Best Music Streaming Services
Based on In-Depth Reviews
- 200+Hours of research
- 75+Sources used
- 25Companies vetted
- 30Features reviewed options
- 7Top
Picks
- Most streaming services prioritize mobility and convenience over audio quality.
- Before subscribing to a service, make sure you know what type of music listener you are.
- Royalties paid to artists vary considerably from service to service.
- You don't own but rent the music provided by a streaming service.
- The average cost per service is $10 per month, but most companies offer “freemium” tiers.
How we analyzed the best Music Streaming Services
Our Top Picks: Music Streaming Services Reviews
“This amazing little device holds a thousand songs, and it fits right in my pocket.” This was said in 2001 by none other than Steve Jobs upon Apple’s worldwide launch of the first-ever iPod, a device that heralded both the rise of digital music streaming and the death of traditional music staples like CDs, record stores, and radio DJs.
Not long before the above-mentioned date, in what may now seem like a prehistoric era, if you wanted to hear your favorite song you either had to wait in front of the radio for hours or get in your car and drive all the way to the record store, where you’d have to pay upwards of $20 for only one compact disc. And you had to know what you were looking for: there being no Shazam to help you out, those of us that didn’t know the artist or song title had to actually sing the melody to one of the record store clerks, with results ranging from “I know what you’re looking for” to a befuddled “nope, never heard that before.”
In the late 90s, Napster and its ilk invaded the music culture with the aim of “liberating” music from the confines of record labels. Even though the company was shut down rapidly for copyright infringement issues, it nevertheless made song-sharing a worldwide phenomenon that paved the way for legal music streaming companies like Pandora, iTunes, and Spotify. Once the world got a taste of the convenience these new streaming platforms brought to the music listening experience, there was no turning back: CDs were out, MP3s were in, and all the music became available all the time.
Jump forward to today, when we have reached a point of music streaming “oversaturation,” where the main problem seems to be how to sort through so much music and data. When you have millions of songs at your fingertips, what do you listen to?
This is where we come in.
After weeks of trying out dozens of music streaming platforms, browsing through thousands of customer testimonies, and listening to hundreds of tracks via desktop and mobile, one thing became very clear about the state of music streaming today: the best and most popular services right now seem like clones; they have the same catalog of music, similar audio quality, and almost identical prices.
However, we found that there are certain exclusive features, built-in technologies, and music discovery approaches that set each streaming platform apart. Whether you prefer one service over the others will depend on your musical tastes, your daily lifestyle, and, most importantly, the type of music listener you are.
That's why, for this list, we discarded the ubiquitous “best overall” approach and selected several “best for” music platforms so that no matter what type of music listener you are, from the lean-backer to the lean-forward listener (more on this below), you’ll get a recommendation that feels like music to your ears.
Now get your headphones ready, adjust the volume, and let the music streaming reviews begin.
Tidal review
Best for High Audio Quality
This is the one for audiophiles and people who place as much value on quality as they do on quantity. Since its relaunch in 2015, Jay-Z's Tidal has become the default streaming option for audio-savvy listeners as well as a leading competitor in an already crowded market. But what sets it apart besides its being owned in part by the world’s most powerful celebrity couple?
WHAT WE LOVE
Audio Quality
Tidal’s rise to fame is largely due to one main characteristic: it just sounds better than its rivals. Thanks to its MQA “Master Quality Authenticated” compressing technology, Tidal is able to offer hi-res audio tracks (24-bit/96kHz files called “Tidal Masters”) for its Hi-Fi plan subscribers. As a matter of fact, this level of audio quality is greater than the quality found on CDs. And the best part? These lossy tracks can be streamed via your smartphone, so you can take them anywhere you go.
Screenshot of Tidal’s Masters promotional content. September 12, 2019.
When the “Tidal Masters” are streamed through high-quality headphones, the better quality can definitely be heard, especially when compared to the much lower audio quality offered by sites like Pandora. These songs sound richer, fuller, and more powerful, with a live-performance ring to them. BUT, when compared with the audio quality of platforms like Spotify, the difference is barely noticeable, at least for us non-audiophiles.
As of last year, Tidal’s “Master” catalog featured a total of 1 million tracks. However, when compared to Tidal’s overall roster of over 60 million songs, the MQA tracks barely scratch the surface. Certainly, a lot more tracks need to be converted to MQA in the near future, so that most of the catalog can be streamed in hi-res.
Exclusives
Subscribing to Tidal can get you closer to some of your favorite artists, especially if you love Top 40 music and hip-hop. Tidal X, for example, is a built-in social platform that lets fans engage at live shows, events, and meet & greets, plus access to concert tickets and special offers. It’s the sort of members-only, VIP treatment that adds value to any commercial endeavor.
The streaming service also features exclusive music by artists such as Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Kanye West, among many others, giving fans of these artists the chance to listen to their new music before everyone else.
Tidal Rising
Tidal claims to be “by artists, for artists,” and that's why Tidal Rising is such an important part of their platform. Featuring articles, interviews, and music by lesser-known and upcoming artists from around the world, this program uses Tidal’s vast network of artists, labels, and executives to support these artists and help them reach new audiences.
