FREE 3-month Pandora Premium (Groupon)

Thanks to Groupon, you can grab a FREE 3-month Pandora Premium music subscription thanks to this Groupon promotion. The Premium is their full service subscription tier, and the only one a true music fan should have!

I’m saying this because they also have a Plus tier that is ad-free but limited in what/how you can listen. Just say NO to this halfway subscriptions!

Amazon Prime Music now includes ALL music (in shuffle mode) Ad-Free

Amazon tries once again to make inroads in the world of streaming music services. For Prime members only, they have announced an upgrade, now with the included “Prime Music” service (included in the Prime membership) you can list Ad-FREE to all 100+ million songs in their database, in Shuffle mode, or in select “All Access” playlists. You can also listen to some of the top podcasts ad-free.

When it came out a few years ago, “Prime Music” only offered a selection of about 2 million songs.

So why even pay for the for-pay “Music Unlimited” tier if you are a Prime member? Well, with that you get on-demand music playback (meaning you can play individual songs and albums in order), you get HD music, offline listening, unlimited skips, etc.

PS: if you are not a Prime member, and not signed-up for the for-pay music plan, you can still listen to music for free, but it is with ads and it is more limited than the “Prime Music”.

Friday: Digital Content Offers: Pandora and Apple

Merry Christmas with a gift card sale at Best Buy with an audio component!

First up there’s a Pandora 12-month subscription sale offering two options:

+ 12-months of prepaid Pandora Plus for $40 for the 1st year
+ auto-renews at $55 per year unless cancelled

+ 12-months of prepaid Pandora Premium for $60 for the 1st year
+ auto-renews at $110 per year unless cancelled

And then for the Apple fans, you can buy an online $100 Apple For Everything Card and receive as a Santa gift bonus a $20 promotional Best Buy online gift card.

The “Apple for Everything” gift card can be used on everything sold by Apple, physical goods (iPods, iPhones, accessories including headphones, etc) or digital goods (iTunes, Apple Music, iCloud, etc). Check the product page over there for all the ways you can spend it πŸ™‚

The above offers are good for December 25 in 2020, aka Christmas Day!

Friday: 1-Year TIDAL subscription for $80 [and more]

Best Buy strikes again with their Friday 7/3/20 daily deals with a 1-year TIDAL digital music subscription offered for $80. That’s for the first year. Future years will automatically renew at the future full price of the subscription… Also part of today’s daily deals are the closed-back Insignia [house brand name] bluetooth over-ears going for $23…

Meanwhile at Woot Sellout they have the refurbished ChromeCast Ultra 4K going for $50 with a 90-day Woot warranty…

And for those shopping in the EU, Amazon Germany has a couple of bluetooth Sennheiser Momentum in-ears going from 79 to 95 euro. One is necklace-style [all the cable is loose, hangs in front of you like a …necklace], the other is neckband-style [part of the cable is solid].

Thursday: FREE 3-Month Trial of Amazon’s Music Subscription

The leading Amazon deal of the day for Thursday 4/2/20 is a FREE 3-month trial of Amazon’s music subscription service. Note that this will automatically convert to a paying subscription at the end of the three months, so if you don’t want to pay, make sure you leave a note in your calendar to cancel. Cancelling is easy, you can do it online with a few clicks…

Personally I’m more inclined to support the smaller / more-independent companies, so a few months ago I moved from Google’s subscription (I was in with the inaugural $8/month plan) to Spotify.

PS: until Microsoft buys Spotify and turns it into Zune-Groove πŸ™‚

Free 3-month Spotify Premium trial

IF you want to try the premium Spotify experience, for a limited time, Spotify is offering a FREE 3-Month Premium trial. During these 90 days you get all the benefits of a premium (aka paying) member, with offline downloads, no ads, and so on.

Given that these days most of the major music streaming providers are mega-corps (Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft on-and-off), it may not be a bad idea to support the independent player in the field ~ if nothing else to keep the big boys in check.

That’s what I did, I went from Google Play (and I was in on the launch-time $8/month rate) to Spotify Premium. Neither service is perfect, if one could take the best features of each and blend them together, that would be GREAT!

Pay 99c, Get 4 Months of Amazon Music Subscription

If you want to give Amazon’s for-pay music subscription service a longer running test, for a limited time they are offering a 4-month trial for just 99c total for the duration of the trial. After that it will auto-converted to a $10/month paying subscription unless you manually cancel or adjust it…

If you are a Prime, you would pay $8 per month instead of $10, a nice benefit of the Prime subscription since Google is no longer offering $8/mo music subscriptions (they had offered them back when they got started as a way to attract people)…

PS: in case you haven’t heard, Amazon has also launched an HD Music Streaming service that goes for $15 per month (or $13/mo for Prime members) or $20/month for the Family plan. This only gets a 30-day free trial, it is not participating in the 4-month 99c promotion…

PS2: the above offers are for new subscribers or previous subscribers that had been gone long enough for the Amazon systems to treat as new subscribers. The only way to find out if you are eligible as a re-subscriber is to press the buttons and see what their computer server tells you…

Prime only: Four Months of Music Unlimited for 99 cents total

If you are an Amazon Prime member and curious about their for-pay music-streaming service, for a limited time they are offering a Four Month Subscription for $0.99 total for these four months. After those months expire, it will auto-convert to their $10/month subscription rate unless you manually cancel or change your subscription.

