Yes to streaming! After six decades of amassing vinyl, then tapes, and finally CDs, Mr. G and I gave away the last remaining Items from our classical, jazz, and contemporary collections along with our vintage receivers, speakers, and high-end turntables. Our entire music collection now resides in a single unit—an Apple HomePod speaker—perched on shelf and controlled by our voice or by whatever Apple device is nearby. As you’ve probably surmised, Apple Music is our subscription service, costing us $7/ month since we share a Family subscription with my sister.
Despite trepidation at seeing collector albums going out the door, and wrinkling of our noses at many of the algorithm-generated “suggestions”, we are now enjoying our long-time loves and delightedly discovering new ones.
A couple of suggestions:
It’s easiest to work with a streaming service that complements your current computing platform. Despite working with Microsoft for decades, we switched back to Apple on retirement so it made sense to keep to that platform for our music service. The HomePod was a snap to set up using our iPad and the look and feel of Apple Music was familiar to us. To my ear, the HomePod sound quality with its self-adjusting, directional speakers was also superior to the “almost” free Echo/Amazon/Alexa system we had been given as a gift. I’m sure we could have upgraded, but staying in the Apple environment just seemed easier.
Check out the features of the different streaming services to decide which one seems the best—and be willing to pay a few dollars a month to get the convenience and versatility you want from your system. Most services will give a couple of months of free service to help you make your decision. Check out radio stations, obscure artists you enjoy, playlists, and other features which can help you find the music and programs you enjoy.
Buy a decent speaker system. Depending on home, you might want more than one. Don’t judge the audio quality of a streaming service by just listening to the sound on a small, under $100 speaker. The small speakers we first bought work as inexpensive outdoor or basement adjuncts, but don’t have the sound quality we want for our jazz and classical music.
The algorithms get better as you fill up your music library so be patient, keep adding albums and playlists you enjoy, and click “don’t like” buttons frequently to eliminate stuff which makes you groan. My music tastes are eclectic (like most people, I’m sure) so, while I adore the Doors and Big Brother, I detest metal rock. Same goes for opera (YES!) and “new age” (NO!). The more effort you put into your library in the beginning, the better your recommendations will become in the future.
The assistants (Siri/ Alexa/?) can be annoying until the algorithms get caught up, so try not to shout at them. It’s unnerving to others in the household and probably not a good example to nearby children. Getting riled up at a circuit board is actually kind of funny, so laugh instead snarl.