Artists benefiting from Tidal Rising get prominent placement on the platform's most popular playlists, press photos, public relations support, artist imaging, tour support, live show bookings, and more.
While reviewing Tidal, we felt this program merited our attention for two reasons: 1) It puts the spotlight on artists who would otherwise not get noticed, and 2) It lets audiences get in touch with new artists that are not signed with major labels.
WHAT WE COULD DO WITHOUT
The Price
While we understand the higher audio quality may justify the higher subscription costs, we’re still undecided as to whether Tidal is worth paying twice the amount you would for a similar streaming site like Spotify. Tidal does offer a Standard Premium plan for $9.99 a month, but since this tier doesn't include hi-res tracks, listeners will be better served by Spotify for the same price.
The real value in Tidal lies in its Hi-Fi Plan, which costs $19.99 a month for individual users and $29.99 for a family plan. There is no “freemium” tier, but we recommend you take advantage of the 30-day free trial and listen for yourself before you make the monthly commitment.
Spotify review
Best for Music Discovery
Spotify could soon be to music streaming what Google is to online searching. While the Swedish company’s name has not yet become a verb, its 100+ million subscribers and 217 million monthly users have turned it into the world’s most ubiquitous music streaming platform, revolutionizing not only the way music is consumed but even the way it is distributed and created.
Spotify seems to have it all: over 30 million songs spanning most (if not all) musical genres from around the world; a minimalist, user-friendly interface; offline listening; good audio quality; millions of playlists; seamless third-party connectivity; sharing capabilities, and lots more. But the aspect that makes Spotify really stand out from the rest is its proprietary music discovery technology, which we had a lot of fun using while researching for this topic in-depth.
WHAT WE LOVE
Music Discovery
Ever since Spotify’s acquisition of the data analytics company The Echo Nest in 2014, its predictive and music technology features have become the standard by which all music streaming platforms must adhere. By using a process called “collaborative filtering” (a complex system where your musical tastes are combined with those of similar listeners), Spotify is able to create recommendations that hit the “sweet spot” between familiarity and surprise.
And nowhere are the powers of Spotify's algorithm more evident than in the platform’s "Discover Weekly" playlist, which is highly personalized for each user and delivered fresh every Monday. After tracking your listening habits during a week and matching them with the company’s database, Spotify will constantly recommend albums, songs, artists, playlists, and radio stations that will likely take you deeper into whatever music you love.
Ease of Use
With its characteristic Swedish minimalist design (aesthetically speaking, Spotify is the IKEA of music streaming), Spotify manages to take its mammoth music library and turn it into an interface that feels intuitive and easy to use. While using the platform, either on mobile or desktop, there are two main ways to navigate: either select one of the recommendations on the home page or use the search bar to look for the music you want.
Price
Spotify’s “freemium” tier lets users stream music indefinitely from their smartphones and desktops, albeit with some limitations, including ads, limited skips, lower audio quality, and shuffle-only mode on mobile.
On the other hand, its Premium tiers unlock all features for as long as the subscription is active, including ad-free and offline listening, higher quality, unlimited skips, and on-demand music selections. The monthly prices are $9.99 for an individual account, $4.99 for students, and $14.99 for a family account (valid for up to 6 different accounts). These prices are the average standard in the industry, and they have remained unchanged for some time now.
Screenshot of Spotify’s Premium offer. September 12, 2019.
Our take? If you don’t mind the ads or shuffle-only mode, then look no further than the “freemium” tier. However, if you are more of a hands-on listener, a monthly payment of fewer than ten bucks will give you access to most of the music ever published.
Sharing
One of the advantages of having so many millions of people using Spotify is that chances are, your Facebook friends are using it too. With Spotify, you can see what your FB friends and favorite artists are listening to, share your music, and even collaborate in the creation of playlists. For the social-media-minded, these features make Spotify feel more like a community than an individual endeavor.
WHAT WE COULD DO WITHOUT
Lack of Context
While Spotify is, by most accounts, the most well-rounded and comprehensive of all music streaming platforms, it nonetheless suffers from a practice that feels endemic to the industry at large: a lack of context. One of the pleasures of listening to music is finding out where it comes from, who made it, and other important information usually included in the almost-defunct “liner notes” available in physical formats such as CDs and LPs. Without this information, all the songs on Spotify suffer from a lack of historical context that takes away from their potential. This problem is more evident on genres like jazz and classical music, where contextual information is essential to the music itself (the name of the artist, song, and album is insufficient for these types of genres). For this reason, when it comes to classical music, we chose Idagio over any other streaming site.
Idagio review
Best for Classical Music
Let’s say you’re on Spotify, searching for “The Four Seasons.” The top results? Not Antonio Vivaldi’s classical masterpiece but a podcast titled “Four Seasons of Film” and the artist “Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.” Definitely miles away from what you intended to listen to, and reason enough for classical music lovers to feel disappointed with the most popular music streaming sites.
In comes Idagio, with its classical-music-oriented search engine, high-quality audio, desktop, and mobile apps, and a vast classical music catalog. Let’s take a look at it.
