You just want to listen to some good music.
At this point, music lovers and listeners now have 10 scrillion ways to listen to music online. But where to start? Do you patiently upload all your music to Google Music? Do you check out what your friends are listening to on Spotify? Rdio? Mog? Pandora? Which ones are free, and which ones cost money? Or do you just forget about online music and just go back to listening to CDs (assuming they'll even be around in a couple of years)?
Because there are so many ways to listen to music (remember live concerts?), if you have favorites not mentioned here, please share them in the comments. But for the purposes of this post, and for sanity's sake, I'm going to try to flesh out which music services are right for different types of music listeners. Keep in mind that I'm not an audiophile; I'm just a regular music listener, like you probably are.
Also, note that I'm not addressing free radio services like Pandora, Last.fm, TuneIn Radio, Shoutcast, and the like. Many of these services are great, but they're more about tapping into a preprogrammed stream; I'm talking about on-demand services that let you choose your own music.
Before you start
Before we present some of our favorite choices, a few words of advice:
Make sure your service of choice is available on your device(s): Listen to music on your Android smartphone? iPhone? Apple TV? Roku? Sonos? Mac? Many of these services are supported on a wide variety of devices, but few of them are supported on every device. Before you pick one, make sure it works on your device of choice (via an app, software, or a browser).
Make sure your favorite artists are available on your service of choice:
Some notable artists--The Beatles, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Coldplay--are hard (or downright impossible) to find on some services. Search the archives to make sure your must-have artists are available--or be prepared to start ripping some CDs.
Don't be afraid to experiment: Many of these services have free-to-try or free-on-PC versions. Giving them a spin is pretty much a no-risk affair. And even the pay services don't come with contracts or early-termination fees, as a cell phone does. If you sign up for, say, Rhapsody and you end up not liking it after a month, cancel it--you won't be out more than $10.
Music-streaming services
Music-streaming services are a great way to discover new music without actually taking space on your computer, or even buying the music outright. There are free ways to do this, as well as paid ways to do this.
Spotify
Spotify broke onto the scene in a big way in July 2011, when it was finally released in the U.S.
It offers tight integration with Facebook; songs I listen to in Spotify show up in real time on my Facebook Timeline (which can be a good or bad thing, depending on what embarrassing thing I happen to be listening to). In fact, when I open my Spotify desktop app, more than 50 of my Facebook friends are actively using it. By comparison, only seven of my Facebook friends are using Rdio, (which I'll get to later), with only a couple actively using it.
When you click on a grayed-out song, it tells you that it's not available, unless you already have it stored on your hard drive.
(Credit: Screenshot by Karyne Levy/CNET)
Spotify finds songs that are stored on your computer; it feels like an iTunes replacement, plus it adds the ability to find music you might not have in your collection, for free. It's like if iTunes and 1990s-era Napster had a baby, except you can't keep the streaming tracks.
With the free service, there's a limit to how much music you can listen to (unlimited for six months; after that, it's 10 hours per month). It's ad-supported unless you pay $4.99 per month, and if you want to stream to your mobile devices (check if your device is compatible), it's $9.99 per month.
Who should use Spotify: Do you own a lot of music and want to incorporate it with music you don't have? Do you have a lot of playlists already created in iTunes? Spotify lets you import playlists you've already created. Also, if you're a stickler for audio quality, playback on Spotify (320Kbps streams on the premium service) is a tad better than on Rdio. But for casual listeners, the differences are negligible. And with more than 15 million songs in its database, it shouldn't be hard to find music, even if you have more-offbeat tastes. Think of it as an iTunes replacement. And if you want to listen from something other than a phone or computer, Squeezebox and Sonos offer Spotify support.
Spotify's desktop app and integration of local music can really help fill in the typical gaps of subscription music libraries. You can't play The Beatles or Led Zeppelin on Mog or Rdio, but you'll find them on Spotify if you have those artists in your personal collection. If you're an iTunes lover who also loves free music to add to your collection, Spotify is a great option.
Who shouldn't use Spotify: The ads--present only in the free computer-based version--can be jarring and come from seemingly out of nowhere. If I'm listening to Kanye West, the odds of me wanting to hear an ad for a country music singer I've never heard of are slim to none. And they also seem to happen quite often; I sometimes hear two ads in a row.
