Music Online

Music Online

Music can be a real mood-enhancer and is just the tonic that may benefit many of us. So the topic this month is all about music online. This is a huge topic, and so I’m going to be selective on what I feature here. But this topic is going to be different from previous topics in that I am asking you please to help develop it, drawing on your own experience and recommendations.

Broadcast music on radio 

For many of us, one traditional way of listening to music is on a radio (FM or DAB), and it remains easy to use but you are restricted to stations currently being broadcast in your reception area. Alternatively, radio stations have their own websites, and you can stream music from their websites on your computer, tablet or smartphone. This also provides information about programme schedules.

Most radio stations can also be listened to via an app, and you can download these free from your usual app supplier (e.g. Google Play or Apple App Store). These apps usually also provide details of the programme schedules, and many of them also have a catch-up facility which means you can listen to programmes at any time to suit yourself for as long as they are available on catch-up/play again:

• The best radio app for radio stations throughout the whole of the UK (over 500) is Radioplayer (see https://www.radioplayer.co.uk/), and for some radio stations (e.g. the BBC radio stations) there is also a catch-up facility on this app. 

• The BBC Sounds app (also on https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds) is excellent for all BBC radio programmes both live and catch-up, and also has an exclusive great selection of music mixes. You can browse all music by category (there are 15 categories). What’s good is that most of what’s on there can be downloaded to your smartphone or tablet to listen to whenever you are off-line, although this has the same time limits as catch-up programmes and music mixes which often disappear one month after broadcast or release. 

• Other radio stations have their own apps, e.g. Classic FM (https://www.classicfm.com/radio/how-to-listen/mobile/ (also provides access to other Global radio stations), Scala Radio (also provides access to other Bauer radio stations, including Jazz FM), with some catch-up facilities.

• There are other apps which give you access to thousands of radio stations from all over the world (e.g. TuneIn which features over 100,000 radio stations – see https://tunein.com/radio/music/ for categories of music radio available).

• There are also some specialist free apps, such as AccuRadio (which plays music selections, in effect playlists in a large range of about 60 genres) and Jazz Radio (https://www.jazzradio.com/apps - and click or tap on the ‘Channels’ drop down menu (there are 40 of them).

In websites and apps, you can use the search bar there to find the music you want to listen to – just key in the performer, or the title of the song or the piece, or the composer, and see what comes up!

Broadcast music on television

The BBC television in particular broadcasts a wide range of music performances and documentaries. Again you can watch these live from your television, the website (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer) or via the BBC iPlayer app on your television (if it is a smart TV) or on your device, and you can also use the extensive catch-up facility. This also gives details of schedules, and again you can use the search bar to see if what you are looking for is on there.

There are occasional performances and music documentaries on the other main TV channels (e.g. Channel 4, ITV and Sky), which can also be accessed by the app on your smart television if you have one, or their websites, or their own specific apps for you tablet or smartphone.

Music on YouTube and Vimeo video streaming services

As we highlighted in the topic on YouTube (see https://www.youtube.com/), you will find that there are millions of music tracks, performances and documentaries on YouTube as well as on other popular video-streaming services. Again, it is a question of using the search bar on its website or its app, or alternatively just search in the videos category of a general search engine such as Google which may take your through to YouTube or possibly to another provider such as Vimeo. On YouTube, as their free service is funded by adverts you will not be able to escape from these, although in many cases you can skip the advert after about 5 seconds.

Music streaming services

Music streaming services have become very popular in recent times, and have mostly taken over from the purchase of music. One of the best is Spotify (https://www.spotify.com/uk/). The free version of this is very good, and you can access this through its website or a downloaded app. It has more than 50 million music tracks and you can access these on its free version, but you will have to endure adverts, the tracks are in a shuffled order, there’s a limit on the number of skips you can make, and you cannot download music to listen to off-line. You can still create your own playlists – or listen to someone else’s. You can try out the paid version (which is advert-free, tracks are in the right order and you can download as much as you want for listening offline) for a trial period free to see if that meets your requirements, and then if you continue with it the current monthly subscription is £9.99.

There are other popular music streaming services including YouTube Music (which also offers a free version but with limitations - https://music.youtube.com/), Apple Music (which does not appear to have a free version - https://www.apple.com/uk/music/), Amazon Prime Music (www.amazon.co.uk/music/unlimited) and Deezer ( https://www.deezer.com/en/). Further information on the different providers is at https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/product-reviews/tech/g685104/best-music-streaming-services/. I haven’t any direct experience of these other providers. Would anyone who has be willing to share your experiences of these?

Naxos music collection

If you like classical music, a little-known fact is the whole of the Naxos music collection (https://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/home.asp) is available free to listen to if you have a free Devon Libraries library card. I gave details of this in the Library resources topic, but in summary, amazingly you get free access to the whole of the Naxos Music Library catalogue, and you can listen to all the albums (more than 151,000 discs, which is over 2.3 million tracks!) by keying in your own library card number. The music is then streamed to you, but you do need to be online to listen to it. See https://devonlibrary.naxosmusiclibrary.com/recentadditions.asp. Even better though is that the Naxos Music Library is also available via a free downloadable app for your smartphone or tablet from your usual app provider (and you will need to register to use this - and it's free - and once done, it's excellent). It’s very easy to use, and you can even download many of the tracks to listen to offline. So if this is your sort of music, you get all the benefits of the paid version of Spotify, but free!

Enhancing the quality of the listening experience

If you have a smart speaker (e.g. Amazon Dot, Google Nest or Sonos) you can stream your music through this, and the quality for relatively small speakers is surprisingly good. Or better still, link your smart phone or tablet or smart speaker to larger speakers if you have these perhaps in a music system or what we used to call a hi-fi system. This can be done via Bluetooth or casting. Easier still is to use a connecting audio cable from your device or from Amazon Dot (but not from Google smart speakers). More on these at https://www.tomsguide.com/uk/us/best-smart-speakers,review-4480.html

If you have a smart speaker you should be able to link it in with your music streaming service account, which means you just have to speak the name of the music you want to listen to and it should play almost immediately. This even works with the free versions of Spotify, or with YouTube Music (with Google smart speakers), or with Amazon Prime (with Amazon Dot speakers).

So what do you think?

Has this topic been useful and has this been of interest to you? What are your favourite online sources of music? Have you any recommendations for more music apps or for some more specialised music sources? Is there anything that needs to be corrected?  Is there anything more that could be added? Any comments on these resources? And do you want to compare notes and experiences with other members or share any of this with others? You can get in touch in the way shown in the Contact section of our website. Do let me know if you want to have a conversation - and of course you can always get in touch with each other!

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