For the price of one CD a month, you can subscribe and have access to a huge catalog of music.
What about Spotify and the like—what do they offer?
These are music-streaming services that allow you to listen to a wide variety of music online for free, with advertisements interspersed. To listen on your computer, you download customized music-player software for each site, and there is an app for smartphones and tablets.
The great thing about these sites is the sheer quantity and variety of music that is there for you to enjoy. You have to endure the ads—but that is no worse that listening to a commercial radio station; only on this station, you are in charge of the playlist.
So if I can listen to music for free online, why would I subscribe to a paid-for service?
Well, there are the ads—and the fact that you may have less flexibility in terms of using other devices. In addition, you may be able to listen only for as long as you are signed up and when you are connected to the net (and, of course, you often lose connection when you are on the move). Also the free services may have restrictions on how long you can listen to music in any one day.
But the music sounds as good, whether I pay a subscription or not?
Actually, no. The quality of the music can be much better when you pay the monthly subscription. And yet for the price of one CD a month, you can subscribe and have access to a huge catalog of music, all of it there in your music library, and without any annoying advertisements.
So how do I choose between the different music services available?
It comes down to personal preference. Spotify has access to new releases, sometimes days before they are available for general sale, so it’s a great resource for anyone who likes to keep up to date with the latest music. You can link Spotify to your Facebook account and find out what your friends are listening to, which can give you insights into new music. Since Spotify and other music-streaming services allow you to listen for free, it’s a good idea to try out a couple before signing up for a paid subscription.
I listen on a mobile device, so I am not always connected to the Internet.
Music-streaming sites have an offline mode, so that you can download a certain number of tracks and listen to them when you are offline (on a plane, say). You have to set this up beforehand, though. Go to the site (when you are connected to the Internet), click on the playlist you want to download, and follow the instructions to select the offline mode.
If I can subscribe to a service like this, why would I ever pay to download an album again?
This depends on how long you plan to subscribe to a music-streaming service. It’s fantastic if you want to listen to new music, and gives you access to a huge catalog of tracks, but only for as long as you keep subscribing. If there’s an album you know you want to keep forever, then it is probably worth buying it as a download or a CD.
What about listening to radio on the net? Can I listen to stations from other countries?
One of the many fantastic things about the Internet is that you can stream radio from around the world as well as your own country. Sites such as live-radio.net and TuneIn.com allow you to do this: Simply go to the site, look at their vast list of global radio, and click on the station you are interested in. You will hear whatever is being broadcast at that moment. (Make sure the volume is turned up on your computer or laptop, and it isn’t on mute.) With radio, there aren’t the restrictions that surround the streaming of movies and TV.
Fantastic. Can I listen to the radio on my tablet or phone?
Yes, the process is similar to viewing the TV, but with faster loading times as images aren’t required. You can listen by going to the website of your favorite radio station (if on a computer or laptop) or by downloading the app provided (usually free) by the radio station you want to listen to (on a tablet or smartphone). A smartphone is a good portable radio player in this case, using a radio station’s app and your Internet connection, but remember this kind of data consumption is high, so unless you have a high-download package from your cell-phone provider, you should use your home WiFi. Most radio-station websites provide on-demand radio programs and other podcasts in addition to the live, real-time broadcast.
I keep hearing the word “podcast,” but I’m not sure what it is.
That’s not surprising, because “podcast” is a term that seems to be used very loosely. If you miss a radio broadcast, it should be available on demand online, either through the radio station’s website or its app. You may find that the radio station calls on-demand programs podcasts—but strictly speaking, podcasts are programs specifically recorded for the Internet, not just on-demand radio programs.
Either way, there is no difference in the way that you obtain them and listen to them: You can stream them or download them to listen to later on your computer or even your iPod.
For those with an Apple device or iTunes, there is an app called Podcasts that makes the process of choosing podcasts very easy. There are other free apps, including BeyondPod Podcast Manager, Podkicker, and OneCast, which allow you to find and listen to podcasts whether on your phone or on your computer via your web browser. Install the software from the Google Play website or from the app store on your phone. You can browse all of these apps to find interesting and informative recordings to listen to on all kinds of topics, from comedy to academic lectures.
I love listening to audiobooks on CD. Can I download them directly from the web as well?
Yes. The reading may be done by a famous actor, and they are usually an abridged version of the print book. This kind of book is a great way to enjoy stories while you’re doing other tasks—it’s literature in radio form. And of course audiobooks are a wonderful resource for anyone with a visual impairment.
Where do I find them?
