for streaming music, because I can use the media controls on my keyboard with it and I also prefer having a seperate window to having an additional tab in Google Chrome.

Deezer's mobile app boots up faster and the interface is better imo. An issue with all Deezer apps is the fact that you cannot easily add an entire playlist or album to another playlist. I would like to be able to do that, maybe the feature is there but I don't know of it. Is it possible to do this? This feature is present on the webplayer.

I have not used Spotify much in the past month and I had uninstalled the app from my phone. I also like Deezer's Flow better than Spotify's way of finding new music. The sound quality seems better on Deezer, though I might be wrong. And the sound quality difference might be minor, they are both 320kbps after all.

I can't decide between these two music streaming services. Can you help me make a choice by giving me some good advice? Thanks in advance.

PS: Maybe a different streaming service might be a better choice for me, you can always recommend me a different one if you want to. I don't want to use Google Play Music due to the lack of a desktop app. I haven't tried out Apple Music either. I might do so.

 

[Vladimir]

I'm currently comparing Spotify Premium, Tidal Premium and Google Play Music Unlimited.

I am amazed with GPM. It is excellent. Huge catalogue and sounds so good... I can't believe it. Evil Google is kicking ass!

Added bonus is a Youtube Red subscription (no ads, plays videos on your phone in background) and you can upload 50.000 of your own music on their server and works like its part of the catalogue.

On desktop I use the Chrome extension. Works great.

 

[Dave_]

Added bonus is a Youtube Red subscription (no ads, plays videos on your phone in background) and you can upload 50.000 of your own music on their server and works like its part of the catalogue.

On desktop I use the Chrome extension. Works great.

Presumably you are using a US account or one of the handful of of other regions YTR is available in then?

YTR still hasn't seen widespread roll out yet.

We still don't get it in the UK, despite getting its predecessor 'Music Key'

 

[jjbomber]

I'm not sure whether I should buy a subscription on Deezer or Spotify Premium.

I like the Deezer web player and imo it has of the best interfaces for streaming music. Partially because it looks good. The Spotify web player is a lot worse.

I have not used Spotify much in the past month and I had uninstalled the app from my phone. I also like Deezer's Flow better than Spotify's way of finding new music. The sound quality seems better on Deezer, though I might be wrong. And the sound quality difference might be minor, they are both 320kbps after all.

It has to be Deezer FOR YOU. That is the important bit. I prefer Spotify and so that is best for me, but you must do what is best for you. That is Deezer.

 

[Dave_]

I don't have it either but it will be available in the future worldwide I'm sure. Would be really nice for me as I am an avid YT user.

Tell me about it, we had the functionality, but lost it when Music Key was shut down/morphed into YT Red.

Background playback was particularly useful.

What I thought would be annoying turned out to be THE BEST FEATURE EVER. There is no desktop app, you add an extension to Chrome and it works even better. It's not a closed claustrophobic enviroment where you can't copy anything or search on the web with simple mouse/touch operation. I found it extremely flexible for quick searches on artists, graphics, bios, videos etc. Also you can run thew web player as multiple instances in separate tabs and they will all work individually. It's awesome. Very empowering feature for active listening and learning. In the shitty Spotify/Tidal desk apps I had to memorize odd spelled names of french or scandinavians and type manually that in Google search, find the right name, then look up what interests me.

If you don't use Chrome, install it, add the extension and voila, a Desktop app, only much better.

I was playing music untill 5am this morning. Love the sound quality and it made me realize something shitty is going on in Spotify. Everything sounds almost equally loud even though I don't have normalization activated. The app goes MUCH louder than anything, especially the final 10% on the volume slider.

In GPM all music varies in loudness and its very noticable, you have to turn up or down between albums if you are critically listening. Bass feels less muddy, less thick than Spotify (and Tidal possibly). Volume slider acts normal like anything you'd expect.

