Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Get App-y: Listen to any song, anywhere with Spotify

The mobile device era has been good for music lovers, especially with all of the applications and services that let you stream music directly to your computer or smartphone on the go. It keeps getting easier to listen to music based on your individual tastes instead of through a preset radio format.

For years, I've had fun exploring new songs with Pandora Radio , an early guest to the mobile music party. Now I'm adding Spotify to my list.

Spotify became available last month in the United States after several years of popularity in Europe . It's both a service found at Spotify.com and an app, and it gives you more than 15 million songs at your disposal anytime. You can play them, in full, even if you don't own them. And it's legal, thanks to music licensing agreements.

With Spotify, you pick when you want to play the songs and in what order. Just search your favorite songs and drag them to your queue.

If you only use Spotify on your computer, the service is free with ads. Start by requesting an invitation to join. When you get one, download the music player and start arranging your music.

If you want to play the music on your iPhone , Android, Windows Phone or another device, you download the free app and sign up for Spotify Premium, a subscription for $9.99 a month.

I can already tell I'll be using Spotify a lot, even if I just stick with the free service. It's great, for example, when you want to hear that one song you loved in high school but don't want to buy for your permanent collection. And I have found almost all the songs I've searched for so far.

I also still like Pandora Radio, found at Pandora.com, which suggests songs according to your musical tastes. You tell it the songs or artists you like, and it launches an intuitive radio station on your computer or mobile device, including iPhone, BlackBerry or Android. It's free with ads, but offers unlimited, ad-free subscriptions.

And although Pandora doesn't offer the control that Spotify gives you, it's a good way to find and hear new artists.

source: newsok.com

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