Music Streaming Reliability

[SED]

I would like to see a credible source publish streaming service reliability metrics such as uptime %, duration range of downtime, etc. Reliability is a result of the integration of the music streaming service and the device it is played on so there is a need to measure based on this coupling such as Tidal on Cambridge Audio.

I have had a mixed experience with Amazon Music using a Bluesound Node. Amazon Music has gone down or been largely nonfunctional for days at a time over the past two years. It is now not functioning properly for about a week. Here is a thread from the Bluesound Forum expressing the users’ frustrations with Amazon Music’s integration problems on Bluesound

Amazon problems again

starting this week I finding amazon would play 1 song, than tell me remote service error, internal server error. I logged out, rebooted, and when I try to log back in the tab just says something ...

support1.bluesound.com

A vast music catalog and high rez files are of no use if the streaming service is not functioning properly for extended periods of time. Relevant reliability metrics would add an important element to music streaming service and streamer device reviews.

 

[Minkey1]

Is this the UK? Up till January I was using Amazon Music HD for several years on a daily basis and hadn’t experienced this problem. This is via a mix of kit - AV, smart speakers, and Android Auto in the car.

That said, I agree. Zillions of tracks in frequencies audible only to bats and Antarctic whales means nothing if the service can’t be relied upon.

 

[Messiah]

I can only comment on my own experience.

I use Spotify (as do my family) and I cannot recall a single time any of us suffered any downtime. The only time we have had issues it was due to malfunctioning broadband and not a Spotify issue.

Would imagine most streaming services have multiple servers to prevent downtime as much as possible.

'Shuffle function', now that's a different matter...😁

 

[SED]

Is this the UK? Up till January I was using Amazon Music HD for several years on a daily basis and hadn’t experienced this problem. This is via a mix of kit - AV, smart speakers, and Android Auto in the car.

That said, I agree. Zillions of tracks in frequencies audible only to bats and Antarctic whales means nothing if the service can’t be relied upon.

The problem that I am aware of is occurring on Bluesound streaming equipment. In the Bluesound forum some mention that it is also occurring on WiiM and Eversolo streamers, My impression is it is happening globally.

 

[abacus]

Just like a phone, tablet, computer etc. sometimes an update breaks the app that people use, and it takes a little time for the app provider to identify the problem and produce a patch, that unfortunately is life. (I have been using Amazon HD & Spotify for ages without any problems at all)

Bill

 

[Rodolfo]

I'm in the US, migrated from Spotify to Amazon 2-3 years ago, and haven't experienced any app or outage problems at all here either. I use the Amazon Music app on Win 7, 10, and 11 devices, a Samsung and a Sony phone, and a HiBy DAP. I opted out of Spotify because it never moved to offering HiRes music, and it seemed to investing in podcasts only or mostly, but I don't recall any outage or other reliability issues there either in several years that I subscribed to that. No experience with any Bluesound equipment though. I would not have had any patience for spending money on the non-service you describe. Good luck resolving your issue.

 

[ginandbacon]

I use Spotify and have never had any issues. With that said with my paid subscription I get to download and store the files locally. It obviously still requires Internet access as when you open the app on your phone (or whatever device you use) it just has to phone home to verify you've paid and your subscription is valid. I could be wrong but I believe this only has to be done once a day per device. After that it just plays the files stored locally.

As someone else mentioned above, no streaming services has just one data center per country or region. The easiest example would be Amazon because of AWS. If say, the data center closest to you is having issues or just sends you to another one. As the end user you have no idea this is happening. In fact, if the data center closest to you has high traffic it will route you to another one that doesn't have high traffic.

Consider this, Netflix is entirely hosted by AWS. Netflix pays Amazon for everything. Netflix does not have any data centers they actually own. I can't remember the last time Netflix was down. There are rare scenarios were the service
can go down completely but I just can't remember the last time Netflix just didn't work at all.