This is especially of interest if you have already purchased digital music from Amazon (directly, or got it as a free mp3 album with the purchase of qualifying music CDs) because you can have both your cloud-streaming and your digitally-owned music available in a single app…

I do not know when the offer expires. You have to be logged on with a Prime member account to see the offer ~ otherwise you will see their “default” offer…

Three Month Free Trial of YouTube Music Premium

Skullcandy is offering its VIP fans a three month free trial of the new YouTube Music Premium service. After the first three months, your account will be charged unless you manually cancel it. This offer is only available to new users of the service, ones who did not previously used a trial or had been a member. If so, you may be offered a 1-month free trial or no free trial at all.

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Limited time: free Hulu with Ads with New or Existing Spotify Premium

If you are an existing Spotify Premium member or plan to start a new premium subscription in the near future [corrected from: “new feature”], Spotify x Hulu are running a new limited time promotion. During this promotion, you get Hulu with Ads included in the same price of $10 per month. From the looks of it, this offer is currently available only in the US.

The good news is that the offer is not only available to new subscribers, BUT it is only available to existing subscribers. You can activate it in your account/services settings.

This is a limited time offer to sign-up for with a hard deadline but there’s also the goofy “while supplies last” which physical-goods ad/marketing people just can’t part with even when they are working with strictly digital services πŸ™‚

More details via Tech Crunch et al…

Free 125 Starbucks Stars with 3-month Spotify Premium for $0.99 per month

If you are participating in the Starbucks Rewards program and you are Spotify Premium curious, they are running a new promotion between June 5-14 in 2018. If you sign up for a Spotify Premium 3-month trial for $0.99 per month for the duration of the three month trial, you will receive 125 Bonus Stars in Starbucks Rewards, which are worth almost any item in their stores, including the new $9.45 salads or the largest drinks with all the mix-ins of your choice.

After the 3-month trial, your Spotify Premium subscription will be $15/month unless you cancel it manually.

Check the email account registered to your Starbucks Rewards account with a link and details on how to redeem the offer…

FREE 3-Month Pandora Premium Subscription

For a limited time, Groupon is offering a FREE 3-Month Pandora Premium subscription! This is the full service music service, not just the more famous Pandora “radio”. You have no ads, unlimited skips, offline playback, playlists, etc.

FREE app: Ultimate Guitar: Chords and Tabs

The “Ultimate Guitar: Chords and Tabs” is currently free on iTunes and also at Google Play. It typically goes for $4. It has lots of free content with additional content via in-app purchases. It also has ads.

FREE 3-Month TIDAL Music Subscription [new customers]

For new customers only, Groupon is offering a FREE 3-Month TIDAL Music Subscription. After the three months expire, you will be automatically converted to the $10/month service. This is the standard service, not the higher-resolution “HiFi” service.

Speaking of music apps, free for a limited time is the “pro” version of the “RadioApp PRO” by Tal Shrestha on iTunes. You need an iOS device or Windows running iTunes to get it. If you get it from Windows, you don’t even need to have an actual Apple device to grab it for future use.

PSA: Amazon deleting user-uploaded mp3s on 4/30/18, but you can keep them by pressing a button

Amazon will be deleting the user uploaded mp3s from your Amazon Music account on 4/30/18, but if you want to keep them, you have to take action before the deadline. All you have to do is press a button. I just posted a step by step guide if you are not sure what needs to be done.

[DEAD] 6mo prepaid Slacker Radio Plus for $9.60 after coupon

This recurring coupon expired but it returns every few days/weeks…

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Humble Bundle Magix Audio Software (PWYW)

Humble Bundle has launched a music theme offer, it is a MAGIX Audio/Music software pay what you want (PWYW) promotion. Donations of $1 or more get you three software titles (MP3 Deluxe 19, Music Maker EDM, Deeper Shades of House). Beating the (current) average of $17.42 gets you three more titles (Music Studio, Audio Studio, Cleaning Lab), while donations of $20 get you one more title, ACID PRO. Going to the last tier, donations of $30+ get you two more (SoundForge PRO and Samplitude Pro X2).

So a donation of $30+ gets you a total of nine audio software titles (all of the ones mentioned above).

