Apps for a Personal Passion

           I decided to find five apps that were based around music and would allow me to listen to new music based around my preferences or would just provide me good music to study to or listen to while working on something. The five apps I decided to explore were TuneIn Radio, Songza, iHeart Radio, Spotify, and Pandora. Although I have already used Pandora a lot, I felt it was important to include as I can compare the others with what I typically use.

            During this activity, I found that all of the apps have their own strengths and weaknesses. The first app I tried out was TuneIn Radio. This app surprised me as it was very unlike Pandora. TuneIn Radio connects the user to their local radio stations rather than crafting a station around the user’s interests. This turned out to be very interesting because, apart from the local stations, TuneIn also connects the user with radio stations from all over the country, as well as other countries. The app also has talk shows and podcasts available.

            Next, I looked at Songza. I really like Songza because it is so simple and focuses on finding music to suit your mood and situation rather than creating a station based on a song or artist. Songza gives different suggestions based on the day and time one is using it. For example, at night it will ask you if you want music to sleep to and in the morning it will offer you music to work out to. Once you choose one of these options it will ask a few more questions to gage your preferences and will then give you a playlist. This app is really cool and different than Pandora and I will probably download this on my phone to use.

            The next app I played with was iHeart Radio. I have heard of this app a lot and assumed it was quite popular. However, I was slightly disappointed by it. This app, like TuneIn, also provides local stations to listen to. iHeart Radio also provides stations from across the U.S., but not from other countries. This app also has a feature to create stations based around a song or an artist. However, it did not have any pre-existing stations based around genre to browse through. Overall, I found this service quite underwhelming and not at all unique.

            Spotify is another popular music app. What mostly sets Spotify apart from the rest of the apps I looked at is that it allows you to choose individual songs to listen to rather than just creating stations around that song. Spotify also allows you to make stations based around a song or artist if you wish to, as well as providing some pre-existing stations for different genres or moods. Spotify has a lot of great features; however, I find its interface to be confusing and not as user friendly as many of the other apps.

            Finally, Pandora is the last app I looked at. I find Pandora to be very simple and easy to use. Although it does not have as many features as some of the other apps, it is very good at creating stations based on your preferences and is extremely user friendly. It also makes station recommendations around what stations you already have.

            This activity helped me find some great music apps. I will definitely continue to use Pandora after this, but I will also continue to try out TuneIn Radio and Songza. I’m glad that I have explored other music apps as it will allow me to find more new music and add some variety to what I’m listening to.