Streaming media is multimedia

that is constantly received

by and presented to an end-user

while being delivered by a provider.

The verb "to stream" refers to the process of delivering or obtaining media

in this manner; the term refers to the delivery method of the medium,

rather than the medium itself,

and is an alternative to file downloading,

a process in which the end-user obtains the entire file for the content before

watching or listening to it.

The following is a list of on-demand music streaming services.

The services offer streaming of full-length content

via the Internet

as a part of their service,

without the listener necessarily purchasing a file for download.

This type of service is comparable to Internet radio.

Many of these sites have advertising and offer non-free options in the style of an online music store.

For a list of online music stores

that provide a means of purchasing and downloading music as files of some sort,

see: Comparison of online music stores.

Many of both types of sites offer services similar to an online music database.

Comparison of online music stores