For late night sessions you can download simple chrome themes for GPM with dark skin, but I noticed they were not very good, so I left the bright default theme burn me eyes. I enjoyed me self too much to stop spinnin tracks. Very intuitive UI for Chrome users, snowballing random tracks in series is a breeze.

Very much preaching to the converted.

I switched to GPM when it first launched, and it made Spotify instantly redundant (I say that as an early adopter, and long time premium subscriber)

 

[Vladimir]

First streaming service I used was MOG in 2009 from a US account. Then I switched to Spotify when MOG went down. Sound quality wasn't very good in free version (couldn't subscribe at the time) so I switched to WIMP premium after a year or so. I tried Qobuz, loved loved it, but catalog was very tiny in those days. Not long after WIMP became Tidal and that UI just pissed me off constantly, but I managed to keep using it for over a year. Then I switched to Spotify Premium (finally can subscribe) and now testing GPM Unlimited, Individual.

Somewhere inbetween on recommendation I tried Deezer twice and just didn't like it. Also idagio, Naxos, ClassicsOnline HD*LL and **** knows what else I've tried. *crazy*

EDIT: And iTunes / Apple Music. Terrible, traumatic, undescribable.

 

[Vladimir]

I don't think I've done a streaming service review on any forum. I'm only throwing out first time impressions here. Not sure how usefull and I'm not trying to piss people off. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Vladimir]

Added bonus is a Youtube Red subscription (no ads, plays videos on your phone in background) and you can upload 50.000 of your own music on their server and works like its part of the catalogue.

On desktop I use the Chrome extension. Works great.

Presumably you are using a US account or one of the handful of of other regions YTR is available in then?

YTR still hasn't seen widespread roll out yet.

We still don't get it in the UK, despite getting its predecessor 'Music Key'

I don't have it either but it will be available in the future worldwide I'm sure. Would be really nice for me as I am an avid YT user.

What I thought would be annoying turned out to be THE BEST FEATURE EVER. There is no desktop app, you add an extension to Chrome and it works even better. It's not a closed claustrophobic enviroment where you can't copy anything or search on the web with simple mouse/touch operation. I found it extremely flexible for quick searches on artists, graphics, bios, videos etc. Also you can run thew web player as multiple instances in separate tabs and they will all work individually. It's awesome. Very empowering feature for active listening and learning. In the shitty Spotify/Tidal desk apps I had to memorize odd spelled names of french or scandinavians and type manually that in Google search, find the right name, then look up what interests me.

If you don't use Chrome, install it, add the extension and voila, a Desktop app, only much better.

I was playing music untill 5am this morning. Love the sound quality and it made me realize something unappealing is going on in Spotify. Everything sounds almost equally loud even though I don't have normalization activated. The app goes MUCH louder than anything, especially the final 10% on the volume slider.

In GPM all music varies in loudness and its very noticable, you have to turn up or down between albums if you are critically listening. Bass feels less muddy, less thick than Spotify (and Tidal possibly). Volume slider acts normal like anything you'd expect.

For late night sessions you can download simple chrome themes for GPM with dark skin, but I noticed they were not very good, so I left the bright default theme burn me eyes. I enjoyed me self too much to stop spinnin tracks. Very intuitive UI for Chrome users, snowballing random tracks in series is a breeze.

 

[Dragonsword]

Added bonus is a Youtube Red subscription (no ads, plays videos on your phone in background) and you can upload 50.000 of your own music on their server and works like its part of the catalogue.

On desktop I use the Chrome extension. Works great.

Presumably you are using a US account or one of the handful of of other regions YTR is available in then?

YTR still hasn't seen widespread roll out yet.

We still don't get it in the UK, despite getting its predecessor 'Music Key'

I don't have it either but it will be available in the future worldwide I'm sure. Would be really nice for me as I am an avid YT user.

