Finding the Right Audio Streaming Platform for Your Needs

It can be quite challenging to figure out which streaming platform is the right fit for your own music tastes, especially when it comes to finding out what's available on each one. In contrast, with TV and movie streaming services, you can generally trust that what you're watching or listening to is what's been officially released by the production company. With music streaming platforms, however, this isn't always the case- sometimes songs are leaked before they're even released, or music videos are censored in ways that they aren't on TV or movie channels. This might be because the bigger video streaming platforms constantly fluctuate their content, and they announce these changes publicly. Plus, you're much more likely to see a friend or family member using Hulu or Netflix, as it is often broadcast in front of you, than you are to see somebody using, say, Spotify or Tidal. People tend to do this more privately. And, therefore, the only way typically to find out if one music streaming service is better for you is by either word of mouth or actually signing up for a trial membership to one of them and seeing for yourself.

If you can avoid signing up for a trial membership, that would be the best option. I know I have been tempted to do this many times, but I never remember to cancel before the membership is automatically renewed. This is how they get you, and it's exactly why streaming services offer trial memberships. They know that almost everyone will forget to cancel in time.

But what if I told you that there is a much quicker and easier way to see if a streaming service is right for you? What if I told you that all you need to do is take a few minutes and answer some simple questions? Well, that is precisely what I am here to do. Because let's face it, none of us has the time to test out all these different apps and streaming sites to see if they are worth our hard-earned money. So, allow me to do it for you.

Now that you understand the different benefits of each music streaming site, it's time to decide which one is right for you. If you're looking for a complete music streaming experience with lots of curated playlists and exclusive content, then Spotify might be the best option for you. If you're more interested in having all of your devices synced up and access to a large variety of songs, Apple Music might be a better fit. And if you just want something convenient and easy to use, Tidal might be perfect for you!

However, if you miss the old-fashioned radio experience, then Pandora may not be the best option for you. The thrill of not knowing what is going to play next is gone, and there is no ability to discover new music without having to hunt it down yourself.

The Oldest Music Streaming Platform on the Market

There is a good chance that if you are reading this, you are already familiar with Pandora. It was one of the first (if not the first) audio streaming platforms that still exists today. Prior to the advent of apps like Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, and Pandora, music lovers turned to Pandora for their music needs. At first, it was a very novel approach to music streaming - something that few companies had done at the time. If it weren't for Pandora paving the way, many of the big names in music streaming wouldn't exist as we know them today. Pandora was founded in 2000. The website for the Music Genome Project, known then as the Music Visualization Project or MVP, looked remarkably different from the Pandora we know today. In fact, one could say that it was the very first iteration of Pandora. It offered a visual journey through your favorite music. The site kind of looked like a family tree, with each song in its own bubble. Liking or disliking that song created new bubbles that grew out of the original one. From there, you could visually graph your listening experience, from artist zero onward. This is where the Pandora algorithm would eventually come from.

Today, Pandora no longer has a visually pleasing interface. All one has to do on Pandora is to choose an artist or a song and allow the site or the app to create a radio station based on it. All of the complicated work of how each song tonally and stylistically relates to the next is done behind the scenes. All you have to do, then, as the listener, is sit back and enjoy your personalized radio station. Liking or disliking a song, as was the case with the Music Genome Project, will alter the course of your radio station, and a station more accurate to your tastes will be created.

If you have used Pandora in the past, perhaps you remember being annoyed by the number of ads that interrupted your radio play. This is one of the main reasons that many of us turned away from traditional radio to begin with. Pandora now has two different ways for you to enjoy ad-free customized listening.

Freemium with Two Affordable Payment Plan Options

Pandora is a freemium service, so if you want to avoid ads, you can just grit your teeth and bear them. Or, if you're willing to add on a new streaming service to your monthly bills, you can upgrade to Pandora Plus or Pandora Premium. With Pandora Plus, for only $4.99 a month, you can enjoy ads removed completely; access anything you want in search; have no skipping limit for ads; and listen offline (also not available in the free version). If you choose to pay $9.99 a month (the same as Spotify), then Pandora offers all of that plus the ability to make and share playlists with other Pandora users and via social media. Personally, I like the fact that Pandora offers an audio streaming service that can compete with Spotify, Tidal, and Apple Music for just $5 a month. That is a huge part of Pandora's allure, in my opinion.

A Relatively Small Library of Music

Pandora falls short when it comes to its song number. Tidal boasts 60 million tracks, while Spotify claims to have 30 million. However, Apple Music falls in the middle at 45 million songs. Pandora only has 2 million songs when compared to these other services. This is disappointing because it means that Pandora?s radio model doesn't compare as favorably to Spotify. Majorly, this is due to the fact that Spotify has more songs than Pandora does. This leaves less variety and customization for Pandora stations, which could be a problem in the long run. Additionally, unlike on Apple Music and Spotify, artists cannot upload their own music to Pandora. This means that a majority of the 2 million songs are likely going to be comprised of more popular, well-known artists. As a result, there won't be much in the way of discovering unknown or new artists.

The usability of Pandora is probably the best out there, as it is mostly done for you. You simply select an artist and Pandora creates a station based on that artist. When you like a song, you hit the ?thumbs up? button and when you don't like a song, you hit the ?thumbs down? button. This minimalist design looks good and feels intuitive to use.

Despite its smaller size, Pandora may offer a more unique listening experience than the larger music streaming platforms. It costs only $5 a month to sign up for Pandora Plus, which makes it an affordable and convenient way to listen to music without any of the hassle.