Digital music
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Thread Killer Mk VIII
Mister 44
New member
Yip. But you can download songs for offline play as well. You just can't move it between devices. What I do is navigate by using the desktop app and pic the songs I want. Then I download them to my phone (which doubles as my mp3 player) via wifi. I have a whole bunch of songs and full albums on my phone available off-line. Works great.
Ichigo
New member
I use to use certain sites where I could download songs for free and as much as I want, but thats if I dont buy the CD first
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DieGrootHammer
Daddy TK
Well that's very good to know. I didn't know it was possible, which is why I haven't subscribed to simfy yet
Mister 44
New member
Check out the 2 weeks free before you commit. For me it's perfect, but I can see that it wouldn't be to everybody's needs.
Tom
New member
Sorry for the Necro, But thought it best to not start a new thread on this...
So from what iv found out there are 4 main "Music streaming" services available in SA at the moment, those being
Simfy - https://www.simfyafrica.com
Deezer - http://www.deezer.com/
Rara - https://www.rara.com/
Rdio - http://www.rdio.com/
Im looking at one of these as an option instead of constantly downloading music, and rather streaming what ever I want, at a fraction of the cost. The price's are all pretty similar, What I would like to know is a bit of feedback on who's using what, what your opinion is on the different services, if anyone has tried more than one that would be ideal...
There is also Grooveshark, but apparently there are some heavy legal issues going on there...
From what Iv seen im leaning towards Simfy... I like Simfy and Deezer coz they both have the mobile aspect...
Input would be greatly appreciated!
So from what iv found out there are 4 main "Music streaming" services available in SA at the moment, those being
Simfy - https://www.simfyafrica.com
Deezer - http://www.deezer.com/
Rara - https://www.rara.com/
Rdio - http://www.rdio.com/
Im looking at one of these as an option instead of constantly downloading music, and rather streaming what ever I want, at a fraction of the cost. The price's are all pretty similar, What I would like to know is a bit of feedback on who's using what, what your opinion is on the different services, if anyone has tried more than one that would be ideal...
There is also Grooveshark, but apparently there are some heavy legal issues going on there...
From what Iv seen im leaning towards Simfy... I like Simfy and Deezer coz they both have the mobile aspect...
Input would be greatly appreciated!
I'm currently subscribed to Deezer and Rdio. I also tried Simfy.
My preference: Rdio . Main reason is their Pandora like "stations" which plays songs for you based on what you like/dislike (i.e. finding new music). It works offline on mobile , but not on the desktop. In other words you can download the songs on mobile devices via the app, but in your browser on PC you can only stream.
Deezer, got offline modes on mobile AND desktop (basically caching the songs via browser app, so you can listen again without redownloading). Deezer itself got alot a more open API going which leads to 3rd party "apps" that taps into the Deezer ecosystem, which is nice . You also get Deezer App on Samsung's Smart Hub (if you got a samsung tv/blue ray drive you will know what this is), which is nice for streaming music on your tv directly. I also like how Deezer would have song ratings/scores (like you get on iTunes), something you don't see on Rdio.
Unfortunately i am not fond of Deezer's "radio station" system, so despite having all these 3rd party "modules", they still don't have a true Pandora Discovery tool, which Rdio does have. They got "artist stations" which is pre-defined stations of music that is similar to a given artist, but this is only available for popular artists.
Simfy, i did not stick with this one for long. Their mobile app is nowhere near what you see on the website, alot of the features like their "radio station" was not available on mobile at all and that was a deal breaker right there.
Rdio got the better interface (imho) . Deezer seem to have more 3rd party support (like with Samsung) , but both got mostly the same amount of music available. Deezer also seem to be slightly more robust on my Android phone when it comes to having a bad EDGE/3G connection (Rdio tends to buffer/not start at all if connection is poor), however both are just fine in Offline modes.
