MTB and listening to tunes

I've been riding the trail system near our house.  It's pretty big, and while it gets plenty of use, I'd say 95% of the time there is no one within earshot.

This weekend I included tunes. I love it, but it's rude to play my music outloud and I want to fix that.

What I've been doing is rudimentary and far from ideal.  Go to YouTube find a nice long tune I want to listen to (usually Miles Davis or something not too invasive) hit play and drop the phone in my chest pocket, listening to the muffled sound.

There's a lot wrong with this system beyond the fact that it's not private.  The free version of YouTube will not allow you to lock your phone, so often the rubbing of the phone against the pocket just stops the tunes.  The Premium version fixes that but it's $12 a month.

I need a better set up with ear buds and some kinds of music that I can play from my phone. I rather not buy another device or carry two devices. Data usage is not an issue.

What is the hot setup for streaming music and listening with earplug attached to my droid?

Advice welcome.

Pandora + One good bud

Have you heard of this thing called Spotify. The kids can’t live without it I hear

Harv thanks for not being that guy..I can't tell you how many time someone is riding with speaker in their back pack..

MC bud suggestion looks cool... i personally can't ride with music , too distracting and would hate to loose my airpods..

Any wireless ear buds will do.  I have a pair that are so old I don't remember their name.  Don't you get free ones with your apple phones now?   Pandora....and if you really want to grove tune into the sublime channel.  

JasonWx wrote

..
MC bud suggestion looks cool... i personally can't ride with music , too distracting and would hate to loose my airpods..

I hate riding with music, too. I like the sounds of being in nature.

Maybe I'll get sick of it.  My ride right now is about 2 miles of single track, another two miles through a park, and the maybe 6 miles on gravel. I don't push it on the single track or in the park (too many people). I find on the gravel if I have some upbeat music I get more exercise by riding faster.

Also FWIW I am not talking about riding with a boom box, it's a cell phone in my pocket. I'd bet you have to be within 20 feet of me to hear it at all. But there are times in the park when I ride super slow to give people the room to keep distance, so I could be within 20 feet for a while. I've been switching it on and off, and with the free version of YouTube it's a PITA.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

Pandora + One good bud

This looks like a good solution.

What is the difference between pandora and spotify?

Harvey wrote

MC2 5678F589 wrote

Pandora + One good bud

This looks like a good solution.

What is the difference between pandora and spotify?

Spotify > Pandora

I switched about 4 years ago, so can’t speak for current Pandora.  But at the time Spotify  had much more selection and much better algorithm for finding things that my earholes enjoy.

I don't ski with music and I don't ride with it either.

witch hobble wrote

Harvey wrote

MC2 5678F589 wrote

Pandora + One good bud

This looks like a good solution.

What is the difference between pandora and spotify?

Spotify > Pandora

I switched about 4 years ago, so can’t speak for current Pandora.  But at the time Spotify  had much more selection and much better algorithm for finding things that my earholes enjoy.

Agreed.  In this regard MC and I may be alike....I started using Pandora first, it always plays a mix of music I like on the channels I listen to, and I’m too lazy to think about changing.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it...and Pandora works ok for me.  It’s like listening to a great radio station tailored to my favorite kinds of music.

However, my teenage and early 20s kids laugh at me when I use it.  

Pandora is kind of yesterday, and not nearly as mature and user friendly as Spotify.  Spotify allows you to listen to individual songs/artists.  As witch mentioned, the algorithms for finding  new music (based on artists you’ve listened to) are much better.  There’s exclusive content and events.  It’s just better.

What's the pricing like?

When I google it I get $9.99 per month for both.

I have no clue (I’m terrible, I can admit it).  The kids wanted it and I upgraded the account to Premium to allow multiple users.  I can’t use the cost excuse (Pandora’s definitely cheaper!) for not switching....I’m just a lazy, unsophisticated user.

Ha!  Try using the free version of YouTube and you'll see what unsophisticated is all about!

I ended up migrating to spotify but really miss the pandora feature of shuffling a a few artists

no external music for skiing or riding for me but there's always a tune on the mindpod

Yea skiing I don't think I'll ever go there. I've already got too much technology going blogging, with my camera and phone.

This thread is probably misnamed, while I'm on my mountain bike only about 25% of my ride probably classifies, and I don't listen on that stretch. The rest is really gravel grinding.

I use the free Pandora. Every other song there is a commercial.  I could just open serious/xm but I think Pandora plays better music on my own channel.

I’m too lazy to make playlists, which is another major advantage of Spotify.

Still running on YouTube, bought this thing that clips my phone to the handlebars.

No shit, riding with tunes take 20 minutes off my ride time. 1:20 > 1 hour.

Was late tonight barely got home before dark.

tjf1967 wrote

I use the free Pandora. Every other song there is a commercial.  I could just open serious/xm but I think Pandora plays better music on my own channel.

I used to use the Free Pandora, but as you said, not only does it have lots of commercials, I found that the playlists were relatively small and they replayed lots of songs.  I'm Sirius now or I'm still such a dinosaur that I have gigs of music on my computer and phone and just make playlists out of that.

With all of that said, I don't listen to tunes when biking or skiing and don't foresee that I ever will.