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.
Spotify
This 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.
Tidal
New 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. Users can expect to pay $9.99 for 320 kbps and
$19.99 for 1,141 kbps—both great sound quality.
Pandora
This 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. There is an ad-free
version for $4.99 per month.
Music streaming devices allow you to bring your musical style to
life. With so many streaming services vying for your subscription, we hope we were able to make the decision a little bit easier.
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