Streaming Music Services

European Creative Futures Thursday January the 17th 2012

Team 4 Phoenix

What is Streaming Music?

• Streaming Music, or more accurately known as streaming audio, is a way of delivering sound without the need to download files of different audio formats.

History of Streaming Music? • Real Networks was the first company to realize this in a big way, launching a multimedia

application called the Real Player, which allowed users to play multimedia on their computer, and also stream media that was available on the web.

• As broadband became more popular, many companies including Apple and Microsoft began to invest significantly in streaming media. Services like Napster and Rhapsody emerged, and video sites such as YouTube and Vimeo became extremely popular.

• Very shortly Apple released the iPhone, services like YouTube and Pandora became widely available as convenient, mobile streaming services. The competition from Android and Windows Phone 7 in recent years has created an ecosystem where consumers can stream the music and video they want, almost whenever they want

Examples of Streaming Music Services Spotify

Advantages of Streaming Music

• Unlimited Storage• Access• Social Networking• More Affordable

Spotify• Spotify has been stealing the spotlight in the streaming music arena as of

late; the oft-praised music service only recently became available in America, and its slick desktop and mobile apps along with its tight integration with Facebook have given it a great start right out of the gate. With no web interface, I can’t really recommend Spotify as the best streaming choice if you tend to use a lot of public computers at libraries or computer labs on campus. However, if you’re usually tied to your laptop or like using your smartphone for music, Spotify might be a good choice – particularly if you’re into the social integration. Keep in mind that Spotify’s free account limit how much music you can stream – you’ll need a $5/month account for unlimited streaming and a $10/month account for the mobile app.

Streaming Music News

• Dr. Dre is set to launch his own music streaming service, according to reports.

• MTV says that the rapper has teamed up with Inters cope records chairman Jimmy Iovine to work on a new service titled Daisy, which will give users access to 12 million songs with a paid subscription.

Disadvantages of Streaming Music

• A few disadvantages to streaming music include the audio quality, which of course is not as high as MP3 files, though most listeners can barely distinguish the difference. Subscribing to a streaming music services means you never own the music you pay to listen to; however, you can pay for and download selected songs and albums from music cloud sites just as you would from the iTunes Music Store. And if you’re a music fan who likes to keep up with the newest releases of your favourite artists, streaming music services may sometimes lag behind music store sites for new releases.

Future of Streaming Music

• Smart phones are already music bridges. Stereos will have smart phone functionality. Storing your music will be a thing of the past. Sharing music will be slightly easier than finding new music that you love.

• It’s an exciting time for anyone who loves to stream their music. Cloud services from Amazon, Google and Apple will make it simple to purchase what you want and listen to it anywhere you are, without ever having to manage the storage of your library. Your smart phone and your tablet and your television will all have instant access to all of the music you purchase, and you’ll be able to create a playlist on any Internet-enabled device just as easily as you can in iTunes right now.