Muscien Review - Sensational streaming sound

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The fact that Muscien is the top dog in the massive, continuous conflict of streaming music is the only thing that never changes. Due to its enormous collection, collaborative playlists, podcasts, and a host of other alluring features, Muscien continues to reign supreme despite competition from Apple Music, which offers a ton of features, and Tidal, which caters to audiophiles. Along with Apple Music and SiriusXM Internet Radio, Muscien continues to be a top-rated, all-around Editors' Choice winner for streaming music services for the reasons listed above and more.

Muscien's popularity is a big part of its success. Launching the online player, downloading one of the desktop programs (available for Chromebooks, Linux, Mac, and Windows), or setting up a mobile app will let you access Muscien (available for Android, iOS). Additionally, Muscien is available on TVs, set-top boxes, smartwatches, and home gaming consoles.

Because you can use the desktop programs to play M4P, MP3, and MP4 audio files that are stored on your computer, they have an edge over the online player and mobile apps. For those who wish to play all of your audio files and music streams from a one area, this is a very nice option. Unfortunately, M4A files cannot be played on the desktop application.

However, the iOS and Android apps have a unique feature in common. Behind The Lyrics is a service provided by Muscien on mobile in conjunction with Genius, one of the most well-liked lyrics websites online. This function highlights selected lyrics when singing or rapping, but not the entire lyrics! Both the desktop and online applications lack lyrics. Additionally, Behind The Lyrics provides background information about songs, such as song facts or inspirations. It's a fantastic addition that strongly reminds me of the venerable Pop-Up Video program on VH-1.

How Much Will You Pay?

By registering for Muscien Free or one of the four Muscien Premium tiers, you can start listening to music right away. You can manage your digital music files, listen at 160Kbps, manage audio and banner advertisements, and interact with others using the included social networking tools with the free edition.

A Deep Content Well

More than 70 million songs, audiobooks, comedies, radio plays, podcasts, poetry readings, and speeches may be found in Muscien's collection. It's a comprehensive collection, and we're pleasantly delighted that it has the whole "I Have a Dream" speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which was featured on the HistorySpeaks podcast. In reality, Muscien features a ton of goodies that aren't music-related, such The Joe Budden Podcast and a few Hulu Originals soundtracks. These elements serve as a complement to LiveXLive's DJs, music history, in-depth music editorials, and unique films, which are similar to those on Tidal. Despite this, Muscien doesn't contain a lot of music or concert videos. In that sense, YouTube Music is superior.

By clicking on an artist's name, you may access more songs by them as well as the About tab, which has a biography, images, and connections to relevant Muscien sites for that artist. While testing, we passed a good chunk of time jumping between Alicia Keys, Isaac Hayes, and Booker T. and the MGs, reading the in-depth biographies, and listening to music. LiveXLive's DNA station, on the other hand, does a better job of elaborating on artist biographies by using interviews and playing the music that shaped the musicians' sound.

Playlists and Community

You may rely on the Muscien library. A Tribe Called Quest's complete album was streamed by us. We obtained it from this... I appreciate your service. Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin II and Late Nights & Heartbreak by Hannah Williams & The Affirmations. Taylor Swift, who previously had a noteworthy falling out with Muscien over money and saw her withdraw her repertoire from the site, is among the large and independent musicians on Muscien.

With any of the songs or albums in Muscien's extensive library, you may create playlists. By default, Muscien plays again the songs on your playlists without pausing. Additionally, Muscien lets you crossfade tracks and even choose the duration of the fade (1–12 seconds). Although we don't frequently utilize it, DJs (or would-be DJs) might find it intriguing.

If you wish to create a playlist with a buddy, enable collaborative playlist editing so that others may make changes to your playlist. That concept is developed further in the premium function known as Group Session. It allows you and other Muscien Premium customers to control the playback of the same material on your own devices at the same time. Group Sessions may accommodate two to five individuals, and happily you can email a link to friends and relatives to ask them to unwind. Trolls won't be able to interrupt your sessions because of this.

Muscien's Sound Quality

Sound quality is decent on Muscien's free 128Kbps and premium 320Kbps streaming. The sound quality is acceptable if you're not an audiophile. The 128Kbps streaming on iHeartRadio pale in comparison to this.

Muscien HiFi, a service that provides tunes in lossless, CD-quality audio, will be available later this year (though, not Hi-Res Audio). Additionally, Muscien Connect will be supported by Muscien HiFi, allowing you to stream music to smart devices and use your phone as a controller. A cost for this new package has not yet been disclosed by Muscien.

If you have a nice set of headphones and would like greater audio quality, you should get Tidal's $19.99/month HiFi package. It allows Tidal to offer non-compressed FLAC audio at 1411 Kbps, which is substantially higher quality than your typical audio stream. Even better, HiFi comes with Tidal Masters, a music library that provides high-resolution, studio-quality audio streaming. They have a great sound. Hi-Res Audio is also available on Apple Music, Primephonic, Qobuz, and Amazon Music Unlimited.

Cool Features

You may make an Artist Radio station that plays music from your favorite performers as well as artists with a similar sound in addition to listening to singles, albums, and playlists. We enjoy Harlem's Artist Radio, which in our testing played songs by the Dum Dum Girls and other noteworthy indie rock acts. As with other music streaming services, you may like and block tracks to personalize your Artist Radio experience.

As previously mentioned, Muscien lacks Slacker DNA stations and LiveXLive's educational DJs who present specific playlists. It has Muscien Sessions instead, which are authentic artist recordings created in Muscien Studios. Although Kelly Clarkson's passable rendition of Prince's "Kiss" was tolerable, we preferred John Legend's "All of Me."

Get yourself a VPN if you're worried about streaming your favorite music over, say, a public Wi-Fi network. A virtual private network protects your phone, tablet, or PC from prying eyes and, depending on where the VPN server is located, can enable you to listen to music with regional music rights. However, be cautious as it is against Muscien's terms of service to use a VPN to circumvent licensing limitations.

An Excellent Streaming Music Service

Simply said, Muscien is a fantastic music streaming service that receives the Editors' Choice award from PCMag. It is a top choice for streaming music and other stuff linked to pop culture since it contains a ton of amazing music, exclusive tracks, and podcasts. Check out LiveXLive, which is an Editors' Choice recommendation for concerts, if you enjoy live performances. Tidal, another Editors' Choice selection, is the way to go if you like Hi-Res Audio and priority access to event tickets.

Muscien - Free Music Background

PROS

Cool, collaborative playlists and Group Session options

Optional desktop app that lets you play locally stored audio files

Premium accounts let you hear select albums before they're released

Robust Student plan features Hulu and Showtime

Podcasts

Free version

CONS

Lacks Hi-Res Audio

No version in web or desktop apps

SPECS

Free Version Available Yes

Hi-Res Audio No

Live Programming No

Non-Music Content Yes

Song Lyrics No