You can buy digital audiobooks from the iTunes store, which has a huge selection. The website audible.com, which is owned by Amazon, also has audiobooks for downloading. You can buy them one at a time, but the books are much cheaper if you subscribe and pay a monthly or annual fee. Another subscription site is audiobooks.com, which lets you listen online or download the books to your device. And, of course, you can buy audiobooks on CD from online booksellers.
How do I download an audiobook?
You just need to have a media player, such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, or similar installed on your device. You don’t need to do anything—once you buy the book, it will automatically start to download. You can then listen to it on the device you have downloaded it to, or transfer it to an MP3 or MP4 player such as an iPod. (See here for more on using a media player.)
There are plenty of sources for free audiobooks online. You can either listen to them on the site or download them to your device. You can also borrow digital audiobooks from your local library.
• The Internet Archive Created with the goal of making a permanent record of free web content, archive.org has more than 9,000 audiobooks including some volumes of poetry.
• Project Gutenberg The long-established site gutenberg.org has a large selection of free audiobooks. Some are read by people, others by computers. The computer-read books aren’t for everyone, as there is no intonation and some words aren’t pronounced correctly.
• Open Culture This site (at openculture.com) gathers together free cultural and educational audiobooks from all over the Internet and provides links to download them from sites such as iTunes and audible.com.
• Learn Out Loud You can find free, educational audiobook titles on a variety of subject areas including politics, philosophy, and languages at learnoutloud.com.
• Storynory There is a collection of free children’s stories available as audiobooks at storynory.com. Books are classified by school year group.
• Librivox A catalog of free audiobooks that are in the public domain (out of copyright) in the United States can be found at LibriVox.org.
I have a huge collection of movies and music. Can I store it on the Internet?
Certainly. There is a space on the Internet where you can archive your files so that they don’t fill up your computer’s memory, and so that you don’t have to back up files on CDs or other devices. It is called “the cloud.”
I’ve heard of the cloud, but I’m not sure what it is.
Like the Internet itself, the cloud is not a single entity but a collection of many sites and servers located in different parts of the physical world and cyberspace. Think of it as a huge virtual attic where you can box up your digital files till you need them. You can put anything there: photos, films, music, manuscripts. It’s a great way to keep your computer or other device from getting too cluttered and full. And also, if you use the cloud to “host” your files, as it is called, you can access them from anywhere and on any device—so long as you have an Internet connection. You could start watching a film at home on your laptop, then finish watching it in a café on your smartphone.
What do you mean by “hosting”?
This just means storing your files online in the cloud. There are many companies online that offer free or paid-for cloud-hosting services. It is exactly like having your own storage container in a commercial warehouse. Among the companies that offer hosting are DropBox, Google Drive, iCloud, and OneDrive—see here for more about these.
You could start watching a film at home on your laptop, then finish watching it in a café on your smartphone.
Is it secure to keep my files online?
Yes. So long as you use a reputable provider, all your data is kept private and is often encrypted (scrambled) as well so others can’t read it. The cloud is hosted on many servers, and all of them have security measures in place to prevent hackers from getting in. It is as safe as a deposit box in a bank—but even banks get robbed, so it is not possible to say that any digital storage facility is impregnable. Think twice about storing very sensitive information.
Is there anything I should do to improve security?
For a start, don’t use the same password for multiple sites across the web; have different ones for all your log-ins (your cloud storage, your webmail, your bank, and so on). That way, if one password is compromised, the hacker won’t be able to get into your other accounts. (See here for more on secure passwords.) It is actually fairly safe to write down all your different passwords and hide them away somewhere at home; no ordinary house-burglar is likely to be interested. But to be doubly sure, use some kind of reminder system that no outsider could ever break (login: name of hospital where I was born; password: given name of first teacher, for example).
How do I store files in the cloud?
First choose a cloud storage provider, then sign up via their website, which will give instructions on how to do this and how to use the particular storage facility. On your smartphone or tablet, you’ll be able to download the corresponding app relating to the storage provider you choose. Then you can easily store and access your files on whatever device you use.
What types of file can I store?
You can store any type of file in the cloud: music, photos, films, e-books, apps, word-processing files, spreadsheets. The chances are you’re probably already storing data in the cloud: If you use a web-based email service, then you are using one type of free cloud-hosting service because all your emails are stored online in the cloud. If you use Google Docs to create documents, then you’re using another type of cloud-hosting service, as all the documents are stored in the cloud. If you’re a Facebook user, then all your Facebook info is stored in the cloud. If you use an iPhone or iPad, you may already be using Apple’s iCloud storage service to back up all your files and programs (including your email and calendar) automatically.