There's no browser-based version of Spotify, so if you're not allowed to download apps on your machine (say, at work), then you can't use it. Also, Spotify makes you use your Facebook log-in to register. If that makes you uncomfortable, then look elsewhere. Also, if you'd like to purchase songs or albums directly from Spotify, there's no way to do that. Yet.
Rdio
I only just tapped into Rdio, which has been around for a while. In fact, just today I learned how to properly pronounce it (ar-dee-o). Like Spotify, Rdio is a social music service. And like Spotify, it has a desktop app that can incorporate songs from your iTunes or WMP library. And the similarities don't end there. There's a Facebook component, a playlist component, and a paid version component ($4.99 for unlimited streaming, $9.99 if you want to listen on your mobile device, and $17.99 a month for a family plan). There is an Rdio app for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.
I can't imagine the green bar ever running out.
(Credit: Screenshot by Karyne Levy/CNET)
And you can try before you buy, which is always nice. In the free version, there's a limit to how many songs you can listen to per month. Rdio displays how close you're getting to that limit with a handy green bar, which looks seemingly endless; I've been streaming Rdio pretty regularly for about a week, and the green bar isn't even halfway depleted. What the limit is, however, is kind of a mystery.
If you find a song you're dying to own, some songs are available as DRM-free MP3 downloads; prices range between 99 cents and $1.29.
Who should use Rdio: Do you like following strangers on Twitter? Are you into music discovery? Rdio's "follow" features is kind of awesome, letting you follow other people and see what kind of music they're listening to. For example, you can follow Spin magazine and be on the cutting edge of music! Or you can follow me, and be embarrassed.
Music discovery is also fairly easy. You can check what's in "heavy rotation," both among friends and all Rdio users. You can also browse new releases, top charts, recommendations based on what's in your collection, and artists similar to those you like.
And there's a browser-based version, which is great for people who don't want to download an app to their computers.
If you love sharing songs with friends, and learning about new songs from friends or strangers, Rdio is a great service to try.
Who shouldn't use Rdio: If you care a lot about the music you actually own, I wouldn't go with Rdio; there's no way to manage the music that's not in its catalog. Rdio's desktop app doesn't import iTunes playlists, and when you try to import a song that's not in its catalog, it doesn't let you import missing songs to be managed by the app. And if you have weird taste in music, Rdio has the fewest songs. Out of the 1,395 songs on my work machine, it only matched 689 of them.
Mog
Mog is yet another music service, with more than 13 million songs in the catalog. Like Spotify and Rdio, it has a free version, and two paid versions: $4.99 per month for unlimited streaming and no ads, and a $9.99-per-month option that allows for unlimited streaming, no ads, and streaming on your iOS or Android device.
Note that Mog limits FreePlay subscribers to a set number of free tracks they can play every month. Users can fill up their listening "gas tank" by using the social features of the site: sharing playlists over social networks, exploring Mog's library, etc. Essentially, the more you use Mog, the more free listening time you'll earn.
Mog's interface is refreshingly clear of clutter, and we love the large cover art.
(Credit: Screenshot by Matthew Moskovciak/CNET)
Mog boasts support for many devices, including Squeezebox, Sonos, and LG home theater products.
Who should use Mog: Those who prize audio quality above all else should give Mog a try; Web streams are 320Kbps.
If you're an audiophile and are looking to play your music on a home system, Mog is a great option.
Who shouldn't use Mog: Like Rdio, there's no way to manage the music you own that's not in its catalog.
Rhapsody
As with the others, Rhapsody also offers a paid subscription service: $9.99 per month for access to one mobile device, and online streaming via the browser, or Windows client software; $14.99 per month for streaming on three mobile devices. There's a free 14-day trial when you sign up for either of these accounts, so you can try before you buy.
Rhapsody's Web interface looks a little archaic compared with newer rivals, but its Premier Plus subscription plan is the best deal if you want to use multiple mobile devices.
(Credit: Screenshot by Matthew Moskovciak/CNET)
There's no free version, however. At all. So if you want to use Rhapsody, you're going to have to cough up at least $9.99 per month. That can be a turn-off for the casual listener.
Who should use Rhapsody: Rhapsody has teamed with MTV, so sometimes you get to hear songs before they hit stores. Like Spotify, its desktop app can be thought of as an iTunes replacement.
