Tues May 5th 2015

Instructor: Tyler Thompson

Wyatt Fertig

Streaming

Radio

Basics

Introduction

We’ll cover:

• What is Streaming?

• What is Stream Radio?

• Paywalls

• Pandora

• Spotify

• iHeartRadio

• Freegal

• SoundCloud, Mixcloud, bandcamp

• mixlr

Here at EPL

More music is available online than ever

before, including old and hard to find

recordings, as well as brand-new music.

Music online is totally free!

What is Streaming

Streaming is a common Internet term which means that files are

not being saved and kept on the computer; instead, videos and

music are viewed (or streamed) from a website or application.

In order to stream you’ll only need:

• A computer or device (phone or tablet)

• An active internet connection

What is Streaming Radio?

Streaming radio is free music (similar to the radio) available

on the Internet. Some services only let you pick the station or

type of music, while others let you pick individual songs and playlists. Like a traditional radio station, these services are

free because of the revenue generated from ads on the

stations.

Most services, however, include Paywalls or upgradable

accounts which users can subscribe to. In addition to all of

the normal features, often paid accounts will remove ads, or

allow users additional features. For each service we talk

about today, we will also discuss the paid version and its

included features.

Pandora

The basics of PANDORA:

PANDORA is free personalized

Internet radio that allows users to

create and save “stations” based

on music that you know and like.

• Stations can be created

based upon genre, artist,

song, or even occasion.

Based upon the

Music Genome Project

Creating a New Account

• What you need to create a new PANDORA account

• A working email account

• You will also need to create a password that you can remember, and

supply PANDORA with your birth year, postal code, and gender.

• Why does PANDORA require this personal information?

LIMITATIONS OF A FREE ACCOUNT

• Limit of 6 “skips” per hour, per station (up to 24)

• Advertisements

UPGRADING TO PANDORA ONE… is also an option. For $4.99/month,

users can listen free of advertisements and get additional skips.

You do not need to create a Pandora account to listen to music through

them on your computer; however, creating an account will allow you to

save your stations and song preferences for later.

Creating A Station

Creating a station is as simple as typing into the search box an artist, genre,

or song that you are interested in listening to.

From there, PANDORA will create a station based upon your entry that

features music similar to that which you entered.

Finding Stations

PANDORA has many stations pre-created for your convenience. By following

the link, you can easily browse through them and find a station that’s right for

you.

Listening

PANDORA has easy to use controls.

• play/pause button

• volume controls

• skip button

• thumbs up/thumbs down• Clicking "thumbs-up" tells Pandora "you like this track" and helps to bring in more

tracks like it to your station. Clicking "thumbs down" tells us not to play this track.

Spotify

Unlike Pandora, Spotify is a

music library of individually

selected songs and artists and

a downloadable application

that requires an Internet

connection to play music.

(There is also a web player.)

In order to download Spotify,

first you’ll need to make a Spotify account.

Feel free to follow along with

the downloading process or

just watch!

Social Features

Part of the exciting or awful

(depending on how you look at it)

social features of Spotify is the ability to see other users you may be

connected with through social

media. Spotify suggests following

Facebook friends with Spotify, which

will give occasional updates on what

your friends are listening to in the

bottom right of the screen.

Spotify can also be allowed to post

this information to Facebook as

Facebook posts, but this is a feature

that you have to opt-in to.

Downloading

To download Spotify, Google “Spotify” or go to the url:

https://www.spotify.com/us/

Then, sign up using your Facebook account or email address. If you

would like to use Spotify’s social networking features, then signing up

with Facebook is a good idea; otherwise, feel free to use your email

account.

1

2

Web Player

If you don’t feel like downloading Spotify, you can also find it available

through a web browser; simply Google “Spotify Web Player” or enter

the url: “https://play.spotify.com/”

Almost all

of Spotify’s

features

are the

same, but

with a

different

layout.

Listening

After Spotify is downloaded, it will be

set as an Application located on the

desktop and will start up

automatically once the computer

powers on.

To open Spotify, (if it isn’t already),

double-click on the Spotify icon on

the desktop.

To listen to music, simply type in

the name of the artist or song you

are interested in. Each Spotify artist

has their own page which includes

their most popular songs and

music organized by album; again,

their library is extremely large, but

not all encompassing.

Listening

When listening to a song or

artist, you can add music

to ‘your music’ by hitting

the + symbol next to the

artist name, the + symbol

underneath the cover in

the bottom left-hand

corner, or the + symbol

next to the song title in the

middle. These songs will

then be saved to my music

and along the bottom left-

hand side.

Playlists

To create a playlist, hit the

“create new

playlist” icon on

the left-hand

column or when

listening to a

song, right-click

and select Add to ->

And create a

new playlist or

add it to an existing playlist.

Radio

Not sure what to listen to? Or

want music for the background?

Try Spotify radio! Spotify radio is

extremely similar to Pandora.

Create new stations based on

artist or track names.

Spotify Premium

iHeartRadio

Traditional radio stations

have also banded together to provide

online and phone access

to radio stations.

iHeart Radio service

allows users to stream live

radio and custom radio

stations based on an

artist or song.

Find your Favorite Stations

Search thousands of national radio stations

by entering radio frequency or station

names.

Custom Radio

Clicking “Custom Radio” or

entering an artist or song

name in the search box will

let you listen to radio based

on the artist or listen to a

few of their most popular

songs.

Freegal

Music service Library subscribes

to which allows music mp3

downloads directly to your

computer

Limited to 5 downloads and 3

hours of streaming per week

Must have a valid EPL card and

know library PIN

Logging In

Elmhurst patrons also

have access to

thousands of songs

through freegal and

our other music

services, hoopla and

Naxos Music Library.

To access freegal, go to our home page, select eLibrary -> eMusic ->

and freegal on the following page.

Listening

Once in freegal, you will need to log in or

create a new user.

After that, search or

select an artist and

start downloading!

Conclusion

Join us next time for:

Intermediate WordPress

May 12th

7pm-8:30pm

Google Drive Basics

May 13th

7pm-9pm