Music is an incredibly powerful and pervasive form of art. Throughout history, people have relied on music for its important role in cultural customs, daily enjoyment, artistic expression, and as a means of making life more enjoyable. We dance to it, exercise to it, work to it, and share moments through it with friends, family members, and significant others. There is nothing quite like the experience of listening to music- live or recorded!

The live music experience, though, is an especially unique form of art. Concerts can be some of the most transcendent experiences ever had. Particularly when it comes to seeing your favorite artists perform your favorite songs in person. The amount of energy at a live show is unparalleled. No other form of art in the world draws the same crowds, nor does it inspire the same level of excitement. For evidence of this, one has to look no further than some of the historic and unforgettable live concert experiences of the past, such as the original Woodstock festival or, more contemporarily, Coachella or Lollapalooza.

A concert is a unique experience that cannot be experienced through listening to recorded music. In addition, it makes sense to have a music streaming service that specializes in live performances so that, even when we can't attend a performance from our favorite artist, we can still enjoy the experience.

Thankfully, there is finally a music streaming service that not only allows us to listen to prerecorded music from our favorite artists, but also offers exclusive live performances. Thanks to Live x Live (pronounced ?Live by Live?), we never have to miss an epic performance. Not only does this service offer traditional music streaming capabilities but it also offers plenty of live video streaming, putting you in the front row of the best concerts that you cannot be in attendance of.

Live x Live was founded by Celite Milbrandt and Dennis Mudd in 2004. However, it did not launch officially until March of 2007, when Mudd used this funding to forge it as his next endeavor.

On September 1, 2007, Live x Live announced that it had signed agreements with the four major music labels - Universal, EMI, Warner Bros., and Sony BMG - as well as a number of smaller companies. The company ensured that it had acquired rights to many songs from indie labels as well.

At the end of 2017, Live x Live purchased Slacker, a famous online radio streaming platform. This allowed Live x Live to expand the services it offered, including the introduction of employing Slacker's online radio station creation algorithm. With this strategic purchase, Live x Live exponentiated the number of services that it offered, now enabling the company to stream tons of live content, recorded content, and the ability for users to create their own personalized radio stations based on listening habits.

Thus, the Live x Live we know and love today came into existence.

The design of the Live x Live desktop website and the official Live x Live app are both professional and easy to use. Every step of the way, the site looks great and functions flawlessly on any operating system. Whether you are browsing videos interviews, live performances, or listening to audio, there is nothing to dislike about either platform's design.

It is a sleek, user-friendly design with elaborate and well-organized dropdown menus that expand on the fly, allowing you to truly make the most of the service if you are on your computer. And on the app, it is just as user-friendly, favoring a more tab-oriented app design that easily rivals that of Apple Music or Spotify. The black and green theme also lends the site a fresh and modern feel. Quickly navigate through videos, songs, radio stations, and albums with just a quick click or tap.

As I just touched upon, Live x Live also offers one of a kind interviews which gives this streaming service an element of music journalism that no other audio streaming platform really provides. This is just one of the many features that make Live x Live a very unique platform, more for the hardcore music fan than the average casual pop radio listener. Live x Live is a great way to keep yourself up to date on what's happening in the music industry.

The vast majority of music streaming services focus primarily on live performances and interviews with artists, but Live x Live offers a much wider variety of content, including original series that provide unique looks at the lives of touring musicians and music fans as well as more general topics. This makes it a great source for learning about new music, as well as enjoying familiar tunes in a different way.

Fest Life and Festival Stories are two exclusive series that focus on music festivals and the people who attend them. Festivals can be seen as a lifestyle for some people in North America, who make it a priority to travel to as many festivals as possible. These series offer an incredible and rare look at the “festie” lifestyle only Live x Live can offer.

Outside of these two video series, there are 8 other video series for subscribers to explore, most of which put the Live x Live staff on location at various concerts, festivals, and embedded into the cultures of certain musical genres (especially those that tend to have a cult following, such as EDM, for example). I love this aspect of Live x Live because it is something truly original in the world of music streaming services; this journalistic bent.

I previously stated that the desktop and mobile experiences are both top-notch, with design being one of the few areas where I can't decide which experience I prefer more.

The Live x Live app has been well-received by people, with an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on the Apple App Store. In terms of streaming apps, it doesn't get much better than this.

The three membership levels for Live x Live are Basic, Radio Plus, and Radio Premium. The Basic level is free for anyone to use, and after that, there are two other levels that have different features. Radio Plus offers ad-supported streaming with more content than the Basic level, while the Radio Premium level includes no ads and more content.

The basic service comes with some heavy limitations. It allows you to listen to premade radio stations and create custom stations, but you can only skip 6 songs per hour. And there are ads every 5-7 songs. The peak audio quality offered here is 128 kbit/s.

Live x Live Radio Plus, a new monthly subscription service from Live, will only cost you $3.99/month. This offers unlimited skips, no ads, and top audio quality that is equal to standard CD quality: 320kbit/s.

Finally, there is a Live x Live Radio Premium subscription service for $9.99/month. Here, you?ll get everything that Plus offers, as well as offline listening and the ability to play specific songs on demand. Unfortunately, Premium is only available through iTunes.

Since we are already speaking of Live x Live's premium subscription, my main suggestion would be to offer a little bit more for $10 per month. For one thing, the whole "available only through iTunes" aspect is a huge bummer. Why should I have to download and create an account for a wholly different app when I am paying Live x Live $10 per month to provide me with a service?

Also, there is no increase in sound quality from Plus to Premium. The only thing that you really get extra with Premium is the ability to play songs on demand. I would suggest splitting the difference and combining Plus and Premium into a two-tier subscription at $7.99 a month. There is no need for this 3rd option that really doesn't do a whole lot.

All in all, there is no other audio streaming platform out there that offers anything comparable to what Live x Live provides. If you are a true enthusiast who wants exclusive content, including live performances and interviews, at your fingertips, this is the app for you!