Saturday, May 31, 2014

What is the difference between internet radio vs "streaming services"?

I have been using Pandora and iTunes Radio, and have heard about Spotify.  Apple's soon-to-be completed purchase of Beats Music intensified my interest in understanding and communicating the difference.

Pandora and iTunes Radio enable users to create the equivalent of a radio station based on a song or artist.  With both, listen to ads or pay to listen ad-free.  This means that a playlist is made for users.

Spotify enables users to play specific desired songs at will, in playlists.  The users make the playlists.

Beats music is like a modification of Spotify, with playlists to let users explore and get familiar with musicians that are all built by humans.

I buy most songs I want, and make my own playlists.  However, services are great ways to explore music.

Time magazine has a decent article describing the features of many online music services.

No comments:

Post a Comment