We typically use I Heat radio.
I use the free version and my wife has the subscription-based version which allows her to search for specific songs / artist and she can create play lists.

 

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.

 

flapping their jib

Is your inner sailor projecting?!! I haven't heard that in years! (guilty closet sailor, and seriously, son of a son of a sailor)

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

iPod? What's that?

 

The 8 track of music storage

 

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)

 

Pandora in truck and on boat all streaming through Bluetooth of Apple Play. Wife has XM in her car and I have the internet version available, but seldom use it.

Bennett

 

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 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.

 

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

Only if you pay for unlimited access otherwise you need to add iNet to an existing account. I only pay for and I forget the name, but mostly music. And then add iNet to the account. That's how I have SiriusXM in the house, it's added on to one of the car's and I stream that through Sonos as well.

However I think the app access is free, but low quality streaming. If you pay for the add on then it's higher quality for devices streaming like Sonos.

 

What's FM?

 

Now that you can apparently stream audio to two Bluetooth devices simultaneously from an iPhone, I'm thinking about getting a Sonos to use when hanging out on the bow when on the hook. That way I don't have to crank the Fusion in the cockpit, just to hear music in front of the windshield and the raised bowpads.

 

We use Spotify unlimited duo, Bluetooth. On the boat, in the car, truck and in the garage. Create your own lists and no commercials.

 

And we also have a Bose wireless Bluetooth that works great.

 

Who remembers...., wait for it...HD Radio - HDR!!

 

Remember it but never used it.

 

We use a dedicated iPad with about 200 gigs of recorded stuff from our own and friends cd collections. We also subscribe to Apple Music for streaming content. That gets ported to the Fusion AV 755.

Sirius comes as a free trial from Porsche, Audi, and now even Jeep. Two Porsches, an Audi and now a Jeep and we can’t get motivated to sign up for Sirius.

 

My son got the unlimited Spotify so we use that when we can. As for the vehicles and boats, we use SiriusXM. Got it years ago when we moved to New Mexico and there was no radio AM or FM to speak of. I just carry the receiver to the different vehicles when needed. Dad rode in my pick up one day and liked what he was hearing so he got it for his newer pick up.

 

I'm old school too and also cheap! All new music sucks (except for country), so I've ripped onto iTunes all of my CD's and some I've purchased, which is about 40-gigabytes of music and have them all play listed by genre, which I stream from my iPhone. I also have semi-annual SXM account for the boats Fusion 770 at a cost of $40.00 for the season. Between the two, we never find ourselves listening to FM, nor run out of good music to listen to.

 

Our S/XM is $25 a month for the two devises. I had it turned off for a couple of months and they got up in arms for loosing a customer and we are now locked in for that price. I had just the one and they wanted to raise the price to $58 a month.

I'm just learning the free to me Spotify. My boy has it and Apple music. That A.M. was too confusing to me.

 

Our S/XM is $25 a month for the two devises. I had it turned off for a couple of months and they got up in arms for loosing a customer and we are now locked in for that price. I had just the one and they wanted to raise the price to $58 a month.

I'm just learning the free to me Spotify. My boy has it and Apple music. That A.M. was too confusing to me.

I prepay SXM annually for each of my cars, which breaks down to $6.00 per month. When my calander alerts me, or I get the notice in the mail 11-months later, that it's about to renew for $22.00 per month, I call and tell them to cancel the account if they can't match the $6.00 per month charge I paid the previous year. They always honor it.

 

Home we have 20 sonos speakers throughout the house yard garage.
I am I apple guy the Admiral is a Android lady. I have Itunes and Spotify on my phone she has Spotify. Between the two of us have about 5000 songs down loaded and then we both can stream as well. Had Xm radio on the boat until 8am today I canceled it. We never used it so way pay 348.00 a year for it.
Home we bluetooth to the sonos and can turn on or off rooms. On the boat we bluetooth to the head unit . I also have a apple watch that way when on the boat I can turn up or down volume and skip songs from the dock, beach , or in the water.
We have made playlist that each run for 2hr or more that way we can play to our moods or when at the dock our dock neighbors all have different taste in music that we have collected there input on what they like to hear and that way we can play to the crowd and not have to worry about offending anyone.

 

We download music from spotify on our phones and bluetooth to the stereo in the boat. Also have the portable SeriusXM unit with a base in the house and car kits in all the vehicles as well as the boat.
We are surrounded by mountains and 20 mins out of port or down the highway, we lose all cellular and FM service.
Have an Inreach for communication if we ever need it but normally like to leave it off.

 

Hmm, so here is why I like my SXM especially on the boat. I
1. Don’t want to make manual playlists anymore. I have over 1T of music on an old Dell server that I turned into a DSN, never use it now. Not to mention all the iTunes stuff I’ve ripped and bought. Remember .99 a song?
2. I’ve spent some time drilling into the stations. Classic Rewind, Classic Vinyl, No Shoes (The Queen loves him, he mixes it up a bit, but…talks too much, fun to hear him talk drunk though), Ozzy’s bone yard, goes on and on.
3. Not SXM specific but did I mention it runs through the Garmin , no break ins when a phone call or text comes in.
4. Never loses signal, at least not on Lake Norman
5. I can put my phone in the cabin…off…and enjoy my day.

No I don’t work for SXM, matter of fact…I don’t work for anyone anymore , just have to keep breathing for the checks to come in.

My .02
Jon

 

Pretty much the same channels we use. Hair nation is another gooder.