Sometimes the best time to listen to music is when you’re on the go. Whether you are going for a walk along the beach, cruising downtown on a bike or simply enjoying the fresh air having music in the palm of your hands at any time is convenient. The absolute best way to accomplish this is via music apps, but which ones?

There are several terrific music apps in the world today, so there isn’t necessarily a wrong choice. However, the following music apps are going to be your best bet:

Pandora Radio

Pandora is certainly one of the most well-known music streaming services on the planet. It’s absolutely perfect for playing random songs based on the genre, much like the radio itself. With Pandora, you can create stations based on all of your favorite artists. From there, you can just sit back and relax as Pandora will shuffle through thousands of songs based on your selected artists. This is a free app, but more features, such as ad-free playback and more song skips, become available with the premium version.

A noteworthy problem with Pandora is that you can’t select specific songs to play. However, the name of the app should automatically inform you of that. It’s titled Pandora Radio for a reason because it performs much like the radio. Another small complaint is that Pandora will limit the amount of skips you get. This is to ensure that all artists are getting mainstream attention, but it can get a little annoying. However, these small annoyances don’t take away from the otherwise stellar Pandora.

There are a few ways to enjoy listening to the music provided by Pandora. It can be accessed through a web browser or downloaded as an application for a mobile phone. No matter which way Pandora is used, an enormous problem could present itself. When you’re on the go using Pandora, you may find a public Wi-Fi access point to connect to. There is no problem with this, as long as extra precautions are taken to avoid the risks of public Wi-Fi. One paramount precaution you can make is to download a VPN program like IPVanish to encrypt your browsing on Pandora.

Spotify

Another popular music streaming application is Spotify. Also, much like Pandora, Spotify can be used as a free app as well as a subscription-based app. The song library for Spotify is mighty impressive as it clocks in at over 30 million music tracks. Even for the most hardcore music lover, that should be plenty of songs! You will also find a massive collection of community-driven playlists, so that way you don’t have to search for the music. Spotify also presents a very clean and fresh graphical user interface that is very easy to navigate around.

Although the free version of Spotify is tremendous, paying for the premium version is highly recommended and only costs $10 a month. First of all, the premium version eliminates all of the annoying ads on the free version. This makes for a much more enjoyable experience. The audio quality is also improved with the premium version; although, the free version’s audio quality is not bad. Lastly, the option for downloading music for offline devices is made available. So, you wouldn’t even have to be online to listen to your favorite music.

MediaMonkey

One of the best aspects to MediaMonkey is the amount of enhancements that can be made to the music software. Unlike Pandora and Spotify, MediaMonkey is not a streaming application and works more like Windows Media Player. The primary function is for organizing and playing audio tracks on Windows-based operating systems. The audio tracks can be synced straight from your music library on your computer to your phone. This ensures that you don’t have to waste your time searching for the music on the go.

As previously mentioned, MediaMonkey can be decked out with several different types of enhancements. For example, there are a variety of skins that can be applied to make the interface personalized. However, it doesn’t stop there as there are also different third-party plugins that can be installed, along with user-created extension scripts. Although these enhancements won’t do much for the actual music itself, they can improve the software.

jetAudio Music Player

JetAudio Music Player combines enough features to keep the utmost music enthusiasts happy, while also maintaining an easy to use interface. To completely alter the music experience, jetAudio Music Player features a number of different audio enhancements. Your music can be played by songs, artists, genres, albums, playlists and folders. Also, although this might not have much use for you on the go, jetAudio Music Player comes with 32 different equalizer presets.

Much like other music apps, there is both a free version and plus version, for $3.99, available. The free version has all of the features previously mentioned, but the plus version adds a few more. There are 14 app widgets, a pitch shifter, two lock screens, new themes, the removal of advertisements, etc. For only $3.99, upgrading to the plus version is not a bad idea.

Google Play Music

Variety is the spice of life, and Google Play Music succeeds with this immensely. Not only can Google Play Music be used as a streaming application, but it can also be used as a standalone music player. If you so choose to, with the free version you can upload up to 50,000 of your songs and stream them. However, if you want to treat it just like you would treat Windows Media Player, then that can be done as well.

It seems to be a common theme with music apps, as there is an “All Access” subscription available for Google Play Music. With this access, you can stream absolutely any song that you want to and also create custom radio stations. The real kicker to the “All Access” subscription though is it comes bundled with YouTube Red. YouTube Red provides you with the ability to play YouTube videos offline, and it’s a much-added plus.

There is absolutely no reason for you to be without music on the go. Any one of these apps will provide you with enough bang for your buck, but it’s up to you to choose the one that suits you the most.

About the Author: Caroline is a freelance blogger and writer who specializes in music software. She has used quite a few music apps in her day and recommends these five the most.