I’ve been using Deezer for the last few years, and its (mostly) great

Have used Spotify in the past, then went to google Play Music, then tried YouTube Music for three frustrating months before coming to Deezer.

Deezer pluses;

Absolutely awesome range, more music from more artists than any other service I’ve tried, and very little missing. They have every Johnny Cash album bar one, pretty impressive. Their Country and Western catalogue is unparalleled

Although you can only download onto three devices, you have unlimited downloads on each one, as opposed to Spotify which limits you to just 50,000 tracks. I blew past that on my phone in three weeks. I cant see myself needing to download into more than three devices

Good stable Android app, better even than Spotify, as good as GPM, and far far better than YTM. It isnt perfect, can be a little slow to load playlists sometimes, but I have only had to shut it down and restart it 2-3 times in almost a year of use. YTM had to be restarted 2-3 times a day, the Android app fell over more often than a drunk after happy hour.

Great sound quality on mobile and web, I really cant fault it

Good simple web interface too, and I can edit playlists and tracks fairly easily

Good value for money - cheaper and better than the rest

Apparently pays artists better

Deezer minuses;

Android app playlists only have a shuffle play button, and there is no way to change this to regular linear play in settings, even for Premium users, or disable shuffle across the app. This is the biggest flaw by far, and it is shared with Spotify. It is the only aspect of YTM that is superior

The MP3 upload feature is a bit clunky and not terribly intuitive, and limited to only 2000 tracks. However this really doesnt matter as I havent needed to upload much music at all as practically everything I want is available on Deezer anyway

Editing big playlists on the web interface can be a sluggish and buggy, especially moving around large blocks of tracks. Was a bit frustrating when I needed to edit playlists I’d moved across from YTM, I found that often it was easier to just delete almost all the tracks and rebuild from scratch. Now all my playlists are cleaned up it isnt a major - building new playlists works fine

You need to favourite a lot of artists and/or tracks to get the automated recommendations after a playlist finishes to work properly (as opposed to Flow which just works off one artist). Artist exclusions dont seem to work, but now I have favourited 190 artists that doesnt seem to be an issue now. Minor glitch though

I can barely manage just the one. I dont know how people can juggle multiple accounts. I would get so confused

This SO much. I was involved some years ago with a non profit, run by a guy with significant personal wealth. He burnt through nearly a million bucks, and did manage to get some change to happen , but it was incredibly difficult and incredibly slow, even with the backing and support of a number of other wealthy and connected individuals plus mass public support as well.

I will still look for a jack on my next phone, current Samsung has one, will likely buy another so I will probably buy top of their entry range

Now this… this is seriously strange. Strongest contender so far. Their track “Subways” is also quite something

Workplaces were the worst, I kept catching other people’s second hand smoke at work. Worst was when I went to an encounter group type thing and a guy was smoking and I got a faceful… and bronchitis for the rest of the trip. And that was in the 90’s

At least in my own home and car I could set the rules and rules was take that shit outside

Immortality or at least a usefully extended lifespan

So much I want to do!

Busted in Baylor County by Shooter Jennings, found this through the good graces of Deezer last year, just loved it on first hearing and still do

Sheriff of Boone County by Kenny Price, first found this gem on a country compilation CD I got in the 80’s used to play this on repeat around the same time my first boyfriend was playing Madonna’s Vogue on repeat, that sure made for some interesting sessions at the stereo. Lost that CD and later found the track online via a user at a reddit country music sub who posted it, I couldnt remember the name for the life of me until he posted it

An AI that can turn YouTube videos into written articles? Take My Money! I have been wanting this for a long time, I far far prefer stuff in writing to videos, I dont take information from audio/video anything like as well

Same here. Whatever I have now is more than good enough. What I had before was good enough too

My last phone upgrade was about four years ago (Nokia 6 to Samsung A31) and that was only to try and get YouTube Music’s shitty app to work properly (spoiler : it didnt). Broke the screen on it dropping it while trying to put a mask on, got that fixed (that was over two years ago). Its still going, and will keep it until it dies

I dont upgrade my phone because I’m interested in upgrading, I upgrade when I have to

Yes, a few times. Didnt make the slightest difference though, it almost never does. Such is life. Still, at least others viewing the discussion who were on the fence/ unsure will have been presented with the evidence needed to convince them

OmiGod yes, I’ve had this a few times. Pointing out facts, supported with a bunch of links to studies. Or even just pointing out the patently obvious - if it goes against the groupthink in a particular thread or community, it’ll get downvoted, here and on reddit too

Most downvotes I’ve had here was for pointing out that shoplifting results in increased prices for the paying customers

I would most definitely want to know if my friends were close with people who’d been in prison! My previous experience with people like that were… not great

Especially if the depression/ anxiety has an external cause (job, living situation, money, relationship issues etc etc). Exercie may help manage it a bit but the only cure is to deal with the cause

I started swimming while I was in the depth of depression (induced by external factors) and yes it did help manage the depression, but didnt solve it. What solved it was leaving my alcoholic ex and getting control back over my life.

I have continued swimming and I also do a lot of cycling as well as some hiking/tramping and the ocassional bit of mountain climbing, and they do help with managing stress and mental health but they are no longer the primary reason I do them. The health benefits I get from exercise are mostly physical but those benefits also play into making me feel better about life too.

Not in my experience there. It the only place I have ever been where you can be in a gas station/ convenience store late on a Saturday night in a less than flash area, and see a guy rock up dressed like Liberace and do his shopping and flounce off without anyone even batting an eyelid let alone commenting. You wouldnt try that here. Yes, there is a degree of conformity enforced there around behaviour by social pressure, but in other places it is by violence

It depends on who you work for and what industry you’re in, but it is not as bad as it used to be. Have friends that worked in Japan

I’m from New Zealand, and although it does have much to recommend it, it does have some issues with crime, gangs, meth etc. similar to other Western countries. Nowhere near as bad as South Africa or a number of US cities, but not great either. There are more peaceful places believe it or not

I treat all the tech I own as tools or appliances, their aesthetics are of little interest to me, they are not status symbols, just a means to an end. So I look for the thing that will do the best job reliably at a reasonable cost, and keep doing so for years. I have a laptop that must be getting on for 8 years old, a phone in its fourth year. I use them until they wear out or become too difficult to use - my phone has several cracks on the screen, a few trim bits have fallen off my laptop, making it even lighter, and one of the USB ports has died. The TV in the lounge os over ten years old, the stereo dates from the late 90’s.

I dont change anything until I have to - once I have something that just works I work it to death. I dont care about the whole Linux vs Windows thing, nor the IoS vs Android thing, its all about function and value for money. When it comes time to replace something I never buy the best, or the cheapest either, but something somewhere in the middle, good enough to do work fast but not the flagship product either.

TLDR Its just a tool, treat it as one