With the Premier Plus plan, it's $15 for support on three mobile devices, which can be the best deal for a household of mobile subscription music fans.
Who shouldn't use Rhapsody: There's no Mac client, so Mac users who don't want to listen through the browser are out of luck. And Rhapsody's interface is slow and clunky, especially compared with the other offerings. Want a social component? Look elsewhere.
Spotify
Rdio
Mog
Rhapsody
Streaming limits
Free accounts are unlimited for first 6 months, afterward 10 hours of streaming a month and a 5-play limit for any individual track. Paid accounts are unlimited.
The TOS is very vague about limits for free accounts. Access is granted in 30-day chunks; how many songs you are granted each month decreases as time goes on. The TOS also leaves out exactly how many songs: "You may not be advised as to the exact number of songs you have remaining in a given month, but Rdio will provide a meter for you to generally understand how much access is available."
Mog limits FreePlay subscribers to a set number of free tracks they can play every month. Users can fill up their listening "gas tank" by using the social features of the site: sharing playlists over social networks, exploring Mog's library, etc.
No
Cost
Free for basic; $4.99/month for no ads; $9.99/month for premium (mobile access, offline)
Free for limited Web streaming; $4.99/month for unlimited Web going up to $22.99 for three family subscriptions
Free for FreePlay plan; $4.99/month for Basic plan (no ads); $9.99/month for Primo plan (mobile access)
14-day free trial; $9.99/month for Premier plan (mobile); $14.99/month for Premier Plus plan (3 mobile devices)
Offline options
On Premium plan
On Unlimited and higher plans
On Primo plan
Yes
Mobile
On Premium plan
On some plans
On Primo plan
Yes
Requirements
Account and app download (Mac, PC, Android, iOS)
Rdio account
Mog account
Rhapsody account
Music-streaming services overall
All of these services are pretty much the same. If you don't care about owning the music, they're a great, easy way to listen to entire albums that you haven't purchased outright. They're also a great way to see what your friends and even strangers are listening to, in real time. It's like a music party, right on your computer. And with the paid versions of each service, you can stream the music to your mobile devices, too, without having to take up actual space.
It's easy to get bogged down in the minute differences between these services, but at the core they're all pretty similar. Still, certain aspects of the services will appeal to difference kinds of listeners. We're going to paint with some broad strokes here, but our general takeaway is:
Spotify: Best all-in-one music player for local and streaming content.
Rdio: Best for social networking functionality.
Mog: Prettiest user interface, high-quality streaming bit rates, and solid home theater devices support.
Rhapsody: Best streaming value if you want to use more than one mobile device.
If you're into your own music collection, however, read on.
Music locker apps
Music locker apps make it easy (in theory) to upload the music you already own to the cloud, so it's available wherever you go. But even here there are a few different ways to do that.
Amazon Cloud Player
Amazon beat both Apple and Google to the punch when it released Amazon Cloud Player hand in hand with Amazon Cloud Drive. Amazon Cloud Drive allows you to upload 5GB of any type of file, including music files (MP3, AAC), to Amazon's servers for free. After that, there's a tiered-pricing plan, and music you purchase from Amazon doesn't count against your storage limits and is automatically added to your Cloud Drive. At the time of this writing, Amazon is offering unlimited space for music, which doesn't count against your total storage space. So for only $20 a year, you get 20GB of storage space, and unlimited music storage space. Not too shabby.
Uploading music to Amazon's servers could take days if you have a large music collection, but after that, any file you upload is available from any browser. It even allows you to upload your iTunes playlists. The interface is pretty basic: you can sort by song, album, or artist. You can make your own playlists, and even download music from the cloud to your computer.
It will take approximately 30 minutes to upload 54 songs. My calculations show that a decent-size song library will take 45 years to upload. Who has that kind of time?
(Credit: Screenshot by Karyne Levy/CNET)
Who should use Amazon Cloud Player: Amazon's digital downloads are DRM-free, so you can listen to them on multiple devices. Amazon provides you with 5GB of space for free, and then bumps you up to 20GB with the purchase of one album.
Amazon is awesome for deal-seeking music lovers; you can often find $5 album bargains, which are frequent and great, making it easy to get hooked on Cloud Player, since your tunes are automatically in there.
