I receive questions every now-and-then about listening to music online. Questions like whether you can listen on a computer or a phone, free or paid music, rock or classical, etc.
There are many, many streaming music options out there so you can listen to your favorite group or genre of music. Some of the more popular ones are, "Slacker Radio", "Spotify", "Maestro", Last.fm and the one I like best…Pandora.
I would check each site individually to see the slight differences. Some are more "social," meaning that they have built-in designs which allow you to more easily share your music and/or playlists with others. They all have free streaming; however, you can get paid versions which give you more options and features. They also have options for use on smartphones, tablets and of course computers.
I have had a free Pandora account for several years. You start off by adding a couple of favorite songs or artists, rate a few of the songs you hear and then Pandora will find you "similar" music. Sometimes the choices are good and sometimes not so good but you can always grade the songs with a thumbs up or down. Thumbs up will allow the song to play more often; a down vote will remove the song from your Pandora account so you won’t have to hear it again.
You can then create your own "stations" from your music choices. I have Country, Christian, Classic Rock and Celtic Music (yes, including the Celtic Women).
Again, Pandora is my personal favorite but all of the ones I have mentioned are good. Try a couple and see which one you like best. You will be able to discover new artists and have the ability to purchase songs if you wish.
Now the question comes up: How can I store my music online if I already own many MP3s? If you do not want to use streaming since you already have a lot of music you enjoy, how can you listen to them online when you do not have your MP3 player?
The answer is Google once again. Google Play/Google Music helps you bring your iTunes library or any music specifically to your Android devices. There are also applications out there that will allow you to use Google Play with your iPhones, too.
A side note here. I prefer to call it Google Music since Google Play is the Android App store name and it gets confusing, so excuse my relabeling. Also, the site is found at music.google.com and the original name of this feature was Google Music.
Google Music has a neat feature. You install it on the computer that has your music and show the application where your music is located. It then uploads your music to the site over time; lots of time. I had about 2,500 songs in my library and it took over a day to upload it all to Google Music. Since you can upload up to 20,000 of your songs to Google for free it could take much longer.
Once you have uploaded your music, it is instantly available at music.google.com on the web and your Android phone or tablet.
You have many options. Pick a couple and enjoy them whenever you want to hear some good music. Or new music since most of these sites will give you “unpublished” musicians that you can help discover.
