How To Choose Offline & Streaming Quality in Apple Music?

[MattZani]

OK so I have done another test and some very weird results. Using my iphone 4s tethered to my Nexus 6, 5 minutes of music uses approx 50mb! But my 4s tethered to an Iphone 6s only uses 10mb of music. Can someone please help clarify why the big difference? (both on the same cellular network)

Could be something to do with the phone believing it's on wifi, where as when tethered to another iOS device it knows it's still on the mobile network.

Also, other background tasks etc that come with being on wifi.

Apple Music quality isn't the best so it's unlikely it's using that amount. The songs are variable bit rate with a max of 256kbps on wifi and 128kbps on a mobile network.

 

[purpleparrotuk]

Is there any any other way I can tether my nexus to the iphone 4s apart from WiFi hotspot. Bluetooth connection won't work.

 

[spiralynth]

Having put some time and money into my car audio, anyone who listens to it can notice the amazing sound quality or variations thereof from different sources (CD, HD radio, AUX, USB, lossy, lossless, etc) without being an audiophile. Right now, it sounds incredible when streaming AM on iPhone 6s with Cellular Data > High Quality Streaming over AT&T's network. I'm grandfathered into the unlimited plan, so I stream 'till my heart's content.

I was curious about two things, however: how much data was I actually using streaming, and whether HQ streaming and downloaded content sounded differently. Here are some rough numbers based on some quick tests I did using the DataMan stopwatch (not an exact science but relatively accurate from my experience):

HQ Streaming over AT&T LTE:
- 10 min = 4MB data used
- 1 hr = 25MB (extrapolated)
- 40 hr = 1GB (extrapolated)

Downloaded (same size whether over AT&T LTE or wifi)
- 5 min song = 10MB actual file size
- 10 min song = 20MB actual file size
- 1 hr album = 120MB (extrapolated)

In my car, there is a notable audible difference between a song streaming in HQ vs. its downloaded counterpart. Again, one doesn't need to be an audiophile to hear less separation, less breadth, depth and a smaller soundstage in the downloaded song. This—combined with the small file sizes of the downloaded songs—leads to me to believe that downloaded content on AM is of lesser quality than its 256k+ AAC streaming counterpart. There isn't as noticeable of a difference when using my mid-grade Sony earbuds, though.

I cannot listen to downloaded AM music in my car because I know I have a better sounding option available to me. This is disappointing as there are/will be times when I may not have cellular coverage and/or I'm being throttled for exceeding my 22GB (hasn't happened yet). So, I need Apple to allow us the option to choose HQ quality downloads.

And they still need to work on that hideous UI.

 

[M. Gustave]

HQ Streaming over AT&T LTE:
- 10 min = 4MB data used
- 1 hr = 25MB (extrapolated)
- 40 hr = 1GB (extrapolated)

Downloaded (same size whether over AT&T LTE or wifi)
- 5 min song = 10MB actual file size
- 10 min song = 20MB actual file size
- 1 hr album = 120MB (extrapolated)

In my car, there is a notable audible difference between a song streaming in HQ vs. its downloaded counterpart. Again, one doesn't need to be an audiophile to hear less separation, less breadth, depth and a smaller soundstage in the downloaded song. This—combined with the small file sizes of the downloaded songs—leads to me to believe that downloaded content on AM is of lesser quality than its 256k+ AAC streaming counterpart. There isn't as noticeable of a difference when using my mid-grade Sony earbuds, though.

I cannot listen to downloaded AM music in my car because I know I have a better sounding option available to me. This is disappointing as there are/will be times when I may not have cellular coverage and/or I'm being throttled for exceeding my 22GB (hasn't happened yet). So, I need Apple to allow us the option to choose HQ quality downloads.

Checking iTunes, I see that a typical one-hour album ripped at 256kbps AAC is about 120 MB, which is exactly what you show. So what you're saying doesn't make sense.

 

[\-V-/]

Annnnnnnnd this is why I love T-Mobile.

 

[spiralynth]

Checking iTunes, I see that a typical one-hour album ripped at 256kbps AAC is about 120 MB, which is exactly what you show. So what you're saying doesn't make sense.

I've seen data that claims AM HQ streaming quality can variably range from 256k to 430k+. So, it makes perfect sense if my 6s on AT&T LTE was streaming at higher than 256k (as indicated in my post with "+") in my test cases.

Again, the audible difference between the two is so obvious that anyone who's sat in my car has instantly been able to tell the difference. I would liken it to the difference between FM and HD radio signals.
[doublepost=1476936997][/doublepost]

Annnnnnnnd this is why I love T-Mobile.

AT&T has broader coverage which is critical for me as I travel extensively, and my unlimited plan costs $35. Their throttling policies appear to be generally the same, but I do like T-Mobile's media streaming policies much better.

--

NEW YORK -- T-Mobile, the country’s No. 3 wireless carrier, will pay $48 million for not clearly telling customers how “unlimited” data plans weren’t really, well, unlimited.

The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that T-Mobile had a policy to slow down the speeds of customers who were the heaviest data users. But the agency said the company didn’t let customers know what the data-use threshold was for triggering the lower speed.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/t-mobile-fined-48m-over-slowing-unlimited-data-plans/