Pandora, Spotify, SiriusXM, Amazon Music, etc. which do you use and why?

mrsrobinson

Well-Known Member
Mar 9, 2006
7,704
Virginia
Boat Info
2001 380DA
Engines
Caterpillar 3126
I am old school, I still use 8 tracks, albums, cassettes, CDs... Just kidding, though I do have all of my CDs and albums. I was surprised to see newer head units do not support CDs, makes sense though.

I don't use Pandora or Spotify, never even tried them.

I love Amazon Music and pay fore the upgraded version.

I just subscribed to SiriusXM - we will see how that goes.

What do you use on the boat, and why?
 
Don't listen to much music on the boat. When we do it's Sirius Yacht Rock mostly via phone app to bluetooth. Occasionally my kid's Spotify subscription. Or a baseball game on good old AM, now that I got a better antenna for the radio.
 
I tried the Sirius route for years... got tired of the DJ's flapping their jib all of the time. Went to Spotify and BT streaming. Love it... I can select the music, skip, or replay as I like.
 
We use Spotify. It started many years ago when I purchased Sonos speakers at the house. We had originally planned on having speakers in the main rooms, but I ran out of money during construction. So the wires are in the ceiling, and was going to wait to put the speakers in. During the waiting, wireless technology increased dramatically, and in comes Sonos. Have have 7 pairs of Sonos speakers throughout my house. That is when I started my Spotify Family subscription. It allows for 5 or 6 licenses, if I remember correctly. It is currently $14.99/month.

I was talking with a buddy at the Marina last summer. He is a techie. I was asking him about stereo/speakers for the boat as my equipment on my 2006 is original. Some of the speakers are blown, etc. After some discussion he recommended the following set up for the boat:
1. Buy an iPad that is dedicated for boat use only.
2. Buy Sonos speaker(s) for the boat. They now have some that are rechargable so you don't need AC power at all.
3. For times that you are in an area without cell service, you can download the songs from Spotify to play.
4. The dedicated ships iPad will also run/manage the Smart TVs on board.
5. For live TV, and when in cell range, use the phone to cast to the TV.

I like the concept. The cost is minimal. A Sonos Roam is $179. https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/roam
You can put many of them "together" for a bigger sound if you want. Or, they can play different things, all at the same time.

Jaybeaux
 
I use Spotify for streaming music for 1 reason. Its the best app I've found for streaming to all kinds of devices. Basically it will stream to anything that is internet capable or has BlueTooth. All my various house receivers (Onkyo/Denon), the Fusion radio on the boat, my car, a set of headphone...you name it. If its online locally, it will find it and let you stream to the device. Very quick to connect and seemless.
 
We use Spotify. It started many years ago when I purchased Sonos speakers at the house. We had originally planned on having speakers in the main rooms, but I ran out of money during construction. So the wires are in the ceiling, and was going to wait to put the speakers in. During the waiting, wireless technology increased dramatically, and in comes Sonos. Have have 7 pairs of Sonos speakers throughout my house. That is when I started my Spotify Family subscription. It allows for 5 or 6 licenses, if I remember correctly. It is currently $14.99/month.

I was talking with a buddy at the Marina last summer. He is a techie. I was asking him about stereo/speakers for the boat as my equipment on my 2006 is original. Some of the speakers are blown, etc. After some discussion he recommended the following set up for the boat:
1. Buy an iPad that is dedicated for boat use only.
2. Buy Sonos speaker(s) for the boat. They now have some that are rechargable so you don't need AC power at all.
3. For times that you are in an area without cell service, you can download the songs from Spotify to play.
4. The dedicated ships iPad will also run/manage the Smart TVs on board.
5. For live TV, and when in cell range, use the phone to cast to the TV.

I like the concept. The cost is minimal. A Sonos Roam is $179. https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/roam
You can put many of them "together" for a bigger sound if you want. Or, they can play different things, all at the same time.

Jaybeaux
I’m a big fan of Sonos as well for the house. We use Pandora ….I pay a small yearly fee. We also use Pandora in the car and the boat.

not sure about Sonos in the boat. I think I like traditional built in speakers for that.
 
Usually local radio station. Usually FM.

We've ripped all of our CDs to iTunes, and we can play all those 7K tracks via iPod through the boat sound systems. I usually forget to mess with it.

-Chris
We listen too a lot of FM on the boat…. We also have an old iPod with 1,000’s of songs plugged in to the radio all the time
 
We use Pandora just because that's what I subscribed to years ago but after you get past Middle Bass Is. we lose cellular reception then it's stored music.
 
I have a Clarion multi CD player on the boat... so I play various CDs...

In my personal car I have Sirius/XM radio with a streaming package. So I can listen online at work or home and I am not going to pay for Sirius XM in my company car, I stream it through my iPhone (plugged in not Bluetooth) for my rides to work.

I also have about 4,000 songs in iTunes (in my phone) so I can also listen that way.

Finally, I do have Pandora (free version)
 
I never remember song names so Pandora just seemed easier for me than Spotify. Almost exclusively use Pandora Premium, commercial free, using high audio quality option. Allows several playlists to be downloaded to the device (iphone, ipad). Use in the truck via iphone, the jeep via iphone, and the boat via ipad. iPad is my everything iPad, not just for the boat. Truck and Boat are Bluetooth. Jeep is Carplay.
 
SiriusXM on the boat, Lincoln and house, Amazon upgraded for the house as well. New speakers for the boat when I bought it, cheap Pyle marine speakers throughout but sound much better than the rotted out originals. New Fusion RA70NSX in September, integrated into the Garmin. Works fantastic and I’m not tripping over my phone underway. Kids all use Spotify, I’ve never tried it but when we are all out on the boat they DJ via BT. Also love the ability to change volume in the cabin separate from the cockpit.
Super Electrician installed the Fusion and recommends bigger amp, better speakers in the cockpit and a sub under the aft facing dinette seat. That should happen spring time.

Edit, just looked and thought I would throw a cost on this:
Two separate subscriptions.

Lincoln and house, “Music and Entertainment 400+ channels” blah, blah, blah
17.99 month

Boat (boat has it’s own antenna/receiver) and house “different login on the app”, same package as above.
12.99 month

+ taxes and fees about 36.00 a month total. Why two accounts? Prevents “stealing the station” when I’m on the boat, if the queen starts listening in the Lincoln or the house it would shut down the boat if I was using the app with one account & BT.

Probably not the most efficient but works for us so there’s no “stop stealing the music” text’s.
My.02
 
Sirius Xm in the cars. Can stream on the boat or wherever. Also have Napster, which was formerly Rapsody and had a deal thru my internet provider comcast. No radio like stream, but gives me access to just about every album/song out there. Can make playlists and download for when you’re not on the interweb.
 
I’m a big fan of Sonos as well for the house. We use Pandora ….I pay a small yearly fee. We also use Pandora in the car and the boat.

not sure about Sonos in the boat. I think I like traditional built in speakers for that.

I use the Sono's connect on the boat, connected to the Fusion head via optical (TOS Link) and stream Pandora, Spotify and SiriusXM. That way only one app is needed to control the music. I also have over 10K MP3's to choose from in the Sonos app also.

BTW - what's a CD? :D
 
I use spotify, since I have an old iphone connected to 2001 Clarion CMD1 via bluetooth in the cabin. I open the spotify app on my iphone or ipad at the cockpit and can manage what's playing without going downstairs. it was an easy way to have this remote stuff on the phone without replacing everything.
 
Local Radio on good days, Stream free Pandora and XM radio though phone via Bluetooth.

If you have XM/Sirius account in one of your vehicles the streaming account for your phone or computer is free.
 

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