iHeartRADIO App is the Best Music Streaming App

Yes, I work at iHeartMEDIA but …wait, wait, wait …I promise I’m objective when I say the iHeartRadio App is the best streaming app. I’m comparing it to Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, the Audacy App, SoundCloud, and YouTube Music.

Quickly, I’ll rank them. Then tell you why, for me, they’re ranked this way.

1. iHeartRADIO
2. YouTube Music
3. Spotify
4. Audacy
5. Pandora
6. Soundcloud

Here we go …the “why” behind my list and my reasons. For my testing purposes, I have been challenging the music services with the Bluegrass genre. It’s a genre I like, and I know a little about the artists and Bluegrass trends. And I know enough to know a good Bluegrass playlist from a bad one.

iHeartRADIO

What I’m about to say will give context to my rankings and, sure, some things I’ll tell you that’s great about iHeartRADIO won’t seem important to you. The best thing about iHeartRADIO are the Original Stations. Just click and scroll and scroll and scroll. Among my favorites are Gen X Radio, Smells Like the 90s, Popcorn Radio (all songs from movie soundtracks), Coffee Shop Radio, and Alt Rewind. In total, there are 156 Original Stations. And song for song, be it Bluegrass or Alt Rewind, they are better than any other automated, AI playlist from the other services because iHeartRADIO Original Stations aren’t programmed by a bot or algorithm. I’d compare it to a Sirius station …but better. Again …not AI. Instead, iHeartRADIO Original Stations are programmed by an actual human “program director.” See …at iHeartMedia, there are 850+ broadcast radio stations in 125+ markets and the songs on those stations are carefully selected by Program Directors. Program Directors don’t become Program Directors by accident. Program Directors are total music nerds and they study what will attract listeners and keep listeners so nothing you hear on traditional radio is an accident. Agree or disagree, if you were given an FM signal of your own, you might say, “oh, heck, I’ll make it a bluegrass station.”  Now let’s say you actually wanted lots of listeners and to make money …you’d scrap your bluegrass idea and you’d play Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Drake often and again and again.

These music nerds …um, I’ve met them …and they know music. Trust me, I’ve walked into more than one Program Director’s office with a little bit of, what I think, is interesting music trivia or radio history and then been stuck for half an hour or longer listening to a Program Director tell me about deep cuts, pulling vinyl off of shelves, pulling up bootleg versions of songs on their phone, and explaining why I should be replacing all my music with remastered vinyl.

Point is …they KNOW music and so when you’re on iHeartRADIO listening to Classic Soul, The Vinyl Experience, or Vinyl Classic Rock . . . the songs are hand picked. The flow of the songs is expertly curated. And you’ll hear a voice between the songs sometimes telling you about the song, the artist, or what to listen for if it’s a deep cut.

I could make my own list, sure. But I don’t want to work that hard.

The next thing I like about the iHeartRADIO App is that everything is available everywhere all at once …for free. And I don’t mind a few commercials. I have the iHeartRADIO App set-up on both my smart TVs, I have it on my iPhone to play in my car, and I can say, “Hey, Google …play Pink Tacos Radio from iHeartRADIO on main floor,” and my two Google Homes will launch into Punk Rock from the 70s until now.

Finally, it’s great for Podcasts. Any Podcast you can get on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher …it’s there on the iHeartRADIO App, too.

What I don’t like is that I can’t play albums beginning to end or make playlists (like my Don’s Summer Vacation Playlist), but that’s what Spotify is for.

YouTube Music

It has videos. It will play complete albums. I can create libraries and save things. And the best part is that I can play it on my TV and the videos look cool.

Spotify

Obviously, the best thing about this is that I never have to buy a CD or vinyl album. Every album by every artist that ever existed or will ever exist is available, here. Yes, I know some artists have pulled their music, but not enough that it makes a difference. When I decided one day, hey, I’m going to figure out what the heck Crosby, Stills, & Nash is all about, and what is the difference between them and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young . . . well, Spotify allowed me to read about the group, their albums, place them on timeline in my mind, and listen from beginning to end.

I pay for this service (I have teens) so I don’t hear commercials and the audio quality is lossless.

Spotify is good for playlists like my “Songs from my College Fraternity Basement” my “Summer Vacation Playlist” and my latest playlist called “Songs That Sound Like That Song I Can’t Think Of” …which is a really good playlist full of punk-sounding songs with a great opening guitar riff. Spotify will see the songs on that list and keep recommending similar songs and it’s very smart and hopefully, someday, it will spit out the song I simply cannot think of (and I’ve Googled lyrics I think are the lyrics but just can’t find it).

I digress.

Spotify has a few Bluegrass offerings, but most are playlists from other guys just like me and are missing things and Spotify’s “Moods and Genre” area doesn’t quite measure up to iHeartRADIO’s iHeartBluegrass Original …which is a LIVE station that you can tune into mid song.

Audacy

This one shares many things I like about iHeartRADIO, probably because Audacy is a huge broadcast radio company with hundreds of Program Directors so their original stations are very good and the songs you’ll hear aren’t accidental. When you stumble upon Tailgate Rock, Freedom Rock, or The Angry Playlist, you can quickly hear the songs are carefully selected for each station. The biggest downside is the stations aren’t LIVE (so you’re definitely listening to a playlist) and the stations are hard to find.

Pandora

The original streaming music website and I’m loyal enough to keep it around. Originally, as I understood it, it used a complicated and sophisticated algorithm to take a song you like, identify why you like that song, and then kick out other random songs that match. At that point you would thumbs-up or thumbs-down and the idea was that Pandora would “learn” why you like the songs you like and create a perfect playlist for each individual. I made things like “Squeezable Duran” because I thought Squeeze and Duran Duran were similar enough that Pandora would keep finding arists like Squeeze and Duran Duran and I would discover all sorts of new music.

It’s a lie. Maybe it worked that way originally, but now it’s just a buncha computer generated, AI selected songs, and some original stations, and never gives me any WOW-moments.

Pandora does work well on my smart TVs and when I tell my Google Homes to play something, but I find myself going back to the iHeartRADIO Originals.

SoundCloud

Maybe I’m wrong, but I like all the mixes here (like Big Booty Summer Mix Volume whatever) or “Public Enemy Super Mix” or “Beastie Boys Mix.”  I’m sure a SoundCloud super user and afficianado would tell me I’ve got it all wrong, but that’s what I like about it. Like my own personal DJ makes me hourlong (and longer) mixes.

So there you have it. A guy who works for iHeartMEDIA telling you the iHeartRADIO App is the best. But really, I’m a music-loving tech-loving guy who is very particular about his music and even if I didn’t work at iHeartMEDIA, I’d say the same.

Enjoy your music how you like …leave a comment if I’m insane or wrong or your agree.