Rara

While most music streaming companies are based out of the United States, Rara.com finds its home base in London, UK. A newer competitor in the industry, Rara was founded in December 2011 and is operated by Jez Bell, the CEO, and chairman Rob Lewis. While Rara definitely provides streaming to users streaming in the United States, it also boasts an excellent global market, reaching 32 countries around the world. Most of these countries are in North America, South America, Europe, and Australia. At first launch, Rara reached "only" 16 countries, but over its first three years in business, it grew to double that number. With such a wide customer base, users can access Rara in several different languages and take their music with them almost anywhere they go. Powered by Omnifone, Rara offers customers a library of 22 million songs-and they add tracks to this library every week. They play both old songs and new releases and have vamped up their library with popular labels like Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group. That's all interesting enough, but what does it mean to you? It means there's a global, growing company out there that might just have the streaming plan you're looking for. When you stream through Rara.com, you choose between a Web account and a Premium account. With both, you enjoy ad-free listening and the ability to create personal playlists. But Premium (which costs $9.99 every month) offers two features that Web (only $4.99 a month) doesn't: offline listening and apps for your iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, or Windows 8 tablet. What you have to decide is whether Rara's pros and cons line up with what you need in a streaming company.