What's The Best Music App For You? We Compare Spotify, Apple Music And More
Streaming is the most convenient and popular way to listen to your favorite songs, and it no longer means you have to compromise on sound quality. A growing number of providers include lossless and spatial Dolby Atmos audio, but with so many different music services on offer, how are you supposed to choose?
If you're shopping around for a new music provider -- inspired by developments such as Joe Rogan versus Neil Young, for example -- the two things you need to consider most are monthly cost and compatibility. Most of the services have music catalogs of over 60 million songs, so that's not really an issue, and they enable you to stream from your phone, computer or speaker. Though prices have been more stable at around $10 a month -- not something I can say with live TV streaming -- there have been some other big changes recently, including the addition of hi-res music.
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I've checked out the biggest names, including Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music, as well as smaller contenders such as Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer and So which music streaming services offer the best combination of price, sound quality and library size? Read on to find an in-depth look at each of the services and a feature comparison, along with a full price breakdown in the chart at the bottom of the page. We'll update this list periodically. And if you want the TL;DR, these are the top three. Read more: Apple Music vs. Spotify: Comparing the Top Music Streaming Services Spotify is a pioneer in music streaming and is arguably the best-known service. It offers a number of curated music discovery services, including its playlist, and is constantly implementing new ones, such as Stations. It's also ramped up its nonmusic content with a push toward the service. When it comes to choosing a service, it's a close race between Spotify Premium and Apple Music, but Spotify still wins as the best music streaming service overall. This is thanks to a fun, easy-to-use interface, an extensive catalog and the best device compatibility. Spotify also offers the best free tier: Without paying a dime or providing a credit card number, you can stream to numerous Wi-Fi devices. Meanwhile, Spotify missed the deadline of late 2021 for its , and the company can't say when it will be coming. Meanwhile, competitors like Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited and Tidal are now offering lossless or even Dolby Atmos music at no extra charge. In addition, Spotify on a number of plans in 2021, even though the base price remains $10 a month in the US. The Good The Bad Best for: People who want a solid all-around service, and especially for people who love to make, browse and share playlists for any scenario. Apple Music runs second to Spotify in terms of subscribers, but surpasses its rival in a few key areas. It offers a friendly interface, over 90 million tracks, and compatibility with both iOS and Android devices. Yes, it has at no extra charge, but these 1,000 tracks are dwarfed by the rest of the catalog. Not surprisingly, Apple Music is the best choice if you've invested heavily in the Apple ecosystem. If you own an or Apple Music is the only one of our top three with a digital locker to store your own library of songs -- YouTube Music, below, is the other music locker option. There are two ways to upload your music: For free with a Music subscription, but with The Good The Bad Best for: Those who are wrapped up in the Apple world, or who simply want excellent value for money. Qobuz offers hi-res audio streams too, and unlike Tidal you don't need a specialized MQA decoder to listen to them. They can sound great on an Android phone or a high-end music system. It may not offer Dolby Atmos music, but the current catalog of 'immersive' songs on other services isn't that impressive anyway. The service offers two plans -- the hi-res Studio Premier ($13 monthly or $130 yearly) and the $180 annual Sublime Plus. Uniquely, the service offers its own hi-res download store, and if you sign up for Sublime you get a discount on purchases. At 70 million tracks, Qobuz's streaming catalog rivals Tidal's and Spotify's in number, though it may not have the most obscure artists. Qobuz generally steers towards hi-res recordings so it is especially suited to jazz and classical fans, though its rock selection is fairly robust. The fact that it's cheaper than Tidal, and doesn't require specialized equipment to listen in 24-bit/192Hz, makes Qobuz our favorite service for serious music lovers. The Good The Bad Best for: Audiophiles who want hi-res music for a decent price