Introduction
We’ll cover:
• What is Streaming?
• What is Stream Radio?
• Paywalls
• Pandora
• Spotify
• iHeartRadio
• Freegal
• SoundCloud, Mixcloud, bandcamp
• mixlr
Here at EPL
More music is available online than ever
before, including old and hard to find
recordings, as well as brand-new music.
Music online is totally free!
What is Streaming
Streaming is a common Internet term which means that files are
not being saved and kept on the computer; instead, videos and
music are viewed (or streamed) from a website or application.
In order to stream you’ll only need:
• A computer or device (phone or tablet)
• An active internet connection
What is Streaming Radio?
Streaming radio is free music (similar to the radio) available
on the Internet. Some services only let you pick the station or
type of music, while others let you pick individual songs and playlists. Like a traditional radio station, these services are
free because of the revenue generated from ads on the
stations.
Most services, however, include Paywalls or upgradable
accounts which users can subscribe to. In addition to all of
the normal features, often paid accounts will remove ads, or
allow users additional features. For each service we talk
about today, we will also discuss the paid version and its
included features.
Pandora
The basics of PANDORA:
PANDORA is free personalized
Internet radio that allows users to
create and save “stations” based
on music that you know and like.
• Stations can be created
based upon genre, artist,
song, or even occasion.
Based upon the
Music Genome Project
Creating a New Account
• What you need to create a new PANDORA account
• A working email account
• You will also need to create a password that you can remember, and
supply PANDORA with your birth year, postal code, and gender.
• Why does PANDORA require this personal information?
LIMITATIONS OF A FREE ACCOUNT
• Limit of 6 “skips” per hour, per station (up to 24)
• Advertisements
UPGRADING TO PANDORA ONE… is also an option. For $4.99/month,
users can listen free of advertisements and get additional skips.
You do not need to create a Pandora account to listen to music through
them on your computer; however, creating an account will allow you to
save your stations and song preferences for later.
Creating A Station
Creating a station is as simple as typing into the search box an artist, genre,
or song that you are interested in listening to.
From there, PANDORA will create a station based upon your entry that
features music similar to that which you entered.
Finding Stations
PANDORA has many stations pre-created for your convenience. By following
the link, you can easily browse through them and find a station that’s right for
you.
Listening
PANDORA has easy to use controls.
• play/pause button
• volume controls
• skip button
• thumbs up/thumbs down• Clicking "thumbs-up" tells Pandora "you like this track" and helps to bring in more
tracks like it to your station. Clicking "thumbs down" tells us not to play this track.
Spotify
Unlike Pandora, Spotify is a
music library of individually
selected songs and artists and
a downloadable application
that requires an Internet
connection to play music.
(There is also a web player.)
In order to download Spotify,
first you’ll need to make a Spotify account.
Feel free to follow along with
the downloading process or
just watch!
Social Features
Part of the exciting or awful
(depending on how you look at it)
social features of Spotify is the ability to see other users you may be
connected with through social
media. Spotify suggests following
Facebook friends with Spotify, which
will give occasional updates on what
your friends are listening to in the
bottom right of the screen.
Spotify can also be allowed to post
this information to Facebook as
Facebook posts, but this is a feature
that you have to opt-in to.
Downloading
To download Spotify, Google “Spotify” or go to the url:
https://www.spotify.com/us/
Then, sign up using your Facebook account or email address. If you
would like to use Spotify’s social networking features, then signing up
with Facebook is a good idea; otherwise, feel free to use your email
account.
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Web Player
If you don’t feel like downloading Spotify, you can also find it available
through a web browser; simply Google “Spotify Web Player” or enter
the url: “https://play.spotify.com/”
Almost all
of Spotify’s
features
are the
same, but
with a
different
layout.
Listening
After Spotify is downloaded, it will be
set as an Application located on the
desktop and will start up
automatically once the computer
powers on.
To open Spotify, (if it isn’t already),
double-click on the Spotify icon on
the desktop.
To listen to music, simply type in
the name of the artist or song you
are interested in. Each Spotify artist
has their own page which includes
their most popular songs and
music organized by album; again,
their library is extremely large, but
not all encompassing.
Listening
When listening to a song or
artist, you can add music
to ‘your music’ by hitting
the + symbol next to the
artist name, the + symbol
underneath the cover in
the bottom left-hand
corner, or the + symbol
next to the song title in the
middle. These songs will
then be saved to my music
and along the bottom left-
hand side.
Playlists
To create a playlist, hit the
“create new
playlist” icon on
the left-hand
column or when
listening to a
song, right-click
and select Add to ->
And create a
new playlist or
add it to an existing playlist.
Radio
Not sure what to listen to? Or
want music for the background?
Try Spotify radio! Spotify radio is
extremely similar to Pandora.
Create new stations based on
artist or track names.
iHeartRadio
Traditional radio stations
have also banded together to provide
online and phone access
to radio stations.
iHeart Radio service
allows users to stream live
radio and custom radio
stations based on an
artist or song.
Find your Favorite Stations
Search thousands of national radio stations
by entering radio frequency or station
names.
Custom Radio
Clicking “Custom Radio” or
entering an artist or song
name in the search box will
let you listen to radio based
on the artist or listen to a
few of their most popular
songs.
Freegal
Music service Library subscribes
to which allows music mp3
downloads directly to your
computer
Limited to 5 downloads and 3
hours of streaming per week
Must have a valid EPL card and
know library PIN
Logging In
Elmhurst patrons also
have access to
thousands of songs
through freegal and
our other music
services, hoopla and
Naxos Music Library.
To access freegal, go to our home page, select eLibrary -> eMusic ->
and freegal on the following page.
Listening
Once in freegal, you will need to log in or
create a new user.
After that, search or
select an artist and
start downloading!