Reviews
The Best Music Streaming App for Android is…[Droid vs. Droid]
August 6, 2010 | by Andrew Kameka
Android App Reviews, Multimedia
Whether searching for a radio app to play random songs or an on-demand app to play only your favorites, Android has plenty of music apps.
So after the popularity of our recent reviews of several music apps, we decided to highlight the best streaming music apps. Regional availability complicates comparing some services, but here’s a breakdown of the virtues and flaws of nine great music streaming apps.
Pandora
Install app - US only
Pandora is anemic when it comes to features, but it excels where it matters most – knowing what people want to hear. I love listening to Pandora at times because it captures the mood artfully and usually delivers a strong playlist. Sadly, the comparatively smaller library provides less opportunity for diversity and songs you want. For instance, Drake is one of the biggest stars in hip-hop but is played less than Lil’ Wayne on my Drake station.
Best for: People who don’t want any features other than the ability to listen to good music and mark songs for purchase.
Slacker Radio
Install app – US, Canada only
Slacker Radio is always on. It can stream music from a 3 million-song library or cache songs for offline playback (Slacker Plus only). That’s a great compliment to custom or “expertly-programmed” stations. My only problem with Slacker is it occasionally plays a song from left field. A 20-minute segment of soulful songs on my Sade station can suddenly give way to a high-energy, synthy Billy Ocean song just because they are technically of the same genre and era. This is by design to replicate the traditional diversity of radio, but it can be a strange transition at times.
Best for: Commuters who want an offline mode, large library, and diverse playlist
Last.fm
Install app - Germany, U.K., U.S. FREE; elsewhere €3
Last.fm has the most streaming options from any app highlighted in this review. Aside from offering playback based on profile data, Last.fm plays similar artists, recommendations, most played, and neighborhood (likeminded Last.fm users). It also has the best options for sharing as the entire point of using this service is telling others what you’re listening to and discover great recommendations. Last.fm supports playlists, but it requires a premium account.
Best for: People who love artist discovery and social sharing options.
Grooveshark
Grooveshark has the most bang for your buck. The service requires $3 a month, but users get a sizeable library that is diverse and very customizable. Upload their own music, listen to playlists, to get a radio mode that’s pretty good at mixing independent artists in with today’s megastars. Grooveshark has an annoying tendency to prevent certain songs from playing unless the phone is using Wi-Fi. Despite this shortcoming, Grooveshark remains one of the most unique music apps.
Best for: Fans of independent music and those who want more control over their music
Rhapsody
Install app - U.S. only
Rhapsody can play artist or genre-based radio station options, and create searchable personal libraries of it’s more than 9 million available songs. Rhapsody is the best option for streaming full-albums, but the radio portion surprisingly doesn’t take advantage of its large library. While the mood accuracy ranks highly, it plays too many songs from the artist rather than highlighting some likeminded acts.
Best for: People who care mostly about on-demand streaming.
Click image to open full-size comparison chart
Spotify
Install app – Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom
Spotify is not available in my country, so I turned to a few of Androinica’s readers to find out what they think of the Android app. The final consensus: it’s incredible. Spotify is the best on-demand option for users in select European countries. The app taps into Spotify’s massive music library, which is absent a few big name artists, but still swelling with quality music. Those songs can be incorporated into on-the-fly custom playlists or can sync up to 3,333 songs for offline playback.
Best for: Anyone who lives in a country where it’s available
* Thank you to oletras, therealriley, and everyone who else who provided great feedback for this post
Rdio
Install app – US, Canada
Rdio is the plucky upstart that’s rapidly improving. Within weeks of release, it is constantly adding new features and new licensing deals to grow the song library. The app has most of the features you need, including on-demand songs, offline playback, and social functions to discover what’s hot among others. The radio mode is weak, sadly. When testing radio for Eminem, it stuck with a firm group of artists playing the same songs, and suddenly played some random (Turkish?) folk music because the artist was also named Eminem. This is a major fail that happened with other artists tested.
Best for: People who care only about on-demand listening
Thumbplay
Install app – US only
Thumbplay is one of the lesser-known music stream services, but it’s no slouch. Thumbplay has 8 million songs to choose from, and you’ll get unlimited playback of songs, albums, and playlists after signing up. It even includes a “Playlist Genie” that acts as a radio mode to play music from similar artist and song types. Thumbplay can also mark songs for favorites and import iTunes playlists into the library (through the desktop). You may sometimes get a message saying “Not available” and songs will be unable to play.
Best for: People who love on-demand playback from large libraries
MOG
MOG is all about on-demand listening, and it shows in the “radio” mode, which is essentially the “play all from this artist” mode. It’s disappointing that MOG lacks the similar artist/playback mode, but then again, this service isn’t geared towards people searching for that. Those seeking a 100% playlist, album experience will enjoy this service because it has almost every song you can think of. MOG deserves praise for its huge library and it delivers good quality, downloads for offline playback, and charts to help discover what to play.
