It blasts through the car speakers as you drive, pounds in your ears at concerts or simply fills in awkward silences on the elevator; wherever we hear it, music seems to be a part of everyone’s daily routine. But as much as we love our music, dishing out $1.29 per song to iTunes is still a part of that routine we will do anything to avoid.

In the past couple years, a few websites have been created that allow users to stream music without the hefty cost, such as Pandora and Songza. These sites work well for those who aren’t too picky about their music, but for the serious music lovers out there, Spotify was born.

“You literally can play any song you want without having to pay for it and you can make playlists to share or play at anytime,” said Kristina Sinclair, sophomore in LAS.

Spotify is a music program that is readily available for download once a user gets an invitation to join — kind of like how Google Plus works, according to Maura Manning, junior in LAS.

The program allows users to look up any song in their database. From Lil Wayne to Barbra Streisand, Spotify’s database has something for absolutely everyone.

Once account holders select their music, they can create playlists of the music in the database.

“If you want to have an ‘80s dance party, you could just make a playlist of ‘80s music and then delete the playlist so it’s not stuck in your library,” said Manning.

Besides its create-your-own playlists component, Spotify’s unique appeal also lies in the fact that it allows listeners to choose what they want.

“Pandora is good because it tries to spark other interests of music, but it’s not necessarily what you want to hear at that time,” said Manning. “Sometimes you just want to hear certain songs.”

Spotify also offers the option of a premium service for $4.99 per month that eliminates all of the commercial breaks that come with a free Spotify account. “If you’re a gigantic music fan, I’d say premium is worth it,” said Connor Green, sophomore in DGS.

For those who don’t mind the small commercial breaks, a free Spotify account is the way to go — but current users warn that the perks of limited commercials may not last forever.

“Use it before it gets too commercialized,” warned Manning, “because pretty soon it’s going to turn into the Pandora where there’s a ton of ads and just too commercialized.”