What is it?
The days of buying records or CDs are all but over. Luckily, new music can be discovered on the internet, if you know where to look. There is a wide range of choices to choose from, ranging from watching music videos on sites such as YouTube, streaming music from Pandora or Spotify, or purchasing songs from servers such as iTunes. At the moment, Pandora is the leader of streaming services, followed by iHeart Radio, iTunes Radio, and Spotify. The same study showed that 83% of smartphone users listen to internet radio on their mobile devices.
How to
One of the most popular sites to stream music from is Pandora, as it currently has over 200 million users. Pandora offers an ad-free premium version which costs $5 a month, but many people choose to use the free service. To use Pandora, start by creating an account, and then create your channel. You can search by song name or by artist, and you are able to make as many channels as you would like. You can also vote on each song that plays. If you like a song, give it a thumbs up, and it will be played more frequently. The other popular music streaming site is Spotify, which currently has 10 million subscribers. Spotify allows you to play a single artist on shuffle, which separates it from other music streaming devices. You can also upgrade to Premium, which costs $10 a month. Lastly, YouTube is another popular website. You can search a certain song or artist and see what videos come up. You can also convert YouTube videos to MP3s and download them to your iTunes account.
Why do it?
Obviously, downloading and listening to music online saves you money, perhaps hundreds of dollars depending on how many albums you might purchase. Downloading and distributing artists’ mp3 files also provides free advertising for the artists, exposing others to their music for no cost. For those who may feel guilty for downloading music for free, sites such as iTunes allow you to purchase individual songs or entire albums for a cost. Purchasing individual songs is a huge plus, as you may only like 2-3 songs from an album, and can save money buy purchasing each song separately. Buying songs on iTunes also allows you to access them on your computer, tablet, and smartphone, which makes it easy to listen to anytime you want.
Risks
While you are unlikely to be prosecuted, downloading songs from sites such as YouTube is technically illegal, as you are taking an item without the permission of the rightful owner. You are also hurting the sales and revenue of the specific artist by downloading songs from free. Downloading music for free can also be a safety risk, depending on what site you use. While YouTube is relatively risk free, some pirate sites may give your computer malware or viruses. This can potentially harm your computer and leave you at risk to hackers or other security problems.
