Within the aggressive world of streaming music, a great function set could make or break a service simply as simply as its catalog. Stingray Music provides a streamlined listening expertise that options an eclectic number of playlists and proposals. Nonetheless, the service does little else and comes with its share of limitations that makes for bland, and at occasions annoying, listening periods. Stingray Music is on no account a nasty platform, however it does nothing that different top-tier providers, equivalent to Spotify or Tidal, don’t already do (and do higher).
Stingray Music’s Setup and Pricing
The playlist-focused Stingray Music is out there on Android and iOS units, and might be streamed on a PC by way of an online browser. You should create an account to benefit from the tunes, which suggests utilizing an electronic mail deal with or social media (Fb, Google) credentials. Curiously, you too can use your cable TV credentials to create an account. Nonetheless, Stingray Music would not assist all suppliers; my cable firm, Spectrum, is not included within the app’s drop-down checklist.
After creating an account, you’ll be able to hearth up an ad-supported music channel. For an ad-free expertise, try Stingray Music’s $3.99-per-month premium subscription plan that eliminates ads and bumps the listening high quality from 160Kbps to 320Kbps. Nonetheless, the paid plan has points that we’ll discover in a bit.
Navigating Stingray Music
I examined the browser-based Stingray Music in addition to the iOS model (the latter was downloaded to an iPhone 13 Professional Max). On the net, Stingray shows a menu bar with tabs for House, Filters, Preferences, and your Profile. The house web page options panels for present common music, your listening historical past, customized suggestions, favourite channels, new releases, and a redundant checklist of extra suggestions known as My Lineup. Navigation boils right down to easy panel-surfing: click on what sounds good and begin listening. It’s handy and uncomplicated.
On iOS, Stingray Music incorporates a equally panel-focused structure. Nonetheless, you’ll do extra vertical scrolling on cellular than you’ll by way of the online participant, which is pretty frequent amongst music providers.
The house web page prominently shows a sliding carousel that includes trending and seasonal playlists. On the time of this writing, this contains Lady in Music (for Ladies’s Historical past Month), Highlight on Piano, and Highlight on Madonna. As you scroll down, you discover common playlists, genre-focused channels (At this time’s Prime 40 and Easy Jazz After Darkish, for instance), New Releases, Suggestions, and a Browse All part to slim your search down by style, exercise, temper, or period. You’ll be able to, after all, merely seek for playlists.
As soon as you discover an interesting playlist, you are taken to a display that accommodates the album artwork for the at present enjoying observe, and fundamental listening choices alongside the underside of the display. Naturally, you’ll be able to play, cease, or skip tracks. A coronary heart icon allows you to like a track and tweak Stingray Music’s algorithm. A music dial icon on the precise allows you to change the channel to one among 5 different equally sounding playlists. It’s a neat and nostalgic function that remembers radio, although you may get hit with an advert everytime you swap stations (except you subscribe to Stingray Music’s premium tier).
The Stingray Music-Listening Expertise
Stingray Music’s most notable subject is a definite lack of options. You’ll be able to seek for any artist or track you want, however the outcomes are playlists that function mentioned track or artist—you can’t take heed to on-demand tracks. Admittedly, this isn’t unusual amongst freemium streaming music providers.
Stingray Music allows you to skip as typically as you want (you could take care of advertisements, after all), however you can’t scrub to an earlier spot in a track or replay the observe from the start. Functionally, that is much like LiveOne’s free listening tier, with one curious (and irritating) distinction: pausing a track doesn’t really pause the track. It stops enjoying music, sure, however the track progresses within the background. So whenever you hit the play button, the music has moved properly previous the place you as soon as have been (and should have jumped to a brand new observe), which is an particularly irritating quirk. In essence, Stingray Music treats playlists like reside broadcasts. This pales as compared with BBC Sounds, a service that provides reside broadcasts and diversified listening content material that you may scrub in 20-second intervals.
I am a sucker for tracks from the Seventies and Eighties, so my listening preferences naturally gravitated towards channels like All the pieces 80s and Rewind! Better of the 80s, which function music from artists like Donna Summer season, Elton John, Eurythmics, Irene Cara, Kim Wilde, and Rick James. There are numerous different channels with music catered towards particular a long time and genres. Traditional Hip-Hop, for instance, options earworms from the likes of Dr. Dre, Mobb Deep, Run-DMC, Slick Rick, The Sugarhill Gang, Whodini, and Wu-Tang Clan. Large Traditional Rock has iconic tracks from Billy Joel, David Bowie, Derek and The Dominos, Led Zeppelin, and Van Halen.
The free tier has serviceable 160Kbps audio high quality, however the premium plan’s 320Kbps audio high quality provides refined enhancements. Stingray Music lacks hi-res audio, so you must put money into Amazon Music Limitless, Apple Music, or Tidal in order for you audiophile-grade streams.
Stingray Subscription Limitations
Stingray Music’s aforementioned $3.99-per-month subscription comes with ad-free listening and enhanced audio high quality. These are the one perks, sadly. Even with a subscription, you continue to can not fast-forward or rewind tracks, or play tracks on demand.
That is according to iHeart Radio’s $4.99-per-month Plus plan and LiveOne’s $3.99-per-month Plus plan, however falls brief in contrast with what Spotify, Tidal, and YouTube Music supply. These platforms allow you to scrub tracks, sing alongside to lyrics, and watch movies. Worse nonetheless, Stingray Music lacks various listening choices. LiveOne, however, has reside live shows, and iHeart Radio options reside radio and podcasts. That mentioned, Stingray Music has a separate, free service—Stingray Karaoke—that permits you to sing alongside to greater than 20,000 free songs.
Limitations and licensing are points that many streaming music providers wrestle with. 8tracks Radio, for instance, severely limits what number of occasions you’ll be able to skip tracks per hour, and what number of tracks by the identical artist you’ll be able to take heed to inside a sure interval. The flip aspect is that 8tracks is a DJ-focused affair that offers you the possibility to create your individual customized playlists and DJ for different customers. It additionally incorporates a strong social canvas that builds group. Stingray Music lacks social options, so its greatest draw is the truth that you skip tracks everytime you need.
No-Frills Music Streaming
Stingray Music has a trendy look and accessible controls, however its listening choices are disappointingly sparse in contrast with different streaming providers. Limitless skipping is a pleasant contact, however the platform lacks notable options to assist it stand out from the group. There are superior choices to discover, equivalent to Spotify, our general Editors’ Alternative winner for streaming music.
For extra on music streaming, try The Greatest Free Streaming Music Companies and 20 Spotify Tricks to Trick Out Your Music Streaming.
