You've got plenty of choices when you want to listen to free music on the web. The question is, what's the best option—especially if you're interested in possibly even paying for an unlimited, mobile-friendly, offline-possible streaming experience?
Here's a graphical rundown of how the major streaming services [1] stack up (click the small image for the full-sized version), followed by the straight text. Want to simply see what we liked about the streaming services? Head right to our "Best of the Bunch" picks.
On-Demand Streaming
Availability: Finland, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, UK
Pricing: Varies by country, but UK customers are offered:
• "Open," 20 hours of lower-bitrate streaming with advertisements: Free
• "Free," unlimited streaming at lower bitrates with advertisements: Free (with invitation)
• "Unlimited," with no restriction on streaming and no advertisements: £4.99 per month (just under $8 U.S.)
• "Premium," with no ads or restrictions, higher bitrate streaming, offline storage of playlist tracks, and mobile apps and streaming: £9.99 per month (just under $16 U.S.)
Platforms: Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Symbian; BlackBerry under development; unofficial client available on Windows Mobile.
Size of music library: Approximately 8 million tracks from major label and indie artists.
Stream rate: 160 kbps for Free and Unlimited plans, 320 kbps for Premium.
Offline storage: Premium subscribers only, up to 3,333 tracks.
Other features: Desktop apps do a fine job managing all your offline music.
Free trial of subscription: No.
Availability: U.S. and Canada.
Pricing:
• Rdio Unlimited, with desktop players, mobile apps, and music downloads: $9.99 (U.S.) per month
• Rdio Web, unlimited streaming through web site: $4.99 per month.
Platforms: Browser only through "Web"; browser, Adobe AIR desktop apps for Windows and Mac, and iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry apps with "Unlimited" plan.
Size of music library: About seven million tracks.
Stream rate: Undisclosed, but representatives claimed it ran "higher than the 64kbps streaming bit rate offered by Rhapsody."
Offline storage: Playlists can be synced offline with Unlimited, no limits described.
Other features: "Syncing" to iTunes and Windows Media Player, so that your existing offline music and playlists is reflected in your online Rdio dashboard, and you can access an online copy of your playlists anywhere.
Free trial of subscription: Three days of Rdio Web, no credit card needed.
Availability: U.S. only.
Pricing:
• "Rhapsody Premier" with unlimited streaming and (subscription-restricted) downloads to one phone or MP3 player: $9.99 per month.
• "Rhapsody Premier Plus" ups the total of portable synced devices to three: $14.99 per month.
Platforms: Windows and Mac, with apps for iOS, Android, select Verizon Wireless phones, and compatible MP3 players. BlackBerry app in development.
Size of music library: Over 10 million songs
Stream rate: 128 kbps (MP3) for paid accounts, 64 kbps for free previews.
Offline storage: Unlimited downloads of Rhapsody tracks, expire upon subscription ending.
Other features:
Free trial of subscription: 25 streams through the web site per month, and a 14-day trial of Premier, requires credit card and deactivation.
Availability: Global
Pricing:
• "Basic" provides web streaming and customized "radio" stations: $4.99 per month.
• "Primo" covers the Basic plan, plus mobile access and offline storage: $9.99 per month.
Platforms: Web-only for Basic. Primo adds iOS and Android devices.
Size of music library: 7.4 million
Stream rate: 256 kbps through the web, 64 kbps mobile.
Offline storage: On mobile, with either 64 kbps AAC or 320 kbps MP3 files.
Other features:
Free trial of subscription: Three days of Primo service, no credit card needed.
Availability: U.S., UK, Canada, Germany and Japan
Pricing:
• One-month, three-month, and one-year streaming plans; three-month and one-year plans also provide 15 song download credits every three months: $5-$7 per month
• "Napster to Go," with unlimited song transfer for up to three mobile devices: $14.95 per month
Platforms: Windows and compatible MP3 players.
Size of music library: "Over 10 million."
Stream rate: 128-192 kbps, depending on track.
Offline storage: Via download credits.
Other features: Extremely annoying woman appears and starts talking to you in lower-right corner of web site when not signed in. She has human-like features.
Free trial of subscription: Seven days of streaming, no download credits, credit card required.
Availability: Global
Pricing:
• Streaming through Grooveshark's web site, with ads: Free
• Grooveshark VIP, with desktop and mobile apps, no ads, customization options: $3 per month or $30 per year.
Platforms: Desktop streaming through web for free; VIP members get Adobe AIR app for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and mobile apps for Android, Nokia, Palm, BlackBerry, and jailbroken iPhones.
