In today’s world, there are so many options out there for online music that it can be difficult to know where to start! The great thing about homeowners that have installed the Sonos Wireless HiFi System is that now it is possible to listen to most artists, albums and/or songs in just moments. No more dusting off old vinyl records, pulling out old tapes, or trying to rub the scratches out of your favourite CDs. We hope the following online music service overview will educate you on what technologies are out there:


Rdio
Rdio is subscription-based online music service that allows for you to pay a small fee of just $4.99 per month and you are able to listen to unlimited amounts of music from any computer. If you are familiar with Spotify, it is quite similar. Back when Spotify wasn’t available in the United States (and soon to be available in Canada), Rdio held the exclusive on such a service.

Beyond being able to call up almost any artist, album, or song in less than a second, users are able to share music from friends, get music suggestions, and even write mini-reviews. This makes the utilization of your Sonos system quite dynamic.

For those who want to listen to music on their mobile devices and computers while offline or want to listen to music on demand, much like Netflix, members pay $9.99/month and have access to more than 8.5 million songs. Getting started with Rdio is quite easy and completely free for the first week. This allows for you to give it a try before diving into the paid subscription.


Aupeo
Aupeo is a completely free personalized online music service that you personalize by selecting the “Mood” (Happy, Energetic, Stressful, Relaxing, etc) and the “Genre” (HipHop, Country, World, Electronic, etc) .. The service is a competitor to Pandora, last.fm, and Spotify. As a user, you are allowed to stream more than 120 stations across all music genres, while provided the ability to pause or skip songs at any time. The free version has occasional commercials that play throughout your listening session and has a limit as to how many songs can be skipped at a time per station. In order to better customize music selections, you are able to designate the songs you like versus the ones you dislike.

In the case that you want to enjoy commercial free listening and have full control of how many songs are skipped, the premium service is available for €4.95 EUR/month or €49,95 EUR/ year.


Slacker Personal Radio
Slacker is quite similar to Aupeo, allowing for users to listen to customized music stations. To select a genre that is most appealing at any given time, you must designate a particular artist or song as a reference point. Music then begins to stream within that given genre and allows for users to pause and skip songs.

The free version allows for only a limited number of skips and includes commercials. If you desire the ability to listen to music without commercials, there is a monthly fee of either $3.99 or $9.99. The $3.99 version also allows for mobile station caching, enables ABC News, and includes complete song lyrics. On the other hand, the $9.99 version adds the ability for you to play song and albums on demand, play single artist stations, cash albums and playlists, and create personalized playlists. This makes Slacker quite similar in functionality to Rdio.

No matter which way you stack it, you can create a music listening experience of your dreams. The secret to discovering which online music services work best for you is to give them all a try!

Tags: Sonos, Rdio, Aupeo, Slacker Personal Radio