Stream and upload your own music ad-free?

Books, comics, TV, music
1

Ok, so I used to pay the $25/year fee for Amazon music where I could upload my music and stream it, ad-free to my phone, but they discontinued the music uploads, and so I can’t upload any more music that isn’t purchased from Amazon as an mp3 or as physical media with their Auto-Rip option.

Any qt3’ers know of a good solution for being able to stream your own music, ad-free, at a reasonable cost (neighborhood of $25/year)?

Saw this in my google-fu:

Thinking maybe OneDrive… anyone use that?

Note: ad-free is a requirement, not an option (at least for me, YMMV)

2

Google Play Music supports this, although uploads are painfully slow and that service is theoretically being replaced by YouTube Music, which appears to lack that feature.

Setting up a subsonic media server on your home pc would work, though the mobile apps leave something to be desired and it’s only as good as your home connection…and depends on your router’s ability to port forward consistently (the one I got through Charter a few years ago was abysmally unreliable there, thus ending my use of subsonic and sending me on my own version of this quest).

3

As best I can tell, Google Play music has ads, even for your own collection. Is this not the case?

From the same site, but different article:

What We Don’t Like

You have to log in (requires a Google account).

Can't play specific songs unless you own them.

Displays ads before some songs and within the app.
4

iTunes lets you do that too. Or it did two years ago. You upload and then it matches what can be matched and uploads the “unmatchable”. Having said that, I basically hate iTunes.

5

If you’re a $10/mo subscriber, no ads at all. Visual or audio.

6

$10/month is a rip-off, IMHO. 5x what I was paying before.

7

Uh, you said $25/mo above?

8

If you’re already storing a copy of your music locally, I would second Armando’s suggestion of rolling your own media server. I use Plex since I already had it set up for video. If you don’t have a PlexPass subscription there’s a one-time $5 charge for the mobile app.

You can also set up some media shares on Google Drive. I don’t know the details - I only use it for drive backups - but iirc that’s how @stusser has his Plex library set up. $10/mo or free if you have access to a .edu address with Google Drive.

9

$25/year, not month (and yes, I’m an idiot and edited the OP to update it). arrgh. sorry.

10

Subsonic is like a simplified version of Plex, meant mainly for audio (though it has video features that I’ve never used). You set up a PC as a server for all your music, then play it through a web interface or various mobile apps (I prefer DSub).

You can use it for free, or subscribe for extra features for $12/year.

11

I was pretty annoyed with Amazon’s boot too. I have my music all over the place, but the think that annoys me the most, above everything else, is having to remake those dang playlist. I just want to take them with me.

12

I was pretty outraged when Amazon dumped that service, as I play my music, podcasts and streaming radio almost exclusively on my Echos, and I’ve yet to find a simple fix that doesn’t involve ditching the Echos entirely or retraining myself to say, “Alexa, tell X to play Y on [device/group]”. Yes, needless to say, Amazon sells music but I buy a lot of obscure/small label stuff that isn’t for sale on their platform. I guess if they bought Bandcamp, that would help, but I don’t want them to buy Bandcamp.

13

I do not recall ever hearing an ad when playing from my own library.

14

I’ve purposely avoided Fires TVs, Kindles, and Alexa stuff because I do not want to be tied into Amazon’s ecosystem. They do not have your best interests at heart. Sorry not trying to pile on or anything, but maybe use this moment to reflect on it. Cheers.

15

I paid for a lifetime license to Subsonic. It steams from your machine. It’s great.

http://www.subsonic.org/pages/index.jsp

16

That doesn’t sound much different from Plex which is free and does work on Alexa devices.

17

Never used Plex but I know folks who love it.

18

I’ve used Plex sort of, although I was one of the customers they didn’t care about when they got rid of their channel. I should check out Subsonic to see what they offer. Even though I use Plex a little, i’ve never loved it. Maybe there is a better option for me.

I used Alexa and Amazon because it was easy and the primary although not the only source for most my music.

19

Subsonic, like Plex, has a free service that can be upgraded with a subscription.

I use both. Plex is great for video, but I prefer Subsonic for music.

20

Oh, no worries on the piling on concern. I’m not so committed to Amazon that I’m averse to the idea of switching over to Google Assistant in order to get more control back over my music, but of course then I’d be trading one ecosystem for another. (Note that I also have Hue lights, and both platforms support them.)