Apple users can hardly escape the expensive iTunes. You don’t really want illegal streaming services either. Think about the download prohibition in the Netherlands. Do you feel that way too? In this article, you will find the advantages as well as the pitfalls. I have an overview of good alternatives for iTunes Music. These are completely free, on a few conditions:
Advantages: Spotify has a very extensive catalogue and good sound quality. Connect to Spotify with your Facebook account and listen to music on your computer for free! If you want to use it on your phone, you just have to install the Spotify app. It hardly has any down time and its layout is very clear.
Disadvantages: Artists don’t always provide all their tracks, there is not a lot of new music to be discovered. The application does not start too fast. Every 5 minutes, there are some annoying ads. Furthermore, you can only listen to your music for twenty hours every month, and it’s only free on your laptop.
Advantages: With this nice app, you have a lot of possibilities: a big music database for free. With Deezer Flow, you listen to music that is adjusted to your own taste. Streaming is also very convenient. Listen to Deezer’s “recommended songs” or music in themes. A Deezer Premium subscription offers you the possibility to listen to music unlimited and without any interfering ads in between. You listen to higher quality music for 4,99 a month.
Disadvantages: To listen to music and save it on your phone for offline listening, Deezer will charge you another 5 euros. A Premium+ subscription costs 9,99. You can only play music, but you can’t save it into playlists. Offline use is also not possible.
Advantages: What is that new hit by Tyga called? Just check the popular tracks for Tubidy users. Tubidy lets you easily download music to your phone for free. Tubidy’s sources are, among others, Youtube, Vimeo and Liveleak. The videos are converted to mp3 files for use on your phone. To download free music with Tubidy, you only have to fill in the song/album/artist into the search field on the site. Then, you can choose between some songs in mp3 or mp4 format.
Disadvantages: The app only works on Android smartphones. However, you can download free music with Tubidy on a jailbroken iPhone. Another disadvantage is that the service has a lot of spam ads.
Advantages: SoundCloud is seen as a place where amateur DJs and musicians upload their tracks. Everyone can upload their music, even you. You can find the most special, exclusive versions of music here. Furthermore, Soundcloud has a user friendly app: favourite a track or an entire album or share music with your friends.
Disadvantages: SoundCloud offers less music than Spotify, and the interface for looking up music is not as convenient as other services. Not all this moment’s bands and artists can be found in the database.
Voordeel: The app is very user friendly and Grooveshark’s database has a big variety of music. For free. When you arrive on the Grooveshark site, you can instantly start streaming your songs. Enter a search query, click the image and stream! You can also choose to play a radio stream tied to a genre. Click the smileys near the track: the radio will from then on take your preferences into consideration. Another handy feature is that you can stream and search at the same time. And yes, Grooveshark is also available on iPhone, iPad or smartphone.
Disadvantages: Unfortunately, Grooveshark doesn’t have a function for discovering new music. You can only search for artists or songs. Furthermore, the service has some down time every once in a while.
Advantages: Did you know that you can put all your favourite songs on Youtube in a playlist? You don’t just have to listen here, but you can also play lyric videos and the original music videos. As often as you like.
Disadvantages: You have to watch the ads for a couple of seconds. Also, playing the music videos costs a lot of data. Your phone bill can get pretty expensive and the sound is not always great. Do you just have a small amount of data? Only play music when you’re on wifi.
Bit rate is the amount of data that has to be converted per second. One bit is the smallest amount of information. The higher the bit rate, the more information can be sent and received in a time unit. The bit rate only refers to the information exchange on a connection. When do you speak of good quality? When mp3 files have a bit rate of 192 kbps or higher.
I play 20 hours of music in just 2 days, so Spotify is not a good app for someone who plays a lot of music on the computer. I tried out Deezer at work for a week: not worth doing that again. You don’t encounter annoying ads, but a Deezer ad. That woman’s voice cuts through your tracks an awful lot. I like using Youtube, because that app also shows video footage and remembers my taste in music. That way, I can find suggestions for other nice tracks on the side of the screen. Grooveshark, on the other hand, is not very inspiring. The ads at the start of some clips are unavoidable, unfortunately.
I am a loyal iPhone user, so I let a friend of mine try out Tubidy: “This app is pretty handy, I can stream all my songs quickly and when it comes to the ads… they weren’t super annoying.” The comparable service Grooveshark is available for Apple users.
On Grooveshark, I could easily upload my phone’s current playlist thanks to the cloud storage feature. The music that was already in the Grooveshark library was directly added to the online library without any uploading. So, it’s a very clever app.
Lastly, I recommend SoundCloud, because I can make my own playlists and I can listen to different versions of my favourite tracks. You won’t get bored fast on SoundCloud. You will not only find original tracks there, but also remixes and playlists! There’s something for everyone. The varied, unique, musical creations are very handy for use on a party. Also, Soundcloud does not play annoying ads through your music.
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