If you are one that streams music on the go using mobile data, then this is good news for you. The Opera Max app for Android has been updated and helps users save up to 50% data when streaming music. As of now, Opera Max helps save data if music is streamed from services such as YouTube Music, Pandora, Slacker, Gaana, and Saavn. While YouTube Music, Pandora and Slacker may not be popular or available in India, Gaana and Saavn cater to the Indian audience. Opera hopes to add more music streaming services to its Opera Max apps in the coming months.
So how does this streaming service work? Well Opera Max uses Rocket Optimizer, a technology that converts MP3 and MP4 based music stream to AAC+. AAC+ gives similar music streaming quality to users but at lower bitrates. That said, audiophiles would still not like the fact that their music is being compressed.
Opera claims that using a music streaming service for about nine hours consumes 1GB of data. Put that into perspective with how much music you stream in a month over data. According to Opera, the Opera Max app will help save about 50% of that data consumption. For those streaming a lot of video online, the data saving settings of the Opera Browser can compress video as well, allowing less data to be used.
Opera's data compression services makes a lot of sense for consumers in India, where cost of data packs aren't cheap, and unreliable network connections, renders excruciating load time for some websites. Opera Max is a free app for Android and can be downloaded from the Google Play store.