This promotion runs until March 20 in 2018. Details and such over there…

Two FREE Premium Android Music players

For a limited time, the Google Play store is offering these two for-pay music player apps for FREE! These are the pro versions without the ads. As long as you get them or install them before the free promotion ends, they are yours to keep without the ads.

They are the Elite Music PRO player by Bugga software with over 10,000 downloads, and the OneAmp PRO from the same company with similar download numbers.

Speaking of music, the Scale Logic app by Daliance is also free for a limited time. Move over pink and white noise, here comes the major and minor scale burn-in party πŸ™‚

FREE 3-Month Pandora Premium subscription

For a limited time, Groupon is offering FREE three month Pandora Premium music subscriptions. Premium is a normal streaming service, not a radio service like their more famous Pandora Radio. It goes for $10/month like most other streaming services. The offer is good for new customers. Check terms/conditions there for more details.

FREE 3-Months of TIDAL Hifi Music Streaming [New Customers]

Groupon is offering 3 Month FREE Trials of TIDAL Hifi Music Streaming for FREE. You pick up the voucher for FREE at Groupon and redeem it at TIDAL to start your free 3-month trial. Limit one per person. The offer is good for new subscribers only. If you don’t cancel during the 3-month free trial, you will be charged $20/month for the Hifi plan.

FREE NRG Player Adblocker for a limited time [GPLAY]

For the Android music player fans, the Adblocker (ad remover) for the NRG Player is currently FREE for a limited time on Google Play. The price before this promotion was $5. This is the unlocker (ad remover). To play music, you also need to install the main NRG Player app.

Also free during this promotion is their Robo Skin and Car Skin.

FREE PowerAudio Pro Music Player (Google Play)

For a limited time only, Google Play is offering the otherwise not-free PowerAudio Pro Music Player for FREE. It goes for $0.99 typically.

Another music app, the PlayerPro Music Player is on sale for $2, instead of its usual price of $4.

PSA: download your Groove Music Purchases by 12/31/17

The ghost of Zune has killed Microsoft’s Groove. Or more realistically, Microsoft’s cascading failures πŸ™‚ Regardless, you have until December 31st in 2017 to download all your previously purchased Groove music to your own devices. There are reasonable chances some titles may not be available for download.

About 5% of the albums I had purchased were no longer available in Groove because of licensing issues (or some other nonsense), thus I could not download them. Another reason to “trust” cloud music e-stores! I don’t know what the steps are to recover the unavailable music or at least get a refund – or if there are any steps. Googling may have some answers but I haven’t bothered to do so yet πŸ™‚

If you have the “Groove Music Pass” subscription, they are co-operating with Spotify so you can transfer your playlists and such to the Spotify service. The deadline for this is January 31st in 2018. I believe they are offering refunds for prepaid subscriptions after 2017.

3 Months of Amazon Music Unlimited for 99c

Just like every major company it seems has or wants or wanted a TV service, everyone also has a music service. Amazon has a few of them. Their premium service is called Music Unlimited, and for a limited time, they are offering a 3 Month Prepaid Subscription for $1 total. If you don’t cancel before it expires, it will auto-convert to a paying subscription. Prime members pay $8/month for it, and non-Prime members pay $10 per month for it.

This is an individual plan and the offer is available for new subscribers only. This is a full service subscription you can use on various available devices and apps. It should not be confused with their “Echo Plan” which costs $4/month and can only be played on an Echo device. Or their oldest of all, their “Prime Music” which is a free music streaming service (2 million songs, a subset a full subscription) that is available for free to all paying Prime members.

[DEAD] FREE: Scale Logic ad-free app (Google Play)

This limited time offer expired…

If you are tired of frequency and white noise and pink noise testing, how about some scale testing? πŸ™‚ Good until Thursday night, you can get the ad-free version of the Scale Logic app for FREE on Google Play.

Microsoft Music Store and Groove Music Pass going away, Pro-Rated Refunds for 2018+ prepaid subscriptions

The ghost of Zune is taking its vengeance on Microsoft’s latest half-hearted attempt at a music streaming service. Their “Groove Pass” subscription service will end 12/31/17. Anyone with a prepaid subscription will receive a prorated refund for their 2018+ portion. Microsoft has partnered with Spotify to transition users and playlists over there.

But that’s not all. Also dying is Microsoft’s Music Store (part of the Windows/Microsoft store) which allows you to buy and download music. So if you have any music purchases there, it may be a good idea to start downloading before they disappear. They mention this more clearly in the FAQ:

“After December 31, 2017, music won’t be available for purchase or download in the Windows Store or for streaming in Groove.”

This is the official announcement and this is the official FAQ on the transition.

