We don’t listen to albums now; we listen to collections of songs. – Tom Silverman

After what felt like the end of my search yesterday, I couldn’t help but feel like all the music that I’ve collected over the past few years in my iTunes library is going to sit stagnant as I adopt any new service. Apple has yet to release a “cloud/streaming” option, but perhaps when that comes it will be the best solution for me. For now, here’s my take on a few services that I have frequently used and a few others that I checked out…

Pandora is a great quick-fix, supplemental service. You pick a song, artist, or genre to search for and it creates a playlist/radio station of similar songs. It automatically saves that playlist/station until you choose to delete it. You can add items to the list to vary what it plays, like/dislike songs, but other than that there’s not much to it. Mobile versions available. Free (Ads, Limited skips, 40 hours/month) – Premium $36/year

Grooveshark is good for creating quick playlists of music you like by selecting it from current playlists or searching for it. Just like Pandora and several other services, you can favorite tracks and save lists. Free (Ads) – Premium $3/month or $30/year

Last.fm is an excellent site. The biggest appeal for me here isn’t the music service itself, but its scrobbler. Last.fm is linked with nearly every other service out there. You connect the service to Last.fm and then any song you play on another service is sent to Last.fm and is automatically added to your profile. This is useful to keep track of your listening habits, to display your history with various blog widgets, and to use with Last.fm’s own recommendation system. Last.fm is vast. You can buy tracks, add them to your library (collection of music), find recommended music, “love” tracks, tag tracks, create playlists, keep a journal, find events, look up charts, etc. Mobile versions available and there are many plugins you can find to incorporate Last.fm into nearly anything. Free – Premium $3/month

Hype Machine & We Are Hunted both are pretty similar. They both claim to have the latest emerging music and they are both pretty limited, but they both have a place in the music service list. Both of these sites, along with TheSixtyOne are excellent places to find new music. They all seem to pretty much focus on emerging indie stars. Free

Rdio’s biggest advantage over another service, MOG, is that they allow you to scan your iTunes library to automatically add “all” of your music to your Rdio collection (it was only able to match a third of my iTunes collection). You can create playlists, keep a running queue, see new releases, recommendations, and top charts. Invite only. $5/month Unlimited Online Listening – $10/month Unlimited Online & Mobile Listening

Until Google or Apple decide to finally come out with some sort of cloud/streaming solution, I have decided to settle on MOG as my go-to service. MOG is sort of a cross between Pandora and Rdio. What made me switch from Rdio is that I actually found every song I was searching for to match a playlist of current chart toppers that I had made in my iTunes library. I also really like the Radio slider. When you pick a song/artist to play you can use a slider to decide if you’d like the auto-created playlist to be comprised of that artist alone or if you’d like to stir it up Pandora-style and add music from similar artists. I found this to be the perfect blend of having the music I love in one place while having the option to introduce myself to new music that I will most likely love as well. The more I played around with MOG, the more I grew to love it. Here’s a few things worth mentioning… the pop-out window/player, I’m going to mention the slider again, Last.fm scrobbling can be enabled, you can pick nearly any artist or any song and actually find it available, you can create a queue, pick favorites, create/share playlists, and keep a blog. Also there is what seems like an endless list of playlists from both users and artists. The one feature I’m missing is the ability to keep a library/collection and scan my iTunes, but these are features that support says are coming. It’s one of those things I keep thinking I feel I need because I’m used to it, but at the same time I’m pretty happy with just picking a song, adding a little variety and giving the thumbs up or thumbs down as I go. 3 Days Free Trial – $5/month Unlimited Online Listening – $10/month Unlimited Online & Mobile Listening (Includes Ability To Listen Offline)

Of course there are hundreds of options out there, but these were my favorites… with the exception of Spotify, but sadly, it’s not available in the US and I’m too sore at it to give an explanation of its features.

Share/Save

I’ve had this software for quite awhile, as a beta tester. The most convenient thing about PlayOn, in my opinion, is that it allows you to stream your instant queue from Netflix. You can also browse through Hulu, CBS, YouTube, CNN, and ESPN content. I’m sure they’ll probably add more down the road. There were quite a few bugs during beta testing, but that’s to be expected. Seems that everything is relatively stable at this point. Very convenient for the PS3 owner who wants to stream Netflix and other content.

One thing about PlayOn is that it needs Windows to stream off your computer to your system. Just fine and dandy if you have a PC running Windows by default. If not, just simply run Windows through Parallels or VMWare on your Mac. It works great.

The other app I mentioned is NullRiver’s MediaLink. It’s $20, but again, pretty useful. Especially if you have a Mac and a PS3 (they also have an Xbox 360 version). MediaLink allows you to stream media from your Mac to your PS3. It acts as a server and shows up right in the XMB menu. You’ll instantly have access to iPhoto, iTunes, Aperture, etc. I find this very useful because sure, I can set up my hard drive and stream my music off of it, but have you ever tried to set up a playlist on the PS3? It’s a pain. With MediaLink, I can view my iPhoto albums and iTunes playlists instantly, just as I have them set up on my Mac. Want a different playlist? Just set one up and refresh and there it is. Check it out if you have a Mac and have been looking to integrate it with your PS3.

Share/Save