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How will I listen to my new music?

Issues

There are a couple important choices to weigh when choosing a medium on which to listen to music. The first is whether to store music internally on a hard drive or stream music over an internet connection. The streaming vs stored debate is important for determining the technology that listeners will use to discover new music. The second important choice is whether to store and listen to music on a personal computer or to use a portable device, such as an IPod, instead. Personal computers and portable devices, however, are not mutually exclusive and each has its pros and cons.

Methods

Currently, there are four primary methods to listen to new music. These methods are the four different combinations derived from combining the streaming vs stored and personal computer vs portable device options. Storing music on a personal computer is currently the most popular way to access music, largely because of its familiarity and simplicity, as well as the prevalence of illegal filesharing. Stored music on a personal computer can then be transfered to a portable device, such as an IPod, which lets you take your tunes on the go. Streaming music on the PC, such as through internet radio stations (personalized or unpersonalized), is quickly gaining in popularity because it enables the listener to listen to music that is not contained on his/her computer. Streaming music on portable devices still has yet to gain mainstream popularity, but has vast potential for the future.

Services