OneDrive will continue to be able to play music, and the Groove app in itself will continue to play local music files, but NOT any previous Microsoft music purchases or Groove Pass subscription downloads.

[DEAD] Pay $10, Get 7 Months of Microsoft Groove Music Subscription

This Labor Day 2017 promotion expired…

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Free 3-Months of Pandora Premium

The last few years, many music services have converged on offering full service subscription, including Amazon and Apple. Another that went that route is Pandora, with their Premium service. You can get a FREE 3-month subscription to the Pandora Premium service through Groupon. This is not valid for current subscribers. New subscribers only! Check terms/conditions over there.

4 Months Prepaid Amazon Music Unlimited for $0.99 total (new subscribers; Prime only)

Prime Day festivities officially begin July 10 at 9pm ET but Amazon has already began a slow steady drip of offers of their products and services. Launched as part of the “pregame show” is a 4-Month Prepaid Amazon Music Unlimited subscription for $0.99 total. You pay 99 cents once and you get four months of their full service music subscription service. This is good for New Subscribers to the service only. Prime members only!

Speaking of music subscription services, you can get a free 3-month Apple Music subscription through Groupon. Google Play Music is also offering similar promotions through the Google Play store and other avenues.

If you are on the Spotify free membership, check your emails for offers to go on a prepaid 3-month Premium subscription for 99c total.

20% off two-step discount on Google Play All Access Music subscription using Gift Cards

Google Play does not offer discounts on their All Access monthly music subscription service once your free trial ends, however, there is a way to get a discount on a regular basis if you take an additional step: buy Google Play gift cards at a discount.

Once upon a time it was hard to find Google PLAY gift cards at a discount but these days both Rite Aid and Walgreens are including them in their virtual 20% off promotions. For this week, good until the close of business on Saturday 6/24/17 at Rite Aid brick and mortar stores, you can get $5 back in Plenti rewards points when you purchase a $25 GooglePLAY gift card. Limit two per customer. You pay full price, but you get $5 to spend in future purchases (but not gift cards) at Rite Aid and other participating retailers (Macy’s, Exxon gas stations, etc).

So how exactly does that get you a discount on the music subscription service? Simple! Once you load up the gift card to your Google Play account, you can go to your Account settings and have your monthly music subscription get paid by your gift card balance. Once that is depleted, it will switch back to your default credit card. Or if you keep reloading gift cards, it will keep using the gift cards.

I’ve been doing this for many months now, and it works just like clockwork!

When you consider that YouTube RED is included with the Music subscription, that’s a good value. YouTube RED includes access to the YouTube Music app that allows you to play in the background, play audio-only videos, and of course avoid all ads!

Sprint Customers: SIX FREE Months of TIDAL HIFI music streaming service

If you are a current Sprint subscriber, or if you are planning to start new Sprint service, Sprint launched a brand new promotion, you get SIX FREE Months of TIDAL HIFI music streaming service. That’s the full high resolution service $20 per month subscription, FREE for six months.

New Sprint customers have 90 days (from starting Sprint service) to begin their free six month Tidal trial. Existing Sprint customers can sign up for it using the links at the above page. There are FAQs at the aforelinked page covering most of the questions.

AFTER the SIX MONTH FREE TRIAL ENDS

After the six months are over, AND if you don’t cancel beforehand, you will be automatically converted to the $10 per month Premium subscription. If you decide you like the HIFI service, you have to manually upgrade from Premium to HIFI. If you don’t like it and forgot to cancel beforehand, you can cancel at any time in the future. I’m assuming you won’t get a partial refund for the month in progress (but I could be wrong).

Music Subscriptions: $10 credit with new Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial

Amazon offers a 30-day free trial for its full service “Music Unlimited” music service. But for a limited time, they have a special promotion, enter coupon code MOREMUSIC get a $10 promotional credit added to your account. Essentially you are getting the second month FREE if you sign up for the standard $10/month plan.

I’m not sure what happens if you sign up for a Family plan. The coupon is good for first time subscribers only. This service should not be confused with the “Prime Music” service which is free for Prime members, or the dedicated music service for Echo devices which costs less and is more limited.

Coupon offer ends 5/31/17.

Free 3-month Apple Music (new members)

Groupon is currently offering a free three month Apple Music subscription for new customers only. If not cancelled during the free trial, the subscription will convert into a paying month to month. A credit card is needed to activate.

Free on Google Play: Ultimate Guitar Tabs & Chords (limited time)

The popular Ultimate Guitar Tabs & Chords app is FREE for a limited time at the Google Play store. This is a for-pay app that typically goes for $2.99. It has over 1 million installs. The app purchase price is $0 for a limited time. The in-app purchases are not free.

[DEAD] One month of Slacker Ad Free (TMobile Tuesdays)

This T-Mobile Tuesday promotion expired…

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