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Review of all streaming services from a C4 perspective


zaphod

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One thing that I would find very useful is a table that shows all of the streaming services that are out there and shows how well they integrate with C4 and all of the pros/cons of these services.  Personally I use Spotify and I think it would be hard to get me to switch, but it might be nice to see all of the various options in one place.  Is there any such list available?

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6 hours ago, zaphod said:

One thing that I would find very useful is a table that shows all of the streaming services that are out there and shows how well they integrate with C4 and all of the pros/cons of these services.  Personally I use Spotify and I think it would be hard to get me to switch, but it might be nice to see all of the various options in one place.  Is there any such list available?

we can make one here.

Pandora - Nearly full integration of features that I know. 

Deezer - Full integration. Limitation room control driver does not have full support

Spotify Connect - Limited integration most features are avalaible through the native app only

Napster - Full integration

tunein - full integration

 

These are the services i am most familiar with.

 

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we can make one here.
Pandora - Nearly full integration of features that I know. 
Deezer - Full integration. Limitation room control driver does not have full support
Spotify Connect - Limited integration most features are avalaible through the native app only
Napster - Full integration
tunein - full integration
 
These are the services i am most familiar with.
 

Regarding Spotify, what kinds of features don’t work ? What if you have multiple family members each with their own account. How does that work ? I was under the impression that the newest version of C4 music streaming had Spotify as native and no longer needed Spotify connect. I guess I’m wrong?


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Napster doesn't get much love it seems, but I keep it for some unique features (they have a nice playlist creation tool based on existing playlists for one), but it baffles me that they don't have a better family plan option.  I haven't really tried the others on the list posted here (except Pandora) in C4 but integration is flawless.

SiriusXM missed making this list.  The biggest issue I have with it (I thought) was the Favorites would drop off.  But there is an easy workaround to go the stations menu and go back to the Favorites.  I think it is missing some integration of some of the internet-only channels as well.  And it should be able to play the on-demand content, not sure why as late to the game that C4 was to adding the integration that they left that part out.

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21 hours ago, Matt Lowe said:

we can make one here.

Pandora - Nearly full integration of features that I know. 

Deezer - Full integration. Limitation room control driver does not have full support

Spotify Connect - Limited integration most features are avalaible through the native app only

Napster - Full integration

tunein - full integration

 

These are the services i am most familiar with.

 

Tidal would be pretty much the same comment as Deezer.

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Tidal would be pretty much the same comment as Deezer.

Can you be more specific when you say that there’s not full support for rooms? What exactly does that mean? You can’t target Tidal/Deezer to individual zones? So for example, if my daughter had her Tidal account (in addition to my wife and I having ours), she couldn’t play her music in her room/zone while we play our Tidal favs in our MBR?


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1 hour ago, phantomgordon said:


Can you be more specific when you say that there’s not full support for rooms? What exactly does that mean? You can’t target Tidal/Deezer to individual zones? So for example, if my daughter had her Tidal account (in addition to my wife and I having ours), she couldn’t play her music in her room/zone while we play our Tidal favs in our MBR?


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He's talking specifically to the driver called 'Room Control' which allows you to more easily program favourite selections and more.

If you have three tidal accounts, you would simply add three tidal drivers, get them named after the person, and each selects their own wherever you want (provided your setup supports it, ie you have at least three streams available from controllers into your audio matrix switch/amplifiers)

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7 hours ago, phantomgordon said:


Can you be more specific when you say that there’s not full support for rooms? What exactly does that mean? You can’t target Tidal/Deezer to individual zones? So for example, if my daughter had her Tidal account (in addition to my wife and I having ours), she couldn’t play her music in her room/zone while we play our Tidal favs in our MBR?


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5 hours ago, Cyknight said:

He's talking specifically to the driver called 'Room Control' which allows you to more easily program favourite selections and more.

If you have three tidal accounts, you would simply add three tidal drivers, get them named after the person, and each selects their own wherever you want (provided your setup supports it, ie you have at least three streams available from controllers into your audio matrix switch/amplifiers)

@phantomgordon - I would highly recommend Tidal.  Great integration.  Yes, you use different Tidal accounts in different zones perfectly.  As @Cyknight says, we are talking about the Room Control Driver.  Tidal / Deezer does not integrate as well with this as some other streaming services although you can program around this and get the identical result (in the case of Tidal, and, I would assume, Deezer).

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As we're compiling a list ( using previous peoples thoughts) we best add Apple Music so here goes:-

 

Apple Music  -   NO c4 integration 😂

Pandora - Nearly full integration of features that I know. 

Napster - Full integration

Tunein - full integration.

