Ditching Apple Music because I’m old

[MBAir2010]

I’m ditching Apple Music because I don’t listen to enough new music to justify the cost.

I’m going back to my original iTunes library which is cd rips and iTunes Store purchases. Is it possible to stream this music to my home pods and sonos? Will the home pod pick up the library with Siri or can i only AirPlay from my laptop?

hopefully someone answers this question.
but
my collection on music-itunes plays everything from my CD collection I started in 2004 now through airplay.
the HomePods took over the Bose sound touch last year for better sound quality and quicker response time starting music from iTunes-Music program.
my friend uses Sonos and they never had a problem stream their collection as well

hope this helped and not redundant!

 

[Juraj22]

Convert those mp3 to AAC. Get on with the 21st century and get better compression and better processing on Apple devices

problem with aac is that it will not play via Music app on your phone. You have to have original Apple music or mp3s. I did hit that problem when I downloaded music mix from youtube a wanted to listen on iPhone. Also, length limit is 3 hours max.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Mine stopped a little earlier (with a few notable exceptions) but Spotify free has these loud blaring ads, doesn’t it?
When I last used free, the ads were generally significantly louder than most of my music.

Yeah I’m pretty much the same year, free Spotify is prob not a bad idea as it will give me the option to listen to some new music. I do seem to like a couple of new albums a year but mostly it’s discovering old music that I maybe here in movie soundtracks.. I’ve recently become obsessed with classic rock and before that was northern soul and lots of Luther vandross

Spotify ads can be annoying, but it also adds a bit of radio vibe to my music I like. It’s AI very powerful. There is a radio station I use to listen to when I was younger. There are handful of songs I remember playing and I added them to a playlist. Every song from that station ever played, Spotify just filled in the gaps. I am still flabbergasted how it does it.

 

[philstubbington]

Why would Apple discontinue a service that you have to pay for? Last I heard, they like making money quite a lot.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204146

You have to enable iTunes Match from iTunes/Music.

Page published September 2021.

 

[Biffs]

Convert those mp3 to AAC. Get on with the 21st century and get better compression and better processing on Apple devices

OK - but when we need to copy stuff onto USB sticks for in the car mp3 works better - and at our age old ears don't differentiate much anyhow!

 

[ericwn]

Hallelujah!
I turned off my free 6 month subscription after 6 days of annoying tone-deaf crap music tried to push on me.
during that brief time, I even asked that to play "supper's ready" and that gave me a receipt for Hungarian goulash!

Yeah how dare they have a section with recommendations and the like? 😄

 

[Starfia]

I'm glad your question was answered. I've never paid for Apple Music just because the selection of music I actually want to buy and listen to more closely fits the iTunes Store model – I've never felt that "music" is something you want constantly flowing by without you having selected it.

(I've tried three or four free trials for it, and I also find it just messes with the interface, my account settings, and what Siri interprets when I request things; and I've found the suggested content is almost flatly worse than what I already have. I gather there are some people that think it's great, and I'm happy for them.)

 

[now i see it]

If you live long enough, not only will Apple Music not float your boat…. but no music will.
For some, music (all music) becomes irritating to listen to when the years really pile up.
So you’re not old yet … you’re just on your way

 

[JamesMay82]

I'm glad your question was answered. I've never paid for Apple Music just because the selection of music I actually want to buy and listen to more closely fits the iTunes Store model – I've never felt that "music" is something you want constantly flowing by without you having selected it.

(I've tried three or four free trials for it, and I also find it just messes with the interface, my account settings, and what Siri interprets when I request things; and I've found the suggested content is almost flatly worse than what I already have. I gather there are some people that think it's great, and I'm happy for them.)

Yeah I feel like that. I'm just enjoying all my old playlists that ive created over the years now. I never really recreated them on Apple Music. its nice to go back to them all!

A random question and off topic - I'm in an old truck for work with no blue tooth and paper speakers! has anyone bought a single bluetooth speaker for their car to replace stock speaker system?

 

[MisterSavage]

Convert those mp3 to AAC. Get on with the 21st century and get better compression and better processing on Apple devices

Do you pepper all of your advice with such snide remarks? I didn't want or need your advice.

OK - but when we need to copy stuff onto USB sticks for in the car mp3 works better - and at our age old ears don't differentiate much anyhow!

Yep, and I have plenty of space and the percentage of files that are in mp3 format sound "good enough" for me anyway. I still use streaming services and listening to my library I only part of how I consume music.

 

[MBAir2010]

I don't know if I can live (well yes, but) without music.
but i can surely live without music.

