Does the mobile space need yet another streaming music service? Samsung believes it does, evidently, with the company's recent release of Milk Music. This free, ad-free service delivers more than 13 million songs and comedy tracks spread across 200+ stations, but it's relegated (at least for now) to Samsung Galaxy phones. That's not a misprint. Milk Music isn't a general Android app; it's exclusive to Samsung Galaxy S 4, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note 3, and Galaxy Note II smartphones (it will also appear on the Galaxy S 5 when that handset is released in April). However, music fans shouldn't conflate Milk Music's exclusivity with excellence. Although Milk Music is a respectable Android streaming service, many omissions keep it from competing with Spotify or our Editors' Choice award winner, Slacker Radio.

Putting Needle to Groove

The fact that Milk can't match Slacker is all the more frustrating given that its back end is powered by Slacker. You couldn't discern the relationship by looking at the app—nor by looking at the feature sets, sadly. You'll primarily explore Milk Music's catalog using the Music Dial, a navigation system that lets you scroll through the nine default genres and their sub-genres—think of it as the touch version of Apple's old iPod click wheel. You can use large swipes to quickly jump among genres (for example, moving between Rock and Hip Hop), or smaller swipes to explore sub-genres (like '60s Rock or Party Metal). You can swap out the default stations for other prefab stations or your own custom creations.

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Using Music Dial proved an exercise in frustration—at least initially—as the virtual wheel requires a very fine touch to prevent overshooting the station that you'd like to stream. Getting accustomed to its sensitivity took me a few minutes.  A drop-down box located above the Music Dial lets you navigate to any of Milk Music's stations, but there's no way to search for songs or albums and listen to them on demand (as you can with Slacker Radio).