Music fans have plenty of streaming app choices when it comes to listening to tunes online, with Spotify being among the best-known options, offering both a free tier with ads as well as premium subscription options that give access to over 90 million tracks.
Amazon Music provides similar service, boasting an expansive catalogue at an unbeatably low cost. If you prefer uninterrupted listening experiences and offline playback capabilities, consider upgrading to Amazon’s premium tier for ad-free listening.
1. Reverbnation
ReverbNation is one of the premier music industry websites. Users have access to numerous advanced tools that make sharing songs across main music outlets and social media easier, while real-time analytics provide real insight into followership numbers and popularity trends.
ReverbNation provides musicians with the perfect platform to build and engage with a strong fanbase while staying in contact through its ‘Fan Reach’ feature. This feature allows them to design and send customized messages via social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook, email or text – including announcements for new songs, shows or videos as well as custom status updates – keeping fans up-to-date about everything going on in their career.
ReverbNation offers another useful feature called Crowd Reviews that gives artists an idea of what people think of their songs, while also showing its appeal among listeners within similar genres. Crowd Reviews serves as an effective marketing mechanism that can enhance musician’s reputations while opening doors to industry opportunities and gigs.
2. Deezer
Deezer offers an expansive music catalogue at reasonable subscription rates, making them an easy way to discover new artists. Their user-centric payment system allocates your subscription money towards artists you like most – giving them an incentive to grow and thrive within Deezer. Plus there’s a tour schedule feature which syncs up seamlessly with both phone calendars and calendar apps so that you don’t miss any shows!
Deezer offers lossless streaming music through their Hi-Fi tier, making them the ideal solution for audiophiles or people on-the-go who need their tunes in lossless quality. Deezer also provides flexible plans including family plans and annual payments options to meet any need you might have for music on the go.
Deezer does have some drawbacks; its algorithm doesn’t surface new content as effectively as that offered by Flow or Spotify, and its free tier can feel restrictive. Furthermore, Deezer’s web player features plenty of whitespace which may feel disorienting for those used to a more densely packed user interface; however, their mobile app more than makes up for this flaw.
3. MuseScore
MuseScore is an impressive free, open-source music notation program. Designed to create sheet music for various instruments, as well as display them at concert pitch, this tool has long been utilized by professional musicians, teachers and students alike; offering many features necessary for creating music.
The latest version of the program is more user-friendly than ever, featuring an elegant visual interface with light and dark modes, customizable accent colors and an updated high-contrast accessibility mode for easier visibility. System dividers help visually separate systems within scores as well as hide empty staves if necessary.
The program boasts excellent formatting tools and the capability of customizing keyboard shortcuts is a fantastic feature. Unfortunately, however, some issues with horizontal (rhythmic) spacing cause inconsistent and hard-to-read scores; these should be addressed with future releases of MuseGroup software or directly through MuseGroup’s website.
4. GarageBand
Garageband is an all-in-one digital audio workstation designed to enable musicians of all levels to compose professional-sounding compositions quickly and without expensive equipment or booking studio time. Available for iOS, iPad and MacOS platforms and widely used by amateur and professional musicians alike. Featuring user-friendly design and editing software that makes navigating its various functions simple for anyone; as well as familiar instruments and sounds that enhance creativity during music creation process.
Live Loops is among the more noteworthy features, enabling users to trigger different looped instruments and samples in real-time for music that resembles live performances. Furthermore, this application features predefined projects for musicians just starting out that provide preset projects that make creating music easy – ideal for beginners who wish to get acquainted with using software before committing themselves fully to composing songs. Furthermore, users have control over individual track sonic characteristics, the entire song and effects such as reverb, echo and compression effects.
5. Plexamp
Plex is not the first streaming service to offer music discovery tools, but it does offer some innovative approaches. Most recently, they introduced “artist radio,” similar to what Spotify provides: selecting an artist and creating a playlist from them that searches your library in search of similar songs. You can also select from popular or high-rated tracks as well as tracks categorized by year of release for even further personalization of your experience.
Plexamp is a dedicated music player for Plex, offering highly customizable experience through gapless playback and visualizations, loudness leveling, pre-caching capabilities and loudness leveling features. Available for iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows and Linux OS.
Plex Pass members used to enjoy exclusive use of this app; however, today they announced it will now be free for everyone. The free version offers unlimited streaming of your music library in multiple audio formats including high-resolution audio. Furthermore, Pass holders benefit from additional premium features including ad-free listening and being able to download playlists and stations offline for offline listening.