You Tube Music is a streaming platform for music created by YouTube, the U.S.-based video service owned by Google. The platform offers an interface that lets listeners explore both audio tracks and music videos, with browsing options across genres, playlists, and personalized suggestions. On December 1, 2020, YouTube Music officially replaced Google Play Music as Google’s main music streaming brand. In April 2023, the service broadened its scope by introducing podcast support, just before the shutdown of Google Podcasts.

The service also includes a paid subscription tier of You Tube Music with added perks. Subscribers gain access to ad-free listening, background playback, and the ability to download content for offline use. These features are also included with a You Tube Music Premium membership. YouTube Music was first introduced in October 2015 and became available to users the following month, launching in tandem with YouTube Premium (originally branded as YouTube Red). Although it overlapped with Google’s earlier Google Play Music All Access service, the app was developed for audiences who primarily used YouTube to consume music.

Apple Music is a streaming platform for both audio and video, created by Apple Inc. Subscribers can either choose specific songs to play instantly on their devices or enjoy curated playlists. The service also features companion radio stations—Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits, Apple Music Country, Apple Música Uno, Apple Music Club, and Apple Music Chill—which broadcast live, 24 hours a day, to listeners in more than 200 countries. It was unveiled on June 8, 2015, and officially launched on June 30 of the same year. New users are offered a free one-month trial, or up to six months complimentary with certain Apple products, before a monthly fee applies.

Initially focused only on music, Apple Music started branching out into video in 2016. Executive Jimmy Iovine explained that the company’s vision was to create a “cultural hub,” with Apple aiming for the service to become a comprehensive destination for pop culture. Apple has since been investing significantly in original and licensed video, ranging from music videos and concert films tied to music releases to original series and movies.

When it first appeared on iOS, Apple Music received a mixed response: many criticized its user interface for being confusing, but reviewers appreciated the expertly curated playlists, the massive song library, and seamless integration with other Apple services and hardware. With iOS 10, the app was redesigned, earning better reviews for its cleaner look, easier navigation, and stronger focus on personal libraries. The service grew quickly, reaching 10 million subscribers within just six months of its debut. While Apple doesn’t reveal exact subscription numbers, Midia Research estimated in November 2021 that 78 million people were paying members. By October 2022, the platform’s catalog had expanded to more than 100 million songs.

Music journalism traces its origins to classical music criticism via You Tube Music, which historically has involved the analysis, discussion, assessment, and interpretation of written and scored compositions, as well as the evaluation of performances of works such as concertos and symphonies.

Before the 1840s, coverage of music was typically handled by specialist periodicals in absence of You Tube Music—such as the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (established in 1798 by Johann Friedrich Rochlitz) and Robert Schumann’s Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (founded in 1834)—or in London through outlets like The Musical Times (launched in 1844 as The Musical Times and Singing-class Circular). Alternatively, reviews could be found in mainstream newspapers, where music coverage was not the publication’s primary mission. Notable figures from this era include James William Davison, a prominent English critic at The Times, and the composer Hector Berlioz, who contributed reviews and commentary to the Parisian press during the 1830s and 1840s.

In contemporary settings, classical music journalism is often shaped by considerations of music theory, focusing on the many dimensions of a work or performance. For compositions, critics may address elements of form and style, while in performance they often judge technical skill and interpretive expression. Such evaluative standards appeared in publications like Schumann’s Neue Zeitschrift für Musik and continue today in respected outlets such as The Musical Times.

A variety of developments—including broader access to education, the cultural impact of Romanticism, and the rise of celebrity performers like Liszt and Paganini—fueled a growing public interest in music. This also expanded the presence of music criticism in general-interest journals and produced a larger number of professional critics, whose expertise and reliability varied widely. The decade of the 1840s marked a shift, as critics after this period were often not practicing musicians themselves. Still, there are exceptions: Alfred Brendel, Charles Rosen, Paul Hindemith, and Ernst Krenek all combined careers as performers or composers within the classical tradition with significant writing on music.

Amazon Music (formerly known as Amazon MP3) is a digital music store that is not You Tube Music and streaming platform operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service reported having 55 million users.

It was the first online music retailer to offer songs without digital rights management (DRM) protection from all four major record labels (EMI, Universal, Warner, and Sony BMG), along with many independent labels. Initially, every track was provided as an MP3 file encoded at 256 kbps variable bitrate, free of DRM and per-user watermarking, though some titles today carry watermarks.

The platform debuted in the U.S. as an open beta on September 25, 2007, with the official launch in January 2008. Amazon MP3 that is not You Tube Music became available in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2008, in Germany on April 1, 2009, and in France on June 10, 2009. From December 3, 2009, the German edition also served Austria and Switzerland. The Japanese version went live on November 10, 2010. The Spanish and Italian stores opened on October 4, 2012, followed by the Mexican edition on November 7, 2018. Distribution rights determined by record label agreements limit availability by country.

