If you're an early Spotify user, you may be looking for a new, free music-streaming service as Spotify's six months of free listening comes to an end.
Trendsetting music lovers who signed up for Spotify when it first hit the U.S. on July 14, 2011 will soon encounter roadblocks. For instance, come the six-month deadline to switch to Spotify Unlimited ($4.99 per month) or Spotify Premium ($9.99 per month), Spotify users will only be able to play their favorite songs a maximum of five times, and free streaming will cap at 10 hours per month.
Spotify is blocking SongShift and similar apps from transferring music libraries to other services. The company is, however, happy for the apps to transfer data from rival services into Spotify. I just noticed this recently with the latest update to Spotify where if a popup notication shows up (with a sound from Windows), or I'm playing a video game, Spotify fades to much lower volume until the sound from the other sounding app stops.
It's no doubt the unlimited access to a huge library of music — about 15 million tracks — is one of the features that loyal Spotify users love.
Other features include the ability to make playlists of favorite songs (up to 10,000 tracks per list) and social integration to Facebook. Songs you play automatically display on your Facebook Timeline and desktop sidebar. Plus, access content via share buttons and a convenient search bar. With Spotify Premium, users enjoy an offline mode, which means they can listen to playlists on the plane, train or beach. Finally, radio stations specifically tailor to a user's specific artist or genre preferences.
As fun and convenient as Spotify is, for many, the honeymoon phase is over with the service's free music cutoff. Here are five free music-streaming websites and applications that act as alternatives to Spotify.
1. Grooveshark
Grooveshark is a comparable service that provides free on-demand music streaming with ads. Over 30 million people use Grooveshark globally.
How it compares to Spotify: Comparable features include the option to share songs or playlists with friends on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other social networking platforms. Like Spotify, Grooveshark offers a downloadable desktop application. Other capabilities include radio-streaming and uploading your own music. Grooveshark also offers song and artist suggestions related to your listening habits.
Differences: Since anyone can upload music to Grooveshark, audio quality of tracks may vary. With Grooveshark, there is no monthly limit for free accounts, as opposed to the 10-hour cap soon to occur on Spotify. However, ads play on both systems.
Size of Music Library: Over 7 Million Songs
Paid Options: Grooveshark-Plus ($6 per month) provides unlimited, ad-free listening. New application Grooveshark-Anywhere offers to-go music streaming at $9 per month.
Mobile Availability: Free radio streaming or on-demand access to music with paid subscription for Android, Nokia, Palm, Blackberry and 'jailbroken iPhones,' as listed on Grooveshark's website.
2. Pandora
Pandora's desktop and mobile free radio-style music-streaming service provides tailored sets of tunes based on the artist or track you input.
How it compares to Spotify: Pandora allows users to easily listen without having to search for tracks or create a playlist. 'The Music Genome Project' behind Pandora generates music related to your search terms. The radio will tweak itself according to your thumbs-up or thumbs-down ratings. However, there are limits to songs skipped per hour. Pandora's social sharing capabilities are pretty weak compared to Spotify's wide range of Facebook, Twitter and Messenger capabilities.
Differences: Spotify is clearly better if you want a wide selection of on-demand music streaming. Pandora Internet radio plays from a smaller collection of 700,000 songs, compared to Spotify's 15 million-song vault.
https://mcopyz.weebly.com/stream-thank-you-next-album-ariana-grande-spotify-free.html. Size of Music Library: 700,000 tracks
Paid Options: Pandora One ($36 per year) comes with unlimited music play, higher-quality audio, unlimited song skips and no advertisements.
Mobile Availability: Free radio streaming and premium listening via Pandora One options are available on Android 1.6 and later, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod touch and Palm Pre devices.
3. Rdio
Rdio is a desktop music streaming application that allows new users in the U.S. to access ad-free, on-demand music streaming for an undisclosed amount of time a month. From the co-creators of Skype, Rdio began to offer Rdio Free with a set amount of ad-free, free on-demand music with its Facebook integration in October 2011.
How it compares to Spotify: Both non-paying users of Rdio and Spotify can play music on-demand, share their playlists and favorite songs on numerous social networking websites, receive music recommendations and listen to artist-tailored radio stations. We like how Rdio and Spotify allow free users to browse and listen to top tracks lists, albums and new releases.
Differences: Rdio Free comes ad-free and on-demand, whereas Spotify plays ads in between song sets. The company will not disclose how much time is free for users who opt out of the premium service. Rdio states, 'We’d rather do it this way than bombard people with ads…When you run out of free music in any given month, you can choose to upgrade to any of Rdio’s existing pricing plans or start free anew the following month.'
Size of Music Library: 12 million songs
Paid Options: Rdio Web ($4.99 per month) offers unlimited web streaming from browser or desktop platforms. Rdio Unlimited ($9.99 a month) offers unlimited web streaming plus unlimited mobile streaming. Unlimited Family ($17.99) offers two unlimited web and phone subscriptions.
