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October 27, 2015

Still Paying For Streaming Music? Why?

It’s early morning and you’re flying around your home trying to get out the door. You grab your belongings, throw on your shoes and dig into your morning playlist.

While you’re on the go, will your streaming music service deliver the goods—meaning high-quality, uninterrupted service? Or will your morning commute be thrown out of whack by advertisements, slow load times and futile searches for particular artists?

To avoid the latter scenario, it’s important that you select a streaming music service that will grant you access to the music you want, the way you want it, without putting you over budget. So, you’ll want to be picky when selecting a provider from the multitude of options on the market.

Here’s a look at some of the leading providers and their current offerings:

  • Apple Music (three-month trial, $10 per month or $15 per month family plan): Apple Music is the official music service for Apple products, meaning that if you own an Android, you can’t utilize it. Apple offers streaming music, a radio service and is Siri-activated for easy voice control. Most notably, it’s the only service that streams Taylor Swift’s “1989” album.
  • Tidal (30-day trial, $10 per month or $20 for lossless—or higher-quality—service): Advertised as “high-fidelity music streaming,” Jay-Z’s Tidal music service offers CD sound quality and access to specially curated editorial content, as well as music videos. But will it last? Some 71 percent of music executives think it will be extinct by next year, due to its high prices, stiff competition and executive churn rates.
  • Spotify (free streaming—with restrictions—$10 per month or $5 per month family plan): Spotify is still the go-to streaming service for the majority of customers, as it’s now the No. 1 app in the U.S. App Store. Pay the premium rate and you’ll get unlimited streaming music as well as additional content like podcasts.
  • Google Play (free trial, or $10 per month): Google Play is similar to Spotify and other services in that you can stream unlimited music, and it comes with a streaming radio feature. Plus, you’ll get to store 50,000 tracks. Again, however, you’ll have to pay for this service.

Of course, these are just a few of the leading services that are receiving mainstream media attention. You could also check out Pandora, Amazon Prime and Rhapsody for more options.

But enough about the high-profile music services, which pretty much offer similar content and delivery options. A company equally worthy of your attention is music and mobile services provider ROK Mobile.

As pointed out in a recent article, ROK Mobile is a great alternative to leading streaming music providers as, not only will it give you unlimited streaming music, just like you would find with any of the aforementioned providers, but—unlike the other providers—it provides mobile features like unlimited talk and text time, as well as 5 GB of 4G LTE connectivity. So you can gain all of the features you need to operate your smartphone as well as streaming music for one low price.

And the best part is that you don’t need to break out a magnifying glass to understand the contract because there is no contract to sign.

What’s more, there are no hidden fees to worry about when using ROK. In short, you can go online or walk into a select retail store, pay $50 and get a month of mobile service and unlimited streaming music.

Here’s a closer look at ROK’s music offerings:

  • A catalogue of 20 million songs: ROK updates its music catalogue every week, so you will always have access to new and exciting artists.
  • Downloadable content: Just like Spotify, you can download music from Wi-Fi, store it in your cache and take it with you on the go.
  • Ad-free streaming: You won’t have to worry about pesky advertisements interrupting your listening experience.
  • Curated playlists: If you like the streaming artist radio service that Pandora offers, you can find the same feature on ROK. The only difference is that you can select individual artists and tracks, which you can’t do on Pandora.

Also, the platform is compatible with both Apple and Android operating systems. And, as was discussed in the above-mentioned article, the average person is spending less than $50 per year on music listening today. Its pricing plan fits right in with most peoples’ budgetary needs.

So remember to do some shopping around before you select a streaming music provider, so that you find a plan that aligns with your needs and high expectations. As ROK Mobile proves, you can have your streaming music and mobile service and enjoy it, too




Edited by Stefania Viscusi


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