So in the end, i'm with Rdio primarily for the Discovery feature. What i mean by this is, you pick a song and simply go "create station' and it will start playing similar SONGS, and you can then thumbs up/thumbs down each song , or just let it play. You can then be more adventurous by selecting how wide Rdio should go in terms of similar (but different) music etc.
If you know what you want and will always create playlists based on songs that you heard on the radio/somewhere and don't do the discovery things, then i'd say Deezer is better due to it's offline mode on the desktop and 3rd party tools .
In short, all 3 services work in offline mode on your mobile/tablet (as in you tell the service to make specific songs available for offline use). All 3 have access to a zillion songs, there are songs that are not available to South Africans and there are artists that are only on the 1 service or the other service (you can't win here it seems, example Deezer got certain albums of Heuwels Fantasties, and Rdio got the other albums , so it's linked to record labels i guess....and yes there is plenty of Afrikaans music on it too) .
They all got "top charts" and "new releases" and things like that. So the only distinct factor between all of them was their Discovery feature for me. If you ever used Last.FM or Pandora you will know what i mean here, only Rdio can replicate that, Deezer have a 3rd party mobile app that comes close but it's been in beta forever and incomplete.
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Mister 44
New member
Tom
New member
Firstly Bud, Thanks so much for the comprehensive reply! This was the most helpful thing iv seen! Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed response!
By the sounds of things that Rdio Discovery feature is exactly what im looking for! I have a Samsung TV, and would like to be able to get it to work with the TV so Deezer would be nice there, But I also have a PC plugged into the amp, so the Samsung App is not vital... Deezer seems to be the more "main stream" option, and would be nice if there was a similar "discovery" feature...
Iv never seen Pandora, Is there no option of getting this in SA?
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Thanks for the reply man, Im assuming you referring to Downloading Music, and not streaming though?
Well all those services got free trials, so might as well just try them and see.
As for Pandora, yes, using a USA VPN/Proxy you can use it. Same way people are getting Netflix in SA. However Pandora is different type of service in the sense that while it got great discovery features, i'm not sure it is any good at maintaining your own personal collection/creating playlists/offline play etc etc.
The Deezer on Samsung TV is nice, but as you say it's quite easy to get your Phone/PC/Tablet to connect to your TV and play it. Personally i use my Phone/Tablet via bluetooth and/or HDMI cable to play via my TV.
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Tom
New member
So I took your advice and signed up for the trials, You were so right about Rdio! It is fantastic! Iv now signed up, there "discover" feature is incredible! Iv not only got all the latest music i have ever wanted, but have found artists i didn't even know existed! And the best part is you can take it anywhere you want! Iv even been to mates places and they wanted music so i just opened the browser and bam! What ever you want!
Thanks for all the great feedback, It really helped the process and Im seriously impressed with the result!
That's great, i must add i've managed to turn around quite a few "braais" which were just going into "meh" land with some tunes from rdio. It's that thing where someone will say "remember that song from high school, on Monster Hits 1?" , and then i can i pull out that album and go "like this song" ? Quite interesting how the right music at the right time can change the mood.
Anyhow, look at the top playlists too, even if there are region restrictions on the specific songs, you will find the exact same song on rdio without the restriction, just need to search for it.
Also quite useful to just pick a song and "make a station" from it, especially when people don't have a list of songs to listen to.
AlienTaker
Whale Masseur
I got my invite to the steam music beta last week and it's not that bad but kinda reminds me of Windows Media Centre still playing around with some of the features. Anyone else on it yet?
Tom
New member
Funny you say that, I was at a mates place the other day and he asked a guy to bring his laptop for music, but the guys music was obviously his taste and no one enjoyed what he was playing, so i just hopped on Rdio on the guys laptop and it literally changed everyone's mood almost instantly having music we could all relate to... I really love the create station from Song, its just so easy to get music you like playing! Haven't tried the phone app yet, any good? and is there a remote from your phone that you know of?
Sounds very interesting! Is it also all streaming? Can you post a screen shop of the UI just for interest sake?