Jam Out To The Best New Music For Free With These 8 Online Radio Options
In more rural areas of the country it’s sometimes tough to get good radio reception, and sometimes the choices are slim in the offerings available. But even if you are in the big city you may not like the stations you have to choose from. Or you want to save some money and not buy dozens of albums just to listen to a collection of greatest hits from your favorite artists.
Try these options that you can stream online or through your cell phone data and listen to what inspires you the most.
iHeart Radio
Want to listen to a radio station you loved while in college or lived in another part of the country many states away? Most of the popular urban stations stream live through this service that you can listen to online or through their smartphone app. Plus, you can listen to music by artists, genres or your own playlist. Catch a podcast from your favorite station or news or sportscast.
Key Features:
- Thousands of live stations
- Free and paid service options
- 30-Day trial offer
- Replay songs
- Streams on phone, computer and/or tablet
Amazon Music
Amazon Prime members can listen to over 2 million songs that are ad-free both online and off. Even better, Amazon’s Echo device allows for playing music on demand. Don’t like the song you are listening to? Just skip on to the next song and get grooving to a new tune. Listen to the service on all of your favorite devices, and you can even get more with Amazon Music Unlimited – just pick the package that suits you.
Key Features:
- Online music store
- Listen offline
- Free with Amazon Prime ($99/year)
- App available for iOS and Android devices
- Ad-free and unlimited skips
Pandora
Offering both ad-supported and ad-free programming; Pandora learns what you like to hear as time goes on. Give each song you listen to a “thumbs up” or down, and your stations start to know your taste in music. There are several genre stations to get you started. Listen almost anywhere with most technology platforms available.
Key Features:
- Free and paid service options
- Listen offline
- Search and play any song
- 60-Day free trial
- Personalized stations
Apple Music
Try free for 3 months and listen to a 40‑million‑song catalog right at your fingertips. Search for your favorite artist, album or genre without ever hearing an ad. Couple this with your own iTunes library and have even more resources to listen to when you want. You can even share and collaborate with your friends to find the latest trending music.
Key Features:
- Three-month trial
- Family and Student discounts
- Listen offline
- App available for iOS and Android devices
- Original shows, concerts, and exclusives
Spotify
This service allows you to access stations by artist or genre in order to play your favorite type of music. But it’s more than just a radio service since it allows you to access songs directly and allows you to save them to your own playlists for when you want to listen. The service has several options to help satisfy your music needs with both ad-supported music and premium upgrades.
Key Features:
- Free and paid service options
- Streams on phone, computer and/or tablet
- 30-Day trial offer
- Family and Student discounts
- Podcasts
Jango
Here you will find a free platform for music that you want to listen to online through streaming custom radio stations. Simply choose your favorite artist, and the service plays that musician’s songs along with other similar artists. Rate the songs you hear and they will play more frequently on your playlist. Several ready-made stations are available by genre ranging from Country to Classical and Rock to Hip Hop with many stations in between.
Key Features:
- Free service
- App available for iOS and Android devices
- Customization
- Ad-driven
- Song Rating
This service has both free and subscription-based access to songs and stations, news, sports and talk radio. It features a playlist for your favorite music when you are ready to listen to it. Genre driven channels offer a variety of music featuring Rock, Country, Classical, Jazz, Christian and Hip Hop just to name a few.
Key Features:
- Free service
- App available for iOS and Android devices
- Exclusive specials
- Ad-driven
- Song Rating
Google Play Music
Offering pre-built playlists to choose from, you will be able to listen to more music than you could ever imagine. What is cool with this service is that you can upload your own music (as many as 50,000 songs) and sync them to your own playlist. You will have to deal with ads with this service so be prepared for them appearing quite often.
Key Features:
- Free and paid service options
- Ad-driven
- Podcasts
- Top charts
- Genre channels
While most of these services are free, they are not all free from commercials; some do offer upgrade options for a fee. But regardless of the way you listen, you will get to pick the genres that interest you that will make beautiful music to your ears.
