Everywhere you look in the hallways, you’ll see students walking, headphones in listening to music, but what are they really listening to? Music streaming apps have recently replaced the days of buying music (or not-so-legally downloading it) to bring us millions of songs in the click of a button.

But what application is best?

Spotify?

Soundcloud?

Pandora?

Others?

Each app brings something different to our endless endeavor for music.

Spotify, the number one choice of Hinsdale Central students, offers free and premium. Spotify free allows you to listen to an artists albums, but only on shuffle. Along with Spotify free, there also comes a limited amount of skips. Spotify Premium gives us unlimited skips, and the ability to play whatever songs we want, in whatever order we want for ten dollars. Although there is a vast library of music on Spotify, there often are missing albums and songs for artists, leading to frustration.

“I listen to Spotify because it’s free and I can listen to any artist I want,” said Nicole Eichelman, senior.

Soundcloud offers a more open platform with a home page that shows all the songs that people you follow have reposted. This allows for more exploration of new music. Soundcloud provides a more limited variety of genres, but has the most expansive electronic music library of any music app. Soundcloud is my favorite because I get to see what my favorite artists are listening to.

Pandora, an app that creates a station of music similar to a song, artist, or album, is a common choice because of the ability to explore new music.

“I love Pandora, because you never know what song is going to be next,” said Katrina Blum, senior.

Pandora is helpful with finding new music that you enjoy, because you can like or dis-like songs, and the new music will take into consideration your opinions.

Although these three apps are the most popular, there are hundreds more ways to listen to music, whether you’re buying it online, downloading it or using other applications. Among the sea of phones found in Hinsdale Central, the iconic green Spotify logo stands out.