How long have you been married to your music-streaming app? Yeah,
we thought so. We are creatures of habit and so sometimes while we know there are other options, we stick with what we know. While most music apps offer a free version, subscribing for a nominal fee gives you access to millions of songs to liven up any room. Music streaming devices can easily access a slew of applications that can fit your music listening preferences. Don’t know how to get started or what each has to offer? Let’s take a look at some of the latest and greatest on demand music streaming services.
SpotifyThis super user-friendly app makes it very easy for you to navigate through it and easily connect to wireless speakers such as HEOS by Denon and Sony SRS-X9. You can import your music from your computer and manage your playlists here (and also subscribe to other Spotify users’ playlists). The service provides user themed playlists on its homepage such as “Snowed in for the weekend” if you’re unsure of what to play (and if you’re snowed in on the weekend). Want to listen to an entire album? You can! And for free. While there is a free version of Spotify, it caps your listening to 20 hours a month for the first six months and it plays ads. For $9.99 per month you get ad-free unlimited access to music (Spotify boasts a music catalog upwards of 30 million songs) and provides offline access to your playlists. Also, for this price, the bit rate is higher, taking the music quality up a few notches. If you’re a social networker sharer, you can share your playlists via Facebook and see what music geniuses your friends are listening to. If you’re not into the social network scene, you can sign up using your email account.
TidalNew to the streaming world, Tidal is the Jay-Z-owned service with a 25 million song catalog and playlists curated by music experts and music journalists alike. You can create your playlists based on album or artist and they’re available offline. How exactly does this Tidal differ from other services? Music quality and pricing. Tidal does not offer a free version.
PandoraThis music streaming service is a “select and go” service that allows users to create a radio station based on an artist or genre of choice. This app also can be accessed by HEOS by Denon wireless speakers. Users are able to give individual songs a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down” and Pandora’s algorithm will play similar music (or will attempt to anyway) based on the feedback.