10 Most Popular Music Streaming Apps
Like many things in technology, the world of music storage has experienced a complete metamorphosis. It all started in 1877, when Thomas Edison created the Cylinder Phonograph, the first recorded commercial medium for recording sound. Then next big development didn’t occur until around ten years later, with the emergence of Vinyl in 1888.
Fast forward a century, and developments grow exponentially. There was a rapid progression from tape to cassette, through to CD in the 70’s, and then in 1987, the emergence of digital MP3 storage. We are now at a time where users cannot get enough, and large storage capacities are of particular concern. MP3 players were being developed to be able to store 160+GB of music, and they were still found lacking.
In the last few years there has been a significant shift from physical storage to cloud storage, and the consequent emergence of music streaming services. The free, or pay-per-month models received instant popularity from users who were struggling to justify paying over a dollar per song. The most well-known of these is of course Spotify.
Here we have compiled a list (in no particular order) of the 10 other popular music streaming apps available today.
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Rdio
Launched in August 2010, and founded by Janus Friis, the co-creator of Skype. San Francisco based Rdio is available though your computer, Android phone or tablet, and iPhone or iPad.
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Grooveshark
Founded in 2007 from the University of Florida, by student and musician Sam Tarantino, with co-founder Josh Greenberg. It was designed to be a social media music service that was generated by artists and listeners.
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Deezer
Founded in 2006 by Daniel Marhely in Paris, France. It was originally launched under the name Blogmusik. They re-launched under the name Deezer in 2007. This service is available on several TV, phone and tablets.
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Jango
This is a free streaming service that lets users create and share custom radio stations. Founded in 2007, and based in New York, it is available on iPhone, iPad & Android devices.
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Last.Fm
Originally founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. This service builds music recommendations based from data pulled (or “scrobbled”), from a combination of sources. These are all user generated by the various channels the user listens from, including, from Internet radio stations, the user’s computer, or any connected portable music device.
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SoundCloud
Founded in Stockholm, Sweden, by sound designer Alex Ljung and artist Eric Wahlforss. SoundCloud was moved to be based out of Berlin, Germany in 2007. Unlike some of the other services, this is an entirely user generated service, where users can upload, record, promote and share their original mp3’s.
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Pandora
Based in California, Pandora provides a music streaming and automated music recommendation service. Though the company was established in 2004, the music streaming service wasn’t launched until 2013. This service is available on Android and iOS devices.
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Rhapsody
Launched officially in 2001, and based in Seattle Rhapsody allows users to play music both on and offline. It is available on iOS, Android, BlackBerry OS, and Verizon Wireless.
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Slacker Radio
Founded in 2006, and head-quartered in San Diego, with offices in Palo Alto, CA and New York City. Slacker is a radio streaming service that is available across most mobile platforms including Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows Phone.
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Songza
Head-quartered in New York, Songza was founded in October 2008 by Aza Raskin and Scott Robbin. It is a free music streaming and recommendation service for Internet users in the US.
