A lot times, we miss out on outstanding services because we’ve become accustomed to opting for the popular or obvious choice, and web-based streaming services aren’t excuse from this truth.
Spotify, for example, quickly came out on top as the most dominant music subscription service in just a matter of years not because it offered something unique in its platform but because a lot of people have come to use it due to its immersive social integration feature.
If you think I’m gonna miss the service for its lapses and shortcomings throughout this article, then you’re in the wrong place. Admittedly, Spotify is a great service and I don’t mind paying $10 each month for unlimited music streaming across all of my devices.
However, I was still interested with other similar services and I wanted to learn more about them just for kicks. I did my homework eventually, and found interesting results.
Take a look at these five online music services that will take your mind off of Spotify.
Grooveshark
Price: Free, or $9 per month or $90 a year
A service with a huge library of tunes and playlists, Grooveshark’s offering can undoubtedly match Spotify’s. With it, you can instantly play music without having to log on so you get to enjoy a bit of privacy if you don’t want your friends to discover that you’ve been listening to Guns N Roses’ “November Rain” for the nth time.
Pandora
Price: Free with ads or $3.99 per month for the premium service
Everything is moving to the cloud, and services like RingCentral and Box have proven that essential activities, when done online, can provide more viable alternatives to the old ways of doing things.
Pandora, a famous streaming platform, has proven that internet radio can be all about the cloud, too. If you love surprises, you’ll greatly benefit from this platform because it doesn’t require you to choose the next track on your playlist.
Jango
Price: Free ad-supported, no premium services
Jango is a lot more “open,” so to speak, compared to its contemporaries. It doesn’t require any login credentials when you want to use it for listening plus you can also run its mobile version on your smartphone without any fees.
It’s because the service is kept up and running by big advertisers like American Express and the like, hence it could be a bit cluttered. It also has a quite limited library, but since it’s free, who are we to complain?
Last.fm
Price: Totally free
This pre-Spotify and pre-Pandora service been around since the early 2000s even though it’s not really known as a streaming service but rather a social service. Actually, it features a streaming internet radio but it’s not as robust or extensive as Spotify’s. What really draws the crowd for Last.fm is its audio scrobbler, a plugin that you can integrate with your music player and social media accounts so your friends can monitor or get a glimpse of your listening activity.
8Tracks
Price: Free, with premium services priced at $25 for six (6) months
Named as one of Time Magazine’s 50 Best Websites of 2011, 8Tracks functions as a “personal radio” service. The way it works is quite simple yet creative. Members who’ll sign up for the service will get to pick at least eight (8) songs for their collections and upload and share them in a manner similar to the mixtapes of yesterday.
See? There are many Spotify alternatives out there that you can try. Don’t limit yourself to one web-based music streaming platform. Again, just because a service is used by most people doesn’t automatically mean that it’s the best out there and that you should use it as well. Find the one that fits your preferences. The power still lies in your hands.
Image Credit:Cuba Gallery
16 comments
Oh yes, Spotify is very popular and I like their services. I have not used other alternatives… looks like the others are pretty good and worth a try too eh!
Since Sportify has turned paid, the rush is on the above free apps …which one have you downloaded ?
Last.fm simply rocks!!! Thamnks for the list! I haven’t heard about many apps from this list! Thanks, will keep in mind)
All the apps are awesome 🙂
Yes these all will prove good in that time when you want to listen good music when you want some relaxation from work.
Nice article. Thanks for mentioning RingCentral (and Box, too!) Personally, I’m addicted to Spotify and also don’t mind paying the monthly fee. It’s well worth the money, IMO.
If you’ve used Spotify than you would not want to download another app ..I agree that its worth the price 🙂
Music is became the integral part of our daily life. Your post highlights the best ever service in internet to access all types of music files.Thank you for sharing….
All of us love hearing music. All have different likings. Internet is the best source to listen music. All the alternatives are very good
I like listening to music everywhere in the house 🙂
Yes hopefully people now a days also listen Radio while driving.as they dont get time to listen music or news that what is going on now a days in the whole world.
Interesting Blog i like it.
Thank you.
Yes all these are good options for time pass by listening music. I never think about such alternatives even I was a daily user of online listening music. Anyways thanks for sharing the idea here.
All of us love hearing music. All have different likings. Internet is the best source to listen music. All the alternatives are very good,Thank you so much for sharing!
All of us love hearing music. All have different likings. Internet is the best source to listen music. All the alternatives are very good. Thanks for sharing.
This is more important than ever in a world where there are dozens of different audio formats.
Much of your best players marketplaces in the united states are supervised.
Whats more is that 2G phones can come in a tinier and slimmer package,
even its batteries.
Thank you for sharing…I like listening to music everywhere in the house.. Music is became the integral part of our daily life.
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Matt Schweizer