March 3rd, 2010
I’m too young to really remember music formats that couldn’t be copied and distributed quickly and easily with nothing more than a standard home PC. The release of cassettes opened the door for music piracy and that door was blown apart with the introduction of MP3′s – we can thank Napster for that. However, the authorities are getting wise to our virtual ways of distribution and the only time will tell if we will be able to maintain our love for free music. Thankfully a new type of music distribution has rapidly been expanding and it’s a method that the music industry seem to be slightly happier with – Music Streaming Services.
There are a huge number of different music streaming services out there: some free, some paid for; but the general consensus can only offer these services by funding it with advertising. As we all know first hand, students are pretty cash strapped and we’ll try and save pennies anyway we can without compromising a good time – as a result, free music streaming services are an obvious choice for debted students.
The Ernie Say’s team have compiled a list of their favourite 6 free music streaming services below:
Spotify
First up, Spotify! A fantastic service and favourite of many in the UK. The service is provided through a downloaded program onto computers much like your standard media browsers (e.g. Windows Media Player, iTunes).
Spotify is powered by P2P technology which means Spotify has an enormous library of music and streaming services are incredibly quick. The service is unfortunately only available in Sweden, Spain, Norway, Finland, the United Kingdom and France, but will be extended shortly.
Spotify subscribers (just £9.99 a month and advert free) are able to download an application for mobile devices to stream music from the Spotify service on the go.
Last.fm
Last.fm is slightly different to Spotify in the sense users don’t have to download a computer program. Last.fm is a website which is driven by its massive music collection and social networking features. Users are also able to watch music videos online.
Myspace Music
Although the original Myspace website has had it’s day in the social media circles, battered by the unstoppable Facebook, Myspace is trying to reinvent itself as an online media service. The website allows user to interact with their favourite bands and listen to their tracks that they have uploaded. Unfortunately the service is fairly limited as it requires the bands and artists to upload music rather than the users.
Hype M
The internet is jammed to the rafters with music blogs, people writing about their awful tastes in music (hell even Ernie Say’s does it). Hype M is an aggregator for many of the great music blogs dotted around the web. The website constantly updates with content from these blogs. Music blogs are fantastic for free music – legal or not – new releases can be uploaded onto the web within seconds of their official release (and often before).
After registering on the website, users are able to stream all music straight from Hype M without the need to download files from the music blogs it links to.
SkreemR
Simply a music search engine which searches the vast web for music you specify. It’s a great tool but doesn’t always work particularly well but as long as you are looking for ‘mainstream’ music you shouldn’t have a problem – you may want to look elsewhere for your underground Russian Hip-Hop though. Whilst SkreemR isn’t really a streaming service, it does locate the music files.
Deezer
Deezer is a music streaming website which is similar to Last.fm in many respects. One of the positive differentials is that Deezer gives it’s artists royalties if their music is streamed. The business clearly shows a great ethical stance and respects the industry many other online music sources seems to be destroying.
Once you signed upto one of these services you may dance around in joy like this:
