According to Jared Imam’s CNN article “Young listeners opting to stream, not own music,” music streaming sites such as Apple Music and Spotify have become the preferred method of music consumption over purchasing songs or albums among young adults – and Keene State College students are no exception.
Senior Roger Weeks attested to this trend.
“Honestly, I think about ninety-five percent of my friends use streaming sites, whether it be Apple Music or Spotify, because it is cheaper and more convenient than having to buy everything you want to listen to,” Weeks said.
Weeks continued, “It also gives you the ability to discover new music which I think is definitely a positive aspect for kids our age who don’t want to just depend on whatever the top forty songs are that week.”
With individual songs costing up to $1.29 on iTunes, it is no wonder that college students are opting to pay a monthly fee of $10 for unlimited music instead, claimed senior Ali Lague.
Lague said she prefers to stream her music online.
“College students are limited to a pretty small budget, paying $1.29 for each song is not even an option for me or most people I know so paying a monthly fee of $10 is a more sensible choice, especially when you’re trying to budget your money. I don’t even remember the last time I purchased an individual song on iTunes,” Lague said.
According to spotify.com, “Spotify is a digital music service that gives you access to millions of songs…it gives you the ability to browse through the music collections of friends, artists and celebrities.”
Lague said she was unfamiliar with the services provided by Spotify until six months ago when she received a promotional offer to try out the streaming site for $.99 per month for three months.
Lague said she has been hooked ever since.
“I can’t imagine listening to music in any other way or with any other site. I know a few people who use Apple Music but I prefer Spotify just because it’s easy to use and I’m familiar with it at this point,” Lague said.
Lague continued, “I would highly recommend [Spotify] to anyone looking to stream music rather than purchase it because it economically makes sense, plus has a lot of advantages like the fact that you can use it offline. The offline feature means that despite not having service, you can still listen to your music unlike streaming sites like Pandora, which goes to show how convenient it truly is.”
Similar to Spotify is the competing streaming service Apple Music. Apple Music allows members to add anything from the Apple Music library, create playlists and enable an offline feature which allows listeners to access music anywhere, according to apple.com.
Senior Meredith Falso said she has been a member of this streaming service since Apple introduced it in July 2015.
“I’ve continued to use Apple Music for many reasons; mainly for its convenience but also for the endless supply of downloadable music,” Falso said.
Falso said streaming music from a smartphone has become easier than ever for students.
Falso continued, “Almost everyone I know has an iPhone which comes with the music application already programmed in, making it more appealing to its users.”
Falso said she prefers to stream her music from her smartphone as well.
“I prefer to stream my music rather than buy it because with Apple Music you are paying a set amount of money per month to get endless amounts of music while if I were to purchase music at the store or via iTunes, the total cost could become significantly higher than paying the monthly amount,” Falso said.
Overall, Falso thinks using streaming services like Apple Music “just makes more sense for college students and should definitely be considered for anyone who hasn’t already tried it.”
Amanda Lashua can be contacted at alashua@kscequinox.com