 

[Andronicus]

lol. I always tell people I have Apple Music because I AM old. All the kids these days have Spotify. You might as well get that, it’s free.

All my favorite music is from my past, but I hope I never lose joy in discovering new music.

 

[generdude]

I would look into Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil app which can stream audio to many different devices around your house from the mac.

 

[Ajones330]

I would look into iTunes Match to work with HomePods. May be the perfect option for you @ $25 a year. Will convert your own music to be able to stream on your HomePods I believe. I have Apple Music through Verizon so I haven't needed my iTunes Match recently.

 

[kitKAC]

problem with aac is that it will not play via Music app on your phone. You have to have original Apple music or mp3s. I did hit that problem when I downloaded music mix from youtube a wanted to listen on iPhone. Also, length limit is 3 hours max.

Every CD I've ripped in the last 10 years have been ripped to AAC format and plays perfectly fine in the Music app.

 

[hagjohn]

I’m ditching Apple Music because I don’t listen to enough new music to justify the cost.

I’m going back to my original iTunes library which is cd rips and iTunes Store purchases. Is it possible to stream this music to my home pods and sonos? Will the home pod pick up the library with Siri or can i only AirPlay from my laptop?

Music app should pick up all your music and stream it to the home pods. Just change the output to the HomePod.

 

[Lioness~]

I subscribed to Apple Music not for the music at all, but for talks to start with.
Then I found Apple Music more comfortable to use then messing around with all my music files, having them synced etc.
Then I’ve found a lot of other stuff that I didn’t expected to find there.
So it’s in general worth it to me, maybe not every month, but as a whole. At least for now.
I have ditched other things that costed me money too, in preference to what I found on Apple Music.
Life is like that, some habits and things go and some new things comes.

 

[mectojic]

The old model of having a home server to stream from, and ipods/iphones for music outside home, is still a fantastic one.
A really easy form of music streaming can just involve an old synced ipad, a home server, and plugged in / bluetooth speakers. Tons of cheap options.

 

[OLDCODGER]

Apple Music is to this day a horrible mess if you have any interest in (also) maintaining your own library.

Forget Apple Music consistently retaining your tags, or your versions of albums. They’ll happily swap out remasters or rereleases or studio <-> live whenever they want.

I really think Apple has just given up and is waiting for the old codgers who maintain their own library to die off.

As for streaming to old Sonos devices, buy a cheap NAS device. Load up your music there. Stick it on your network.

OY!

 

[riverfreak]

OY!

Hah!! I love it! From one old codger to THE OLDCODGER.

 

[OneSon]

I'm 40 and I've stopped using Apple Music. Same reason: realised I listen to about 20-30 albums 99% of the time. I get the odd free trial of Apple Music which I use to discover new music but I'm never paying £11/month for it again.

I've found that playing my old digital music on the iPhone is a pain though. I have a bunch of MP3s on my iMac which I moved over. They sit in 'files' on the iPhone and won't play in Apple Music. So I downloaded Vox but that's not great. Currently I'm using an old Sony Walkman (MP3 player) in the car to play MP3s and actually playing CDs at home. To be honest going back to the simplicity of CDs has been a pleasure. It makes me listen to the music in a more focused way as well.

 

[bogdanw]

I am old, what is Apple Music?

Phonix - Free macOS music player https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/phonix-free-macos-music-player-10-13-13-0.1985426/
Alternative to iTunes/Music for Offline Music https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/alternative-to-itunes-music-for-offline-music.2280883/

 

[AlixSPQR]

I never started with Apple Music since I am old. I ripped all my cd's 15 years ago and I can stream the files to my Apple TV, connected to an amplifier and floor speakers, from 1989 and 2004, respectively, that's good enough for me. 🤞🏻
Therefore, I cannot answer the questions in the OP, sorry.

 

[tubular]

The old model of having a home server to stream from, and ipods/iphones for music outside home, is still a fantastic one.
A really easy form of music streaming can just involve an old synced ipad, a home server, and plugged in / bluetooth speakers. Tons of cheap options.

That's my basic setup: server, plus an iPod for the car when I'm on long trips.

 

[MajorFubar]

Convert those mp3 to AAC. Get on with the 21st century and get better compression and better processing on Apple devices

Just to manage OP's expectations, reconverting to another lossy format won't restore what's already been lost.

Very glad I chose to rip all my CDs to ALAC way back when, and not to a lossy format. It was a pretty big investment seeing storage space was more expensive then, but I'm thankful 12 years later than I have a library of 13,000 CD-quality rips, not some lossy format.