- 1. Easiest to Access from Anywhere: Google Music Beta
- 2. Easiest to Organize: Amazon Cloud Player
- 3. Best Way to Find Unique Artists: Bandcamp
- 4. Most Creative Way to Share: Soundcloud
- 5. Finding Music For Dummies: Nutsie
1. Easiest to Access from Anywhere: Google Music Beta
We've used "the cloud" for documents and bills, but now services are available to store your music and let you listen wherever you may go. We wade through the best new ways to listen to your tunes.
A few weeks back, Google launched its music site, to much fanfare. The service promises to upload your iTunes collection, store it on its servers (or in the cloud, as tech parlance has it), and then let you stream it to any device. There are downsides: Uploading can take many hours and is capped at 20,000 songs, which is not that much for a true music-ophile. A long-term monthly fee hasn't been announced yet. The service is currently in the Beta product stage and Tom's Guide hasn't yet received access from Google to take it for a hands-on spin.
A potential risk of this service is that the music industry could potentially come knocking and take back songs that were downloaded illegally, meaning your collection could dwindle. Currently Google is only allowing access to Google Music Beta via personal invite.
On the other hand, Google music is easily accessed on the iPhone, using Safari, or on any Android. You can use the Instant Mix feature to automatically build new playlists of songs from your collection that go great together. All the playlists you create and all the changes you make to them are automatically available everywhere your music is. You can upload your personal music collection to a single library, even if it's scattered across multiple computers. And when you add new music to your computer, it can be automatically added to your music collection online. And because it’s Google, your collection will be easily searchable.
You can listen from the web or any enabled device with the Music app available from Android Market, or from Safari. And if you’re not online, the songs you've recently played will automatically be available offline. You can also select the specific albums, artists and playlists you want to have available when you're not connected.
- 1. Easiest to Access from Anywhere: Google Music Beta
- 2. Easiest to Organize: Amazon Cloud Player
- 3. Best Way to Find Unique Artists: Bandcamp
- 4. Most Creative Way to Share: Soundcloud
- 5. Finding Music For Dummies: Nutsie
- 6. Best Free Storage: mSpot and More
- 7. Easiest For Handling Giant Collections: Subsonic
- 8. Apple Music Streaming (iTunes Cloud or iCloud?) On The Way
WOW! I was just thinking about something like this for my music library. Just would like to have a backup of my music and be able to stream it no matter where I'm at. Also, damn paying, I want a good free service that is secure and offers a nice big storage space. Was thinking of trying Evernote or one of the other popular cloud services.
Good read, Toms!
You should also mention AudioGalaxy. It has many of the features of most Subsonic clients, and yet everything is free.
since most of the services mention here aren't available in my country, i'm stuck with grooveshark. funny that it doesn't get mentioned here. the other one that is available for me is soundcloud, but that is not exactly a music library service.
my Windows XP can not install the battery, does it cause no sound in my computer?
You've missed the first and the best one, Spotify. I know it's not available in the US yet but it will be. And it's the best. You can use it on anything, it's been around for ages and it just works. It's easy to use and has loads of music to search from.
You've missed the first and the best one, Spotify. I know it's not available in the US yet but it will be. And it's the best. You can use it on anything, it's been around for ages and it just works. It's easy to use and has loads of music to search from.
We look forward to being able to test Spotify in the U.S.!
So far Spotify is ahead of the pack. Works on Android and iPhone. Can synch up on up to 3 devices offline. No more iTunes libraries to manage. AMazing library of music. 10 Euros a month. However, Spotify will and can lose its edge very quickly as they do not seem to invest much into the software.