WHAT WE LOVE
Only Classical
Its catalog of 1.2 million tracks may pale in comparison to Spotify or Apple’s millions, but while the streaming giants indiscriminately mesh together all music genres (however different they may be), Idagio is dedicated to only one type of music: classical. No rock, hip-hop or K-Pop.
What makes Idagio ideal for this type of music is its one-of-a-kind search engine, which takes into account the numerous criteria that make each classical recording unique. Instead of cataloging music only by artist name, song name, or album (as most popular streaming platforms do), Idagio’s search engine also identifies composers, works, instruments, speeds, conductors, orchestras, movements, and soloists. In short, it is a music discovery tool created by classical music aficionados for classical music aficionados.
Screenshot of Idagio’s website. September 12, 2019.
Audio Quality
Classical music fans usually have very discerning ears, and this is why Idagio streams its music in CD-quality, lossless FLAC audio. When you listen to Idagio through better-than-average headphones, you’ll be in for quite an experience. However, if you want to save data while streaming on your phone, you can downgrade the audio quality to 160 kbps.
Price
For $9.99 per month, you’ll get a lifetime of classical music, lossless audio quality, and an easy-to-use platform available on desktop and mobile. For classical music fans, Idagio is definitely worth it.
Royalty Payments to Artists
This is another aspect in which Idagio takes a different path than the industry at large. Instead of using play counts to determine the royalties paid to artists, Idagio calculates its payments on a play-per-second basis (the number of time users spend listening to music). Whereas play count may make sense for pop music, where each track lasts an average of three minutes, listening time is a payment method better suited to music pieces that can last upwards of ten minutes. This way, classical artists get fairer payments from Idagio than from traditional pop-oriented music streaming sites.
WHAT WE COULD DO WITHOUT
Lack of Industry-Standard Features
After some time using Idagio — especially if you’ve used other music streaming sites before — you might begin to miss some of the extra features the streaming industry has us accustomed to. While Idagio is a state-of-the-art streaming service for classical music, it feels somewhat restricted due to its lack of features like sharing, friend feeds, podcasts, family plans, and the like. These might not be essential, but they would definitely make for a better Idagio.
YouTube review
Best for Audiovisual Content
Google-owned YouTube Music entered the competitive music streaming market in 2018, backed by the search engine’s powerful algorithms and databases. While it still lags in popularity, especially when compared to streaming giants like Spotify and Apple Music, YouTube Music will most likely appeal to music video fans as well as YouTube users who want a separate platform that’s exclusively dedicated to music (not cats playing the piano). If you like to “watch” rather than just listen to music, and prefer live performances and covers to studio versions, this is the streaming service you should get.
Screenshot of YouTube Music Premium’s promotional content. September 12, 2019.
WHAT WE LOVE
Search and Discovery
Can’t remember the name of the artist or song you want so desperately to listen to? Don’t fret. With YouTube Music’s Google-powered search engine, you can just type in the lyrics (“I'm off the deep end, watch as I dive in I'll never meet the ground”), the movie in which the song played (“That song from A Star is Born”), or even tidbits of information you can recall (“Oscar song 2019”) just like you would in Google. In all three of these instances, you’ll get a couple of versions — from the official music video to covers and unofficial versions and mashups — of the award-winning song “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
And then there’s the famous “Up Next,” which recommends new music based on your listening habits and “thumbs up.” What’s really good about this feature — which is directly transferred from regular YouTube — is its ability to mix tunes you’ve never listened to with songs you’re pretty familiar with, creating constant playlists that feel surprisingly fresh.
If you have a Google account, YouTube Music will automatically begin recommending music right after you subscribe, based on the information gathered by Google itself for as long as you’ve been using the company’s various products.
Huge Catalogue
If it’s not on YouTube, it either doesn't exist or, at the very least, it won't be available on other streaming services. But here’s a caveat: what you’ll find on YouTube Music won't necessarily be the official music video or official studio version of a song, but rather unofficial, live, or bootleg versions.
And boy are there countless versions. Whether you want karaoke, live and unplugged, remixes, amateur covers, fan mashups, or behind-the-scenes footage, it’s all here. Since YouTube Music’s library is also fed by millions of YouTubers, the breadth of content seems infinite (as of right now, neither Google nor YouTube have released specific data regarding the amount of songs on the streaming service).
Audio Only Mode
While YouTube Music prioritizes video content, it has a built-in feature that lets you listen to just the audio. You just have to click on ‘audio-only’ in the settings… and done. This way, you won’t spend the tons of much-needed mobile data that’s used when streaming video files.
Price
YouTube Music offers a “freemium” service, but, as you might expect, you’ll be getting lots of ads in between plays, which can be a hassle if you’re in for a seamless experience. For this reason, YouTube Music offers the standard individual plan for $9.99 and a family plan for $14.99 per month. This way, you’ll get ad-free content, offline listening, background playback (listen to music with the screen off), and Google Home integration.
However, for an additional $2 per month ($11.99 per month in total) you’ll get a subscription for YouTube Premium, which unlocks ALL content available on YouTube and YouTube Music, ad-free. In our opinion, this is the subscription to get.
If you want to give YouTube Music a test drive, they’re offering a 3-month trial free of charge, after which you’ll either have to cancel the subscription or be automatically subscribed to the service.
