8 Music Streaming Services You Need To Know About

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http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/30/business/media/music-streaming-guide.html?_r=0

There are so many options out now when it comes to music streaming that it can be overwhelming deciding which one to pick.  Here's a breakdown of 8 of the most popular to give you an idea of which is right for you.

1. Apple Music 

Subscriptions range from $9.99 to $14.99 a month, but free users have access to Beats 1.  Paying customers can play whatever song they want on demand from the catalog of more than 30 million available songs.  Offline streaming is also an option.

2.  Spotify

The free version is supported by ads, but Spotify Premium removes the ads and costs $10 per month.  There is a student discount available, which I currently have, that allows you to have Premium for $5 per month.  You can stream more than 30 million songs and check out playlists to discover new music.  Users have the capability to download songs for offline playback as well.

3. Rhapsody

This service offers two tiers, a $4.99 version and $9.99 version.  The cheaper of the two allows for access to various playlists and stations while the premium version offers songs on demand as well.  Both allow for downloading songs to listen offline too.

4. Amazon Prime Music

This is a unique entry into the music streaming world in that the Amazon Prime subscription provides services beyond just streaming music, including free two day shipping and video streaming.  The catalog is small at 1 million songs, but the price for Amazon Prime is $99 per year.  This makes the service cheaper than others that charge $10 per month along with other added benefits.

5. Pandora

The basic service is ad-free, but a paid tier is $4.99 per month which removes the ads.  It offers a catalog of over 1 million songs and customizable stations, but limits how many tracks you can skip per hour.  It does not allow for offline playback.

6. Google Play

With the free version users may listen to customizable radio stations, and with the paid version ($9.99 per month), users may stream songs on demand.  This also provides access to YouTube Red, which removes the ads on YouTube and provides additional content.  The catalog is more than 30 million songs.

7. Tidal 

A relatively small and more recent addition to the group, Tidal costs $9.99 per month for Tidal Premium or $19.99 for Tidal HiFi, which provides uncompressed music files.  There are more than 30 million songs and 75,000 videos currently available on Tidal and this service allows for offline playback.

8. Soundcloud

Taking a different approach to music streaming, Soundcloud is similar to YouTube in that any user can upload content to the site.  The free version has limited access to popular songs, but a $9.99 subscription brings full access.  Because of the number of user-uploaded audio files and songs, the total number of tracks for playback is more than 125 million.  Soundcloud also displays a visual waveform of each song during playback.

As you can see, there is no one clear winner for everyone when it comes to music streaming.  Personally, I use Spotify Premium with the student discount to listen to many major label songs and Soundcloud's free service to find many independent EDM and some rap songs.  Depending on what you are looking for from a music streaming service, there is one that is right for you!