Digital music downloads, beginning with Apple iTunes in 2001, changed the way teens listen to music. Now, with web sites that allow individuals to stream free music online, buying music has almost become unnecessary.

Pandora is a free music streaming web site which recommends music to users based on what they like. Users can choose channels of music based on artist or genre. While they listen to the music, they can “thumbs up” a song they enjoy which allows the web site to suggest similar music.

Pandora allows users to listen to music as long as they want and to skip tracks six times an hour. With a wide array of genres and artists, with 80,000 artists and over 800,000 tracks in its library, Pandora is a free and easily accessible music for everyone.

“Pandora is cool because it lets you listen to new artists or bands that are interesting,” junior Jill Baxter said.

“I saw something about Pandora online,” junior Dori Matsuno said. “I decided to see what Pandora was about, and I really liked what kind of music Pandora has.”

Spotify is another streaming music alternative. The application is different from Pandora and similar to iTunes, where those who create an account can listen to full albums of artists on the application.

Web sites like Spotify and Pandora are making stealing music from the Internet unnecessary. According to TorrentFreak.com, since Spotify’s launch in 2008, piracy has dropped by 25 percent in Sweden. Record companies are making money from Spotify and, and its boosting the record industry.

“I found out about Spotify through Facebook,” junior Nikki Sen said. “Using Spotify lets me listen to new artists as well as listen to my own music and it documents my music on my Facebook profile.”

Music sites like Pandora and Spotify enable users to listen to music that they do not own in their iTunes library or CDs. These web sites also encourage those who use those sites to learn about new artists.

“I found Foster the People through Pandora, and I liked the way that they sounded so I decided to listen to more of their music.” Baxter said.