Spotify Other Apps Free
Mobile Availability: Available on iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android 1.6 or higher, Windows Phone 7 devices and Blackberry phones.
4. MOG FreePlay
MOG FreePlay is the free version of its original subscription-required application.
How it compares to Spotify: Like Spotify, MOG FreePlay offers free music streaming with ads. However, for 60 days, new users can listen to MOG FreePlay without ads. Similar to Spotify, MOG FreePlay logs users in through Facebook and shares music with friends. The service provides recommendations based on bands and artists you have Liked on Facebook. Both players have options to create playlists, favorite songs and much more.
Music App Spotify
Differences: MOG FreePlay also offers an undisclosed amount of play, like Rdio; however, this platform gives you a chance to earn more free music every month by earning points for inviting friends to join MOG.
Size of Music Library: 13 million songs
Paid Options: Paid options for unlimited music include a MOG Basic plan ($4.99 per month), which comes with unlimited, on-demand music for your computer, sans mobile access. The MOG Primo plan for $9.99 per month comes with computer and mobile access and unlimited streaming to your phone.
Mobile Availability: Only available through Primo plan to iPhone, iPod Touch and Android phones.
5. YouTube
While YouTube is a video player, we recommend using YouTube for free, on-demand music streaming if you love listening to songs on-demand. You can use YouTube Disco to find songs by artist. A search for Beyonce turned up 100 videos, mostly from her official VEVO site.
How it compares to Spotify: Create playlists of your favorite songs for listening at work or play. You can also easily share YouTube videos on various social networking platforms.
Differences: Listening to music on-demand on YouTube may be more work — you will have to search for songs to listen to them. However, access plenty of playlists others have pre-packaged.
Mobile Availability: YouTube's pre-installed application works on Android and iOS devices. Downloads are also available on Windows Phones. Web-based versions are available for most smartphones.
What music streaming applications or services do you use? How do they compare with Spotify? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Andreas Blixt
Spotify Other Apps Storage
MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP/Getty Images
On Friday, July 10, thousands of iPhone users reported issues of apps crashing on their phones. So, why are Spotify, TikTok, and other apps down on iOS? The issue causing this has yet to be confirmed, but it may have something to do with the Facebook software developer kit (SDK) used by the apps. In a statement to Elite Daily, Facebook said the crashes were attributable to 'a code change' that has since been resolved. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Friday morning, users took to Twitter to share issues they were having while trying to open certain apps on their iPhones, and #SpotifyDown was trending in the early morning alongside tweets illustrating the issue. Apparently iOS users who tried to open Spotify would click on the app, see it try to open, and then it would immediately close. Acknowledging the issue in a tweet at 7:20 a.m. Spotify fixed apk. ET on July 10, Spotify's tech support Twitter account tweeted, 'We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out! We’ll keep you posted.' The reports of outages were widespread across iPhone users on Down Detector, but Android users did not report any of the same outages. The issue is reportedly caused by Facebook's SDK, according to Tech Radar, which is used on many apps to login via Facebook. There don't appear to be issues for users who don't use Facebook to log into their apps.
Other apps reportedly affected by the outages also included TikTok, Tinder, Waze, and Pinterest. Users reported the issue on the Facebook Developers platform, as well as GitHub. Numerous tweets also flooded Twitter, as iOS users around the world were experiencing the reported problems:
Many blamed Facebook as the cause of the problem early in the crash reports, especially since a similar issue on May 6 was due to Facebook's SDK, per The Verge. A member of the Facebook team updated the issue report on Facebook for Developers at 6 a.m. on July 10, which basically confirmed the SDK on iOS devices could be the cause, writing, 'We are aware and investigating an increase in errors on the iOS SDK which is causing some apps to crash.' In a follow up statement shared with Elite Daily on July 10, a Facebook representative said, 'Earlier today, a code change triggered crashes for some iOS apps using the Facebook SDK. We identified the issue quickly and resolved it. We apologize for any inconvenience.'
If you're still having problem with any iOS app, TechRadar points out you may be able to use some of your apps offline and still enjoy some of the features. If you disconnect from your wifi as well as your mobile internet connection, you can access any downloaded music on your Spotify app. Other apps, like Tinder, TikTok, and Pinterest, however, don't have any offline features, so you'll have to wait until the issue is fully resolved.
Other Spotify Type Apps
At 9:05 a.m. ET on July 10, the Spotify tech support Twitter account announced the issue with the Spotify app on iOS devices was resolved, tweeting, 'Everything’s now back in tune! If you still need help, send us a tweet.' It's unclear when all the other iOS apps will be back up and running, but you can look for more updates on the social media accounts for any apps you have issues with.
Spotify App For Iphone
Editor's Note: This post was updated at 11 a.m. ET with additional comment from Facebook.