WHAT WE COULD DO WITHOUT
Low Royalty Payments
YouTube Music has not released its royalty payment information, but some reports show the streaming company could do better in its payments to the artists whose content is the building block of the platform. When compared with its competition, it ranks low in this respect due to the fact that it allegedly pays only $0.00074 per stream, meaning that, to make the US monthly minimum wage of $1,472, an artist would need to rack up 1,989,189 plays.
iHeartRadio review
Best AM/FM Streaming
Radio lovers rejoice. With its emphasis on AM/FM live radio and custom stations and over 100 million users, iHeartRadio is no small competitor in the music streaming arena. This is traditional radio for the digital era, offering most of the features you’d expect from a streaming service, such as offline listening, music library, mobile app, social/sharing capabilities, and countless playlists. In short, iHeartRadio might just be the most comprehensive music streaming service out there.
WHAT WE LOVE
Thousands of Stations
This isn’t your grandma’s old radio, but a modern-day full-service internet radio platform featuring over 850 radio stations from across the US, plus hundreds of curated artist stations. And there’s something for everyone: genre-specific stations, news, talk radio, Christian stations, kid’s radio, sports, and pretty much any niche you can think of. You can browse by city, state, or genre, and the platform will recommend a variety of stations for you to listen to on-demand.
There’s also their “Playlist Radio,” a feature that emulates the services provided by Pandora. However, while the latter uses an algorithm to select recommended tracks, the songs included in iHeartRadio’s Playlist Radio are handpicked by radio DJs and other iHeartRadio staff, making them more personal and relevant.
Variety
Besides its 850+ radio stations, iHeartRadio also features a 15-million song catalog, hundreds of news articles, and over 250,000 podcasts, officially making it the number one source for podcast listening. Joe Rogan, Will Ferrell, Chelsea Handler… they’re all there, plus pretty much a podcast for every taste, from true crime to food to comedy to paranormal stories and everything in between. Don’t know which one to listen to? Just check out their podcast chart to discover what’s trending.
The Price
There are three ways to listen to iHeartRadio. The first is a “freemium” tier, offering unlimited live radio, personalized artist stations, and access to the podcast library. This tier, however, is supported by ads, so if you want an ad-free experience, you’ll be better served by their paid tiers.
The second tier is iHeartRadio’s $4.99 per month “Plus” tier, featuring everything in the freemium tier plus additional features like unlimited skips, on-demand playing, and song repeats.
Lastly, there’s the $9.99 a month “All Access” tier, which unlocks all of iHeartRadio’s premium features, such as downloads, offline listening, and playlist creation.
After looking at all three options, we recommend iHeartRadio’s “Plus” tier. For less than $5 a month, you’ll get more radio than you can listen to in a lifetime.
Screenshot of iHeartRadio’s subscription plans. September 12, 2019.
WHAT WE COULD DO WITHOUT
Low Audio Quality
Quite frankly, there’s lots to love about iHeartRadio and very little to dislike. However, there’s the issue of its audio quality, which ranks last when compared to the other music streaming services featured in this article. At 128 kbps, its sound feels muted, absent of the range and dynamics present in that of its competitors.
Soundcloud review
Best for New and Independent Artists
Ask a teenager what music genre they prefer, and don’t be surprised if the answer is “Soundcloud.” For some, the music streaming site has become so associated with a certain type of music (“mumble” or “emo” rap, to be specific), that it’s basically synonymous with the sound. For this reason, there’s such a thing as “Soundcloud Rap.”
But it’s not ALL rap, not even close: if you’re looking for new and independent artists from any music genre, you’ll most probably find them here. From hip-hop to psychedelic cumbia and Japanese jazz to Lo-Fi EDM, it’s all there. Who’s it for? People who love looking for new music that’s still underground, waiting to surface and, of course, people who love Soundcloud Rap.
WHAT WE LOVE
Crowdsourcing
Soundcloud is unique among music streaming services because it's mostly crowdsourced, much in the way of webpages like Wikipedia. Since its launch in 2008, it has become the default platform for upcoming artists to reach new audiences, as well as the place for music lovers to find artists who aren’t available anywhere else. In short, this is the place to discover music before it hits the mainstream.
Screenshots of Soundcloud’s music streaming platform. September 12, 2019.
Soundcloud’s open-platform system makes it a community-minded affair where you can find a Top 40 track by Drake sitting alongside a bare-bones song recorded in a bedroom by a group of amateur musicians just killing time. Anyone can upload anything, so there’s lots to sort through while browsing, from the very good to the hardly listenable. Depending on your listening habits, this might either be a blessing or a curse (which is why we recommend it for people who don’t mind digging deep into Soundcloud’s haphazard catalog).
The "Freemium" Tier
Since its launch twelve years ago, SoundCloud has pretty much been a free service. All the songs have been available for free, and they still are. While the company offers Premium plans (more on these below), we feel this is the tier to get, at least until you feel the added perks of subscribing will make for a better experience. Bottom line: all that's unique about SoundCloud can be enjoyed for free.
