64kbps VBR? I have a hard time believing that. That bitrate is virtually unlistenable. To me, LivePhish streaming has always sounded like the neighborhood of 96kbps. Pretty lousy, but just clear enough to be tolerable for the low upfront price of the app. 64kbps is awful, unless they are based out of Pawnee, Indiana and are using Altavista with their 14.4k modems. 320kbps is obviously great, but 192kbps would be perfectly fine. They aren't Google or Apple.

That being said, I'm not sure I can justify $9.99/mo when there are so many other ways I can hear this music for free. I still see them live, and I buy albums/downloads when funds allow, but I've been a fan for so long that I really only actively listen to them when they're on tour. In the off-season, I rarely listen to Phish unless it comes up in shuffle mode on my work iPod. It keeps things fresh for me.

I've done the trial period for Google Play All Access, and I realized that it just isn't how I listen to music. I'm still very much into my LP's, CD's, iTunes library, and putting music on my iPod for on-the-go listening. App-based streaming, the cloud, etc. is great in theory, but I always end up getting "matching" mismatches, dropouts in the middle of songs, not-quite-gapless playback, and other hindrances to the enjoyment of the music. I'm an archivist at heart, and it feels weird to not possess a copy of the thing I'm listening to. Funnily enough, I'm the exact opposite with TV and movies. No interest in owning shelves and shelves of DVD/Blu-Ray discs. Go figure.

I really hope they bring back the most recent "featured show" feature. That was the best thing about the app, by far. I hope they're listening to us. Based on how long it took them to update the app, I'm not holding out much hope.