How to Expand Your Music Library with Whole House Audio

Here's a common scenario: you've purchased or accessed music in different places, causing your music library to be disjointed and unorganized. With so many different music platforms today, it can be confusing to manage your library and also access it quickly and easily. The good news is that technology has advanced immensely allowing you to gather all your songs together into one easy-to-use system. With a whole house audio system – whether it's by Control4, Sonos, or any other audio company – you can stream free music anytime and anywhere in your Charlotte, NC house, or play your personal collection. We created this guide to help you understand how we can simplify your listening experience at home – and give you some organizing tips as well.

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Seamlessly Stream Music

Music is so easy to access today because we have free stations on the Internet available to us, like Pandora, Spotify, and local radio channels. There are also high-quality music sources that you can pay for and stream in your home. But what's the difference between them and how do you access them easily? The good news is that if you have a Control4 smart home, the system comes with built-in music services, including TuneIn, Deezer, Pandora, and TIDAL. If you have Sonos, it comes with 43 sources, including SiriusXM, Amazon Music, and Rhapsody. Here's a breakdown of how some of these sources differ.

Pandora: Free

Pandora is a free music streaming service that allows you to create your own music station based on an artist, song, or genre. Type in "Michael Jackson" or "80s pop" and the platform will instantly create a playlist that matches the style. Hit the thumbs up symbol if you like it, and the thumbs down symbol if you don't. There are ads every few songs, but you can pay a small fee if you would like to stream music without them. This station is great for themed parties, discovering new artists, or just casual listening around your Charlotte home.

DEEZER: Subscription

Deezer is a UK-based streaming service that has become so popular that it has made its way over to the U.S. Control4 is the first smart home system to adopt this service. It gives you access to over 35 million songs with CD-quality, and over 30,000 radio channels. This service is free with ads, but there is a monthly subscription fee if you want to listen without them.

With Control4's new OS 2.8 system, you get to see beautiful album cover art on the screen while the song is playing. Type in your personal code as you walk in the door and your smart home turns on your favorite streaming service the moment you enter.

TIDAL: Subscription

Jay-Z created TIDAL in an effort to sell hi-fi music to audiophiles. This is a subscription-based streaming service, so you need to pay for access. It's a perfect choice for music lovers who are particular about the quality of the music coming out of their sound system. It plays lossless audio so when you blast music through hi-fi speakers like SONOS or Bowers & Wilkins, you'll be amazed at the sound.

iHeart Radio: Free

This national radio service is totally free, and has plenty of individual stations under its umbrella for you to choose from – there are 1,500. Choose from pop, rock, country, urban, and talk radio. You can browse stations based on music genre and location, then hit thumbs up or thumbs down to let the station know if you enjoyed the track or not. It's kind of like a live Pandora. You can also create custom radio stations, personalized to your taste, and it will be ad-free.

How it works

Once we've installed speakers in your home, a strong home network, and the smart system you can start streaming music. Control4 has released some new amplifiers that can play high-quality audio in up to eight stereo zones. Their Audio Matrix Switch can also play 16 different music sources at once in 16 different areas. If you have a large, personal music collection, Control4's ShareBridge connects with Apple Airplay to connect any audio content streaming from your mobile iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iMac or other Apple device to your whole home audio system. Additionally, the Control4 Wireless Music Bridge is used to connect any non-Apple device using traditional Bluetooth or Wi-Fi technology.

This means that you can purchase new music at any time, and it will instantly update in your system. Create or edit playlists from your streaming music service on any device and it updates in your home system. Another bonus is that Control4's new user interface is sleek, modern and easy to use so you can quickly browse through music, select stations and play them instantly. Your tablet or touch screen will display beautiful album cover art in high definition. You'll never get confused as to where that song you liked is, or have too many apps on your mobile device. Jamming out to your favorite songs has never been this easy!

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