How to stream music
Playing music on your computer (or 'streaming') is a great way to listen to songs from your favourite artists. Sky Songs is designed to help music fans find more of the music they love, and provide new music to discover: we have playlists of songs recommended by experts, charts, artist pages and genre sections to please all tastes.
Have a look around the Sky Songs site until you find something you'd like to listen to and simply click on the play button. After a few seconds the song information will appear in the top right hand box of the site and you'll hear the song start playing... the volume level is up to you! Why not save the songs you like in your own playlist to enjoy 24 hours a day?
- How can I listen to a specific song?
Wherever you see a play button next to a song on the site, you can listen to it. It doesn't matter if you found the song on an album by searching for an artist, or if it was on one of our playlists or in a feature.
If you have registered and subscribed with Sky Songs (see 'Getting Started') you will be able to play any of the millions of songs available — just click on the 'Play' arrows.
If you haven't subscribed yet then you can still listen to a 30-second preview of a song. Some owners of songs let you listen to full length previews and if this is the case, then it will say next to the song name. But remember, if you want to listen to full songs everywhere on the site you need to subscribe to the service.
- Why do some small collections of songs (or EPs) appear as albums?
Sky Songs complies with the industry standard definition of an album as determined by the Official Chart Company (OCC), which is that any collection of four or more songs constitutes an album.
- Can I stream songs to more than one PC at once? Why do I have a message saying I'm already streaming?
As a subscriber you can only stream music on a single PC at once. This is to stop other people from fraudulently using your registration to enjoy music they are not entitled to.
Sky Songs detects if your sign-in details are used more than once, either at a completely different PC or simply through a separate browser session at the same PC. This is not prohibited of itself (you may simply want to browse tracks at the second PC) but as soon as the second sign-in starts to stream music, all streaming will be inhibited at the original site, and a message explaining what has arisen will display there. The second login site always has control of the streaming so if you inadvertently forget to sign out at home before visiting friends you can still 'take the streaming with you'.
Of course if you are listening to music on your own PC and you inexplicably get this message it is possible that someone else is using your sign-in details elsewhere. First try signing out and signing in again yourself, and see if the message recurs. If so and you have no other explanation for this then please send us an email with the detail.
Finally, there are a couple of exceptions to the single-site restriction. First, if you aren't a paid up subscriber you can still hear 30 second samples of music — and you can do this from more than one sign-in at once. And also there is no limit on the sites you can sign-in to buy and download music from — the restrictions only apply to streaming of full-length songs.
- How can I listen to playlists?
You can listen to playlists if you're a subscriber. To listen to a playlist — which you can put together yourself or browse one of our pre-prepared ones — go to the 'Playlist' page and click the one you'd like to listen to.
- What bandwith does Sky Songs need for streaming?
We recommend 256 kb per sec. Sky Songs usually works well through a mobile 3G connection.
- Is Sky Songs an ad-free service?
Yes, there are no adverts on Sky Songs.
- What are the age limits on use of Sky Songs?
There is no specific age limit, but to register you need to subscribe or purchase at least one album download, for which Sky Songs takes payment by Visa or MasterCard debit and credit cards, or Electron and Solo cards. You need to be 18 years old to hold most credit cards, although pre-payment cards such as Solo may be issued to younger children at your bank's discretion.
- On what platforms (operating systems, web browsers) can I use Sky Songs?
Mac OS X 10.4 or later and Windows XP or later. Sky Songs can be used with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari browsers.
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