Monetizing Opportunities for Artists
Until last year, amateur musicians didn't receive royalties for streaming on SoundCloud. Now, their “Premier Program” lets musicians over 18 years of age get pay-per-stream royalties on their original music, but they must be subscribed to either the Pro or the Pro Unlimited plan. According to the company’s website, the share “meets or beats any other streaming service.” Also, the program helps musicians track the song’s streaming statistics and interact with their audience.
WHAT WE COULD DO WITHOUT
Premium Tiers
Like we mentioned before, we see no reason to upgrade to one of SoundCloud’s Premium tiers since the core of their catalog (110 million tracks) is available for free. While the $4.99 per month “Go” plan removes ads and the $9.99 per month “Go+” plan gives you access to an extra library of 15 million songs (by record labels), we feel you can get the full SoundCloud experience via its freemium tier. In fact, you don’t even have to log in or sign up or register. Just open the app and that’s it.
Pandora review
Best Lean-Back Experience
The one that started it all is still alive and kicking. Pandora, the music streaming pioneer that’s been so influential in the way we consume music today, remains the best option only for what they still do best: online radio. By harnessing the predictive capabilities of their proprietary Music Genome Project algorithm, Pandora is unequaled in its capacity to create streams that are more varied and unique than those of their competitors. For this reason, we feel they are the best music streaming service for people looking for a lean-back listening experience.
WHAT WE LOVE
Ease of Use
Using Pandora can be very simple: just select a recommended station or create your own by typing in the name of an artist, song, or genre. Then just let the music begin. No, really, it’s that simple.
The Customizable Stations
While there were some misses, we feel Pandora’s stations — either the recommended ones or the ones created by us — provided mostly hits in the right direction. We listened to hours of streaming and rarely noticed any repetition, and most of the song queues felt seamless, leaning on the side of familiarity rather than surprise.
And you can pretty much customize any aspect of the stations. From creating stations based on dozens of songs and artists to mixing some or all of your stations in a giant shuffle, Pandora helps you fine-tune your streams as you like.
The Price
Pandora has three tiers: “freemium,” “Plus,” and “Premium”.
With the first one, you’ll get to create and stream Pandora’s stations, but with ads and limited daily skips (meaning that, if you really don’t want to listen to a song, you’ll either have to turn the volume down or change the station).
The “Plus” plan removes ads, gives you unlimited daily skips, and provides up to four stations for offline listening. If you want a lean-back listening experience that you can really control, this is the one to get. And at $4.99 per month, it’s definitely worth your money.
The pricier “Premium” plan ($9.99 per month for individual users, $14.99 for families, $4.99 for students, and $7.99 for the military) gives you everything included in the “Plus” plan, plus access to on-demand songs, meaning you can select any song you want and play it right away, without having to wait for it to play on a station. This feature may attract some users, but if you’re looking to Pandora for radio-like listening, the “Premium” is not for you.
If you want to try Pandora, you can take advantage of their 30-day free trial on the “Plus” plan or the 60-day free trial on their “Premium” plan.
Screenshot of Pandora’s paid subscription plans. September 12, 2019.
WHAT WE COULD DO WITHOUT
The License Restrictions on Premium
While the “Premium” plan allows users to play songs on-demand, certain songs are available for streaming in “radio only” mode due to licensing restrictions, which means you can’t play them anytime you want. Not a very fulfilling experience when that happens.
RUNNER UP: Apple Music
Apple fans (there are millions of you out there), hear us out. You might be asking why Apple Music, which effectively replaced iTunes as the tech company’s music streaming service in 2015 and is one of the leading music streaming platforms in the US, did not make our “best of” list, and here we’ll explain exactly why. But first, a brief review of the service.
WHAT WE LOVE
Beats 1
To put it simply, Beats 1 is internet radio curated by real DJs and music experts. No machines. No algorithms. And the best part? You can listen to it free of charge, without subscribing to Apple Music’s $9.99 per month Premium plan.
Beats 1 works pretty much like Pandora does, but with a traditional radio twist: there are actual programs scheduled throughout the day, hosted by DJs Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden, and Julie Adenuga, and a long list of musicians and celebrities. If you love radio, Beats 1 is one of the best options out there.
Seamless iOS Connectivity
This is a no-brainer, as Apple Music is owned and operated by Apple, Inc. If you’re part of the Apple ecosystem, you’ll be able to stream Apple Music seamlessly via all your Apple devices, including Apple Watch, iPad, Apple TV, iPhone, and Apple’s Home Pod.
Plus, if you already have your own music library on iTunes and /or iCloud, these songs will be integrated into Apple Music so all your music can be easily accessed through one simple-to-use platform.
The Interface
This is an Apple music streaming service, so it’s no wonder its interface is as slick and user-friendly as you’ve come to expect from the makers of the iPod and the MacBook Air. The aesthetics of the platform feel fresh, and browsing doesn't feel like a hassle, even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. In fact, when it comes to the interface criteria, Apple Music might just be the better-looking music platform as of right now.
Screenshot of Apple Music’s paid subscription plans. September 12, 2019.
SO, WHY DIDN’T IT MAKE THE LIST?
Apple Music offers seemingly identical features as its main competitors: $9.99 monthly fee, $14.99 family plan, tens of millions of songs, offline listening, decent audio quality, a great algorithm for music discovery, a gazillion playlists, online radio, and the like.
