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Welcome to our consultant for the most productive music streaming services. 20 years ago, when CDs were the number one medium and musicians could still make a living promoting their records, the concept of having almost every song recorded at your fingertips on your phone or with your headphones High-end seemed like science fiction.
Even when Spotify launched out of the blue in 2008, few predicted the seismic shift in music consumption that would follow. Yet today’s best music streaming services make the idea of building an MP3 collection look positively Stone Age.
Each platform provides users with the keys to a library of one million on-demand music, available for streaming in CD quality. And all of this can be accessed through mobile devices, tablets, computers, Internet players or an increasing number of Internet devices. connected devices.
But with such a giant catalog of pleasures to pay attention to, the selection can be overwhelming, and we’re not just talking about which song to pay attention to next (check out our list of the most productive audiophile albums here). Which streaming service is right for you?We’ve implemented the rule for six of the most productive music streams to see how they compare. Read on to find out which one tops the charts.
Apple Music (sign up now) stands out for its library, seamless integration with Apple devices, curated playlists, and exclusive releases.
Spotify (sign up now) stands out for its personalized playlists, discovery algorithms, cross-platform compatibility, collaborative features, and an ad-supported free tier.
Tidal (sign up now) stands out for its high-fidelity sound quality, exclusive content, music library, artist-owned platform and in-depth editorial content, aimed at audiophiles and music enthusiasts.
Qobuz (sign up now) stands out for its high-resolution audio quality, extensive music library, in-depth editorial content, offline listening, and audiophile-grade equipment.
YouTube Music Premium (sign up now) shines with its ad-free experience, offline listening, seamless integration with YouTube music videos, and exclusive remixes, covers, and more.
Amazon Music Unlimited (sign up now) impresses with its audio, Alexa integration, personalized recommendations, and exclusive content.
Deezer (sign up now) offers an extensive library of music, audio, personalized recommendations, exclusive Flow functionality, and simple, free listening.
Apple Music was introduced in 2015 and has temporarily become one of the pioneers of the streaming wars. For a base of £4. 99, subscribers can access over a hundred million songs, over 30,000 playlists, and a host of original and on-demand radio shows. Little else, Apple also offers spatial audio listening and offline access to your library.
Currently, subscribers can enjoy Apple Music for free for one month and can also get 6 months of Apple Music for free with select audio devices.
There’s no loose tier here: Apple Music costs £5. 99 for students, £10. 99 for a full individual profile, and £16. 99 for families.
Like its competitors, Apple Music offers a wide variety of playlists curated and discovered around a specific mood, genre, or other unifying theme, as well as algorithmically generated playlists designed specifically for music. ‘user. These don’t reach the heights of Spotify’s discovery algorithm, but Apple offers thousands of rarer tracks that simply can’t be discovered on Spotify and the like.
Spatial audio has more obvious room for different compositional elements, but whether it’s worth the extra cost depends largely on how bothered you are about immersive audio. It also doesn’t sound significantly different from the tracks mixed in Sony’s Atmos rival, 360 Reality Audio, which is available on Deezer and Tidal – so it’s not strictly unique to Apple Music.
If Spotify HiFi ends up costing more (if it ever does), we think many will flock to Apple Music without being too unhappy about it. For those making the switch, Apple has built a very solid house for you to play with, especially if you have an existing iTunes library to integrate.
Spotify, the leading free music streaming service, continues to be the preferred choice for millions of listeners. In terms of pricing, it offers an ad-supported free tier (with some of the most annoying classified ads you can find). I’ve listened to it once), which limits track skipping and doesn’t allow offline listening. However, podcasts and audiobooks are still available.
The Premium edition removes ads, increases streaming quality to 320kbps, allows downloads for offline playback, and delivers superior quality to what you hear. It costs £11. 99 per month for an individual subscription, £5. 99 for students, £16. 99 for a Duo subscription (two accounts), and £19. 99 for a six-account family plan.
It’s easy to see why Spotify is so popular. The desktop app, mobile apps, and internet player are cleverly designed and easy to use. There is an extensive library of around 80 million songs and 4. 7 million podcasts (some estimates imply that more than 100,000 are uploaded every day on Spotify and other DSPs). In addition, the service’s recommendations and music discovery features are unbeatable.
