Music Apps: A Brief Consumer Guide

Spoiled for Choice: Profiles of Some Leading Music Apps

Now that music apps play such a big part in our busy lives, it’s important to find the right one for your taste and lifestyle. That can be easier said than done, though, simply because there are so many options out there. Let’s try and bring some clarity by profiling some of the most successful and/or user/friendly products in the field. Whatever choice you make, we hope you continue to enjoy old favorites while also making thrilling new discoveries. Underneath the technology it’s still all about the music.

Spotify

We’ll begin with Spotify, simply because it’s so well known to many music lovers. The current incarnation of the app allows for more music to be streamed free of charge, but a bigger development may be that subscribers who pay a monthly fee of $9.99 can now save an unlimited amount of tracks that they can then access offline at their leisure. Other user-friendly features include playlists corresponding to the user’s personal taste and a special option for runners that matches the music chosen with the individual athlete’s pace.

Google Play Music

This familiar app enables music fans to choose from a collection of 30 million tracks and to then stream or download their choices without having to listen to ads. Another plus is that a wide variety of different performers and types of music is available to users, who can also develop their own tailor-made radio stations, hear of other artists and tracks they might like, and use their mobile devices to listen to their pre-selected playlists. Users of the free service can upload as many as 50,000 tracks to cloud storage from which these selections can subsequently be streamed or downloaded. A premium option is also available.

Jango Radio

Users of this app can access an unrestricted number of musical selections without having to listen to ads. Jango Radio also provides a selection of expertly programmed music channels covering different styles of music. Listeners can not only design their own tailor-made stations, but can also refine these stations as they use them by dropping or adding performers or groups.

YouTube Music 

This new app, which can be found on iOS and Android app stores, capitalizes on the vast audience that YouTube already commands by offering new streaming and searching options to music lovers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that this is a YouTube app, users can choose from millions of music videos. They can also access music albums or search for specific performers, however, and their selections can serve as templates for stations matching their needs and preferences.

MUGO

We will end our brief tour of the music app scene by looking at an especially promising newcomer, MUGO. This exciting and potentially transformative app was created by the Israeli startup MUGO, INC. The central concept is based on the company’s patented Live Share technology, which aims to turn music consumption into a social activity based on the possibility of synchronized listening. Multiple listeners, each using a different music provider, can sync to the same point or passage in a piece of music. They can also put together and exchange playlists that have been produced to mirror different moods, follow other users, or compile and share visual stories. High expectations for MUGO are reflected in the huge funding it has gathered so far: $1.5 million with a further round of funding now underway. Experts in the business of music technology should definitely keep an ear to the ground as the MUGO story gathers pace.