Latest in streaming music

As part of the first day of its Goole I/O tech developer conference this week, Google launched a subscription-based streaming music service called Google Play Music All Access. During the annual event, held in San Francisco, Google's engineering director for Android, Chris Yerga, announced the new service, which is set to compete against existing music-streaming sites such as Spotify and Rdio.
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Twitter's new music discovery service for finding bands and artists has been out for nearly two weeks now and that has given us plenty of time to put the aptly named #music through its paces. Available in the form of a free iPhone app and as a web app that works in a standard desktop browser, it's time to find out whether the service is the powerful discovery tool that many of us have been hoping for.
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With Spotify and similar music-streaming services on the rise, the run-of-the-mill stereo installation is starting to look more and more inadequate. The main problem with this setup is that if you're sitting with friends, computer-stereo-hybrid blasting away at the other side of the room, it's often a chore to play DJ... unless you start involving your mobile devices and an app like Spot Remote for iOS.
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Listing to music online has been around for some time, but only in the past little while, has it really become mainstream with so many options to choose from. It really is quite incredible – we have the opportunity to find music like never before, and listen to copious amounts of it! But there are still some gaps to fill. For instance, audio files can be embedded into webpages, but those webpages have no way to listen to all the music.
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Spotify is best known as a great online service for listening to all the online music your heart desires. If you're opting for the free version of the service, the vast musical collection comes at the price of a few ads here and there. But if you're opting for the paid version of the service, not only do you get an ad-free experience, you also get to take the music with you offline, by using Spotify's mobile app and selecting which playlists you want to listen to offline.
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A more portable laptop (in my case, an ultrabook) comes with all kinds of problems for the music enthusiast. The sound quality of Apple's built-in speakers is better than most, and I love iTunes' capabilities for organising my media library. However, anything resembling a decent music collection takes up most - if not all - of the available hard drive space. Without a gigantic hard drive, keeping a local music library simply isn't feasible.
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Spotify has changed the way many of us consume music, myself included. I used to buy albums on a regular basis, but once the time came when I'd rip the CD to my computer's hard drive and then have no further use for it, I knew the times they were a-changin'. Once Spotify arrived on the scene then I stopped buying albums altogether, and I haven't looked back since. Spotify tips and tricks help make the experience of using the service even more fulfilling.
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Music is important. The right song at the right time can make a big difference, as Hollywood has shown us countless times. But soundtracks aren't just for films – they work for life, too. Sitting down in front of the computer to work, like I'm doing right now, is an emotionally neutral experience. Music is what adds that human flavor.
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For those of you who still haven’t heard of Pandora, it’s an online website that allows you to stream music for free. Unlike other music streaming services, Pandora isn’t built on the idea that you should be able to freely add whatever songs to a playlist for leisure listening. Instead, the service is all about finding songs and artists that are similar to your current tastes.
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Online music-streaming service Rdio is bringing its services to seven new markets including Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Mexico. In total, Rdio is now available in 24 countries, including most of Europe, the US, UK, Australia, and Canada.
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I love it when MakeUseOf readers suggest new apps and programs to me. With every article I write, I’m just waiting for all of those comments that point me in new directions and expand my own library of cool software. That’s how I stumbled across this cool new Android app that will surely come in handy at future parties - Music Pool, an app that lets you sync up your Android device with other Android devices nearby.
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Try out a music streaming site specifically designed to help you work. Focus@Will is a new streaming music service, currently in beta, created to help you focus on the task at hand. If your mind tends to wander this could help. You might have that one album that helps you think, that helps you create. You're not sure why, but when you put it on you're able to focus more than you otherwise could.
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Popular music streaming service Rdio has just received a huge update for its iOS application that brings a new interface and some slick new features that should make Rdio users quite happy. While Pandora and Spotify might still be the biggest players in terms of mobile music streaming, Rdio is quietly adding some awesome new stuff that is putting a dent into its competitors' overwhelming popularity.
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One thing that has managed to turn me away from Spotify for quite a long time is its limited support in hotkeys and media keys. Spotify works great with a select few Logitech keyboards, but not so much with hundreds of others. For years, I've been a loyal user of Winamp Lite because of the awesome support for global hotkeys. Spotify has yet to improve in this area, but luckily enough there are third-party developers who are willing to pick up that slack for them.
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If you're not yet using Pandora, I don't think you're getting the most out of music. Pandora is by far the easiest and the best way to stream music online. Take it to the desktop, on your phone, or in your car. Pandora has helped me stumble across artists I'd have never heard of before and has turned the task of listening to music that I want to hear into something as simple as clicking the play button.
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