Who shouldn't use Amazon Cloud Player: iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone users should check out a different service, because there's no Amazon Cloud Player apps for these devices (at least, not yet). The upload time takes forever; I tried to upload 54 songs and it said it would take almost 30 minutes. (Got a large digital media collection? Here are some tips on how to manage it.) Also, Amazon Cloud Player doesn't alert you if you have duplicates.
iCloud and iTunes Match
With iCloud, all the music you purchase through iTunes and your Apple ID will be available on all your iOS devices. So if you buy a song on your iPhone, it'll be available on your iPad and on your computer. For $25 a year, iTunes Match allows you to store music (MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC) that you didn't necessarily purchase from iTunes. Any music that's matched is automatically stored in iCloud; whatever music isn't available through Match, is uploaded. Since most of your music can probably found among iTunes 20 million songs, you won't have to upload from scratch, thus saving you tons of time.
iTunes Match and iCloud give you access to your entire music collection on your phone--where you might not have enough storage to hold it all.
(Credit: Screenshot by Matthew Moskovciak/CNET)
Who should use iTunes Match: If you're in the Apple ecosystem, it's kind of a no brainer. You can also use it to upgrade audio quality on your existing tracks.
The benefit of using iCloud to store your music is that it is supported on home theater devices, such as Apple TV.
Who shouldn't use iTunes Match: Those without an iOS device are out of luck with this one. Also, $25 is kind of a steep when you consider that Apple is basically providing you a copy of something you already own.
A couple CNET editors have had nothing but problems uploading their music to iCloud. Matching doesn't always seem very intelligent, and if you add more music and want to rescan your collection, it goes faster than it did at first, but not as fast as you'd hope.
Because it's not technically a streaming service, songs need to download before they play. In practice, the song will start playing back before it's totally downloaded, but there's a non-negligible delay. It's no Spotify.
Google Music
Google Music came out of beta recently with a splash. The Android Market offers hundreds of free songs and millions you can buy. You can also upload up to 20,000 of your own songs (MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC) to Google's servers, and play them on any device with a standard Web browser. That's right: Google's offering its music services outside the Google ecosystem. Imagine that?
The Google Music interface may not be the prettiest, but its core functionality is impressive.
(Credit: Screenshot by Matthew Moskovciak/CNET)
You can also share music purchased from the Android Market with your friends on Google+.
Who should use Google Music: Android and Google fans will definitely want to give Google Music a try, especially those who want tight integration with Google+. iOS users who want to give it a shot, rest-assured: the non-native Web app works very well. And if you have a Google TV, you can listen to songs from the comfort of your living room.
Who shouldn't use Google Music: So far it's only available in the U.S. Also, it's worth considering that the native app is only available for Android devices. Uploading songs to the Google servers takes a long time, so if you have a large music library, prepare to wait a while.
Apple iTunes Match
Amazon Cloud Player
Google Music
Storage capacity
Unlimited in iCloud for iTunes purchases; songs not purchased on iTunes are limited to 25,000 total.
Options range from 5GB to 1TB. Unlimited for Amazon MP3 purchases for first copy; duplicates are counted toward the Cloud Drive limit.
20,000 songs
Cost
$24.99/year
5GB storage for free; $20/year for 20GB going up to $1,000/year for 1TB. Songs bought on Amazon don't count against the limit.
Free
Streaming service
Yes, via iCloud
Yes
Yes
Offline options
Any song can be downloaded to any authorized device at no additional charge. There's also an automatic download switch so any song bought on iTunes can be pushed to your mobile devices.
Songs can easily be accessed and downloaded from 8 devices maximum.
You can save songs to your phone or tablet for offline use.
Free music
Yes
Yes
Yes
Store
Yes
Yes
Yes
Mobile
On iOS devices
Android app; playable on iOS via the browser
Yes
Requirements
iTunes account
Amazon account
Google account
Cloud locker services overall
Again, all three of these services are very similar. Depending on which devices you have, and how much time you've got, the easiest way to pick a music locker app is to go with the company where you already buy your digital music. iTunes Match makes a lot of sense if you're already into iTunes (and especially if you own other Apple gadgets). Similarly, it's smart to go with Amazon if you prefer its thrifty digital music store. Google Music is the newest and free, so we expect it to be a solid option for those devoted to the Android ecosystem, although we haven't extensively used the Google digital music store yet.
source: http://www.news.cnet.com
