The world of music is a booming industry, a pastime, and a source of expression for many.  As high school students, music is all around us.  It’s playing every time we get into the car or walk into a building, and for me it’s on the second I get home and take out my homework.

With the era of iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks, Apple wants you to believe that iTunes is the only option for some good tunes.  But who wants to pay $1.29 or even buy a physical CD to listen to a song when you can listen to the same song for free?

This mantra is what has driven young adults and people all over the world to turn to Internet music streaming services, some of the most popular being Pandora, iHeart Radio, Sound Cloud, and my personal favorite, Spotify.

Free music streaming is taking over the music industry.  Although there are many issues with rights, and how little the artists are being paid with each time their song is played; this does not concern the average consumer.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, information and sales tracking system company, on-demand streaming services jumped an incredible 42% in the first half of 2014 compared to a year ago, soaring to 70.3 million streams. Sales of digital downloads, meanwhile, dropped 13% to $593.6 million during the first six months, from $682.2 million the year before.

It seems to be that the need to own songs has come second to the convenience and accessibility of these free music services, and I could not agree more.

At the age of merely 17, I have dabbled in some of these Internet streaming worlds such as the ever-popular Pandora, and I even went through a phase with iHeart radio.  However, now as a seasoned Spotify user, I can tell you that nothing comes close to the Spotify experience.

With the ability to play virtually any song at any given time, I have lost all interest in iTunes and have placed all of my trust into the wonderful people at Spotify.  I have also recently upgraded to Spotify premium for the ability to stream music offline and be ad free.  With over 20 million songs available at your disposal, Spotify listeners can find all of their favorite jams.  It doesn’t matter if these songs are old or brand spanking new, they will most likely be in the Spotify library.

If I did not convince you download Spotify, I would highly recommend looking into one of the many different online music streaming services and join the millions of people taking part in the free online music take over.