The Discover Weekly personalized playlist turns out to have a preternatural sense of your tastes. Sure, it’s just a set of rules that build anything based on beyond listening, but it turns out to be more fine-tuned than its competitors, providing less obvious but more applicable suggestions. The huge variety of themed playlists is also great, while Friday’s Release Radar helps you stay up to date with the latest songs from your favorite artists.
It also seems like a step forward in terms of integration with the widest diversity of applications and services. It’s simple to share Spotify’s percentage of music on social media; you can use it on tons of third-party devices, adding Amazon’s Echo speakers; and you can keep track of what your Facebook friends are listening to.
Spotify’s lossless HiFi tier is rumored to be coming at some point, but its main competition already offers high-resolution audio, max, at no additional cost. Obviously, the competition has intensified and Spotify will want to continue to innovate if it needs to once again expand the default music streaming service to as many people as possible.
A YouTube paid music service may seem redundant. After all, a few clicks on the site’s search bar will bring up pretty much any song you probably want to listen to, and it probably won’t charge you a dime to play it. But it’s not a “proper” streaming service. Any long-listening query will be riddled with annoying ads, while background listening is not supported at all: once your phone’s screen is locked or if you switch to another app, the music stops.
YouTube Music is the answer. Available on iOS, Android, or through the internet player, Google’s only music streaming service offers more than 80 million songs. However, there is an explanation for this: it includes “official” recordings and anything that has already been uploaded to YouTube that can be classified as a song. So you’ll find tracks that aren’t on any other platform, but also a lot of junk that muddies the musical waters.
Since Google probably knows your music taste, we expected YouTube Music recommendations to be more relevant. Instead, it works much like other platforms, asking you to choose a range of favorite artists when you sign up and basing your initial range on them. Wait for tips while streaming.
After a one-month free trial, YouTube Music Premium costs £9. 99 per month. A family plan (£14. 99 per month) gives you up to five family accounts, while the student plan costs £4. 99 per month and requires annual verification that you are actually enrolled in an educational institution. There is also a flexible tier (YouTube Music), but it doesn’t play in the background, has regular ads, and limits streaming quality to 128kbps.
There is no higher bitrate option here. YouTube Music’s maximum performance is an AAC of 256 kbps, making it the worst in terms of streaming quality. Even Spotify’s non-HiFi tier wins with 320kbps. So we can’t see the golden-eared ones. Audiophiles turn to Google’s platform instead of Apple Music or Tidal. That’s not to say it sounds bad, though – most people can’t possibly tell the difference between 256 kbps and 320 kbps, especially when beats are played through small, old headphones. .
One thing we can say about YouTube Music Premium is that, with its vast library and proliferation of videos, it looks genuinely different from what’s presented here, but it’s not necessarily better.
Amazon has had a virtual music service since 2007, but it’s still relatively new. Not with Amazon Music Prime, Amazon Music Unlimited (US registration)(USA) or United Kingdom) is the company’s existing Spotify rival. It has a library of over 90 million ad-free titles and has created titles with higher bitrates (which it calls “HD” and “Ultra HD”) for all subscribers at no extra cost. ). He also threw his hat at the area’s audio game.
Music Unlimited costs £10. 99 per month, putting it on par with Spotify’s offer. For this, you also get the HD tier of Amazon Music at no additional cost.
You can listen to Amazon Music Unlimited through a web player, iOS and Android mobile apps, or the desktop app, as well as request tracks, albums, and artists from Alexa through Echo speakers. It’s also available through Fire tablets and Fire TV, Sonos wireless multi-room speakers, Bluesound devices, and NAD BluOS.
To locate new songs, the “My Discovery Mix” feature is updated in your library every Monday (a concept obviously borrowed from Spotify). The tips are pretty good, but they seem boring and uninteresting. There’s little sense of the algorithm-derived magic you get from Spotify’s advice, and not much in terms of editorial curation.
However, with its maximum audio quality, giant library, and moderate price tag, Music Unlimited is a very credible alternative, especially if you’re already a Prime member.
Tidal was presented with exceptional audio quality as a USP. While it’s no longer the only streaming service that offers lossless, high-resolution music, it’s the only one that offers MQA-encoded master files.
