Top 8 Apps to Stream Music at Work

As the workday lulls on, you start tapping your feet to the rattling noise the air conditioner vent makes. When you begin to hum along to the reverberating buzz of those fluorescent lightbulbs, you know it’s time to pop on the headphones and pump up the jams.

With many offices hopping aboard the BYOD bandwagon, employees are enjoying the benefits of music streaming apps alongside their enterprise cloud tools. Often, the hardest part about this perk is deciding what type of music to listen to, much less how to listen to it. With the endless supply of YouTube songs and music streaming apps, the decision can seem overwhelming!

Not to fear, the right music steaming app is out there; you just have to figure out what suits you the best. Luckily, listed below are some of the most popular options, along with some others you might want to try. Whichever you choose, the haunting silence of your office will soon be disturbed by power rock ballads, hypnotizing ethnic guitar solos, or guilty-pleasure pop songs. And you’ll finally be able to get some work done.

Pandora

One of the originals, Pandora reached 150 million users in 2012. This popular Internet radio station allows users to personalize their radio stations by artist, song, or genre, letting you like and dislike songs so that each of the 100 stations can be molded toward your liking. The free version of Pandora limits users to 40 hours of listening per month. To receive unlimited listening, a user must upgrade to a low monthly fee, currently at $3.99 a month. With this package, they won’t have to listen to commercials like the ones that play on the free version.

Whether you decide to play it on your smartphone or your computer at work, Pandora will stream your customized music so you’ll never be bored again.

Spotify

If you’re the emotional type who fantasizes about a DJ following you around with a boombox on their shoulders, choosing music that suits your mood, then look no further than Spotify. To suit your manic highs and your more introverted lows, Spotify lets you create your own playlist based on your moods. Alternately, if you’re feeling indecisive, it will play start playing music at random.

Like many free Internet radio sites, the free version is made possible by advertisements. For an ad-free experience, users must upgrade to the unlimited package priced at $4.99 a month for just your laptop. A premium package is available for an ad-free experience for any device you own, priced at $9.99 a month.

Songza

Similar to Spotify, Songza chooses music playlists based on your current activity. But, Songza goes further by guessing your current activity by the time and day you log on. If you don’t see your current activity on there, you can scroll over to find an extensive list of activities, or moods. Within these options, lies even more options of playlists.

Don’t let the plethora of options overwhelm you, because you can save your favorite playlists so you can return to these playlists for the creatures of habit within us all. The best thing about Songza is it currently runs no audio advertisements so you can listen to music uninterrupted.

This Is My Jam

Did you hear a new song the other day and now it’s pervaded your dreams and infected your psyche? Do you find yourself visiting YouTube at work, in the car, and at home just to replay the song throughout your day? Everyone has that song that they can’t get enough of, so if that’s you then This Is My Jam, or TIMJ, is perfect for you. It’s a music-sharing network that lets you pick one song, share it with your friends, and listen to it as many times as you please for seven days.

However, you aren’t restricted to listening to this only song if you explore the daily discovery option posted by other people of whom you can follow. All of your jams eventually turn into playlists that you can listen to with the Spotify app.

Noon Pacific

If you like your new music hot and fresh off the press, ink still dripping, Noon Pacific is for you. This photo streaming site delivers weekly playlists delivered every Monday at noon PST. The playlist creators choose new songs from hip music blogs across the web and bring them to your ears.

Piki

To keep up with your friend’s music picks, creators introduced Piki. A music sharing app for the iPhone, Piki lets you follow your friends music choices, and plays those choices on shuffle. If there’s a song you feel your social world needs to hear, Piki lets you share it. Through Facebook, Twitter, and turntable.fm, you can follow your friends’ music choices. Piki also lets you customize what you hear by genre, artist, and previously liked songs.

Whyd

Some people collect model cars, others bottle exotic sands, while many hip people hoard music. They scour the internet searching and successfully finding new artists, songs, and albums. For these kind of people, Whyd is the perfect music streaming site because it lets you keep all the music you find in one place. You can organize your tracks into playlists, and then share songs or playlists with other users so new music is always available.

Ex.fm

Like Whyd, Ex.fm is for new music lovers. It lets you share music with others on Ex.fm and delivers new, hand-picked music to you regularly. Not only can you organize new songs, but the site also lets you organize your favorite music blogs and websites so you can keep track of them all in one spot. So if you’re a music junkie, feed your hunger for tasty, funky tunes with Ex.fm.

There are too many music sites and apps available today, for you to ever have a dull, quiet moment. Pick a few of these sites, or use all of them so that your ears are constantly stimulated with jams.

Which of the old favorites is your particular favorite? Which of the new sites seems the coolest? Let us know in the comments below, and continue on rocking out at work.