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What Is Your Favorite Music-Streaming Source?

Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 12, 2011

While we're on the subject of streaming (see the last two poll questions here and here), I'd like to turn our attention to music-streaming sources, of which there are two types—on-demand subscription and Internet radio. As you might imagine, on-demand services let you select anything from their library at will, usually for a monthly fee. With Internet-radio services, you specify the type of music you want to listen to, and they deliver it at their discretion, allowing you to skip only a certain number of tracks per hour, at least when you access the service for free.

Do you listen to music-streaming sources? If so, which one is your favorite? Don't forget to leave a comment about your preference, especially if you selected "Other."

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

What Is Your Favorite Music-Streaming Source?

COMMENTS
aopu.mohsin's picture
Submitted by aopu.mohsin on August 12, 2011 - 3:38pm

I do not stream any music or movies. The quality just does not match up.

However, I like Pandora because of its suggestions for similar artists. Great idea. Love it. I have not used the other sources mentioned above.

klipsch27's picture
Submitted by klipsch27 on August 13, 2011 - 5:44am

im a subscriber to pandora and i love it.not for its music quality but for the ease and simplicity of pandora.one push of a button on my ipod and i have thousands of songs to be streamed of various artist to listen to through my home entertainment system.(most of my music comes from hdtracks).i love their website and their hi-res files.

cbono's picture
Submitted by cbono on August 13, 2011 - 11:34pm

Pandora is such a natural way for music to be found by its audience.

jt357's picture
Submitted by jt357 on August 14, 2011 - 5:13am

I use Last.FM. Works great for background music.

Colin Robertson's picture
Submitted by Colin Robertson on August 15, 2011 - 4:51pm

After using Pandora for a while now and finally getting on Spotify, I decided to give Rdio a shot. I found its selection to be more in-line with my own tastes, although it's hardly comprehensive. My trial is up and I still don't know if it's worth my money, but if I had to pick between Spotify and Rdio, I would pick Rdio. Luckily Spotify has a free service... But Rdio was better in that it has a web app where as Spotify does not (handy for work), and more importantly, music is far more browsable on Rdio than Spotify's virtually search-only interface. I can see if you were one that loves creating playlists, Spotify would probably be more appealing to you.

I have also used Google Music. It's very basic, but it gets the job done and after uploading over 5,000 tracks, I haven't paid a dime.

Pandora is great for when I just want to tune out and not have to think of what to listen to other than initially "tuning in" to or creating a particular station. The problem I have with Pandora is it does not account for taste, only similar sounding music. What I mean is, if I happen to think Lady Gaga is BRILLIANT (this is just an example!), Pandora will feed me all kinds of other garbage that "sounds like" Gaga, like Ke$ha. This is why the world still needs real DJ's. I don't always have time to find good music but it's a DJ's job to do so, and DJ's have tastes (that occasionally align with your own). I don't always want some algorithm trying to tell me what I should listen to.

My experience with Last.fm was a little better because it tracks what you listen to (even outside of it's service), but I found it kept repeating the same songs over and over again. It's been a while so maybe it's better now.

In general, I like to pick my own albums to listen to and don't mind paying for the ones I like. With podcasts, talk radio, and everything else in life, I simply don't know if I can justify paying for a streaming music service. Truth be told I'm more excited for the iCloud music stuff than most of these services.

In conclusion, Spotify is good for trying something new out, but its lack of selection can be frustrating sometimes. Seriously, no King Crimson?

loop7's picture
Submitted by loop7 on August 15, 2011 - 9:33pm

I'm currently testing the $9.99/month Spotify which delivers 320kbps. Decent but nowhere near a properly ripped CD into Apple Lossless or FLAC. The 320 might be some marketing spin? I'm still all about buying and ripping CDs.

aopu.mohsin's picture
Submitted by aopu.mohsin on August 16, 2011 - 2:17am

Hi Scott, could you please delete the post from "bsat" above. It sounds like spam to me and utterly irrelevant, inappropriate and annoying. Thanks.

You can delete this post as well. I was just trying to bring it to your attention so you can delete the spam above.

Rock On's picture
Submitted by Rock On on August 29, 2012 - 8:58am

I'm using Roku SoundBridge for streaming. SoundBridge is connected to my a/v receiver and added 30 free Internet radio streams on easy-to-use setup page. With added streaming from my network-connected computer it ROCKS! I can control it with an universal remote, sound is great (receiver improves it a lot) and it's free streaming after all. The only drawback is the computer should be on for streaming. But Internet streams work without computer, so them I can enjoy any time. Too bad Roku discontinued SoundBridge line :(

It may sound too geeky, but it was really easy to setup. And there are plenty of free Internet radio streams on Internet. It took just around 30 minutes to connect wires and add several Internet streams. After that - Rock On! and enjoy your favorite music for months.

The box itself does not need much maintenance. I had to reboot SoundBridge only twice since the initial setup. And it was 2 years ago.

Rajesh9's picture
Submitted by Rajesh9 on February 9, 2016 - 4:29am

This is good one. I really appreciate your work. Thanks

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