Docks. Boat rides. Road trips. Campfires. So many great things to do on a summer holiday, and so many great excuses to break out your own summer playlist.
Music is all about personal taste so we’re not going to give you advice on what to listen to (G Love and the Special Sauce’s new album “Sugar” for example!), but we can help you figure out where to get your music.
Despite declining sales, almost half of all album sales in 2013 were CDs and records. With higher bit rates and sampling rates, it’s often worth paying for a higher quality recording that you can also convert to smaller, more portable formats.
Digital is the way of the future, however, and there is no shortage of portable options for downloading music.
iTunes — individual songs (there are now over 26 million of them) are between $0.69 and $1.29 each for Apple’s high quality .m4a “lossless” format (also called ALAC) at 256 kbps bit rate. You only pay for what you buy, and there are optional radio stations and podcast downloads as well. The iTunes Store is only available on Apple products, however, so you’re locked into one brand.
Xbox Music — You can download and own songs from Xbox Music for around $0.99 each, but the real attraction is the $99 annual subscription music service with over 30 million tracks. There are no portable Windows players with Zune being phased out, but there are a lot of relatively cheap Windows phones. The download format is .MP3 at 256 kbps, which is similar to Apple – although Microsoft claims their native Windows Media Audio codec (WMA) sounds better than ALAC. The Xbox Music app is available on both Android and iPhone.
Google Play Music and Access — Google offers over 22 million songs through its new subscription service, available for $9.99 per month. You can download your collection or stream from anywhere. Access downloads arguably offer the highest quality music, with MP3 songs sampled at a 320 kbps bit rate. Like Xbox Music, there are no portable players available, although Android phones and devices are widely available. You can also download Google Play Music on an iPhone.
Amazon Cloud Player — Over 20 million songs starting at $0.79, plus the ability to store and stream your collection for $24.99 a year. The format is .MP3 with a 256 kbps bit rate.
Sony Music Unlimited — You need a Sony device for this to be viable, like a phone, PS3/PS4 or PSP, but there are 18 million songs available for $9.99 a month. Tracks are AAC-encoded and 320 kbps, providing a high overall sound quality.
Pono Music — Neil Young himself helped launch this new player and music service, which offers recording studio-quality music downloads. The files are huge, but you can get 24-bit, high-resolution music files that are better than CD quality.
Streaming Options
There are several music streaming options available, such as Pandora, Spotify and Songza if you’re not worried about exceeding your carrier’s monthly download limit and you have a wireless connection handy.
Spotify Premium is $9.99 a month and will stream over 18 million songs at 320 kbps. Pandora music streaming plans start at $4.99 a month and songs top out at 196 kbps. Songza is all about playlists, and doesn’t let you pick individual songs to listen to.
Once you’ve got your playlist down, drop by the store to make all that music sound as good as it possibly can. We offer a wide range of audio solutions for every kind of vehicle that will make jaws drop, at prices that are a lot lower than you think!
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