Music is an integral part of the modern high school student’s arsenal against typical class boredom. The right streaming service just might make your pre-Calculus class a bit more bearable. I’ve picked apart three of the streaming giants to give you the ins and outs of each and help choose the best fit for you.

Up first: Pandora

Pandora is a radio app created in early 2000 by Pandora Media. Features include personalized stations molded from user-specified artists, songs, moods or albums.

The Good:

• Song recommendations are pretty solid, overall. I chose to start with Halsey Radio and was started off with a Halsey song, followed by a song by the Weeknd, then the Arctic Monkeys. I was generally happy with the selections, but they were all songs I’d already heard.
• Pandora offers “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” options. This allows the user to have at least a little say in what music is played.
• Pandora’s online usage has a sleek and user-friendly interface.

The Bad:

• Obnoxious ads. Every five seconds. Seriously.
• Lack of playlist creation.
• The user is completely at the mercy of Pandora’s song selection algorithm. Aside from the like and dislike button, there are no radio customization options.

The Verdict:

Pandora is pretty decent for discovering music, but if you’re really just wanting to hear one artist or album, Pandora probably isn’t your best bet. All factors included, I give Pandora a C+.

Next, Apple Music

Apple Music was launched July 30 with subscription costs around $10 a month.

        The Good:

• Apple Music offers a three-month trial period.
• The second you start out using Apple Music, it immediately starts learning your taste in music in order to build better song recommendations.
• I was impressed with the range of music that was recommended to me. I discovered some pretty good new music.

The Bad:

• The trial period is only three months, and the free version is not nearly as good.
• Apple Music’s free version has extremely limited features.

• The app is obviously still improving. It had a lot of bugs when I tried to use it.

The Verdict:

Apple Music has potential. The paid version, from what I saw with the trial, was pretty impressive. The major letdown to this one was the lack of features of the free version. I’d recommend it all the way if you were ready to pay subscription fees, but if you’re looking for a free streaming app, this probably isn’t your best bet. The paid version gets a B+ for me, but the free version gets a D.

Last, but not least, Spotify.

Spotify was created in 2006 by Daniel Ek with the intention of having “everyone in the world be able to listen to anything ever created.” Features include personalized playlists, offline streaming and a “Discover Weekly” playlist created based on user’s listening history.

The Good:

• Gorgeous interface
• Fast, relatively bug-free streaming
• Wide customization options
• Offline streaming
• Wide selection of music

The Bad:

• The web player can be wonky sometimes.
• I’m really not a fan of the search function. It saves every single little thing you type into the search bar. I could accidentally type in the letter P, and it would save to the drop bar, which appears every time you click on the search bar. I constantly have to clear my search history, because this bothers me to no end. If you can put up with this, though, props to you.

The Verdict:

Frequent updates, wide music selection, offline streaming and great customizations options have secured Spotify the title of Makayla’s favorite streaming service. I give it an A-.