8tracks

I have re-entered the streaming music scene. I have come to the conclusion that you still need to own music that you want to have available to you "forever". Streaming music sites like Google Play Music and Apple Music don't have everything you want and (as I discovered to my horror) their collections change over time. Apple Music and its lack of transparency with my purchased collection in iTunes was particularly annoying. I have gone to managing my own music in iTunes and using Google Play Music service to sample new things to see if I am interested enough to buy them.

None of that gives me the ability to share playlists with my friends, except by burning a CD for them (very old fashioned!). My daughter put me on to the streaming service, 8tracks, which fills this gap. You upload your own music in playlists that are available for others to play from their server. There are some restrictions on what you can upload but I haven't hit any yet (for example, they prevent you from having too many tracks from any one album or any recording artist on a playlist). It seems like they are keeping it legal and so may stand the test of time. You don't get to see what is on the playlist before you start - it just shows you one song at a time. I don't know what the quality of the playlists on 8tracks is yet as a way to find good new music, but the sharing with your friends aspect seems good.

I have one playlist up now if you want to check it out. Unlike the other things I am using, the free version seems quite useable: https://8tracks.com/brian-wetton