Tidal now has about 110 million shares. While not all of them are Master or CD quality, the base point is a very respectable 320kbps level, the same as Spotify’s highest settings. There are 3 tiers on Tidal. £10. 99 will give you access to over 110 million titles on FLAC without loss. HiRes and Dolby Atmos (no special high-resolution subscription). It costs £16. 99 for up to six members of the family circle and a student account costs just £4. 99. If you’re a DJ, you can get the DJ extension, which costs an extra £9 per month and provides access to the catalogue and power separation through some DJ partners.
Master tracks offer studio-quality recordings, but require MQA-certified DAC hardware to enjoy them at 24-bit/192kHz. Most users will only have access to the first “deployment” of the MQAArray procedure, which is still the best solution (24-bit/96kHz) and sounds wonderful, not that different from the hi-res tracks on Amazon, Apple and Deezer .
The user experience with Tidal’s apps and internet player is consistent and clear. Take a few weeks to listen and get subtle, personalized playlists. There are also editor-curated mixes, radio stations, dedicated sections for MQA tracks, and albums and podcasts. And that’s all before we dive into articles about old albums and the like.
With 90 million music tracks, 160,000 podcast titles, and over 32,000 radio stations, Deezer is divided into 3 main tiers. The ad-supported free tier includes six skips per hour of mobile listening and unlimited desktop skips. Tracks must be available in maximum fidelity for all Deezer paid plans, which means files in lossless format at 16-bit, 1411 kbps.
For £11. 99 per month (£5. 99 for students, £17. 99 for a family plan), you get Deezer Premium. You can save 25% on the cost of Deezer Premium by ordering the annual plan instead of paying monthly.
Deezer’s desktop and mobile programs are transparent and functional. Open the iOS app and see a scrolling page filled with albums, playlists (either pre-made or auto-generated), genre shortcuts, and more. All of this is very familiar and simple to understand.
Musical discovery is once again a main theme. When you first log in to your account, you’ll be asked to choose the artists you like so that the advice formula can get started right away; Over time, your listening activity will refine it even more. We found that the Flow playlist, an endless selection of new and old music that Deezer thinks you love, hits the spot most often.
Deezer is a very competent streaming service. That said, if you’re already Apple or Amazon, there’s little incentive to transfer to Deezer, while Deezer Premium offers little difference compared to Spotify Premium.
Like Tidal, Qobuz’s offering focuses on high-quality streaming for audiophile enjoyment: it’s the first music service to offer CD-quality streams, then 24-bit high-resolution files, and claims to have the best”. High resolution catalog. of all existing services.
It offers two subscription tiers: Studio Premier (starting at £12. 99 per month or £10. 83 per month if you spend £129. 99 for a 12-month non-refundable subscription upfront) gives you access to the entire library of over 90 million titles. Matrix, as well as original editorial content and offline listening. Studio Sublime (from £15 per month) gives you the same, but also discounts of up to 60% on purchases of high-resolution discs. Yes, it’s true: Qobuz really needs you to succeed in your pocket and buy music instead of just accessing it on demand. With the existing debate about artists’ earnings through streaming (or rather, the surprising lack thereof), this may become a key promotional point for consumers looking for musicians.
As advertised, Qobuz offers a huge diversity of high-resolution music, and everything we’ve noticed here is at least CD quality, so in terms of delivering ear-pleasing sound, it does a job. You wonder where Spotify leaves off when, at most, all of its rivals can boast higher quality streams. Still, a music service doesn’t deserve to be judged on its audio quality alone, and Qobuz isn’t so sure of itself when it comes to usability. The interface is rarely very intuitive and the search function in particular can use more filters (it has at least one high-resolution filter, so you can make sure you get the best-sounding pieces first). It’s also less expensive than Tidal Hi-Fi. and it doesn’t require you to have MQA-compatible hardware to take full advantage of its high-resolution library, which sounds great.
Like Tidal, Qobuz also offers its own “magazine” integrated with well-written editorial articles about the bands, their recent releases, and more. Even if no one subscribes to a music service based on their non-music content, it’s a welcome. cousin.
Tech journalism’s answer to the smallest bum: I’ve written for a multitude of titles and lived in three other countries during my more than 15 years as a freelancer. But eventually I went back to Stuff, where I specialize in writing about got hereras, streaming services, and my tragic addiction to Destiny.
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