Music Streaming with Groove and Beats

     I love listening to different genres of music. I can completely forego watching TV and be completely engross by the world of music. Certain songs take me back to specific moments in my life and I absolutely enjoy recollecting my life’s past events (well, maybe not all). I jumpstart my day by playing upbeat songs may it be Pop or House. Towards the end of the day I keep myself company by playing classical songs of beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Chopin and the like as well as instrumental songs. Music is all I need to loosen up, de-stress and unwind and because of this I like to have access to millions of songs and I mostly like to use my smart phone to listen endlessly. One way of enjoying infinite music is via streaming. I know there are tons of apps available on the app store (e.g spotify, pandora, google play etc. etc..) but these apps mostly work when you are only connected to the internet. Let me share two of my favorite go to music apps online or offline.

Let’s start with beats music. There’s a huge UI (user interface) difference on beats music since apple released itunes. New menu with bigger icons and more options are available. During set up process, you get to personalize your beats music by selecting your type of music, your favorite artists and with a few taps here and there, you’re good to go. The app is easy to understand and still navigable despite the huge change. I personally think that beats RECOMMENDATION as well as CONNECT are awesome features of this app. The latter reminds me of instagram, It keeps me connected to my favorite artists by seeing what they’re currently up to and comment on their photo/video post. Another thing that I really like about beats music is being able to command SIRI to play my songs. SIRI by default will search songs on beats music even if you haven’t included it in your playlist. I have used this feature one time when I bragged to my husband that I can play his “kind of music” on my phone which pique his interest on beats music. This feature is also very useful when driving because as we all know, texting or fiddling with your phone while driving is a big no no. In addition, if you have an apple TV you can use the cool feature called airplay to stream content (songs,video or photos) from phone or ipad to TV but the most important part is the unlimited download and offline access. You get three months of trial period which is enough to toy around beats music app and with $9.99/month for individual account, sky’s the limit!

Let’s move on to Microsoft’s Groove formerly xbox music. Before apple’s beats music, there was xbox music. The app by default is installed on windows devices. I started using this app when I received windows phone and surface 2 from my work about a year ago. I absolutely fell inlove with groove music streaming. It was the answer to my eclectic taste in music and at the same time it saved my phone's storage space. I like how I can create my own playlist, download songs and listen offline. Personally, groove is the most useful app on my windows and iphone before the resurrection of apple music. I have used it as the sound mixer for parties because it is very easy to search and download party mixes and wirelessly connect to a bluetooth speaker. I did myself a favor by bypassing the process of saving songs to USB storage device or buying songs online or searching youtube for party playlists. What’s awesome about groove aside from its straightforward UI is the collaboration of SONOS speakers. Which means that sonos is capable of playing microsoft groove music. If apple has airplay feature for apple TV, Microsoft groove has SONOS. Groovy, isn’t it? (that just reminded me of Austin Powers, haha!). Similar to beats music, groove music pass is $9.99/month or you can opt for a yearly subscription to save. 

I think groove and beats music are fantastic applications. I am enjoying both but sooner or later I will have to decide which one's to keep. Overall, I recommend either groove or beats music or both!

What about you, what music apps do you use?