Streaming in a Sea of Music

Streaming Music Services

There are a lot of online music streaming services for those looking for some good tunes. Some say there will be a shift in that we’ll all just ‘rent’ our music library rather than buying songs or albums. Regardless of your opinion on rent vs. buy, online music streaming can be a great way to listen to music and hear new tunes.

In Canada we don’t have as many music streaming options as our American friends. Some Canadians use VPN or DNS services to fake out their location, but let’s just focus on what’s available by default. There are basically two categories of services available: radio type services and playlist services.

First let’s look at the radio type. These are basically just like regular radio stations, but you tune in on the Internet. The Songza service has playlists made by ‘experts’ and you can dial in based on moods or activities. SiriusXM has a online subscription for their satellite radio – they have lots of music channels (and talk and sports too). There is also Galaxie which is free on a mobile app if you’re a cable TV subscriber (e.g. Shaw, Rogers, Bell, Telus). Deezer also has free streaming if you can put up with the ads. If not, you can pay for a Deezer subscription.

If you want to customize your experience, Rdio offers subscriptions without ads that allows you to take the tunes on your smartphone. Grooveshark also lets you create a playlist from their website for free. (They’re facing some legal action, so perhaps they won’t be free or around forever! UPDATE: yep, they’re now gone!) Also don’t forget that YouTube lets you create playlists, so maybe that will cover your needs.

There are other services beyond these as well. All offer various depths of music catalogues and subscription prices from free and up. The important thing to note is that all paid services have a free trial period, so by all means take advantage of the trial to decide if you want to shell out your money. Happy listening!