I’m one of those people who is guilty of being constantly plugged in. I can’t venture out into the world without being attached to my mp3 player. When I’m at work, I frequently have my headphones on and (slightly-embarrassing-but-true-fact) can be seen rocking out while coding. Since I spend most of my day at the desk, I’ve started looking into streaming music over the internet rather than carrying around an mp3 player that I need to load and charge.
When I’m comparing streaming music services, I’m looking for a few key features:
- Music Selection: I like a lot of lesser known acts – think darkwave, EBM and industrial. Any music service that I use HAS to have an extensive selection of music. Top 40 is not going to cut it! From what I understand, music selection can vary between services depending on the deals that each service signs with each record label.
- Low Price: Free is best, but I’m willing to pay a small monthly fee if the service is worth it. I only add new bands to my playlist sporadically, so any fee would have to be less than the cost of me purchasing the albums outright.
- Ease of Use: It’s not a make or break aspect for me, but I’d like to enjoy using the service. It’s 2013 – web apps should be beautiful and user-friendly. I don’t want to have to struggle to find songs, make playlists or listen to music. It should be easy and intuitive to use!
Out of the options available, I focused on these online streaming music services:
The first think you notice about Rdio is that it is a gorgeous web app – soft corners, clean lines, attractive colours, and best of all, NO ADS. It features an easy to navigate playlist editor which also doubles as a launching pad for music purchases, should you wish to buy your music outright. You can create an account or use their handy Facebook log-in service.
Features:
- Limited free trial
- 18 million song catalog and counting
- Users can share playlists and follow other users
- Gorgeous user experience
Price:
- $4.99 per month for unlimited web only streaming
- $9.99 per month for unlimited web and mobile streaming
Verdict: Beautiful application, easy to use and ad-free. It’s unfortunate that they don’t have a more extensive free-usage option, but considering the quality of the interface, I’m inclined to be understanding.
Brian’s note: About a month after my Rdio trial ran out, they emailed me to say they had added free music to my account. I’ve been listening to music for free on Rdio for about 3 weeks now and it hasn’t run out.
Unlike Rdio, Grooveshark is free to use on the web without any accounts or subscriptions. You simply go to their site and begin adding songs to your playlist. The downside is that these playlists are not saved unless you register with an account. The playlist editor is a bit clumsy and difficult to browse – it is not always immediately clear that you share and create playlists via the little icons on the song name. Grooveshark is ad-supported.
Features:
- Free to use via the web application
- Options to share playlists to Twitter and Facebook
- Ability to login via Twitter or Google
- Ability to upload your iTunes tracks to the cloud and listen to them via Grooveshark
Price:
- Free for ad-supported web music streaming
- $6 per month for ad-free service using their web app
- $9 per month for ad-free service and access to web and mobile apps
Verdict: I’m not keen on the UI and the ads are on the face-palm side of terrible. Think lots of shoes and lots of condoms. However, the cloud services are quite innovative and free… is free.
I didn’t try Spotify or Pandora myself because neither service is available in Canada. However, both services offer free music streaming options – so give them a try if you’re in the United States! Pandora is interesting in that it will intelligently suggest songs based on user selections and preferences. Users are then able to rate these selections, and with that data, Pandora is able to hone their matching algorithm and suggest better songs.
What to choose?
I’ve decided to go with Rdio. It has a good selection of songs and I love the user experience that it creates. For $5 a month, I’m willing to support their services. 🙂
Do you use an online music streaming service?