It would be a hard metric to keep track of because it would be per region. Just because it's down in the UK doesn't mean it's not working in other regions like the US. Even though there seems to be some obvious issues going on in the link your provided. I'm wondering if someone who subscribed to Amazon unlimited would have the same issue with downloaded music. Even without the paid plan if your a prime member you can download and store playlist. Below is from Amazon. I also understand that people may not have the storage to download their entire music collection although Spotify lets you pick what artists/albums/playlist you want to download.

I have no idea if Tidal has this functionality or not but worth looking into.

-----
Amazon Music for Prime members can only download All-Access Playlists to listen offline. Amazon Music Unlimited members can download songs, albums, and Playlists to listen offline.

Amazon Music Unlimited members can download songs, albums, and Playlists in Standard quality, HD, Ultra HD, or Spatial Audio, to listen offline in these formats.

 

[Gray]

.....with my paid subscription I get to download and store the files locally. It obviously still requires Internet access as when you open the app on your phone (or whatever device you use) it just has to phone home to verify you've paid and your subscription is valid.

I knew that was possible - but you're the first person to mention actually doing it.
(The first I've seen on this forum, at least).

That's some incentive to continue with your subscription isn't it?
No more paying, no more local files for you - that must be how it works....is it?

 

[ginandbacon]

I knew that was possible - but you're the first person to mention actually doing it.
(The first I've seen on this forum, at least).

That's some incentive to continue with your subscription isn't it?
No more paying, no more local files for you - that must be how it works....is it?

Yes, if your subscription changes all your playlist and everything else are there and work but it deletes the locally stored files and your back to 100 percent streaming via the internet from the service (Spotify, Amazon, ect..)

 

[daytona600]

 

[Jasonovich]

View attachment 7354

Even better, download your music on local SSD/USB device and listen to it via your DAC/Streamer, hours of non-stop listening, no need to flip over the LP every 20 minutes and you can skip to the next track without getting up!

 

[ginandbacon]

View attachment 7354

I used to pay for offline playback pre COVID as I was flying a lot for work. They weren't very happy when I tried to bring a record player on the plane asking where the power outlets were for me to plug it into.

While I kept and ripped all my CD's and a handful of SACD's that were actually remastered and not just upscaled (for lack of a better term) CD masters. I have all the files on my NAS with lots of music on my phone it's very harder and harder to purchase physical media. Especially new stuff.

I could go on a rant about how UHD disks just look and sound better than streaming when remastered completely but now that Disney has essentially killed UHD by saying they won't release any new movies on the format because of D+ so owning physical media is quickly becoming near impossible for new releases. Same with music. All this does is lead people to get media via "other" methods when they would still pay to own.

 

[Revolutions]

View attachment 7354

Calling @podknocker 😂

 

[nads]

Does it not depend on your internet providers?

 

[podknocker]

Calling @podknocker 😂

Haha! So funny. There are zero advantages to vinyl. Vinyl is for Luddites. I can play any track ever recorded, (currently around 91 million tunes and podcasts) within a second, at better quality, without the, without the, without the, without the, without the, without the, without the, without the, skipping and surface noise of vinyl. Why would I want the sound of bacon being fried in the background? Streaming has never failed me and takes up zero space. Each time I play a track, it costs a thousandth of a penny. I think it's hilarious people pay £40 for an album on vinyl, at lower quality, because they can't accept change. The record industry loves a mug and they will sell as many overpriced records as idiots are willing to buy. My streaming amp gives me none of the disadvantages of vinyl and it sounds better. It's also future format proof with the high end DAC and it's cheaper every time I play a tune. I can control the app from my phone, or any other nearby device. Name an album and I bet I can play it before any vinyl lover has ordered it, paid too much for it, had it delivered (yawn), opened it, carefully placed it on their record player and lovingly dropped the needle onto their precious prehistoric 12" disc of nonsense. I had a friend in the 80's who wore gloves to play vinyl, to avoid any fingerprints or sweat on the record's surface. Crackers. 'But what about the sleeve notes?' Grow up. Just in case I'm missing something, vinyl worshippers want to pay a huge amount more for lower sound quality, have a much smaller choice of music and then need to find somewhere to keep it? I can almost hear the sound of finger nails being dragged across the record as vinyl revivalists fiercely hold onto their outdated technology. Go and buy a streaming amp. It's the future and you might like it.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i4rgxOi73c

 

[ginandbacon]

Does it not depend on your internet providers?

