streaming-music

Not long ago, I wrote an article aimed at helping music fans enjoy free audio from a variety of online streaming sources. Of course, I'm a firm believer in using the Internet to discover new music. But there is a threshold between discovery and entertainment for many listeners, and I think paying for a subscription music service is a great way to cross it--especially if you want to take your music "to go" on mobile devices.

There are a variety of pay-to-stream options on the Web, from Slacker's $4.99 Radio Plus service, which lets you … Read more

Streaming music from your PC to your phone is a nice alternative to music locker services like MP3Tunes and mSpot, which require you to upload your music to a server on the Internet before you can access it on your phone. Simplify Media had a great iPhone app that performed this function, but Google bought the company earlier this year--presumably to integrate it into some sort of future music service for Android--and discontinued the iPhone app. I've been looking for a viable replacement ever since.

Today, I found it: ZumoCast. It's brought to you by the folks who … Read more

Editors' note: Since this post was published, a representative for Pandora has informed us that the new feature will not be available until Wednesday. At that time, users will be able to fully explore the functionality at the service's genre page, which is currently under construction.

Tuesday morning, Pandora introduced a handy new feature for its online streaming service: genre-based station creation. Before now, users could use only artists, songs, or composers as "seeds," which are the basis for the mixes that are then provided via the Music Genome Project. The new capability offers listeners a way … Read more

If you're looking to get your music collection stored in the cloud, two of the best options out there are MP3tunes and mSpot.

Both services offer a free starter plan capped at 2GB. They both integrate with iTunes or can be configured to manually upload music from specific folders. You can stream over any browser, or by using their dedicated mobile apps. The two services have so much in common, actually, that it can be hard to decide which one to use.

So, if you're sick of waiting around for Google or Apple to create their own long-rumored … Read more

Music services for mobile phones are enjoying increased popularity thanks to the fact that cell phones are replacing standalone MP3 players for many people. MSpot is one of many solutions that has cropped up as a solution for on-the-go listening. The company offers a music cloud service that lets you upload up to 2GB of music for free and access it from any Wi-Fi-capable computer or Android device.

Continue reading the mSpot for Android review.

The great thing about Internet radio is that you can access tens of thousands of stations from across the globe, so there's bound to be something for everyone. Even better is if you can access all that content in the palm of your hand. WunderRadio is banking on just that with its line of apps for a variety of mobile devices, including one tooled specifically for the Android platform. Sadly, although the app works quite well, we still think $6.99 is a bit too steep a price tag for what is essentially free (mostly ad-supported) content. If WunderRadio … Read more

I'm a big proponent of cloud-based music services for mobile devices. I struggle figuring out which 500 songs I want on my 8GB iPhone at any given time, and the problem gets worse as as I download more apps. So it's gratifying to see an explosion of mobile music services in the last six months. Start-ups and established companies alike seem to believe that the current model, where users transfer songs from a computer to their phone using a wired connection, is not long for this world. Instead, these companies are coming up with various ways to dispense … Read more

One of the most interesting bits of news to come out of today's Google I/O conference was the company's stealth acquisition of Simplify Media a couple months ago.

Until March of this year, Simplify offered a free software application for PC and Mac that let users stream music from the iTunes or WinAmp libraries on their home computer, over the Internet, to other devices they own. The company also made an iPhone app that let the iPhone or iPod Touch receive these streams.

It was a nifty solution for users with big music libraries at home and … Read more

On-demand music service Spotify, which is currently available only in Europe, has been broadly praised by users (including me) for its large selection of music and exceptional responsiveness. Today, Spotify added two new levels of service: Open and Unlimited. The Open tier is more notable because, once again, it opens the service to users without an invitation.

The new levels are the latest step in Spotify's ongoing experiment to broaden its audience without compromising performance. When it launched in 2008, Spotify was free and offered unlimited streams to a PC, but an invitation was required. In February 2009, it … Read more