Amazon - full integration but no ability to do any programming with it in Composer. 

Deezer - Full integration. Limitation room control driver does not have full support

Tidal - full integration. Limitation room control driver does not have full support

Spotify Connect - Limited integration most features are available through the native app only

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10 hours ago, tdougray said:

As we're compiling a list we best add Apple Music so here goes:-

 

Apple Music  -   NO c4 integration 😂

Pandora - Nearly full integration of features that I know. 

Napster - Full integration

Tunein - full integration.

Deezer - Full integration. Limitation room control driver does not have full support

Tidal - full integration. Limitation room control driver does not have full support

Spotify Connect - Limited integration most features are available through the native app only

? You're missing a few

Google Music - No integration

Amazon Music - integration but can't comment on level (as it's not available here in Canada)

Oh and Spotify Connect is essentially FULL integration, but Spotify connect as such is just limited (as in, Spotify only allows 'connect' ability and a few limited favourite options, there is no browsing)

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On 3/12/2020 at 7:41 AM, tdougray said:

As we're compiling a list we best add Apple Music so here goes:-

 

Apple Music  -   NO c4 integration 😂

 

There's a ton more if you include ones with NO integration at all...which mentioning them isn't all bad because it might be ones to avoid.  In my case, the advantages of Apple Music for family use outweigh the lack of integration for me, and besides that I like my Sonos Connect just fine for whole house use of Apple Music.

Speaking of that, I guess it was ok for Apple to add Apple TV+ to Roku, etc when that came out, but they haven't given the same wide support for Apple Music to third parties...I know its somewhat apples to oranges but still irritating...

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  • 1 month later...

My family uses the native apps vs. C4 integration. So we use

Spotify, and they like that they can fire it up send it anywhere and then go do something else with their phone and Connect keeps going uninterrupted. This is one thing they like about C4's connect -- they can pick up any remote and pause/skip/etc regardless of who played the music.
Apple Music is tied for 3rd place with Pandora. Pandora is by far their choice for background music.
iHeartRadio for morning news and podcasts.

I used to enjoy Tidal music quality and the integration. But old age and hearing loss makes it, pardon the pun, a mute point really. So I quit paying for it and nobody noticed.

 

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LOL moot point.

 

Personally, in our house, we really just use TuneIn and SiriusXM.

In the end, there is just a desire to have music/sound going - not to listen to specific songs.

Plan on introducing either Tidal, Deezer or MAYBE spotify again to the family, see if the kids in particular are now more interested.

 

Funny thing is, my kids actually PREFER putting a CD in a player in their room...🤣

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm moving from Sonos to C4 whole home audio.  Hearing the limited integrations about makes me a bit concerned if I'm making the right choice.

Currently using Pandora and Spotify as main music sources. Using some other smaller ones but not a big concern if I were to not have them.

Can you use something like Sonos or similar as a source-out for additional streaming options?

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I'm moving from Sonos to C4 whole home audio.  Hearing the limited integrations about makes me a bit concerned if I'm making the right choice.
Currently using Pandora and Spotify as main music sources. Using some other smaller ones but not a big concern if I were to not have them.

Can you use something like Sonos or similar as a source-out for additional streaming options?

What’s missing with C4 that you’re interested in?

What gen is your Sonos?

If you have already made a big investment in Sonos, one thing to consider is Roon. You’ll have to do a little research but you’ll want a Roon Nucleus, a Roon subscription, and a Tidal subscription. If you’re basically only steaming a reg nucleus works fine with upto about 6 simultaneous zones. After that, or if you have a large catalog of digital music files, you’ll need a Nucleus +. You can always lay around with the Roon app and desktop for 2-weeks free.

As of this moment, Roon integrates nicely, but I’ve heard people mention joining zones is an issue. Roon is working on that. Good support.

If any of that interests you PM me. But I’m not sure what you’ll lose with moving to C4 audio in terms of services.


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I didn’t read the entire thread yet, but regarding video steaming services, who else is about overwhelmed with the dozen new services that sprout up everyday? When I integrated Roku, I was overwhelmed with just it content. When is enough too much? You literally couldn’t watch all of the content that sparks your interests if that’s all you did for the rest of your days.


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17 hours ago, time2jet said:

I didn’t read the entire thread yet, but regarding video steaming services, who else is about overwhelmed with the dozen new services that sprout up everyday? When I integrated Roku, I was overwhelmed with just it content. When is enough too much? You literally couldn’t watch all of the content that sparks your interests if that’s all you did for the rest of your days.


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Roku helps with the streaming service anxiety. It can search across multiple services at once so you can see where it is cheapest if multiple places are streaming the same content. Roku is the only video streaming device you need right now.

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