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The iPhone has completely replaced traditional radio in my car. It automatically connects to the bluetooth when I get in and all my content comes through with good quality on the car speakers. No more of that FM transmitter static. I spend a lot of my day in the car and I almost never feel the need to switch to regular radio or Sirius if I still had it.

I rarely use iTunes Radio but I use a Spotify premium subscription all the time. They have a free option on smartphones but the $10 premium subscription is well worth it to me. The premium option well let me listen to any album or song in their library any time I want with no commercials. I can save any of my playlists or individual albums to my device for offline listening so I don't have dropouts or data cap issues. I just pick which albums and playlists I want saved on the device and it automatically syncs the next time I connect to WiFi.

They have separate quality selectors so I can save their "extreme" quality 320kbps files to my phone for offline listening but use their "high" quality 160kbps streams if I'm listening to new stuff while driving. I could also use 96kbps or 320kbps streams while driving but I feel that 160kbps is a good sweet spot between quality and data use and it still sounds better than FM or Sirius.

The free version is probably sufficient for most people but if you are looking to replace a SiriusXM subscription premium is probably a better choice. Their are some disadvantages to the free version. First is no offline listening. I drive a lot and streaming audio all the time would quickly eat into my Verizon data plan. I also occasionally drive into areas with weak cell coverage and I run on a rural dirt road. When I was using the free version I would get annoying audio dropouts when I didn't have good coverage. Syncing my playlists fixes that problem and you need premium to do that.

Second is control. If you use the free version you can still pick your own playlists and albums in addition to their pandora style custom radio channels. The difference between free and premium is that in free I can listen to an album from start to finish if I want. Free only lets you shuffle play all the time. Free users can still listen to that brand new album on day one but not in the order it's meant to be heard.

Next is ads. That isn't a huge deal to me because they tend to only play one 30 second ad every 4 or 5 songs but I'm happy to be ad free with my premium account. The other big difference is that the free version only works on smartphones and computers. If you want to use Spotify on other devices in your home like Rokus and game consoles you need premium. I use the built in Spotify app on my Onkyo AVR when I have people over so premium is a must for me.

I encourage people who are still subscribing to SirusXM to sign up for a premium Spotify 30 day trial. I think you will find that it's a much better way to listen to music than SirusXM with their DJs and commercials.

Not sure about how Smart phones are packaged in the US, but in Canada...competition is frawned upon.

Unless am mistaken, the best data package is 6gb. Email, casual surfing and streaming music to the car would definetely blow the cap.

Kraven said:

Not sure about how Smart phones are packaged in the US, but in Canada...competition is frawned upon.

Unless am mistaken, the best data package is 6gb. Email, casual surfing and streaming music to the car would definetely blow the cap.

Click to expand...

That's why I suggested the Spotify premium subscription for $10. It lets you save your playlists and individual albums to your device for offline listening. I have about 10GB of Spotify music saved on my iPhone. If I add songs to something like my "starred from Spotify Radio" playlist while I'm on the go it will automatically download them next time I connect to WiFi. Any time those songs play, either from my playlists or from Pandora style Spotify radio, it plays from internal storage instead of streaming.

I only have 2GB of data from Verizon on my iPhone. I connect to WiFi at home and the office. My podcast talk shows and most of my Spotify music is downloaded over WiFi. Even with only 2GB of data I never go over my limit and like I said, the iPhone is constantly playing something when I get in the car.

king3pj said:

The iPhone has completely replaced traditional radio in my car. It automatically connects to the bluetooth when I get in and all my content comes through with good quality on the car speakers. No more of that FM transmitter static. I spend a lot of my day in the car and I almost never feel the need to switch to regular radio or Sirius if I still had it.

Click to expand...

Does your car display the track info properly via bluetooth streaming? (My Chrysler 300 doesn't.)

And for the record, I have never heard static on FM.

TheKrell said:

Does your car display the track info properly via bluetooth streaming? (My Chrysler 300 doesn't.)

And for the record, I have never heard static on FM.

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Yes it does. It works with Spotify's track info too. It shows the name of the song, artist, and album. The static I was referring to is from the FM transmitter I was using to play my iPhone in the car before bluetooth. When I drive out of the city I live in the channel I was using might be occupied by an actual FM channel in the next city. Static might not be the best word. Interference is what the problem really is.

Kraven said:

Not sure about how Smart phones are packaged in the US, but in Canada...competition is frawned upon.

Unless am mistaken, the best data package is 6gb. Email, casual surfing and streaming music to the car would definetely blow the cap.

Click to expand...

They don't have a consumer-friendly carrier like T-mobile with unlimited data?