iMore compares top music streaming services for the iPhone
iMore has conducted an in-depth comparison of three of the most popular music streaming services available for the iPhone: Spotify, Pandora and Slacker. As mentioned in the article, iTunes is certainly king when it comes to the purchase of digital music, but undoubtedly, there's an ever increasing demand for music to be streamed to our iPhones, which iTunes does not offer. But out of the top three available, which service offers the best value for money?
In searching for the answer, iMore takes a very close look at the apps and features offered by Spotify, Pandora and Slacker for the iPhone. Taking into consideration the user interface and experience, content offered by each service, cross-platform syncing and streaming, audio quality and finally, cost and features, iMore comes to some interesting conclusions about each service's strengths and weaknesses.
Most notably, Spotify (which was voted best iPhone music app of 2011 by TUAW readers) offers the best audio quality at 320kbps for its premium users (this is dependent on your Internet connection), but its premium service is the most expensive. Pandora came in cheapest for its premium service, but at its core is detailed as an online radio streaming service. It's great for discovering new music and listening to certain styles of music, but not for choosing to listen to a particular artist or album. According to iMore, Slacker comes up tops because it offers a happy medium between the best of Spotify and Pandora: Slacker offers the best mix of discovering new music and customizing the music you want to stream.
If you're looking into streaming music on the iPhone, iMore's article is certainly worth a read to help you weigh up the pros and cons offered by each service, so that you can make a decision which best serves you.
