we find good deals for you!
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 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”.
Wednesday July 22 in 2020 is another “headphone day” in the various online retailer daily deals as follows:
+ Apple AirPods PRO WITH Apple Care+ kit bundled together for $239 at B&H Photo
+ the Best Buy dailies have a trio of related items as follows:
Not to be outdone, Woot is having a Random Tech Sale that includes the following trio of head-audio products:
And finally at the NewEGG dailies they have Plantronics BackBeat GO 600 bluetooth over-ears for the very good price for $27…
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].
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 🙂
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!
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…
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…
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.
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 🙂
More details via Tech Crunch et al…
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…
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.
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.
This recurring coupon expired but it returns every few days/weeks…
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.
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.
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.
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.
This Labor Day 2017 promotion expired…
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.
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.
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!
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 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).
If you like to buy music or music apps or sign-up for music subscription services through Google Play, CVS brick and mortar stores are running a Google PLAY gift card promotion until the end of day on Saturday 5/27/17. You buy a $50 Google Play gift card, and the cash register will spit out a $10 CVS Extra Bucks rewards. This is store credit that you can spend in future purchases at CVS. It has to get spent in one transaction, so you must be willing to make a $10+ purchase there in the future.
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.
If you are an existing Google Play All Access Music subscription member, or you plan to start the service, or you like to buy music from Google Play, AND if you happen to be a paying Costco member, for a limited time, you can get a $100 GooglePLAY gift card for $83. That’s 17% off. The percentage is slightly smaller than the occasional Rite Aid offers, but you don’t have to deal with Plenti rewards. You just pay the discounted price and that’s it.
PS: in recent months, Google made it so you can pay for your monthly music subscription using your existing gift card balance on your Google account. So by buying this gift card, you are essentially getting 17% off your music subscription service!
This T-Mobile Tuesday promotion expired…
This promotion expired, but it’s a sign of how Amazon is planning to aggressively promote their Music Subscription service… I am guessing similar offers (at least in spirit) to this will appear in the future…
The default price for full-service music subscription services is $10 per month, but sometimes there are prepaid promotions, such as this one, PayPal Digital Gifts (a PayPal e-gift card eBay store) is offering 12-months of Apple Music for $99, prepaid upfront. This is savings of $21 when paying monthly, according to the calculator a 17.5% discount. In addition to the usual assortment of Apple options (iOS, iTunes Mac or PC, Apple TV, etc), you can also use the Google Play Apple Music app for it. It is also compatible with the iTunes Match service.
NOTE: if you qualify for student discounts, you can get a $5 per month subscription, which handily defeats $99 per year.
One more music subscription service has rolled out today, it is the Amazon Unlimited music subscription that is a full service like Spotify and Apple and Google Play Unlimited. You pay $10 per month if you are not a Prime member and $8 per month if you are a Prime member. You can cancel at any time. It just launched today and you can start a 30-Day Free Trial.
A family plan for $15 per month that includes up to six people for that one monthly price will be coming soon. Prepaid options are also coming if you are willing to prepay for 1-year ahead of time
This new service is different and should not be confused with the Prime Music service that is automatically included with a Prime membership. This will continue as it is. The Prime Music only includes a subset of what a typical music subscription service. In Amazon terms, this has 2+ million tracks, while the for-pay Unlimited service has 10+ million tracks.
Regardless of Prime membership status, Amazon’s Music apps also automatically (and retroactively) include MP3 versions of music CDs or vinyl LPs you purchased from Amazon through the years. Eligibility for this is two-fold: 1) the musician/publisher must be participating in Amazon’s “Auto RIP” program, and, 2) you must have purchased it from Amazon actual (not marketplace sellers), and in new condition.
If you are Pandora-curious (double pun intended!), you can open the box at Groupon Goods where, for a limited time, they are offering a free 2-month subscription to the Pandora One subscription service (no ads) for FREE! You can get one for yourself and three additional as gifts for others.
PS: after the 2-month trial, this automatically converts to the $5/month plan regular price, so be sure to cancel if you don’t like it or upgrade to the annual plan to save on the monthly fees if you like it.
PS2: note that Pandora One is a radio service, not a proper streaming service like Rhapsody (ha!) or Tidal or Spotify or Google Play Music All Access.
PS3: I still have nightmares, helplessly trying to sync the Rhapsody music subscription Windows Client with the Sandisk Clip Plus mp3 players 🙂
Now that the monthly Google Play Music subscription service can be paid with Gift Card balance (you no longer need to pay it with a credit card if you have a gift card balance that covers the monthly subscription fee), this deal became a lot better!
To take advantage of this, you have to be a member of the AMEX-powered Plenti rewards program. The offer is at RiteAid stores. You buy a $25 Google Play gift card (the plastic kind), and you get 600 points. 600 points are the equivalent of $6 in future purchases at RiteAid and other participating retailers. This is a limit two promotion for the week of 7/31/16 AM until 8/6/16 PM.
These offers return every few months at RiteAid, so you can use them to stock up in credit and have a regular discount on your monthly subscription fee. If you are on the $10/month plan, this offer gets you five months of service. If you are on the $15/month family plan, that’s three months with some change left.
If you are a Google Play All Access Music service monthly subscriber, there is some good news! You can now use your Google Play account balance to pay for the subscription, you don’t have to use a credit card. I just noticed this today while I was shuffling through the settings in the Android app. I switched it there, and also double-checked with a Web Browser on a computer and indeed the option is there as well!
Here’s how it looks on the computer Web Browser (it’s a very tight screenshot because I don’t want to include the credit card numbers):
Stacksocial is offering a six month subscription block for the Pandora One music service for $24 total. So that comes out to $4 per month. Offer is good for new customers and new free-tier customers.
If you are interested in having a music subscription service but don’t want to pay the $10/month fee (or higher for the new higher-res audiophile streaming services), and you don’t want to deal with radio-style services that make it a pain to listen to full albums, there is an alternative. Microsoft! Their Xbox Music service is available as a 12-month prepaid option by various 100% eBay sellers for $54 to $60. These are either plastic gift cards sent to you by mail or digital codes delivered by email. Some of the listings also have Best Offer enabled, so you may be able to negotiate a slightly lower price.
The Xbox Music service has iOS and Android apps in addition to Windows Metro and Windows Phone apps. However, they don’t have currently have a Kindle Fire app.
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