Five ways to get the most out of your streaming music service

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It took me a while to get into Internet-based “streaming” music services. But I’ve finally warmed up to the idea that music files don’t have to be something that I physically possess.

And streaming music services have finally gotten to the point where they offer enough value to offset the occasional interruptions in play or the intrusive ads.

I’ve been exploring some of the lesser-known features of streaming music services like Pandora, Spotify, iTunes Radio and Beats Music. (Beats, of course, may soon be acquired by Apple for $3.2 billion.) There’s a handful of others out there, including Rdio, Songza, Google Play Music and iHeartRadio, but the first four I mentioned are the ones I focused on for this column.

Do you use streaming music services? Which ones? What do you like/dislike about them?