What I thought would be annoying turned out to be THE BEST FEATURE EVER. There is no desktop app, you add an extension to Chrome and it works even better. It's not a closed claustrophobic enviroment where you can't copy anything or search on the web with simple mouse/touch operation. I found it extremely flexible for quick searches on artists, graphics, bios, videos etc. Also you can run thew web player as multiple instances in separate tabs and they will all work individually. It's awesome. Very empowering feature for active listening and learning. In the shitty Spotify/Tidal desk apps I had to memorize odd spelled names of french or scandinavians and type manually that in Google search, find the right name, then look up what interests me.

If you don't use Chrome, install it, add the extension and voila, a Desktop app, only much better.

I was playing music untill 5am this morning. Love the sound quality and it made me realize something unappealing is going on in Spotify. Everything sounds almost equally loud even though I don't have normalization activated. The app goes MUCH louder than anything, especially the final 10% on the volume slider.

In GPM all music varies in loudness and its very noticable, you have to turn up or down between albums if you are critically listening. Bass feels less muddy, less thick than Spotify (and Tidal possibly). Volume slider acts normal like anything you'd expect.

For late night sessions you can download simple chrome themes for GPM with dark skin, but I noticed they were not very good, so I left the bright default theme burn me eyes. I enjoyed me self too much to stop spinnin tracks. Very intuitive UI for Chrome users, snowballing random tracks in series is a breeze.

I think music also varies in loudness on Deezer. I'm not sure about it, but it seems to be that way (I have only used it for a few days and I have not really paid attention to it.) I actually don't like that, I prefer keeping my volume at the same level most of the time. I often listen to playlists rather than albums, but I some times also listen to albums. For playlists it isn't preferred to have massive volume differences between songs.

I have also heard Deezer Premium+ some times only has 128kbps streams when listening to underground artists, this may be possible and I may have noticed this on a few songs. I have noticed that Muddy Waters' songs sound bad on Deezer compared to Qobuz/Tidal, but this may obviously be because those services have lossless sound quality and Deezer only has 320kbps MP3. His songs sounded good on Spotify before I tried out Tidal. I haven't been subscribed to Spotify premium after I tried out Tidal, I have only been subscribed to it prior to trying out Tidal. Do you know if Deezer Premium+ is always 320kbps if you have the high quality option checked? Maybe the person who complained about the 128kbps quality had configured Deezer to play 320kbps when he's connected to wifi and to play songs at 128kbps when he's using mobile data. Or something like that.

And in response to one of your last comments. Youtube Red is not available in my country. I would like to have it, it seems useful, but I've got to wait. I'm not sure what the Google Play Music chrome extension does yet. I just installed it and I have only found a shortcut to the webplayer and a mini player so far.

 

[Dragonsword]

I'm currently comparing Spotify Premium, Tidal Premium and Google Play Music Unlimited.

I am amazed with GPM. It is excellent. Huge catalogue and sounds so good... I can't believe it. Evil Google is kicking ass!

Added bonus is a Youtube Red subscription (no ads, plays videos on your phone in background) and you can upload 50.000 of your own music on their server and works like its part of the catalogue.

On desktop I use the Chrome extension. Works great.

The Google Play Music web player on PC doesn't synchronize with the default Google Play Music app on my (Android) phone. When I go to my library on my phone, it only shows the music I have stored locally. It doesn't show the playlists, albums and songs I have in my library on the web player. Is there a way to fix this?

 

[Vladimir]

The sound quality on Deezer wasn't horrible, but it felt a bit off compared to others. UI, suggested music, overal feel, it all is somehow kinda off to me. It might sound silly, but to me the name, the logo, all of it looks like something teens and ppl who drive scooters and hotroded hatcback would use. Feels lame.

I think Google and Apple stream from CD quality files directly and downsample it / compress it on the fly. I much prefer 320 AAC over MP3, I can't distinguish its SQ from CD 99.9999% of the time.

