Current Best Music Source Option

[JBailey895]

I've been reading the Tesla forums and the TMC info, both have a lot of info re Spotify and Slacker, but [I think] much of it has changed since the new year. I've been a Android Auto/ Pandora 1 guy for a long time, and need to transition to my Tesla options.
I've read as a Tesla owner, I automatically have a mid-ranged membership in Slacker, is this correct? How do I access?
Is Spotify the currently the best content provider? (I know this may be subjective)
I have a 3P, so premium connectivity for a year, do I want to get "hooked" on something that I'll have to pay $10/mo for next year?
I have BT'd my Pandora in the car, and it sounds pretty good, but I miss a general interface, and would prefer to have on-screen controls, unless I keep my AA for Waze and Pandora, and leave the main screen for driving info.

I'll keep reading up in the forums, but thanks in advance for any suggestions or tips for Audio source info.

Cheers,
Joel

 

[sduck]

If you're into streaming canned content, spotify is the way to go. Works well, at least the few times i've tried it. Slacker also works well, but has a much more limited amount of content. If your tastes a fairly mainstream, that might not make much of a difference though. Slacker is pretty nice about making "pandora stations" type stations on the fly, in the car, if you like that, but if you want to play a specific album, or just stuff by a specific artist, or your own playlists, spotify is better.

 

[bpjod]

At first release, Spotify was quite poor. They quickly fixed that with an update and it has been working well for me ever since. The in-car on-screen interface could still use some work or maybe I just need to play around with it more. If you have a family, their family subscription is great.

 

[bpobill]

Slacker is great and its included. Thumbs up all the stuff you like then access your favorites channel. It plays all those songs plus similar ones like it. The more you thumbs up and down the better it gets. Im on the free trial of spotify but wont pay for it. Just not a fan of how it functions. Hoping amazon prime music comes to Tesla.

 

[JBailey895]

Either Slacker or Spotify will require a subscription to their plan, along with the premium connectivity charge (after a year), correct?

I admit to being lazy and liking songs suggested to me; I used the voice command yesterday for a specific track (White Stripes, Seven Nation Army), and it basically created a White Stripes Radiochannel, after providing several options to play various versions of the song. I've heard Slacker previously would have just played the actual song, but now you have to shift through multiple suggestions on the screen. Idont think I've even tried Spotify yet, but suppose trial and error is the best way to evaluate options.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[sduck]

Slacker, in it's current version in the model 3, is free - while you can buy into an upgraded plan, most of the benefits of such don't translate to the car (I could be wrong about this, any clarification is welcome). Yes, spotify reguires buying a subscription.

 

[bsd107]

Hoping amazon prime music comes to Tesla.

Agree - especially the high bitrate options

 

[holmgang]

I partially hate Spotify (1) for its design as a platform, and (2) for its interface in the tesla computer.

1 is because its very millenial/user-centric, and the search result and navigation is this amalgam of playlists and etc that makes it difficult to sift through. when i search for, say, radiohead, i want to see radio the artist, and all THEIR official albums. not user-generated fav radiohead mixes and covers all the other fluff.

2 is related to above, but navigating is difficult. if i happen to stumble onto a playlist that is playing a radiohead song, i expect to be able to tap to the artist (=radiohead), and see all of their albums and etc. impossible. basically the navigation tree is difficult to comprehend.

would be great if Google Play Music or Amazon Prime Music were a native app, and spotify could just get off my lawn.

better than nothing though

 

[JulienW]

Agree - especially the high bitrate options

Unfortunately the client decides on the bitrate and since Tesla is paying for the data it will be limited to about the same 64Kbpsish just like with Spotify and Slacker.

 

[JBailey895]

Any features in Spotify that would make it better than Slacker? I think the system defaults to Slacker when I do the command "Play ___"

 

[Ronbo]

Yes, spotify reguires buying a subscription.

You can get around this. I have the free Spotify service and play it through the car using Bluetooth. Changing playlists is simply “Hey Siri play XXX with Spotify”. Works perfectly.

 

[Kevy Baby]

All of the streaming services are inadequete IMO - the sound quality is substandard due to the compression and bit rates. I do all my listening to songs on a flash drive. The controls are horrible, but it is the best way to get quality sound.

 

[holmgang]

All of the streaming services are inadequete IMO - the sound quality is substandard due to the compression and bit rates. I do all my listening to songs on a flash drive. The controls are horrible, but it is the best way to get quality sound.

if/when the voice control works, ive found it actually does sift through my flash drive collection!

"play pink floyd" results in a search for pink floyd across all storage and services (better than assuming one and automatically playing it!)

one issue is sometimes you get back in the car, and playback doesnt resume... as if it cant read the flash drive

 

[Kevy Baby]

one issue is sometimes you get back in the car, and playback doesnt resume... as if it cant read the flash drive

This is probably my #1 irritation with the car. In my last car (Ford Taurus with the Sync system), I usually made it through most of the ~7,800 songs on the USB drive without it forgetting where it was (even within a track if stopped in the middle) and even when I switched to a different source and came back.

 

[sduck]

I play music from an ssd (formatted ext4), and the music always resumes after a power cycle. The odd times it doesn't - some 1 out of 20 times or so - get out of the car, close door, get back in car - it now resumes where you left off.

 

[HighZ]

I tend to use my phone via Bluetooth for my music. We have another car with SiriusXM and I use that subscription on the app on my phone to stream. I get lots of sports and news as well as music.

 

[DrMrEd]

I play music from an ssd (formatted ext4), and the music always resumes after a power cycle. The odd times it doesn't - some 1 out of 20 times or so - get out of the car, close door, get back in car - it now resumes where you left off.

Can anyone else help confirm the formatting may make a difference? My SSD is typical (I think) with 2 partitions - one for DashCam, other for music, both formatted FAT32. But like @holmgang this setup never remembers what was playing.

 

[sduck]

I honestly don't know if the format makes a difference, except for the initial loading time - it probably doesn't. There are some other factors that probably make more of a difference that i should have mentioned earlier - only one partition, and I plug it directly into the right front usb port, not via a hub. Technically the 2 usb ports are part of a hub, but at least this cuts down on the number of things that might be interfering with the music streaming, as it seems tesla doesn't use any kind of buffering, or at least not enough. I was having all the usual problems with the car not remembering where it was, but I tried this with one of the newer software upgrades, and it started working. There may be power draw issues also - but i also have another ssd for dashcam stuff, and a nomad wireless charger for phones plugged into the other usb port via a small hub, and it all works together.

 

[QS01]

Slacker has been fairly descent for me. I did pay for the mid tier slacker subscription (which was like $30 for a year) mainly because I wanted to be able to access what I thumb up/down. With the built in Tesla slacker service you have no access to the actually account it uses.

as mentioned earlier if you tell it to play an artist it does a good job of creating a station around them. I’ve been doing this and then rating songs. Get enough of your stuff rated — then the “favorites” radio starts to work really well playing a large number of your rated songs along with some random suggestions that are pretty good.
Past that... I’m holding out hoping for the addition of Apple Music!