plus the ability to buy and download albums. Now , Tidal has introduced some important changes recently: namely that it now has a free tier called, naturally, . The company also offers the $10 Tidal HiFi plan, which includes lossless playback, and the premium $20 Tidal HiFi Plus tier. Tidal HiFi Plus may be the most expensive of all the services, and while it offers hi-res and Dolby Atmos mixes, it now has another good reason for this. Tidal's main hook has always been that its higher subscription price translates to better payouts to artists -- especially musicians who aren't at the top of the pop charts. The service will now pay your top streamed artist each month a 10% cut of your subscription fee. Even if you only stream one song all month the full $2 will go to them. Forget fractions of a cent for a play; with enough spins from enough people, this could mean serious money for your favorite band. While Tidal used to be the best option for audiophiles, Qobuz has caught up by promising arguably better sound quality (no MQA decoder required), a cheaper price and some recent improvements in its catalog. Based on my own experience, Tidal still trumps it for breadth -- and it now exceeds 80 million tracks, including longtime holdouts Metallica. If you're an audiophile, a fan of urban music or a mix of both, then Tidal should appeal to you. The Good The Bad Best for: Musically inclined purists who care deeply about sound quality and discovering new, up-and-coming artists. Amazon Prime Music comes "free" as part of a Prime membership, but users can choose to upgrade to Music Unlimited. In addition to an expanded catalog, the step-up now includes the at $8 for Prime members, or $10 if you don't have Prime. Music Unlimited now gives you access to millions of lossless tracks as well as over 1,000 "spatial" remixes, which can be played on Dolby Atmos soundbars, Android or iOS devices and the . In terms of usability, the Music Unlimited interface is also more powerful than before with playlists, genres and podcasts all accessible from the main page. The Good The Bad Best for: Amazon Prime members who want to save a few bucks on a decent music catalog and higher-quality streams. Without contracts it's pretty easy to cancel one service and start with another. That said, swapping between music services isn't as straightforward, for example, as swapping between movie locker services using . If you don't want to have to rebuild your playlists and library from scratch when you switch, you have two main options -- a music locker service such as YouTube Music (but this implies you have a library of ripped or ), or the library import tool Soundiiz. The latter is a service that lets you import the songs from each of your music services and transfer them, and while there's a $4.50 monthly charge, you can always cancel once you've converted your library. Recently, Deezer has offered the ability for new users to con
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Also worth considering
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Read our Amazon Music (Android) review.
The best of the rest
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Top services compared
Amazon Music Unlimited
Apple Music
Qobuz
Spotify
Tidal
YouTube Music
Monthly fee
Prime members: $8, £8, N/A; Non-Prime members: $10, £10, AU$12; Echo-only service: Free, AU$5
$10, £10, AU$12; Voice $5, £5, AU$6
$13, AU$20
$10, £10, AU$12
Hi-Fi: $10, £10, AU$15; HiFi Plus: $20, £20, AU$24
$10, £10, AU$12
Free option?
Yes, with ads
No
No
Yes, with ads
Yes
Yes, with ads
Free trial period
30 days
3 months
30 days
30 days
3 months
30 days
Music library size
75 million
90 million
70 million
Over 82 million
Over 80 million
Over 60 million
Maximum bit rate
256Kbps, 3,730Kbps (HD)
256Kbps, TBD
6,971Kbps
320Kbps
1,411Kbps
256Kbps
Family plan?
Yes, $15, £15, AU$18 for up to 6 people
Yes, $15, £15, AU$18 for up to 6 people
Yes, $16.67, £16.67, AU$45
Yes $16 per month, up to 6
Yes, 50% off each additional account, up to 4
Yes, $15, £15, AU$18 per month for up to 6 people
Student discount
No
Yes, Price varies by country
No
Yes, $5, £5 with Hulu and Showtime
Student HiFi: $5, Student HiFi plus: $10 (US only)
Yes, $5
US military discount
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
Offline listening
Mobile and desktop
Mobile only
Mobile and desktop
Mobile and desktop
Mobile only
Premium and mobile only
Radio stations
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Podcasts
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Music videos
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Music locker functionality
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Music Streaming FAQs
How do you transfer your library between services?