Whether they’re walking to their next class, working out, or frantically trying to finish an essay, college students constantly have their headphones in. In a digital age with music at its center, it’s not too hard to find a suitable music streaming app. Choosing the right app or site, however, is never an easy task. It’s an age old question: out all of all these great choices, which one do I choose? Among the top choices are Spotify, iHeartRadio, Last.fm, and Tidal.
Spotify is probably the most commonly used streaming site and is available both as a web player and an app. Spotify’s greatest feature is that it allows you to mix and match your favorite tunes to create “theme playlists” for all of your daily activities. Or, if you’re not really interested in creating your own playlist, you can pick from the hundreds of ready made playlists.
The drawbacks of Spotify are pretty minimal. Ads can get obnoxious, but this problem can be solved with a $9.99 per month premium subscription. Spotify Web Player is great as well does not, however, have a repeat button, so if there’s a song you’d like to listen to over and over again, you’ll have to select it again.
Along with Spotify, many students turn to iHeartRadio to access local radio stations (whether it’s Top 40 or sports) or radios for their favorite artist. These stations play songs by the artists themselves and related artists. Playing a station dedicated to your favorite genre is also present you with more artists, however it’s hard to say how interested each individual listener will be with these other choices.
Lesser known than Spotify and iHeartRadio are Last.fm and Tidal. Last.fm is great because it has a useful “see other artists” button, so listeners can be introduced to similar music by other musicians. It is also possible to sync Last.fm to both Spotify and YouTube. When it is synced to YouTube, the music or lyric video for the song will be in the bottom right hand corner. When synced with Spotify, you can “scrobble,” or keep track of, all the songs you played on Spotify with Last.fm. This can help you find new artists and music that is related to your interests. Last.fm’s most prominent drawback is that from time to time, you’ll want to listen to a certain track, and it will not be available, which is a bummer given its originality.
Tidal, another lesser known music streaming site, has a lot to offer. You can create a playlist, listen to new tracks, watch music videos, movies, and special Tidal shows. Like Spotify, Tidal allows its users to create playlists and offers a variety of ready made playlists as well. There is also a section dedicated to up and coming artists from around the world, which is great for someone looking to broaden their music horizons. Like Last.fm, you can sync Tidal to Last.fm and scrobble your favorite tracks. The biggest problem with Tidal is that it isn’t free. You can sign up for a free one month trial, but the site requires you to pay afterwards. With all that Tidal has to offer, subscribing to premium would be a smart choice.
In a college environment, where you need to tune out your surroundings from time to time, music streaming sites have the solutions you’re looking for. Spotify, iHeartRadio, Last.fm, and Tidal are just a few of the music streaming websites out there, but there are a variety of options that may be better or worse. For that reason, it’s important to pay attention to all that these sites have to offer.