When comparing 8 Tracks vs Earbits, the Slant community recommends Earbits for most people. In the question“What are the best music streaming services?” Earbits is ranked 14th while 8 Tracks is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose Earbits is:
The Earbits music streaming service has an interesting business model that allows the service to be complete free (and ad free) to listeners. Some musicians pay for added profile features or other different tools that aids in exposure for them. See the full explanation [here](http://www.earbits.com/#about_us).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Individualistic and personalized user playlists
The site is human-curated not automated. This can give a more personal feel, as each playlist on the music streaming service has been curated by a user.
Pro Great for discovering new music
Due to how the service works, listening to user created playlists allows for pretty good discovery of new or undiscovered bands.
Pro Paid for by the artists, not the users
The Earbits music streaming service has an interesting business model that allows the service to be complete free (and ad free) to listeners. Some musicians pay for added profile features or other different tools that aids in exposure for them. See the full explanation here.
Pro Great way to discover indie musicians
The Earbits music streaming service is open to independent artists only and does a great job of helping you discover lesser known music.
Pro Available on Android, iOS and Chrome
Easily use the app on your preferred platform, as it supports Android, iOS as well as Chrome.
Cons
Con Poor music streaming service outside of North America
8Tracks has changed its policy for how it supplies music to those outside of North America by not using any of their servers for those users. This change resulted in using Youtube for those users in order to still have a way to add songs to playlists. Sadly using Youtube results in many songs just disappearing and many playlists becoming defunct.
Con Advertisements in free version
Con No way to find certain songs
8 Tracks allows you to search for a playlist based on keywords, then requires you to listen to most of that playlist without skipping. As such, it's not so good for hunting down a specific song, but is great for discovering new music.
Con No app in other countries
Con Underdeveloped
Some areas of the service are lacking in polish and design. The user profiles are pretty sparse, making it difficult to customize. Navigation can be a bit unintuitive at times, which makes it a pain to browse the site. There are also issues with playback as well, adding up to many unpolished areas that leaves the user wanting.
Con Limited to independent artists
You won't find much of the Top 40 type music on Earbits as it's limited to independent musicians currently.