Size of music library: Seven million (unverified)
Stream rate: 192kbps
Offline storage: Yes (through mobile apps)
Other features:
Free trial of subscription: Have appeared in past.
Radio-Style Streaming
Availability: U.S. only
Pricing:
• 40 hours a month of streaming music, limited (five per hour) skips: Free.
• "Pandora One," with unlimited streaming and skips, no ads, higher quality, and desktop app: $3 per month.
Platforms: Web, Windows & Mac (AIR app), mobile apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, webOS, Windows Mobile.
Size of music library: 700,000 tracks.
Stream rate: 64 kbps (AAC+) for free users, 192 kbps for Pandora One
Offline storage: None.
Other features:
Free trial of subscription: None.
Availability: U.S., UK, Germany for continuous free streaming, 30-song trial in all other countries
Pricing:
• Basic sign-up, with unlimited streaming (U.S./UK/Germany) and "scrobbling": Free.
• Subscriber accounts, with no advertising, custom/"Loved" playlists, server priority, and international streaming: $3 per month
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, and iOS, Android, BlackBerry.
Size of music library: 6.5 million songs.
Stream rate: 128 kbps (MP3)
Offline storage: None
Other capabilities: Near-universal "Scrobbling": Keep Last.fm informed about what you're playing and liking through most media players and smartphone apps.
Free trial of subscription: None.
Availability: U.S., Canada
Pricing:
• Unlimited streaming but limited skips: Free.
• "Slacker Radio Plus," with unlimited skips, no ads, mobile app caching for online-to-offline continuity: $4-$5 month (monthly or annual billing).
Platforms: Web streaming through browser, and mobile apps: iOS, Android, BlackBerry, webOS, Windows Mobile.
Size of music library: More than 2.4 million songs.
Stream rate: 128 kbps (MP3) through web, sometimes 64 kbps (AAC+) mobile.
Offline storage: Mobile apps can cache streams for playing when disconnected.
Free trial of subscription: Seven days of Slacker Radio Plus, requires card and must be deactivated.
The Best of the Bunch
That's a lot of stats and numbers to look through, we know. So we'll get a little subjective here and offer up the highlights of streaming music today. We're staying away from streaming quality because raw numbers don't always tell the tale, and we are, sad to say, nothing close to audiophiles:
The Best Services For:
• Global availability: MOG and Grooveshark
• Pricing per track available: MOG
• Multi-platform availability: Spotify and Pandora
• Offline availability: Spotify and Rdio—though without knowing the limits on Rdio's offline syncing.
• Most offered for free: Grooveshark, Last.fm, and Slacker Radio
• Ease of use: Pandora
Our Picks (If You're Paying):
Spotify and MOG:
As Adam Pash put it, Spotify is the closest thing to having both an elegantly synced online/offline music player when you're at your primary laptop, but also having your best music in the cloud for when you're on the go. It doesn't give up everything in its free trial, and, oh, right—it's not available in the U.S. yet. But based on our test run with it, we're hooked. If you're a smartphone owner of nearly any brand, too, Spotify has you covered.
MOG, meanwhile, is available to anyone with unrestricted internet, charges just $5 per month for Pandora-style "radio" streaming, but you've got a lot more control. You can save radio streams that work out well as playlists, hook MOG up with your desktop players to feed it your favorite artists, and offers a whole lot of catalog depth for not a lot of money—just enough to make you feel like skipping the ads and getting access on your iPhone or Android device.
That's our take on the streaming music services, but if there's anything we've learned over the years, it's that people take their music players and collections very seriously. Tell us which service wins your wallet, or just keeps you coming back for the freebies each month, in the comments.
Note: This comparison isn't comprehensive, as the number of webapps offering on-demand or radio-style streaming is nearly unmeasurable. We lined up those services with a notable share of audience and licensing agreements, then ran them down on the criteria we care about.
Another caveat: We weren't able to enter every artist in your favorite playlists and check if they were available in each service. While the "Size of music library" stat we provide for each service is generally indicative of breadth and reach, it may not always feel that way to fans of certain artists. Pandora seems notably light on track count (about 700,000), but I've almost never heard a blues track on repeat—although my wife's workout mixes do seem to basically mirror a decade of high-energy radio. Rhapsody, on the other hand, offers 10 million tracks, and does keep an impressive vault of basically the entire Motown/Stax collection, but I found it seemingly lacking in some of the Blue Note jazz favorites I've seen on other services.
In other words, you'll want to try a service out with some of your favorite artists, even if it requires a very grating credit card entry and deadline deactivation, before you start shelling out cash.
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