There are many different music apps available for smartphones and savvy shoppers. Some, such as Spotify, gained fame by being embroiled in legal disputes. Others are simply a fact of life, such as iHeartRadio and Pandora.

In a survey sent out among English classes, 72 out of 100 students say they use a music app, and 46 say they use more than one kind of app. Forty-seven people said they use Pandora, 34 use SoundCloud, 22 use Spotify, eight use iHeartRadio, and 25 use apps that were not an option on the survey, such as Garageband or Google Play.

With all the apps available, it is only natural that students gravitate towards those that are free, such as Pandora and SoundCloud, the most popular in the survey with 47 and 34 users respectively.

“I [use] SoundCloud to listen to artists who aren’t signed [by a record label] or [not very popular],” senior Taeha Walker said.

iHeartRadio is also free, though there was a large difference between the number of users on the survey who said they use the free sites, Spotify having 22 users, iHeartRadio having only eight.

“I prefer Spotify only because I can check out artists’ music before possibly buying it,” junior Austin Richardson said.

The free version of Spotify only works when connected to a wifi network, and there is no downloading of songs, only shuffling between with limited skips amidst ads. The paid version can be used without wifi, there are no ads, any song can be chosen, and there are unlimited skips.

“I prefer iHeartRadio because it runs faster,” junior Kayla Shafer said.

Apps that were not included on the survey by name, but were volunteered by the students who took the survey include Shazam, Garageband, My Media App, and Google Play.

“Shazam lets me find out what song I’m listening to so I can buy it on Google,” junior Noah George said. “I like using Google Play because it lets me have music on both my phone, tablet, and computer.”

Garageband is used for making original music. There is a selection of instruments to choose from, and the user can either play it manually or choose from a selection of already prepared pieces. After completion, notes can be changed to separate ones to fit together to form a song. Junior Carlos Colon uses Garageband to upload rock music he creates.

Pandora and iHeartRadio work similarly to each other.

“[You] type artists’ [names] and it’ll pull up a station based off name, [the] station will have similar artists, [and you] thumbs down to change song,” Shafer said. “I would recommend iHeartRadio.”

Pandora comes in free and paid much like Spotify. The free version contains ads and there are limited skips, while the paid version eliminates ads and has unlimited skips.

“With Pandora you tell the app what you like and it makes a radio station just for you,” George said.

Not only can the music apps be used to find artists students already know, they can be used to discover new artists.

“[I listen to] Pretty Reckless [and] Halestorm,” Shafer said. “[They’re] rock [and] more underground.”

“Since I like mostly classic rock, I listen to a lot of Queen, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, Tom Petty, and a lot more, but my favorite band is Electric Light Orchestra,” George said.

George found Electric Light Orchestra through music apps, and Colon found From The Womb the same way.

“I don’t know a lot of people who don’t use these apps but for anyone who doesn’t I’d recommend both,” George said. “Google Play (or iTunes if you have Apple) and Pandora.”

“I would definitely recommend Garageband,” Colon said. “It takes a little while to learn how to use it, but it’s definitely nice to express yourself in music that you make.”