Most teenagers listen and download music through their phone, but under which app medium?

Spotify:

Many are familiar with the computer and phone app Spotify. Through this app, anyone can directly stream music to their mobile device. Nearly every artist and song can be heard through this app, except major artists such as Taylor Swift or Prince, who have chosen to remove their music from the app. Spotify has a great social aspect to it as users are able create playlists and share them with friends.

The only issue that arises through this medium of streaming music is, if you do not pay $9.99 a month for premium membership, you miss out on a few features. The flagship of Spotify’s Premium membership is that your streaming experience is ad-free and you have unlimited skips on the songs, and users are able to listen to their music offline.

However, if you are stuck with the normal Spotify experience, you can enjoy only five skips per hours and ads after every six songs. This small annoyance from this streaming device should not detour anyone from using this app, as it provides the chance to listen from your phone without taking up precious storage that downloading music would use.

Apple Music:

Apple music is a great contender with Spotify as they both share many of the same functions. Much like Spotify, Apple Music streams content to the listener’s device; however, there are no ads. Apple Music also offers the same music discovery and radio option that Spotify does. One large feature that Apple Music has over Spotify is its emphasis on connection with artists. Artists who desire to share photos and content other than music can use the app as a social media device. Apple Music has added the ability to have songs accompanied by music videos, instead of the track on its own.

Sharing content with Apple Music is very different than sharing content with Spotify though. In order to send a friend a playlist, the listener can only do it by link via text message instead of through the app itself. This odd path to sharing content can cause great confusion amongst users and prevent playlists from being shared.  Another large issue that has been reported is battery usage. Many users have complained about the large consumption of power this app uses. This can be a great deal breaker for those who have smart phones with a limited battery life. Facing these large obstacles, Apple Music has a bumpy road to gaining recognition.

Milk Music & Pandora:

Two of the main phone apps that are spearheading music discovery are Milk Music and Pandora. Both are similar to Spotify in the way that they stream music to the device through a cellular or WiFi connection, and have the same restrictions on non-premium users such as only including ads after every fiver through seven songs.

What sets these two apps apart from other music streaming apps is that you do not directly choose the artist or song you want to listen to, but the genre of the music. Pandora executes this in a slightly different way than Milk Music, as you can look up an artist you enjoy and it will play songs from them and from artists similar to them. Milk Music matches the listener to a song solely off of the genre picked. This approach to listening to music can expand the user’s playlist and knowledge of music.

8 Tracks:

8 Tracks shares the idea of expanding the listeners’ music library as playlists are discovered. Tags are used to identify user-made playlists and help the listener pick one.

8 Tracks is known for helping the listener discover music from lesser known artists instead of the more well-known artists that show up on Spotify instead. This is great for the users who want a wider selection of songs on their playlist that are not necessarily from large label names. Depending on the tags and categories searched, you can discover new works from newer, unknown groups discovered by a fellow 8 Tracks user, or well-established musicians.

Soundcloud:

Soundcloud offers an easily accessible platform for small time artists to get their music heard. Many unknown artists use this platform due to the fact it is free to upload and share content. By creating an account, the listener can stream and download music to his or her device from any contributing artist.  The only way to download music from Soundcloud is through a computer, and the music must be transferred to a mobile device. This function will greatly save listeners data as an app is no longer needed to stream music.

A large issue Soundcloud is facing criticism over is the fact it does not review or censor its content. With the ability for anyone to upload content, there is a possibility for lower quality, unlicensed content. A major issue with Soundcloud is the fact it is not as big as the other music listening platforms. This prevents artists from gaining a large audience. Having limited exposure deters many artists from using Soundcloud to share their music; however the fact that it is a free service counters this issue.