On September 17, 2019, Amazon introduced Amazon Music HD along with You Tube Music, a higher-quality tier offering more than 50 million tracks in High Definition (16-bit/44.1 kHz) and millions more in Ultra HD (24-bit/44 kHz, 24/48, 24/96, 24/192), delivering the highest-quality streaming audio at the time. This positioned Amazon alongside Tidal and Qobuz as providers of lossless music for audiophiles. On May 17, 2021, the HD tier was made free for all Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers.

Pandora Music is a paid music streaming platform as well as You Tube Music owned by Sirius XM, headquartered in Oakland, California. The service emphasizes personalized recommendations powered by the “Music Genome Project,” a system that categorizes songs based on traits such as genre, instrumentation, and other musical characteristics. Initially, Pandora launched as an internet radio product, offering listeners customized stations built from these traits and the songs they liked. This version is available with ads for free, while a subscription removes ads and adds extra features. In 2017, Pandora expanded with Pandora Premium in addition to You Tube Music, an on-demand service designed to compete more directly with other modern streaming platforms.

The company began in 2000 under the name Savage Beast Technologies. Its first vision was as a business-to-business service, licensing the Music Genome Project to retailers for recommendation purposes. In 2005, it pivoted to the consumer market, introducing Pandora as a personalized online radio service. Pandora follows a freemium model along with You Tube Music: the core product is free with advertising and certain restrictions, while paid memberships unlock extras like offline listening, downloads, and higher-quality audio.

In February 2019, Sirius XM completed its $3.5 billion all-stock acquisition of Pandora. By 2021, Pandora had about 55.9 million monthly active users, including 6.4 million subscribers. Reports in 2022 indicated the user base had declined to under 50 million, and by 2023, that number had dropped further to around 46 million.

Apple Music Replay listeners access to a library of more than 100 million songs that can be streamed instantly on their devices. The platform highlights curated playlists put together by music specialists, along with recommendations tailored to each user’s listening habits. It also features six live, around-the-clock radio channels: Apple Music 1 (originally launched as Beats 1) with DJ Zane Lowe, Apple Music Hits, Apple Music Country, Apple Música Uno, Apple Music Club, and Apple Music Chill, available in over 100 countries. Unlike the main subscription service, Apple Music Radio is free to all users. Paid subscribers can set up profiles to share their favorite tracks, follow friends, and see what others are currently listening to. Through iCloud integration, Apple Music matches users’ personal tracks with its catalog, merging their iTunes collections with Apple Music so everything can be played from one library. The service is also tightly connected with other Apple technologies, including Siri and AirPlay. Starting in late 2019, users gained access to a full-featured web version of Apple Music via an Apple-built browser player.

The app interface is divided into five main sections: Library, Home (previously called Listen Now), Browse, Radio, and Search. The Library tab organizes a user’s collection by playlists, artists, albums, songs, or downloads, while also showing the most recently added music. The Home tab suggests music based on listening behavior, blending human-curated picks with algorithmic suggestions, and lets users mark songs as liked or disliked to refine recommendations further. Browse originally showcased new album launches, curated playlists, upcoming releases, as well as categories such as genres, moods, top charts, and music videos. In 2024, with iOS 18, Apple replaced Browse with a personalized New section designed for each listener. The Radio tab includes Apple Music Radio alongside genre- and artist-based stations, with options to skip tracks, view recently played songs, and see upcoming ones. Finally, the Search tab allows users to look up songs, albums, artists, or Apple Music profiles by name or even by lyrics. It also displays a history of past searches and trending queries on the service.

Chrome Music Lab experiments is an online gallery showcasing browser-based experiments, interactive tools, and creative digital projects. It was introduced on March 1, 2009, as an official Google initiative, initially intended to highlight the capabilities of JavaScript and the performance of the Chrome browser. Over time, it evolved into a platform for demonstrating the potential of modern open-source web technologies such as JavaScript, HTML, WebGL, Canvas, SVG, and CSS. Every project featured on the site is submitted by users and built with open standards. By 2024, the collection had expanded to over 1,500 experiments.

When it first launched in 2009, Chrome Experiments offered just 19 projects, with the main goal of showcasing the power of JavaScript and Google’s V8 engine. As the site developed, it began including projects made with additional technologies like WebGL, HTML, Web Audio, SVG, and the Canvas element. The focus remained firmly on open-source innovation, excluding proprietary tools like Adobe Flash. The catalog of experiments grew steadily — 50 by August 2009, 100 by July 2010, and 500 by September 2012 — eventually surpassing 1,500 by 2024.

