Spotify
Spotify is useful for those who prefer to listen to a full album, particular artist or playlist, without purchasing the music. Spotify can be downloaded from almost any app store and on any device. Spotify offers a diverse range of music for all stations.
“I like Spotify because it’s very diverse in its music,” said Lorna Hayes, freshman from Cadiz, Ky. “I like music from other countries that I can’t find on iTunes or Pandora, but I can find them on Spotify.”
Artists who are not signed to a label or have a record deal aren’t likely to be on Spotify, because Spotify requires a third party distributor to send music to the company.
“One of the best albums by Radiohead in my opinion, is ‘In Rainbows,’” said Jordan Love, junior from Earlington, Ky. “It’s not on Spotify because they didn’t release it through a label.”
Another perk of Spotify is the convenience of sharing music. Spotify uses social media and allows users to connect with Facebook friends and Twitter followers. This makes sharing music with friends easier.
Spotify also combines the random sampling of Pandora tunes with the convenience of iTunes playlists by offering a type of Internet radio. With Spotify, users can have the best of both worlds.
Pandora
Many radio apps allow the user to create their own station based off an artist or song, the most notable being Pandora. Pandora is an Internet radio website, which also offers a music app for all types of mobile devices.
“I love Pandora; it’s convenient, easy and listeners get a wide variety of music at their fingertips,” said Cara Stevens, senior from Lake City, Mich. “On the down side, sometimes the playlists can’t read my mind and they kind of suck, and after 40 hours you have to pay.”
When asked about the downside of the Pandora mobile app, most students stated that the only downside was the mobile cap.
The mobile cap creates a time limit is 40 hours of free music a month on a mobile device. However, it is unlimited if the user is listening on a computer.
Another downside that disappoints students is the limited number of song skips they are allowed to use in one hour.
“The cons of using Pandora would definitely be the ads that pop up every few songs that you can’t skip,” said Heather Broughton, freshman from Falls of Rough, Ky. “Also, I’m not a subscriber: I get enough out of just having an account, even if I have to deal with advertisements.”
Itunes
iTunes is oftentimes viewed as a more secure music provider. The song or album is purchased and downloaded to the users’ device where it remains until deleted. iTunes users have the option to create entire playlists, listen to a specific artist or album and even shuffle through their library.
In order to keep up with the competition, however, Apple, Inc. created the iTunes Radio app. The iTunes Radio app provides the ability to create a station based around a specific artist of interest, and iTunes will stream music directly from their store which may not be in your personal library.
“I buy most of my music, so I use iTunes a lot but I don’t use iTunes Radio because I’ve already been using Pandora and Spotify so I don’t bother switching,” said Jessie Hedrick, freshman from Palatine, Ill. “Also I listen to channels on iTunes Radio and I don’t like them as much as channels on Spotify or Pandora.”
iTunes music app is only compatible with Apple devices. So, devices like the Kindle or Nook tablet will not support music purchased from iTunes.
“The bad thing about iTunes, Apple’s not very compatible with anything,” said Gus Ayres, sophomore from Glasgow, Ky. “I tried it on my computer a few years ago, and now I can’t get any of my songs back.”