Streaming music. Where's it better to look?
More recently, the main source of music was radio and television broadcasting. You can legally buy music on vinyl and CD. In place of the usual radio it's digital satellite broadcasting. With the development of high-speed Internet music began to spread through Web services. They are all very different, so you can choose the service that suits your needs.
Spotify is one of the top online services for streaming music. What makes this service unique is that you can use its Offline Mode to listen to thousands of music tracks without having to be connected to the Web. As well as subscription plans, this service also offers you the chance to try before you buy with its Spotify Free account. With facilities to stream music to mobile devices and home stereo systems, is this the ultimate digital music service?
Pandora internet radio is easy enough in that is just streams music and you click "yes I like", "no I don't like" - from this is formulates a channel to your deepest satisfaction. The older demographic (25-50) would favor this portal because these folks have little time to instant message, add songs, trade information, and network with their "friends" group. There is no social network option with Pandora. You can also buy albums and individual tracks from digital music services such as Amazon MP3, and the iTunes Store via links that are displayed on-screen.
Deezer, the French company, used to be called Blogmusik. They ran into music licensing trouble, got reprimanded and now operate legally under the Deezer moniker. More or less they relaunched their internet radio initiatives with good intent. I notice that the buffering delays test the user's patience. The other sites do not have this issue. Once again, users can share music lists and the like. There's no sign-up necessary to browse through stations/songs and get a basic overview of the free content.
Grooveshark boasts no small following either, having passed the 35 million user mark in May of 2011. It is also a very loyal following: one online poll rated this as the most popular of all streaming music services. The design could be part of the reason. Grooveshark gives you freer reign in creating the type of playlist you want, with a nicely done drag-and-drop interface. Grooveshark also lets you upload your own music to add to the communal library, which might be the largest of all sites with a massive 22 million songs (it's a great place for mash up seekers). You can use a free account, or you can register an upgraded account, which you can use to remove ads and listen to Grooveshark on your phone.
Imeem just harnessed the rights to broadcast all Sony-BMG music artists. In return, the major music conglomerate gets a cut of ad monies placed in the Imeem radio players that stream your music. Once again, they put emphasis on sharing tastes and social networking.