 

[MajorFubar]

I think music also varies in loudness on Deezer. I'm not sure about it,

That's normal. Post-2000 music is much, much louder than the original masters of older recordings, and random curated playlists (e.g.: rock) could easily include recordings 40-50 years old. It's annoying to a degree, but any service where that doesn't ever happen at all must be cocking-about with the tracks' loudness so all the tracks sound the same volume.

 

[Vladimir]

I'm currently comparing Spotify Premium, Tidal Premium and Google Play Music Unlimited.

I am amazed with GPM. It is excellent. Huge catalogue and sounds so good... I can't believe it. Evil Google is kicking ass!

Added bonus is a Youtube Red subscription (no ads, plays videos on your phone in background) and you can upload 50.000 of your own music on their server and works like its part of the catalogue.

On desktop I use the Chrome extension. Works great.

The Google Play Music web player on PC doesn't synchronize with the default Google Play Music app on my (Android) phone. When I go to my library on my phone, it only shows the music I have stored locally. It doesn't show the playlists, albums and songs I have in my library on the web player. Is there a way to fix this?

Go in your phone app settings and you have more features than imaginable. Refresh button will synchronize, also available EQ and normalization of tracks if you prefer them that way.

GPM is big on 'radio stations', which are basically huge curated playlist and you can copy them as playlist.

 

[Dave_]

The Google Play Music web player on PC doesn't synchronize with the default Google Play Music app on my (Android) phone. When I go to my library on my phone, it only shows the music I have stored locally. It doesn't show the playlists, albums and songs I have in my library on the web player. Is there a way to fix this?

Sounds like you've got the 'downladed only' setting enabled on the phone app.

If you look in the sidebar menu there's a toggle to switch the setting on/off

 

[Vladimir]

The Google Play Music web player on PC doesn't synchronize with the default Google Play Music app on my (Android) phone. When I go to my library on my phone, it only shows the music I have stored locally. It doesn't show the playlists, albums and songs I have in my library on the web player. Is there a way to fix this?

Sounds like you've got the 'downladed only' setting enabled on the phone app.

If you look in the sidebar menu there's a toggle to switch the setting on/off

To control music playing on a hifi rig I need a Chromecast device, right?

I can't controll the web player from my phone like in Spotify, right?

 

[Vladimir]

When I play on the phone with "Downloaded only" switched off, I can't play in the web player, it pauses, and vice versa. This means devices sinchronize real time.

For controlling the computer like you do in Spotify, there is an app Remote for GPMDP that you install on your phone and does the job. Trying it right now as I type this.

Works through this player, I'll also try it. Google Play Music Desktop Player

 

[Vladimir]

The Desktop player is exact carbon copy of the web player, everything looks the same. Works great, no issues there. I still prefer to be able to jump on the net in a browser environment.

The phone app for remote control of the desktop app is buggy, lacks basic features (like control of volume) I can't say I like it really. Won't be using it TBH. Google needs to do one properly, not this Open Source halfbaked thing.

So if playing music on your PC from your phone is important to you, GMP fails in that department.

I don't know how it would work with Chromecast Audio, I presume far better than this remote thing. I might try it in the future if I decide to stick to GMP for streaming.

 

[Dave_]

So if playing music on your PC from your phone is important to you, GMP fails in that department.

If that's the case you just buy a Chromecast Audio, it's only £30 and often half that or less...

 

[Vladimir]

So if playing music on your PC from your phone is important to you, GMP fails in that department.

If that's the case you just buy a Chromecast Audio, it's only £30 and often half that or less...

I bought one just now for £32, will recieve it begining of May (from Hong Kong). I already have a nice German Clicktronic Y cable (3.5mm to 2xRCA). Will report back how I fancy it. There were many complaints that it's glitchy. We shall see.

 

[Dave_]

There were many complaints that it's glitchy. We shall see.

I suspect any reports of glitchiness are down to people's WiFi networks.

I've been running Chromecasts since day 1 (video and audio) and they've been faultless.

But my network is bomb proof, and not you're typical home setup.

