Anyways, the apps I use for music are Songza, I Heart Radio, Pandora, Spotify , and Beats. My favorites are Pandora and Spotify because they use the most variety and personalization, but Songza is okay.
Songza is an app you probably haven't heard of, its a smaller app company, but offers music based on time of the day and mood. You can choose what you want to listen to, and then click the thumbs up or thumbs down and the station will adjust to your preferences. When I'm studying, I will listen to rain sounds, or classical music. But when I'm working out I listen to loud and inspiring tunes. Songza plays a lot of well known songs, they stick to the most popular songs, that everyone has heard. I like it because you can personalize it to what you want, pick your mood or activity, and they play more well-known songs that I can recognize and sing along to. I also like that there are no commercials, but simply ads along the screen. However, songs repeat too often and you never heard any less well-known songs.
I Heart Radio everyone has heard of. If you listen to the radio, the announcers like to mention it EVERY. FIVE. SECONDS. So of course, every time I listen to the radio, I hear, "Download the I Heart radio app! Download it! Download it, it's great!" over....and over....and over. So I decided to download it. However, I am not impressed what so ever. It's difficult to use, and to this day I still don't really know how to use it. You have a choice of like 5 activities, but that's about it, and you can only listen to some radio stations (which you could get just by listening to the radio) and some artists that you like. However, I couldn't even find radio stations like B93.7 on the app, and only a few artists. It is more radio based, and complicated. You can listen to radio stations from other areas, like Los Angeles, but there's little personalization. However, I do like that you can control if the songs are mixed, familiar, or unfamiliar, and can view lyrics and artist bios.
Everyone knows Pandora, teachers will play it in their classrooms and kids love it. It is by far one of the most successful music apps. In 2011, Pandora made $138 million and had 150 million users in 2012. Pandora was launched in 2005, and was rated a B- by Entertainment Weekly in 2013 and they said, "Free streaming radio, $36 a year to go ad-free. Launched in 2005, Pandora is available on just about every platform. There's no on-demand, though, and stations tend to draw from a relatively small pool of albums."
I like Pandora, but it replays songs over and over again and there is no selection for your mood. There is the thumbs up, thumbs down option, but it still plays similar songs. It is easiest to use, and gives the most information about the artist, song, and composition than any other music app. You can look at the lyrics as well as the artists information, but there is not a lot of personalization. They have a wide selection of genres, but not enough songs to fill every genre. Oh yes, and there are PLENTY of ads to keep you entertained.
Spotify is probably my favorite of all of them. With Spotify you can choose your mood or genre, and choose a radio type from that that another music enthusiast has created. For example, in the mornings I often listen to "Wake Up!" which features songs that get me up and moving. But at night I listen to quiet music, under "Chill" and that puts me to sleep. I really enjoy how you can star and like songs, and then play the playlist of your liked songs. The app is also personalized, however it has few familiar songs. Most songs are unfamiliar and unheard of, but I kinda like that because you don't get soooo many repeating songs, but can instead learn to love and enjoy new and less well-known music and styles. It is semi-easy to use, but it has its difficulties. You can start your own radio easily based on the artist or song that you like and it will play songs like that in seconds. I usually browse around and listen to multiple stations and listen to genres I normally wouldn't listen to, I can expand my knowledge and experience of music. But if I want to go back and listen to my favorites, I simply go to my page, listen to my favorites, or listen to stations that I have created, it's fairly simple. There are a few ads, but not an overwhelming amount.
Beats is the app I am least familiar with, yet it seems to be the most quickly rising music app. It was released only at the beginning of 2014, but is quickly becoming more and more popular. AT&T now offers a music plan with your phone, and music has never before really been incorporated with the phone business. It's revolutionary really, people love music, people love their phones, put it together at a seemingly low price and both businesses benefit. From the commercials, I can see that these people LOVE music. They believe that music is life. Dr.Dre runs the company, and made $1.6 billion off his headphones in 2012. He knows how to sell and control and monopolize the music industries. Companies like Pandora, Spotify, etc. need to watch their backs. Beats is new and extremely personalized to YOU....at a cost. You might get the best music service but it will cost you. I only have used it a little bit, it's free for 7 days and then you can get the subscription, but I still believe that music should be free. Music is a way of life, not a business.
Classic music as we know it is changing and fast, digital music sales and music apps are soaring, while CD and music based stores are failing and calling bankruptcy. Music apps are the fastest growing app companies, and they are making a lot of money off of it. Music is changing quickly, and we don't even seem to be noticing.