As long as you have the bandwidth to stream music (2 to 3mbps download at a minimum, most people have that) and your Internet provider isn't down or having issues then no, internet providers are just last mile providers (for the most part). The Internet backbone is the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected computer networks and core routers of the Internet. These data routes are hosted by commercial, government, academic and other high-capacity network centers as well as the Internet exchange points and network access points, which exchange Internet traffic internationally.

To put it in a non technical way the Internet is extremely redundant and paid for by the government, private companies and universities. The main benefit is redundancy and able to route traffic in various ways. That's why the internet, as a whole, never goes down.So once you are past the last mile providers it doesn't matter at all who your ISP is. As long as their small part is up and working.

Now we're you live can possibly make a difference. I'm lucky enough to live somewhere with Google Fiber available. Google always builds a data center within 100 miles of anywhere they lay fiber, which is nothing distance wise so YouTube, any Google service (they don't have a music service or it sucks) just works and FAST. Especially considering their cheapest package is 1Gbps down/up (guaranteed, they run fiber directly to your house) . They have an 8Gbps plan. I don't know who that's for. I'm good with 110MB/s download at full speed. YouTube TV is about to put cable out of business here. There simply won't be an option.

 

[Jasonovich]

My little Samsung external CD/DVD read writer does the job but seriously tempted, the Rose looks solid but pricey.

HiFi Rose RSA780 CD Ripper - Premium Sound | Home Audio Retailer in London UK

Convenient Ripping Feature, Store your precious CD audio safely in various storage devices with intuitive UI and easy operation.

premiumsound.co.uk

I still have ton's of CD's I need to rip.

 

[podknocker]

My little Samsung external CD/DVD read writer does the job but seriously tempted, the Rose looks solid but pricey.

View attachment 7359

HiFi Rose RSA780 CD Ripper - Premium Sound | Home Audio Retailer in London UK

Convenient Ripping Feature, Store your precious CD audio safely in various storage devices with intuitive UI and easy operation.

premiumsound.co.uk

I still have ton's of CD's I need to rip.

Same here mate. I must get a quick spinner like this Rose to rip my CDs to FLAC and that will free up another cupboard. My 10 year old Dell laptop is slow and it takes 5 minutes to rip a disc in Media Player. With at least 250 CDs I don't fancy this. £349 is a lot for a possible one time only use, as I don't buy CDs now.

 

[abacus]

Same here mate. I must get a quick spinner like this Rose to rip my CDs to FLAC and that will free up another cupboard. My 10 year old Dell laptop is slow and it takes 5 minutes to rip a disc in Media Player. With at least 250 CDs I don't fancy this. £349 is a lot for a possible one time only use, as I don't buy CDs now.

As you don't have many just rip them while you are working on your computer, that way you will not be wasting any time, and you will be surprised how quick you will get them all done.

Bill

 

[Rodolfo]

That's what I did last night while watching a video.

I've used this cheap but nice aluminum "super drive" for 4.5 years: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FUDKB4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I replaced a similar black Blue-Ray-capable one that failed after several years. It f/sits nicely under my 2 stacked NUCs and works fine using MusicBee to rip my FLAC and 320kbps files, It's very quiet, ripping 8 CDs while I watched a flick on Prime last night. I'm always trading and borrowing, and rip a bunch of CDs once or twice a week.

I paid $30 in March 2020. Ignore the "for Mac": I've used it with Win 7 and 11, but it is a "super drive". I also use it to watch DVDs regularly when the main/Blue-Ray player is unavailable.