There are already a number of streaming music options available to smartphone users, including Pandora, Spotify, Rdio and the recently-launched Beats Music. Apparently Samsung thinks that we can use one more, though, because today the company took the wraps off of its Milk Music service.
Milk Music is a Slacker-powered radio service that offers more than 200 stations that pull from a catalog of 13 million songs. Users don't need to log in to the app to begin listening to music, with an option available to just select one of nine genre-based music stations. Milk Music also offers a "Spotlight" section that will include curated playlists, and for those times when you feel like you're in the mood for something specific, a "My Stations" feature allows you to create your own radio station based on a song or album. Users are given six song skips per hour per station.
Once you're listening to some tunes, you have the option to fine-tune the station to fit your mood. A genre dial is able to be customized to only display types of music that you're into, while a "Fine-Tune Station" tool lets you tweak a station based on popularity, novelty and song favorites.
Milk Music is free to use and, for a limited time, ad-free as well. The app is now available for download from Google Play, but it's worth noting that the service is only compatible with select Galaxy devices. Those include the Galaxy S 4, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy Mega, Galaxy S 4 mini and the soon-to-be-released Galaxy S5.
Two of the big features that Samsung seems to be touting with Milk Music is the speed at which users can begin listening to music and its lack of distracting elements. The lack of a required login and the app's genre dial, which allows users to scan through stations and begin listening to music instantly, both cut down on the time between launching the app and outputting jams. Samsung also touts that its app is ad-free for a limited time and that it offers "significantly fewer" repeats than its competition.
Samsung's Milk Music service and app seem decent enough, and both the genre dial and instant playback sounds like nice ways to jump between stations when you're not quite sure what you'd like to listen to. That said, I'm not sure if the world needs another music streaming option, especially since its Galaxy exclusivity means that not everyone can give it a go. Because Milk Music is both free to use and free of ads (for now), though, it could be worth a look if you call one of the compatible phones your daily driver. If you do decide to give it a go, be sure to drop your first impressions in the comments section below!
Via Samsung, Google Play: Milk Music
