Music while you work

by Startacus Admin

One of the greatest things about having your own business is the ability to do what you want (as long as it’s productive!). And here at Startacus, we’re no different, and music is the one thing we couldn’t live without.

Music can be inspirational, memorable and can get the creative juices flowing. Finding that Jeff Buckley CD from 1994 can feel like finding a £20 note in that jacket you haven’t worn since the winter of last year. And listening to it is just like spending that £20.
But with online music services becoming more and more popular, it’s becoming much easier to discover, and rediscover music that you love.

Here is a few of the services we take full advantage of.

Spotify - The daddy of all music services, and one that we couldn’t live without. This downloadable application for your computer or mobile device has millions of songs right there at your fingertips. Type in your favourite artist , and it’ll give you their back catalogue for you to play until your heart’s content. Also, it lets you listen to similar artists, create playlists and features a radio function, playing your favourite genre of music. The free version is fine if you don’t mind listening to songs interspersed with advertisements every now and again. However, the £9.99 per month version, which gets rid of the ads, allows you to sync offline and listen to your music on your smartphone/tablet as well your computer. Spotify can also syncronise with your Facebook account, allowing your followers to see what you’re listening to. A 30 day trial of the premium version is available.

Rdio - A newcomer to the streaming service world, which is flexing its’ muscles alongside Spotify. Iit works in almost exactly the same way, boasting a massive 18 million songs and the same offline syncing mode. It also promotes the fact that it has zero advertising; but there’s a price to pay...it costs £4.99 for the privilege of using Rdio on your desktop or browser, or £9.99 for the full cross platform experience and a hidden little feature... If you are lucky enough to own either a Sonos or Roku music player, it syncronises to that too, you lucky rich person! There is a 7 day trial period available, and it’s the first time I’ve been tempted away from the mighty Spotify...

Last.fm - An online service, last.fm is a personal radio service in which you type in an artist or song you like, and it’ll play music similar to it alongside the artist/song you typed. The website is easy to navigate, and the music is of pretty decent quality. All you need is to set up an account to get started. You’ll hear the music you forgot about and might discover the next big thing. It also keeps a record of what you’ve listened to, so you can go back and enjoy it again! It’s called scrobbling. They made that word up, and I love it. And the best part? Free free free!

TuneIn radio - Ah, the proper radio stations. This service basically tunes you into all the radio stations you can think of from around the globe, and streams them straight into your ears. It has applications available for smartphones & tablets, but uses a web based player for playing from the computer. And now that Chris Moyles has moved onto pastures new, BBC Radio One could quite possibly be listenable again! Just like last.fm, it’s free!

With more and more services in the world wide web, and available in your pockets, it’s down to personal preference what you use.
Our advice is, avail of any trial period that some services offer, and play around to get a feel for them. Also, take full advantage of the free ones, they may not be free for long!

If you’ve found online music services and want to share them with the rest of us, let us know over at the forum.

 

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Published on: 17th August 2012