 

[Vladimir]

There were many complaints that it's glitchy. We shall see.

I suspect any reports of glitchiness are down to people's WiFi networks.

I've been running Chromecasts since day 1 (video and audio) and they've been faultless.

But my network is bomb proof, and not you're typical home setup.

Shouldn't be a problem. My PC is connected via ethernet cable, wireless dongle for the mouse isn't strong enough to interfere, and it's a detached house. Only my phone is connected on the router's wifi.

 

[Dragonsword]

I'm currently comparing Spotify Premium, Tidal Premium and Google Play Music Unlimited.

I am amazed with GPM. It is excellent. Huge catalogue and sounds so good... I can't believe it. Evil Google is kicking ass!

Added bonus is a Youtube Red subscription (no ads, plays videos on your phone in background) and you can upload 50.000 of your own music on their server and works like its part of the catalogue.

On desktop I use the Chrome extension. Works great.

The Google Play Music web player on PC doesn't synchronize with the default Google Play Music app on my (Android) phone. When I go to my library on my phone, it only shows the music I have stored locally. It doesn't show the playlists, albums and songs I have in my library on the web player. Is there a way to fix this?

Go in your phone app settings and you have more features than imaginable. Refresh button will synchronize, also available EQ and normalization of tracks if you prefer them that way.

GPM is big on 'radio stations', which are basically huge curated playlist and you can copy them as playlist.

Refreshing the GPM phone app fixed the problem. Thanks.

The Desktop player is exact carbon copy of the web player, everything looks the same. Works great, no issues there. I still prefer to be able to jump on the net in a browser environment.

The phone app for remote control of the desktop app is buggy, lacks basic features (like control of volume) I can't say I like it really. Won't be using it TBH. Google needs to do one properly, not this Open Source halfbaked thing.

So if playing music on your PC from your phone is important to you, GMP fails in that department.

I don't know how it would work with Chromecast Audio, I presume far better than this remote thing. I might try it in the future if I decide to stick to GMP for streaming.

Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid, but I don't really trust that unofficial desktop app to be safe and not contain malware or something. I'd prefer an app made by Google.

 

[Vladimir]

I simply wanted to try it out. I prefer the web player.

I'll try the Chromecast Audio device and report my experience.

 

[Dragonsword]

The sound quality on Deezer wasn't horrible, but it felt a bit off compared to others. UI, suggested music, overal feel, it all is somehow kinda off to me. It might sound silly, but to me the name, the logo, all of it looks like something teens and ppl who drive scooters and hotroded hatcback would use. Feels lame.

I think Google and Apple stream from CD quality files directly and downsample it / compress it on the fly. I much prefer 320 AAC over MP3, I can't distinguish its SQ from CD 99.9999% of the time.

Well I like the UI of the Deezer web player and the suggested music often matches my tastes. I picked around 20 artists/bands that I like before I started using Deezer. And I also imported playlists from other streaming services. I made some new ones as well and I saved some albums. Deezer was often able to guess music I like after only 1 - 2 days. It still often gives me bad suggestions, like modern mainstream pop songs. But it still is quite accurate for an app I have only used a few days. I believe that after a long time of using, it will rarely suggest something I don't like.

I'm not sure about Deezer's SQ. The first 1 - 2 days it sounded the best out of all 320kbps streaming services, then 1 - 2 days later it started sounding off.

I don't think any streaming service other than Spotify or Deezer is an option for me, because I listen to some underground music you can't find on streaming services other than those 2.

My requirements for a streaming service that costs €10 a month are:

- 320kbps sound quality

- Large catalogue size (the largest or one of the largest catalogues out of all streaming services)

- Includes most of the underground music I listen to

- Good user interface

The difference in sound quality between 320kbps streaming services does not seem to be huge. And it isn't possible to get CD quality at €10/month.

 

[Vladimir]

Looks like Deezer fits your needs and preferences. Stick with it then. It's not bad at all.

What sort of underground bands are you into?