Best for: On-demand lovers displeased they can’t find certain songs elsewhere
Conclusion
As previously stated, the “best” all depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re in the U.S. and only care about on-demand streaming, I’d give my vote to Rhapsody. If you’re in a country where Spotify is available, that’s your best bet. People who simply love radio should consider Pandora or Last.fm, but there are plenty of options to test to discover the best music streaming Android app for you.
* Radio diversity reflects the varying options for playback and the ability to mix things up to prevent repetitive playback.
* Mood accuracy reflects the ability of each service to group songs or artists that have reasonable similarities
* Stream quality is not included as a measure in the comparison chart because it can vary on each company and all services mostly deliver acceptable sound quality.
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![Rhapsody: The Best On-Demand streaming app for Android in the U.S. [App Reviews]](http://862525175.r.cdn77.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/rhapsody-2.jpg)
Ummm, what about Subsonic?
subsonic isnt good at all. you cant use it in the U.S. they dont even have taylor swift!!!
Slacker seems to have a great stand-up comedy selection for those who are looking for that.
Great Article.
For me Slacker's offline caching is just awesome.
I have to agree… Slacker is my fav. The cache stations are great. They are always being updated and they save my evo's battery life… win-win!
why does Pandora still exist?
mann. all of these apps require a subscription. what ever happened to MusicOnlineLite? it was a free app where you just type in what song you wanted, and it would play only that song. none of that "internet radio" nonsense…
but it was removed for the market
My recent post QDOG8- This Right here Is my swag
I am pretty sure Grooveshark has a load more songs than 7 million as I am constantly unable to find certain extremely rare video game OSTs and movietrack OSTs yet they always seem to be on Grooveshark and never on Spotify and Rhapsody.
The wiki article lists that Grooveshark has 22 million songs but citation is required but still, it has not changed from that since I last checked a few months back
XiiaLive is one of my favs.
You missed one of MOG's great features: radio mode *starts* as all from this artist, but has a slider you can use to mix in more or less of similar artist, all the way over to all from similar artists, with the original completely removed.
I have some issues with the MOG app (mainly that it's a little confusing to control play back and you cannot add a artist as a favorite from the app). However it seems unfair to ding the app for radio diversity because of the point made by the poster above
where is fizy?
Spotify is simply amazing
lol,
well it seems that grooveshark (couldn't test those who don't work globally) uses music rips from torrent sites
i guess its easier to build a library of mp3s just by dl-ing from torrent trackers
Speaking absolutely neutral as a consumer here as I love spotify on my PC, but the one thing that has prevented me from using it on my android is the price tag for a premium account, which is required for Spotify Mobile. It is £9.99 for a premium account, which works out at 15.4247 USD on xe.com as of this very second, so maybe this should be mentioned, if price tags are mentioned on other services.
For me it has to be last.fm, however I don't have the option to try other services, like Pandora, Slacker, Rhapsody, Rdio and thumbplay. Spotify on the PC however, does include tracks/albums on demand, and to create your own playlists, which last.fm lacks, and so in that sense is superior to last.fm, it's just a shame about the price tag.
My recent post Celebriti EP to feature two new tracks
How does do these apps compare when it comes to foreign music?
Can't really say. The only foreign music I listen to are various forms of reggae and Chinese classical, and they all have the few artists that I need. My guess is the bigger the library, the better they are with foreign music licensing.
let's not forget about actual radio station apps https://market.android.com/details?id=com.wfmu.an…
Pandora???? What a TERRIBLE app. Freezing and crashing are the two things it does best. I use Audiogalaxy and stream my own music. Problem solved.
Check out our free radio app for Android. We've just launched it here at rad.io and we'd love to know what you think. The app offers over 4000 international stations and we are constantly adding new ones. If you can't find your favorite we'll add it for you. http://rad.io/android
Check out our free radio app for Android. We've just launched it here at rad.io and we'd love to know what you think. The app offers over 4000 international stations and we are constantly adding new ones. If you can't find your favorite we'll add it for you. http://rad.io/android
Check out our free radio app for Android. We've just launched it here at rad.io and we'd love to know what you think. The app offers over 4000 international stations and we are constantly adding new ones. If you can't find your favorite we'll add it for you. http://rad.io/android
I use HomeDJ music player. Streams from my home comp. Supports any possible media format out there. Dynamic playlists are great feature. Highly recommend. And it is FREE.
Hello I have a website , its an online musicplaying website, I have songs in my website database , I want to create an android application which streams songs from that database , is there any application to develop it or do I need to develop a special application, if yes please tell me how or give me links that help me.
Everthing is for US. Why not for other countries. What the ****
Check out My Melody Box
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mymelodybox
laut.fm Android.
Hey guys,
I found this very great radio streaming app for Android. It is very easy to use and works perfectly.
Try it!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bode.moritz.laut.fm
The BEST MUSIC APP for ANDROID here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=vnapps.vmusic