Not all of these will have as big of library as Spotify, or something like Soundcloud, but it’s still possible to find something new on them that’s worth your time. If you’ve heard of one or two of these before, it could be a sign that now the time to finally give them a try.
1. Stingray Music – Free with In-App Purchase
Stingray is a great music streaming service that’s free to download and use, but with a catch. Stingray is tied to your TV provider, and if you don’t have an applicable TV provider to use you can’t use the service. If the list of partnered providers was short, I’d mention it here, but past the three initial ones I provided down below there’s a second list that has far too many too many to list. If your TV provider is on this long list, or the much shorter list before it, you’re granted free access to over 2,000 music streaming channels, and over a hundred different genres to choose from full of songs that will match your tastes. Stingray works more like a radio service than something like Spotify or Soundcloud, but if you hit a song that you don’t like, or don’t want to listen to, you can skip it. You only get six song skips every hour, so use them wisely. In the meantime, enjoy an unlimited amount of streamed music, courtesy of your TV provider. If you want to know more about Stingray before you dive in to see if your TV provider fits the bill, they have plenty of valuable information on their website.
2. TIDAL – Free
TIDAL is all about bringing its users, and providing the artists on the service, lossless audio. It’s heralded as the first lossless music streaming service available, and while it isn’t the only one out there now, it’s still a good choice for music streaming. One great feature with TIDAL are integrated interviews and editorials. If you want toknow the story behind one of your favorite pieces of music, it’s easy to find related articles and interviews right there in the app while you listen to your favorite track. Additions to your music doesn’t stop at articles and information, some music streams have videos and even more available at the highest quality possible. At the same time, there’s even a recommendation system that updates as you listen to different songs, showing you exactly what you want to listen to next, even if you’ve never heard it before. TIDAL comes complete with an offline mode, and playlist sharing, so there’s almost no reason to not give it a try if you want high fidelity music at your fingertips.
3. Jango Radio – Free
Jango may be one of the more popular apps on this list, but it’s been a long time since I’ve heard anyone mention it. Jango works similarly to Pandora as an online radio app, letting you stream an incredible amount of different radio stations. At the same time, on Jango it’s easy to create custom stations and playlists with either your favorite genres, or songs. Jango doesn’t just stop on your Android either, it has a desktop version that works in tandem with your Android. While TIDAL’s focus was on the absolute highest quality and fidelity, Jango Radio has several different quality options for users with lower bandwidth, which is something I always appreciate. If you’re looking for a radio app to replace Pandora, give Jango a shot.
4. SongFlip – Free
If I had to liken SongFlip to a more popular app, I’d probably pick Soundcloud. SongFlip is still on the popular side itself, with around 10 million plus downloads, but I don’t know if people are talking about it as much now. SongFlip’s main selling point is its extremely diverse library of music to stream. There are millions of songs to choose from, all separated by genre, or put into playlists. All of the music on SongFlip is royalty free, so don’t expect a lot of the songs you’ll find on Spotify, but there’s still plenty to listen to here. Once you’re done listening to other playlists on the app, it’s easy enough to make your own and save them for later. For the low price of free, SongFlip does a great job at gathering as much royalty free music as it can into one place for easy searching, and listening.
5. Psyself EDM – Free
Psyself EDM is another radio app focused completely on streaming random music in different genres, but this time it’s all focused on EDM. If you want to listen to anything from house to electro swing, Psyself EDM is easy to navigate, and makes it easy to listen to new songs that you’ve never heard before. The buttons at the bottom of the app let you switch between different sub genres of EDM and pick your favorite to stream from. Once you’ve found one you like, you’ll start streaming that type of music until you want to switch to something else. The great thing about Psyself is that it pulls from different streaming services and even gives you a link back to the source if you want to hear more from that one artist. If you don’t know what you want to listen to on any given day, just click the hot button in the top left corner to get a random track that’s popular right now. The only real downside to Psyself is the amount of full screen ads, but they’re quickly taken care of in between songs with a tap or two. Psyself EDM is free to use, and a great tool to discover new EDM music.
Conclusion
Music streaming apps are littered all over the Play Store, and only a few of them are worth your time. While it’s easy to just use Spotify, or maybe Pandora for everything, each one of the apps above are worth your time, even if you’ve never used them before. If you have a favorite music app no one else is using, we’d love to hear about it down below. Featured Image Credit
