Music is part of everybody’s life. And now that it has become easier to have access to music online, more people are able to enjoy it. Gone are the days when one has to buy CDs and cassette tapes of their favorite singers and composers to be able to listen to their music. Today, with the internet making everything possible, some songs and music are available online free-of-charge. Several web applications have been developed to facilitate listening to music on demand at no charge. And as long as one is connected to the internet, he can listen to music online anytime, anywhere.
Grooveshark
Grooveshark is a web-based music application built for every music-loving person. Internet users are able to listen to single songs from a collection of more than 15 million songs, create and save playlists, and embed on other blogs, websites, and social media profiles using the Grooveshark Widget.
Grooveshark users can access their accounts remotely across multiple devices such as Android, jailbroken iOS, Blackberry, and HP Palm WebOS devices. Users can search and find music by artist, song, album, artist or by browsing friends’ recent activity or even through other user’s playlists. Users can listen to Genre Radio Stations of specific genres or they can populate their own station with their list of current songs. Grooveshark site can use the song list to stream similar music. Other social media accounts can be connected to Grooveshark.
Grooveshark is a subsidiary of Escape Media Group, a US-based online music streaming service. Grooveshark was founded by 3 undergraduates of the University of Florida in March 2006. The founder Sam Tarantino became the CEO while Josh Greenberg became CTO and Andres Barreto became COO. In the first two years of its existence, Grooveshark functioned as a paid downloadable music service, with content sourced from a proprietary P2P network called Sharkbyte. Users who uploaded a transacted song are paid a portion of the accounting cost for the song. Grooveshark has about 35 million users.
Spotify
Another music streaming service available online is Spotify. It provides DRM-protected content from a range of big and independent record labels such as EMI, Sony, Warner Music Group and Universal. Spotify was launched in October 2008 by a Swedish startup Spotify AB. In September 2010, Spotify recorder about 10 million users and by December 2012, total users reached 20 million.
Users can browse music by artist, record label, album, genre or playlist. Direct search is another way to browse or access music. Users who register are given a 6-month free trial period and users can listen to an unlimited amount of music supported by visual and radio-style advertising.
Pandora
Pandora was started back in 2000, when Tim Westergren’s Music Genome Project began. This is the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Tim Westergren founded Pandora and the Music Genome project, and he is now Chief Strategy Officer. Users are able to explore the vast collection of music by just dropping the name of the user’s favorite song, artist or genre into Pandora and the Music Genome Project will give it a go, scanning its entire library of analyzed music to find songs or music similar to what the users like.
Pandora allows users to create up to 100 “unique stations”. The Music Genome Project was founded by music lovers and musicians by heart and soul. The project aims to help users connect with the music they love. According to Statistic Brain, Pandora has 80 million registered users
Among the 3 music streaming apps, Pandora seems to be leading the race. Unfortunately, Pandora is currently in a legal battle with BMI so there are restrictions imposed that affected its global reach. Grooveshark, which comes second in terms of the number of users might as well be the next best music streaming application.