However, when we compared Apple Music with other similar streaming sites factor by factor, we felt: 1) its sound cannot match that of Tidal, so it couldn’t win for audio quality; 2) its discovery and predictive algorithms, amazing as they may be, are certainly outmatched by Spotify’s Echo-Nest-powered algorithm; and 3) contrary to common industry practices, Apple Music does not have a “freemium” tier, but rather a 3-month free trial, meaning you have to subscribe to get the service.
In the end, after thorough research, we concluded Apple Music is ideal for Apple enthusiasts who want to take advantage of the streaming service’s iOS integration. Other than that, you’ll be better served by the other services featured in this guide.
Further Insight into Our Methodology
One thing we discovered early on while researching this topic is that, when it comes to music streaming, it’s the little details that count: the perfect song playing at exactly the right time, a seamless transition from your mobile device to your car, discovering a new artist you’ve never heard of before, the ability to find out what your friends are listening to at any given moment.
Moreover, since music is a very personal experience, and with predictive-algorithm technologies being as effective as they are today, we also realized that the best streaming service in 2019 cannot be any other than the one that plays exactly what you want, how you want it, when you want it. It should cater to your needs, and anything less should be discarded.
In other words, there is no one “best of the best” service, but rather an amalgam of similar options that differ mainly in their intended target audience. Let’s take Spotify as an example. As we saw in the reviews above, even the Swedish “green giant” is inadequate and lacking when it comes to hardcore classical music fans, who would be better served by a much less popular streaming platform like Idagio. In short, a streaming service’s beauty is in the ear of the beholder.
With these insights, we created a methodology focused on letting our readers compare and match their listening habits to the features offered by each of the reviewed services. For weeks, we put our headphones on and delved into every streaming platform to see how each one worked, what (and who) it was best for, and how they compared to each other. We’re sure that, after reading our reviews, you’ll find at least one streaming service about which you can say “that sounds right FOR ME." And, should you remain undecided afterward, uncertain as to which platform is the best for you, here’s the good news: most music streaming companies offer “freemium” tiers so that you can see and hear for yourself, no strings attached.
Without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at our criteria:
Music Discovery & Personalization
Right now, it's not enough for a music streaming service to simply carry tens of millions of songs; in order to stand out in a crowded market, it must also guide listeners in their musical journeys, helping every person sort through the seemingly endless music catalogs
For this reason, some of the best streaming companies employ music experts and/or machine learning algorithms to maximize your experience by 1) learning and adapting to the specific way you listen to music (what you listen to, how often, and when), and 2) hitting the desired “sweet spot” between familiarity and surprise (if a streaming service were to play only what you already know you’ll get bored, and if it played only music that you’ve never heard of before you’ll probably become exhausted)
Streaming companies tackle the issue of music discovery in various ways. Some of the most popular platforms make you answer a simple musical-taste questionnaire prior to your subscribing so that they have a head start on what genre — or genres — it will play for you. However, we found out it always takes time for the customization to feel effective; in the same way new shoes need to be “broken in” by constant wear, the more you use a streaming service and provide feedback (skips, likes, thumbs up or down, etc.), the more it will play exactly what you want, or, at least, what it thinks you want.
Interface/UX
How a music streaming service works, looks and feels is as essential as the content it serves. For streaming companies to make our list, they had to feel intuitive, look as uncluttered as possible, and provide some, most, or all of the industry must-have additional features such as sharing, offline listening, car play, smart-speaker compatibility, audio quality customization, and the like. Even though the streaming services that made our list may vary greatly regarding this criterion, they all share the same essential characteristic: their user experiences all excel at their intended purpose.
Music Catalog
For this criterion, we had a rule of thumb: 30 million songs or more to make our list. Why? Because this number has become the standard in the industry. The number of songs on a streaming service used to be the main differentiator, but now the 30-million mark seems to be the minimum required.
But there’s one exception, and it has to do with niche or ‘genre-specific’ services such as Idagio, which only plays classical music. Most streaming platforms play hundreds of different genres — this is why they must have upwards of 30 million songs — whereas sites like Idagio can be exhaustive in their offerings with only a fraction of that number.
Still, that’s more music than you can probably handle. With some studies suggesting the average American listens to four hours of music per day, 30 million tracks should be more than enough to listen to music for a lifetime without repeating a single song.
Price
Music used to be somewhat pricey ($15 per CD in the 90s), then it was free (illegally via Napster, but still), and now it seems to have reached a sort of middle ground: pay an average of $10 per month for a streaming service subscription, and you’ll get to stream as many songs and albums as you want.
And then there’s the "freemium," a music streaming concept blending "free" and "premium" to provide you with all the music you want… but with ads peppered throughout, limited skipping and features, and lower audio quality.
Don’t mind commercial interruptions and subpar quality? Then $0 is the price you need to pay in 2019 to enjoy everything a service’s “freemium” tier has to offer. But, if you favor on-demand playing, higher qualities, and offline listening, you’re better off subscribing to one of the streaming services featured in this article. We tested each of the companies that made our list to make sure they really give you a bang for your buck, so that whatever it is you pay for a subscription -from Pandora’s $4.99 per month basic plan to Tidal’s $29.99 per month Hi-Fi family plan- you’ll see that the services are worth every penny, especially when compared to the prices during the CD era, and the fact that some of that money goes to the artists that create the soundtrack to your life.
