Youtube Music

Amazon Music and You Tube Music Zone Music is a music streaming service developed by YouTube, the American video-sharing platform owned by Google. It provides an interface that allows users to listen to songs and watch music videos, offering browsing features by genre, playlists, and tailored recommendations. On December 1, 2020, YouTube Music officially took over from Google Play Music as Google’s primary music streaming option. In April 2023, the platform expanded further by adding podcast support, ahead of the closure of Google Podcasts.

The service also includes a premium subscription plan with extra benefits. Paying members can enjoy ad-free playback, the ability to listen in the background, and downloads for offline listening. These perks are also part of a YouTube Premium subscription. YouTube Music was first announced in October 2015 and rolled out to users the next month, alongside YouTube Premium (which was originally launched as YouTube Red). While it overlapped with Google’s earlier Google Play Music All Access offering, YouTube Music was designed for people who mainly used YouTube for music consumption.

Apple Music

Apple Music is a streaming service for both audio and video, developed by Apple Inc. Subscribers can either pick specific tracks to play right away on their devices or explore curated playlists. The platform also includes companion radio stations—Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits, Apple Music Country, Apple Música Uno, Apple Music Club, and Apple Music Chill—that broadcast live, 24/7, across more than 200 regions worldwide. It was first revealed on June 8, 2015, and officially went live on June 30 of the same year. New users receive a free trial period of one month, or up to six months when bundled with certain Apple products, after which a monthly subscription is required.

Originally focused purely on music, Apple Music expanded into video in 2016. Executive Jimmy Iovine described the company’s ambition as creating a “cultural hub,” aiming to make the service a central destination for popular culture. Since then, Apple has invested heavily in both original and licensed video, from music videos and concert films linked to album launches to exclusive shows and movies.

When the app debuted on iOS, the feedback was mixed: the interface was often described as confusing, though reviewers praised its handpicked playlists, vast song catalog, and seamless connection with Apple’s ecosystem. With the release of iOS 10, the app was redesigned, receiving better reception for its cleaner appearance, simpler navigation, and stronger emphasis on personal music collections. The service grew rapidly, surpassing 10 million subscribers within six months of launch.

Music

Music journalism has its roots in classical music criticism, which traditionally involved analyzing, discussing, and interpreting written scores as well as judging performances of works like symphonies and concertos.
Before the mid-19th century, writing on music was usually the domain of dedicated journals—such as the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (founded in 1798 by Johann Friedrich Rochlitz) and Robert Schumann’s Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (established in 1834)—or, in London, publications like The Musical Times (which began in 1844 under the title The Musical Times and Singing-class Circular). Mainstream newspapers also carried reviews, though music was not their central focus. Well-known contributors from this period include James William Davison, an influential English critic for The Times, and composer Hector Berlioz, who wrote reviews and commentary for Parisian papers throughout the 1830s and 1840s.
Today, classical music writing often emphasizes theoretical perspectives, examining the structural and stylistic qualities of a composition or evaluating the technique and expressive choices in performance. This type of criticism, present in Schumann’s Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, is still visible in established publications like The Musical Times.
Broader access to education, the influence of Romantic ideals, and the popularity of virtuoso performers such as Liszt and Paganini helped fuel public enthusiasm for music, which in turn widened the role of criticism in general-interest magazines and encouraged the growth of a professional critic class—though their authority and competence varied considerably. By the 1840s, critics were increasingly less likely to be active musicians, though some notable exceptions remained: Alfred Brendel, Charles Rosen, Paul Hindemith, and Ernst Krenek all combined careers as performers or composers with influential music writing.

Amazon Music

Amazon Music is a music streaming and digital download service run by Amazon. As of January 2020, the platform reported reaching 55 million listeners.

It was the first digital music retailer to distribute songs without digital rights management (DRM) from all four of the major record companies—EMI, Universal, Warner, and Sony BMG—as well as many independent labels. At launch, all tracks were delivered as DRM-free MP3s encoded at 256 kbps variable bitrate, without per-user watermarks, though certain titles today may include watermarking.

