When Rdio is gone there's going to be a huge hole in my life that needs filled with good design and experience browsing my music. iTunes is a shitshow. Spotify is ugly. Pandora is radio. It's all rubbish.
The Winamp revival cannot come soon enough.
They also have a decent "blogged 50" playlist which is recent/modern music.
Other than that, I mostly listen to kexp.org for a good mix of music. Sometimes for radio you can't beat the radio.
The on-demand services are more like a replacement for album/track purchases but I've found that bookmarking 10 or 20 favorite Shoutcast stations in anything from Winamp to VLC to any other desktop or mobile app that supports streaming mp3 is like having the best, human-programmed radio dial ever.
Even back in the early 2000's when I was stuck on 128k/sec cellular data I would hook my Treo up to the car stereo and stream 96kbps music when everyone else was paying for XM. Then with the move to third-gen data networks I got the bump to 800k/sec and streaming much nicer 128k-192k stuff was simple. Sound didn't beat a CD but it was better than satellite radio's compressed streams a lot of the time.
Even today, I usually listen to KEXP's stream or Devil's Night Radio or something from SomaFM before dicking around on Spotify or Youtube. There's just something to be said for finding stations that are programmed and run by people with a knowledge and love of music that you also may enjoy. Noticing themes or trends in strings of songs always puts a smile on my face in a way that Pandora or Spotify just never will.
Although I am an "edge case," this really punishes the hobbyist.
I'm at my wit's end. I liked the subscription service but now I've got to cancel and go to Apple Music.
Having to call support and beg once the 4-device limit and explain the rational (OCD and tweaking devices to get them "just right") is just "ugh."
The Apple iTunes PC/Mac 5-devices (de-auth any time from that device an unlimited number of times) with a 1-time yearly self device-reset is more reasonable.
I want to view my tracs as they are in my folder. The only app I've found that can manage this is "Folder Player" but I have the feeling it's huge.
That's one reason I never really took to iTunes. I just keep my music on my computer (and occasionally on my phone) in folders with the structure Music\Artist\Album\(tracks). Then when I want to play something, I can either sort albums or artists or I can just point it at the folder I want it to read so it only shows what's in that folder (good for folders that I might make with various tracks from multiple albums).
Basically I'm a throwback and I just want everything to be Winamp I think.
I feel with you. It Really Whips the Llama's Ass.
Which platform? I've heard this criticism before but I don't understand it.
I use the service on Android, OS X, Windows, and Ubuntu...and while it may not be 100% beautiful throughout, I think it manages to balance decent aesthetics with decent UX better than most mainstream apps out there.
Is this what you want? http://spotiamb.com/