Along with parties and late-night cram sessions, music is ubiquitous with college and work life. While in the past college and masters degree students or office employees were forced to find music on their own or through sites like Napster and LimeWire, streaming music services now make discovering new genres and artists much easier.
Where a few years ago there were just a few services, now there seems to be a new one launching every month. Here's a look at five of the best, from old standbys to new trailblazers.
Of all the services, Grooveshark is probably the easiest to get started using. No sign up, nothing to download, just search for a song or artist and get started listening. The range of music available through the service is impressive, and it has just signed new licensing deals allowing even more music to be featured. Grooveshark is free, with an optional subscription.
One of the older, more established providers, Pandora has been steadily gaining popularity throughout its existence. As one of the first services to use the radio paradigm, Pandora drew in users with its ease of use and kept them with its large variety of music. Pandora is only available in the U.S., offering a free ad supported service or optional ad-free subscription.
Possibly the fastest growing streaming music service, Spotify is rapidly gaining momentum. Focusing almost entirely on the social aspect of the music industry, Spotify requires a Facebook account to sign up, and shares your music activity on the popular social networking site. Its recently added radio feature now allows Spotify to compete more directly with Pandora. The one caveat is while Spotify’s basic features are available for free, many features are only available with a premium subscription.
Along with Pandora, Last.fm has managed to entrench its position as a mainstay of music streaming services. Last.fm’s Audioscrobbler lets other media players to send your listening habits to the service, allowing Last.fm to offer personalized music recommendations based on your preferences. The service is free, with a subscription unlocking various features depending on the user’s home country.
One of the newer services available is the UK based We7. It offers 6.8 million tracks in the UK and Ireland, with limited content available outside of those two countries. In June 2011, We7 secured additional funding, hoping to expand its range within Europe. We7 is completely free, but registration is required for many features.
This is my favorite site(follow me here)
Of all the services, Grooveshark is probably the easiest to get started using. No sign up, nothing to download, just search for a song or artist and get started listening. The range of music available through the service is impressive, and it has just signed new licensing deals allowing even more music to be featured. Grooveshark is free, with an optional subscription.One of the older, more established providers, Pandora has been steadily gaining popularity throughout its existence. As one of the first services to use the radio paradigm, Pandora drew in users with its ease of use and kept them with its large variety of music. Pandora is only available in the U.S., offering a free ad supported service or optional ad-free subscription. Along with Pandora, Last.fm has managed to entrench its position as a mainstay of music streaming services. Last.fm’s Audioscrobbler lets other media players to send your listening habits to the service, allowing Last.fm to offer personalized music recommendations based on your preferences. The service is free, with a subscription unlocking various features depending on the user’s home country.One of the newer services available is the UK based We7. It offers 6.8 million tracks in the UK and Ireland, with limited content available outside of those two countries. In June 2011, We7 secured additional funding, hoping to expand its range within Europe. We7 is completely free, but registration is required for many features.This is my favorite site(follow me here)