The service first appeared in the United States as an open beta on September 25, 2007, officially rolling out in January 2008. Amazon MP3 expanded to the United Kingdom on December 3, 2008, to Germany on April 1, 2009, and to France on June 10, 2009. From December 3, 2009, the German store also supported Austria and Switzerland. The Japanese marketplace launched on November 10, 2010. Spain and Italy received the service on October 4, 2012, while Mexico followed on November 7, 2018. Regional access is subject to distribution rights established by label agreements.

Pandora Music

Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by Sirius XM and headquartered in Oakland, California. The platform is best known for its personalized recommendations, which are driven by the Music Genome Project—a system that analyzes tracks based on elements like genre, instruments, and other musical features. Pandora originally launched as an internet radio product, allowing users to create custom stations shaped by these traits and the songs they favored. This version is free with advertisements, while a paid plan removes ads and unlocks additional functionality. In 2017, Pandora introduced Pandora Premium, an on-demand offering created to compete more directly with other streaming giants.

The company was founded in 2000 under the name Savage Beast Technologies, initially focusing on a business-to-business model, licensing the Music Genome Project to retailers for recommendation tools. By 2005, it shifted toward consumers, debuting Pandora as a personalized online radio platform. The service operates under a freemium structure: the main product is ad-supported with certain limitations, while paid subscriptions grant benefits such as offline playback, downloads, and enhanced audio quality.

Apple Music Replay

Apple Music offers listeners access to a library of over 100 million songs that can be streamed instantly on their devices. The service emphasizes curated playlists created by music experts, along with personalized recommendations based on each user’s listening patterns. It also includes six live, 24/7 radio stations: Apple Music 1 (originally Beats 1) hosted by DJ Zane Lowe, Apple Music Hits, Apple Music Country, Apple Música Uno, Apple Music Club, and Apple Music Chill, all available in more than 100 countries. Unlike the paid subscription, Apple Music Radio is free for everyone. Subscribers, however, can set up profiles to share their favorite songs, follow friends, and see what others are currently enjoying. Thanks to iCloud integration, Apple Music matches personal tracks with its vast library, combining iTunes collections and Apple Music so everything plays from one place. The platform also integrates seamlessly with other Apple features like Siri and AirPlay. In late 2019, Apple introduced a fully functional web player, allowing users to access Apple Music directly in a browser.

The app’s interface is split into five main sections: Library, Home (previously Listen Now), New (formerly Browse), Radio, and Search. The Library tab organizes a user’s music by playlists, artists, albums, tracks, or downloads, and also highlights recently added content. The Home section suggests music tailored to listening history, blending human curation with algorithm-driven picks, and lets users like or dislike songs to fine-tune future suggestions. The former Browse tab featured new releases, curated lists, upcoming projects, plus categories like genres, moods, top charts, and videos. With iOS 18 in 2024, Apple replaced Browse with the personalized New tab, designed to fit each user’s preferences. The Radio section includes Apple Music Radio along with artist- and genre-based stations, offering track skips, recently played history, and upcoming song previews. Lastly, the Search feature lets listeners look up tracks, albums, artists, or even Apple Music profiles by name—or by entering lyrics.

Chrome Music Lab

Google Chrome Experiments is a digital showcase that highlights interactive projects, creative tools, and browser-based innovations. It was launched on March 1, 2009, as an official Google project, originally designed to demonstrate the speed and potential of JavaScript along with the performance of the Chrome browser. Over the years, it developed into a platform that illustrates the possibilities of modern open web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, WebGL, Canvas, SVG, and CSS. Every experiment featured on the site is created by users and built with open standards. By 2024, the gallery had grown to include more than 1,500 projects.

When it first appeared in 2009, Chrome Experiments featured only 19 submissions, its primary mission being to showcase the capabilities of JavaScript and Google’s V8 engine. As the collection expanded, it began welcoming works built with additional tools such as WebGL, HTML, Web Audio, SVG, and Canvas. The emphasis consistently stayed on open-source creativity, intentionally leaving out proprietary software like Adobe Flash. The library of projects grew rapidly — reaching 50 by August 2009, 100 by July 2010, and 500 by September 2012 — eventually exceeding 1,500 by 2024.