However, keep in mind that, while in the past you used to own the CDs you purchased, with streaming you only "rent" the access to the music; once the subscription ends, you won’t get the access anymore.
Audio Quality
This is where things get really subjective and technical. While some people (especially the audiophiles) wouldn’t be caught dead listening to run-of-the-mill MP3s and AACs, most music listeners don't only seem to care little about audio quality after a certain threshold, but can’t actually hear the difference between a compressed, low-quality song and a high-fidelity one.
And, quite frankly, neither could we when listening through ordinary car speakers or cheap headphones. This is because, according to expert soundman Benjamín Curet, “when it comes to audio quality in streaming, the equipment you use is completely essential.” However, when we tried comparing audio quality between streaming services by using studio-quality headphones (which can be very pricey), the difference in quality became somewhat more pronounced.
But it’s not only the audio equipment we use that determines whether or not we notice marked differences in audio quality. “Besides the equipment, you also need to train your ears to hear the subtle differences in audio quality,'' said Curet, adding that “if you don’t, you probably won’t notice any difference between lower-quality and higher-quality tracks.”
The keywords in streaming audio quality are "compression" and "bitrate." Without getting too technical, let’s just say that the former term refers to the process by which a digital file (a song, in the case of music streaming) is "shaved" down to its bare essentials in order to reduce its size, while the latter has to do with the number of bits (audio data) that can be streamed in a certain amount of time. Right now, bitrates in the streaming industry range from 64kbps (Pandora’s free tier) to 1,411kbps (Tidal).
Another concept that is essential to streaming audio quality is that of “lossy vs. lossless,” which has to do with how much is “lost” during audio compression. As the words suggest, “lossy” audio is one that loses some of its dynamic range (highs, lows, and silences) in favor of maximizing space, while “lossless” refers to a type of compression that preserves all of the original data, allowing for CD-type audio quality. Of the streaming services that made our list, only Tidal, and Idagio offer lossless audio as of this moment.
Fairness in Royalty Payments
Even though at first glance it may seem this criterion is, at best, secondary to a streaming service’s purpose and overall functionality, we found that what streaming companies pay artists is nonetheless essential. After all, would you support a company that is knowingly unfair in its treatment of its most valuable human resource, as artists and songwriters are for the music streaming services?
The ways in which music streaming royalties are paid can be confusing even to seasoned industry insiders, and formulas vary from company to company, as we’ll see later in this section. However, the vast majority of streaming service companies adhere to a licensing model called "service-centric” or “pro-rata.”
In a pro-rata/service-centric system, monthly royalties are determined by taking the total revenue generated by a streaming service, dividing that number by the overall number of streams during that month for all artists, and multiplying it by a specific artist’s number monthly of streams. In other words, the monthly revenue for an artist depends on his/her share of the streaming company’s overall streams. For example, if artist "X" had 100 streams in 1 month, and streaming company “Y” reported 1,000 total streams in the same time period, then, under the pro-rata system, artist "X" will get paid 10% of the company’s overall monthly revenue.
Opponents of this payment system allege that this formula only favors the most popular artists while neglecting independent and upcoming acts. This may be true, as some reports suggest that the 10% most-streamed tracks represent 99% of all music streamed, meaning 90% of all other music streamed only get 1% in revenues. Instead, they recommend a “user-centric” licensing system, where an artist gets paid depending on each listener’s consumption in a given month. For example, if you pay $10 per month for service "Y" and only listen to artist "X" during a given month, 100% of royalties stemming from your subscription will go to artist "X," a method of payment that's similar to the one used in the days of traditional record stores. However, the executives defending the "pro-rata" system claim the "user-centric" approach would actually be detrimental to both streaming companies and artists, as the costs of administering royalties would skyrocket substantially.
Below, you’ll find a graphic showing how much each streaming service pays per stream, and how many streams per month it would take, per streaming service, for an artist to make the US minimum wage of $1,256.67.
To aid you in understanding just how many streams it would take for a song to become profitable in the streaming industry, we’ve created the royalty calculator below. To use it, just write a hypothetical number of streams, select the streaming service, and click "calculate." We hope that, by using this calculator, you’ll understand just how hard it can be for some musicians to make a living doing what they love, and why it's important to treat fairness in royalty payments as an essential part of the streaming experience.
Royalties Calculator
Helpful information about Music Streaming Services
1) It’s All About Which Way You Lean
It’s a classic behavioral psychology adage: leaning back shows passive receptiveness while leaning forward shows active engagement. And what is true for social interactions also applies to music listening.
Whichever music streaming service you end up favoring or subscribing to will most likely depend on one simple yet essential factor: the way you listen. There are two main ways, as mentioned above: lean-back listening and lean-forward listening.
The former refers to a type of music listening where the listener is passive, letting the music fade into the background while driving or working. In this type of listening, the streaming service’s algorithms do most of the work of choosing what songs come next. If you're this type of listener, you’ll probably fare better with services like Pandora or iHeart Radio.
