Should I Be Streaming the Radio on my Android?

(published: 5/6/14)
So if you Googled this title just to find Apps to use for streaming the radio on your android, then I'll suggest iHeartRadio (Android-download IOS-download) or TuneIn Radio (Android-download IOS-download), however, you should stick around and read this article to learn better ways listen to your music or the radio.

So I'm going to wright about the different ways people can use a radio on their smartphone and the effect it has on your data and the battery of your phone.

The amount Americans spend on the radio.
In 2012, 90% of Americans listened to the radio at least once a week. And on average Americans spend about 14 hours listening to the radio every week. All I'm trying to say is how heavily we rely on it and that as the years pass people are starting to go to their smartphones and downloading apps like iHeartRadio, or maybe TuneIn Radio.

Effects on the data and battery of your phone.
Unless you are one of those lucky people with unlimited data (like me), then you probably have around 2 or 3 GB of mobile data you can use from your carrier every month. So if you listen to about an hour and a half of radio with the phones data a day, then that will burn 2.5 GB of data in a month.  Also I might note that streaming just 2 minutes of HD video every day will also burn through 2 GB in a month. As far as battery goes, this will depend on a few factors such as signal strength, what type of tower your connected to, and your phone battery size. Usually streaming for an 1 1/2 hours will get your battery down by about 10 to 25%

Saving your data and battery.
 There are 2 great alternatives to streaming on the radio.

 1. So, to significantly reduce the usage of data and draining of your battery, your first choice is to download the music. This might seem obvious but it comes with a great deal of benefits for your data and battery. If you are using an android phone I would recommend the app MusicManiac (Android-download), it's probably the easiest app to use and has practically every song that you could want. You can also download this app for iOS but only if your iPhone is jail broken.

2. If you listen with your headphones and absolutely want it to be the radio, then you can download the app called Radio FM (Android-download), this uses your headphone jack as an antenna to pick up the radio frequency around you without using any of your mobile data. There are a few limitations with this method like, Apple iPhone's can't do this, not all android devices can (although most), and the antenna is small and the sound quality might not always sound perfect. You can however, use this app with an axillary cord (it would be the same concept) if you connect it to a set of speakers.

So I hope these tips can help someone to save both their data and battery, as well as reduce the amount of times their phone overheats and turns into an oven.
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