Music Notes

A note can signify either a general pitch class or a particular sound produced by an instrument capable of definite pitches. For unpitched percussion, however, notes serve to differentiate instruments (or specific playing styles) rather than pitch. The length of a note represents its relative duration, while dynamics indicate volume. Other markings guide performers on how to begin, release, or shape the tone and color of the note. Certain special symbols can even instruct unusual or extended playing techniques.

The word note may describe a precise musical event—for instance, saying the tune of Happy Birthday starts with two identical pitches. More broadly, it can mean a type of sound that recurs—for example, that the piece begins with the same note repeated. In tonal music, pitches that belong to the scale in use are known as diatonic notes, while those outside the scale are labeled chromatic notes or accidentals. Accidentals alter a pitch: a sharp (♯) raises it by one semitone, a flat (♭) lowers it by one semitone, and a natural (♮) removes any previous alteration. A semitone—the smallest usual step in this system—corresponds to a frequency ratio of about 1.0595 in equal temperament. More advanced symbols also exist, such as the double sharp (raising by two semitones), the double flat (lowering by two semitones), and markings for quarter tones. When written in text, accidentals follow the note name (e.g., F♯, B♭, C♮), but in standard notation, they are written before the notehead.

When a composition requires consistent pitch alterations, they are shown with a key signature, which assigns sharps or flats to every occurrence of certain notes. The key signature is written at the start of the staff. Additional accidentals placed directly before notes can temporarily override the key signature, applying to all notes of that pitch class within the same measure. These changes do not extend beyond the bar and do not combine with other alterations already in effect.

Play Music

Google Play Music was a music and podcast streaming service, as well as a cloud-based music locker, operated by Google as part of its Google Play brand. It was first announced on May 10, 2011, and after running as an invite-only beta for six months, it officially launched for all users on November 16, 2011. The platform was shut down in December 2020.

With a free account, listeners could upload and store up to 50,000 songs from their own libraries. In 2013, Google introduced a paid subscription called “All Access,” which allowed users to stream tracks from the full Play Music library. Podcasts were added to the service in 2016. People could also purchase individual songs and albums through the Google Play music store. The mobile applications included support for downloading songs for offline use.

Each user received complimentary cloud storage for up to 50,000 audio tracks. Music could be accessed via a web browser or the Android and iOS apps. The service matched uploaded music to Google’s catalog, enabling matched tracks to be streamed or downloaded at up to 320 kbps quality. Songs that could not be matched were uploaded directly to Google’s servers for streaming or downloading.

---

Christmas Music

Christmas Music spans a wide variety of musical genres that people typically enjoy during the Christmas season. Some pieces are purely instrumental, while others—especially carols—contain lyrics about the Nativity of Jesus, seasonal traditions like gift-giving and celebration, well-known figures such as Santa Claus, or other winter themes. Many songs simply capture a festive or wintry feeling, and some have become holiday staples for unique historical or cultural reasons.

Traditional carols include titles such as Silent Night, O Holy Night, Down in Yon Forest, O Come, All Ye Faithful, and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Prior to the 20th century, Christmas music was largely religious, focusing on the birth of Christ. But during the Great Depression, a surge of popular holiday songs in the U.S. shifted toward cultural and celebratory themes instead of strictly Christian ones. This period introduced child-centered classics like Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, along with sentimental favorites made famous by crooners—such as Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Blue Christmas, and White Christmas, the latter of which remains the best-selling single of all time as of 2024. Elvis Presley’s Elvis’ Christmas Album (1957) also holds the record as the highest-selling Christmas album ever, with more than 20 million copies purchased globally.

Today, Christmas music is heard in countless places worldwide—from churches and public concerts to malls, streets, and family homes—cementing its role as a seasonal hallmark. In the U.S., many radio stations adopt an all-Christmas playlist in the weeks before December 25, often beginning around Veterans Day, though some flip to the format right after Halloween (and in rare cases, even earlier). This practice is often referred to as “Christmas creep” in popular culture.