Today’s top five music streaming services

These days, there’s really no excuse not to be a part of a music streaming service, especially with all the free ones out there. In my opinion, some are certainly better than others. I’ve listed the top five streaming services, ranked in order of quality:

5. Songza: The solid song streaming service

Pros: Songza offers you a variety of playlists based on a number of categories, such as mood, genre, time period and other miscellaneous categories. I’ve found some solid songs through this service. If you find yourself using it, I personally recommend looking for songs through mood; they’re really good at finding just the right songs to reflect how you’re feeling.

Cons: The biggest downside to this service, aside from the limited skips, is the fact that you can’t listen to an individual artist. A certain artist or song you might like could be in a playlist, but there will never be a playlist dedicated to a specific musician.

4. Soundcloud: A personal favorite

Pros: Aside from helping local or aspiring musicians get their work out in the world, it has a lot of stuff you would never hear on radio or any other streaming service. I’ve found a lot of remixes of songs on here that I didn’t know I needed in my library until I heard them. Some popular artists will even upload a preview of a song exclusively to Soundcloud before they release it, or they’ll just release the song outright. It’s free, and it’s also mobile, so you can listen to your favorite unsigned artists on the go.

Cons: As far as everything else goes, you could do better. There are playlists, but nothing like what other streaming services offer. For instance, you probably won’t find a collection of greatest hits by your favorite artist here.

3. Pandora: An oldie, but a goodie just the same

Pros: This is probably a first for a lot of longtime-music-streamers. If you don’t know what Pandora is, it’s a free Internet streaming service that lets users look up their favorite artists and songs and listen to a station with similar artists or songs in addition to other songs by the original artist. Where Pandora shines is the variety of stations you can find.

I’m sure everyone and their mother has at some point told you about “this totally unknown station that nobody knows about that plays the best songs.” They actually might be telling the truth, and you might even be that person one day when you stumble across a station that plays hit after hit after hit. If you don’t find it, Pandora lets you create your own station tailored around an artist or song of your preference, and they’ll add music that sounds like it. Pandora can be accessed on the Internet, on your phone and, depending on the make and model, in your car.

Cons: The only downside to Pandora is that you are given a limited amount of skips and you’re occasionally forced to listen to ads. But for a free service with tons of variety, you could do worse.

2. Apple Music: The new kid on the block

Pros: It’s a paid subscription, but there’s a free three-month trial to see if you like Apple’s latest and greatest attempt to take over the music streaming business. Apple has taken a lot of the stuff that worked with iTunes and moved it over to Apple Music while adding a few new features that you won’t find in iTunes. In addition to neatly organizing all the music you have in your phone’s library, Apple Music can recommend songs, playlists and artists based on artists, genres or songs you already like.

Where Apple Music separates itself from its competition is in a few cool features, such as the ability to stream a music video for free at any time. Probably the coolest feature that’s exclusive to Apple Music is the ability to view behind-the-scenes information about your favorite artists who post to Apple Music.

In the keynote where Apple debuted the service, users could see an artist upload photos of them in the studio, goofing off, a brand new song or posting lyrics to a song that hadn’t even been written yet. Siri also works with Apple Music, and pretty much everything you can imagine Siri doing with Apple Music is a possibility, including playing the number one song from a certain date. You can also stream radio stations that are exclusive Apple Music and create and share playlists with your friends and the world.

Cons: Apple Music is looking to be a very good paid music streaming service, but a lot of the things they offer have been done before, which brings me to my next service.

1. Spotify: Top-notch service

Pros: Anything any streaming service has done, Spotify can do better. Admittedly, I’m biased towards Spotify since it’s the service I use the most, but it’s nothing short of a fantastic streaming service. Nearly every artist with every song, album and collaboration that they’ve made is on this service. Radio streaming, the ability to see what your friends have listened, the ability to create, share and name any playlist with any amount of songs, and the ability to follow your favorite artists and friends are just part of what makes Spotify top-dog.

My favorite and main reason for using Spotify, however, is the ability to download playlists to your phone and computer that can be played without an Internet or mobile connection. Spotify also offers the best way to discover new music by offering a seemingly endless amount of playlists that the staff has created, or the infinite amount of playlists that users have created themselves. Any occasion or genre or mood that you can think of, Spotify has a playlist for.

Cons: The main drawbacks to the service are the lack of some major artists (Taylor Swift, why are you punishing us?), and the amount of mobile data it takes up if you’re not listening while connected to Wi-Fi.

More pros: Spotify has a free and premium version. The free version is similar to Pandora, and the premium version has a free trial. But like Netflix, it’s a gateway drug that you’ll be hooked on in no time. The good news is that Spotify offers a student discount that brings the price down to five dollars a month, which is nothing compared to all the content and features that Spotify gives you, and it’s another reason why Spotify is the best music streaming service out there at this time.