The latter, on the other hand, is a more active type of listening, one where the music listener is looking for specific music hands-on. This listener is more thoughtful and knowledgeable regarding music, and usually knows what they want better than a system’s predictive algorithm. For this type of user, we recommend streaming services ranking high in music discovery (like Spotify, SoundCloud, and Tidal).
However, nowadays, most of the streaming services cater to both types of listeners. Pandora, for example, is famous for their lean-back approach to music streaming, but they recently added a paid tier where users can choose the songs they want to play.
2) Mo’ Streaming, Mo’ Money
According to the 2019 mid-year report by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in the first six months of this year, the U.S. music industry saw continued growth in revenue, primarily driven by an increase in paid subscriptions, which exceeded 60 million for the first time in streaming history. Specifically, total revenues from music streaming grew to $5.4 billion, a number that represents 80% of the overall music revenue.
And the growth seems to be unstoppable for the foreseeable future. Another report by Goldman Sachs, titled ‘Music in the Air’ predicts that by the year 2030 there will be 1.5 billion paid subscriptions generating up to $27.5 billion globally.
The best takeaway from these reports seems to be the fact that people prefer paid subscriptions to “freemium” tiers. That's great news; if the predictions are correct, the music industry is set for a very profitable future.
3) Streaming Hasn't Killed the Radio Star
Talk about a survivor. According to a 2017 report by the data analytics company Nielsen, 49% of Americans discover new music by listening to terrestrial radio (traditional AM/FM), making it the top source for people 12 and older. In total, ad revenues from terrestrial radio garner up to $15 billion per year. Furthermore, while streaming reaches approximately 67.5 million people per week, broadcast radio’s reach is a whopping 228.5 million per week.
Whether radio’s popularity will continue is up to anyone’s guess; even though people have been anticipating its demise since the advent of portable music, it' not only alive in 2019, but still reigning as king.
4) The Machines Are Listening
With music discovery and playlists becoming the most prominent aspects of music streaming, it's no wonder the major companies are investing a lot of effort and money into perfecting these features. Two methods are used to customize your online listening experience, one as ancient as music itself and the other a fairly modern one: curation by humans and music discovery algorithms.
In the prehistoric era (20 years ago), most music recommendations came from friends, magazines, radio DJs, or music television. The more they knew you, the better the recommendations. Now, machines are supplanting humans in this aspect: while some of the reviewed streaming companies feature live, flesh-and-bone humans to do some of the playlist curating, all of the companies employ some type of algorithm to help you on your listening journey.
The most sophisticated of these are the ones by the Music Genome Project (the first of its kind, employed and created by Pandora) and The Echo Nest (owned by Spotify). But, as recommendations from an acquaintance are more accurate the more the person got to know your tastes, machines also need to “listen” to what you’re listening to; the more you engage with the algorithms (via song skips, likes, and thumbs down, for example), the better the suggested songs will be.
The upside of these algorithms? New music will arrive at your fingertips continually, and all you have to do to feed the machine is to keep listening. When it really works, you’ll be asking yourself, “How on earth did they know I was going to like this?” amazed by how much the streaming service seems to “know you.” The downside? If you listen to a few artists or music genres, you might get stuck in a kind of “music bubble” with few surprises.
In short, and to put it simply: while these technologies are getting better day by day, as of this moment nothing beats a good old’ friend’s telling you “Oh, you gotta listen to this.
5) A Playlist for Every Mood
How can music streaming companies, and us, manage music catalogs containing more than 30 million songs? How can we make sense of it all? The answer: playlists. Much like the mixtapes of yore, the playlist aims to distill a universe of music into a single product that is mostly homogenous in style and relatively short in duration.
There are lots of them (and when we say “lots” we mean billions) across all streaming platforms — created by users and companies alike — and their importance in music distributing and discovery cannot be overstated. According to a report, an artist can get a 50%-100% boost in streams and just by having one of his/her songs featured in one of the major platform’s in-house playlists, like Spotify’s "Discover Weekly," which has, for all intents and purposes, become the standard for all streaming playlists.
And there is a playlist for every mood and occasion. Driving? There are hundreds of playlists for that. Working out? Thousands. Chilling at home? Hundreds of thousands. In fact, playlists based on mood and time of day have outnumbered the ones built upon music genres.
With millions of people listening to playlists at least half of the time they spend streaming music online, these "modern mixtapes" have effectively become the new Top 40, with the power of making or breaking a musical act.
What to Watch Out for When Buying Music Streaming Services
Automatic Subscriptions
To let you try their Premium features free of charge before committing to a monthly payment, most music streaming companies offer free trials with durations ranging from 7 to 60 days. To take advantage of this trial period, you’ll have to register to the platform with your name, email, and credit card/billing information. However, when you read the fine print, you’ll discover that your subscription will automatically renew — and your credit card will be billed — right after the trial ends unless you unsubscribe first.
For this reason, we feel it’s important to keep the deadlines in mind if you register for a music streaming service’s free trial. If, for whatever reason, you decide you will not subscribe, make sure to take action. Otherwise, you’ll be billed for a service you don’t want and refunds will not be available to you.