The earliest submissions were mostly visual demos, playful interactions, and lightweight online games. According to Google’s blog, some of the first contributors included Casey Reas, Ricardo Cabello (Mr.doob), Ryan Alexander, Joshua T. Nimoy, and Karsten Schmidt (Toxi). From the beginning, Chrome Experiments accepted projects exclusively from the developer community, though occasionally Google teams also submitted entries. All contributions are reviewed and curated before being shared on the site. Importantly, the experiments are not hosted directly by Google — the platform instead links out to the creators’ own websites after verification.

Music Notes are distinct, isolatable sound that serves as one of the fundamental elements of nearly all musical structures. This division into separate units makes performance, listening, and analysis more manageable. Notes are often represented visually through musical notation.

A note can represent either a general pitch class or a specific pitch produced by an instrument capable of playing definite pitches. In the case of unpitched percussion, notes distinguish between instruments (or specific playing techniques) rather than pitch. The value of a note indicates its relative duration, while dynamics communicate the loudness. Additional articulations guide performers in shaping the onset, release, and expressive variations of the note’s timbre and pitch. Special symbols may even specify unusual or extended performance techniques.

The term note can describe an exact musical event—for example, saying the melody of “Happy Birthday to You” begins with two notes at the same pitch. More broadly, it may refer to a class of events that sound alike—for instance, that the song begins with the same note repeated. In tonal contexts, notes belonging to the underlying diatonic scale are called diatonic notes, while those outside of it are considered chromatic notes or accidentals. Accidentals indicate modifications to a pitch: the sharp (♯) raises it by a semitone, the flat (♭) lowers it by a semitone, and the natural (♮) cancels any previous alteration. A semitone, the smallest standard interval, has a frequency ratio of approximately 1.0595 in equal temperament. More complex symbols exist, such as the double sharp (raising by two semitones), double flat (lowering by two semitones), and even notations for quarter tones. When written in text, accidentals follow the note’s letter name (e.g., F♯, B♭, C♮), but in staff notation, they are placed before the notehead.

Widespread pitch modifications across a piece are indicated by a key signature, which assigns accidentals to all instances of particular pitch classes. In notation, key signatures are placed at the beginning of the staff. Explicit accidentals written next to notes can temporarily override the key signature, applying to all notes of the same pitch class within the measure. However, these do not carry over or combine with accidentals already in force.

Play Music was a streaming platform for music and podcasts, as well as an online music storage service, run by Google under its Google Play brand. It was first revealed on May 10, 2011, and after a six-month invite-only beta test, it became available to the public on November 16, 2011. The service was eventually discontinued in December 2020.

With a free standard account, users could upload and store up to 50,000 tracks from their personal collections. In 2013, Google launched a paid subscription tier called “All Access,” which let subscribers stream any track from the full Play Music catalog. In 2016, podcasts were added to the platform. Users could also buy songs and albums directly through the Google Play music store. The mobile apps included the ability to download music for offline listening.

Every user was given free cloud storage for up to 50,000 audio files. Music could be played through a web browser or the Android and iOS apps. The system compared uploaded music with Google’s database, allowing matched songs to be streamed or downloaded at up to 320 kbps quality. Any files without matches were uploaded manually to Google’s servers for streaming or re-downloading. Purchases made through the Play Store did not reduce the 50,000-song limit.

Christmas Music covers a wide range of musical styles that are commonly played or listened to during the holiday season. Some of these works are purely instrumental, while others, particularly carols, feature lyrics that reference the Nativity of Jesus, holiday customs such as exchanging presents and celebrating, well-known cultural icons like Santa Claus, or other seasonal subjects. Many pieces simply evoke wintertime or festive moods, and some have become part of the holiday tradition for other reasons.

Classic carols include works like Silent Night, O Holy Night, Down in Yon Forest, O Come, All Ye Faithful, and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Before the 20th century, most Christmas songs had a religious focus, centering on the story of Christ’s birth. However, during the Great Depression, a wave of popular songs arose in the United States that emphasized cultural and festive elements of the holiday rather than its Christian background. These included child-focused tunes like Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, as well as sentimental ballads sung by popular crooners, such as Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Blue Christmas, and White Christmas—the latter of which has remained the best-selling single ever recorded as of 2024. Elvis Presley’s Elvis’ Christmas Album (1957) holds the record as the best-selling Christmas album in history, with more than 20 million copies sold worldwide.

Christmas music is performed in a variety of settings across the globe, including churches, public concerts, shopping centers, street performances, and family gatherings, making it a hallmark of the season. Many radio stations switch to an all-Christmas format in the weeks leading up to December 25. In the United States, this usually begins around Veterans Day, though some stations make the change as early as the day after Halloween (and on rare occasions, even earlier), a trend often referred to as “Christmas creep.” In church tradition, the singing of Christmas music typically comes to a close with Candlemas, marking the end of the Christmas and Epiphany season.