On the face of it, the best music streaming services may look quite similar to each other, but there are some key factors that make some services more suitable for some music listeners than others. You may already have subscriptions to one of these best services, but if you are considering the advantages and disadvantages of your current platform, we are here to help you figure out the alternative option you might want to consider.
As a consumer technology editor and hi-fi hobbyist, I care a lot about user experience, sound quality, and value for money. I’ve had hands-on experience with the majority of music streaming services today, and I’m in an ideal position to highlight the pros and cons of each service.
What are the best music streaming services?
At the top of our list of the best music streaming services, Tidal gets the right balance with the HiFi layer that delivers CD-quality sound (16-bit/44.1kHz) and costs $9.99 per month, and the HiFi Plus layer that delivers high-quality audio (up to 24-bit/192k). Hz), Dolby Atmos content, and Sony 360 Reality Audio for $19.99 per month. Tidal has an extensive music library, extensive platform support, and it looks great. It also supports artists through a transparent rewards policy.
Apple Music is also $9.99 per month, but offers full CD-quality streams as well as high-resolution, spatial audio content. It’s a great value, has a large library, and the excellent and easy-to-use interface gives it more appeal. The lack of full HD support with Windows desktop computers may limit its appeal to some users.
Whether you’re looking for the best Bluetooth speakers, the best wireless earbuds, the best audio headphones, or the best AV receivers, not all music streaming services are the same, and recording to the right service and sound quality can impact your overall music experience. So, read on to see all of our picks.
The best music streaming services right now
If it’s music that interests you primarily, and you’re willing to pay to listen to it, there’s only one place to put your subscription money – and that’s Tidal.
While Tidal recently introduced a free subscription option called (unsurprisingly) Tidal Free, offering 160kbps streams from its entire music catalog with “limited interruptions,” the benefits of the music streaming service lie elsewhere.
HiFi and HiFi Plus packages are mostly characterized by the sound quality. Tidal streams at 1411kbps CD quality on the HiFi layer, while a HiFi Plus subscription gives access to content mastered in Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos spatial, as well as millions of high-resolution audio tracks known as Tidal Masters using MQA streaming technology at speed 9216 kbps.
The sound quality is pure musical enjoyment no matter what you hear. However, if you have a compatible system that can achieve the full fidelity of a Tidal Masters file, you will be rewarded with a rich and detailed presentation that is well worth the extra expense. You don’t need to be an audiophile or spend a fortune on headphones to hear the benefit, just listen.
Plus, if you’re ever bothered about an artist’s bonus, Tidal HiFi Plus subscribers can take comfort in knowing that roughly 10% of their subscription fee is shared between the artists you listen to most.
Find out how the entire tides compare Tide vs Spotify Showdown.
Apple has made a great journey into the steaming digital music service that it is today. It started as an iTunes download platform, and has (as consumers’ changing listening and buying habits changed) into the Apple Music streaming giant we have now. In a more recent surprise move, Apple Music has upgraded the audio quality output from compressed low-resolution audio files to minimum CD-quality music files, with little fuss and no extra charge. Existing subscribers suddenly have access to high-quality music streams without having to lift a finger.
All of this points to huge benefits for consumers of high-quality audio who reap the audio rewards combined with Apple’s spatial audio advances on some content, helping make it the biggest competitor to Spotify right now and a better value than a Spotify Premium subscription.
The audio quality is top notch and when it comes to resolution and bitrate, Apple Music offers full “lossless” “CD quality” at 16bit/44.1kHz and up to 24bit/192kHz for true Hi-Res audio. The only slight downside is that high-resolution output is not supported on Windows desktop computers.
Find out more by reading Apple Music FAQ.
Amazon Music Unlimited operates as Amazon’s streaming tier separate from its Music Prime service, offers 90 million very powerful songs in its library with access to CD-quality streams and higher, and supports Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio content. The service is less focused on curated content than some of its competitors, however, and the playlist you create feels rather generic.
Formatted to work with the best Alexa-compatible devices, third-party platform integration is slowly being supported on a larger scale. Delivering audio from Amazon CD-quality content via the desktop app is bug-free, but there are some issues when choosing HD content that defaults to your laptop’s internal audio output settings. This could effectively mean that a 24/96 HD audio file was sampled down to 24/48. There doesn’t seem to be any way to bypass this in the app, and you’ll have to resort to constantly tweaking your laptop’s settings to make sure it’s outputting full-fat HD audio.
Read A confrontation between Apple Music and Amazon Music Let’s see how they compare.
If you can put up with ads between songs and interrupt your music streaming experience, Spotify can be yours for free. Honestly, you’ll get poor sound quality of 96kbps or 160kbps at best, which is chronically inadequate for any musical enjoyment in our experience.
For those willing to pay the $9.99 subscription fee, Spotify streams run at 320kbps, which is better but still not great. Although Spotify’s audio format does an effective job of delivering engaging sound at about a third of the competing services’ data rate, if you listen closely on a good set of headphones or speakers, it’s possible to hear differences in detail levels when compared to the same content that It runs via a service that takes sound quality seriously.
Spotify has been promising its own ‘HiFi’ level for a long time – but the details (the launch date, how many titles will be available, and what you mean by ‘HiFi’ in this context) are still sketchy.
One of Spotify’s strengths is its integration with social media, which is the best we’ve tried. You can share Spotify content on Instagram and Facebook, and create links to share playlists on almost any messaging platform.
Finally, Spotify has been in the spotlight on rewarding the artist in the past, and while there has been some progress, Spotify doesn’t pay a set amount per stream for each individual song. Instead, it calculates the “streaming quota” by summing the number of streams per month and estimating the percentage of those that were for a particular artist or song. It is probably more easily expressed as “giving the most money to Ed and Taylor”.
Find out how the entirety of Spotify compares Tide vs Spotify Showdown.
How to choose the best music streaming services for you
Unlike the best video streaming services, you are unlikely to want more than one subscription to a music streaming service. It’s about choosing the right platform and the right audio quality content for your budget.
It’s important to think about what device you’re most likely to use it on and how you interact with your friends and family on the music you enjoy listening to. You may want to share some of your listening habits with friends and family, for example.
Although pricing structures have remained fairly constant in light of increased competition while sound quality and features have improved, there are still some who are not willing to pay for listening to music. If you care about music and the artist who produces the content you enjoy listening to, there is no better time to think about how these services compensate for the musicians who showcase their work. Spotify has long had a bad reputation for its bounty policy, but if you want to see how it compares to Apple and Tidal, read our review on who pays artists the most?
How to test the best music streaming services
Testing music streaming services is serious work and good fun. While filming, we spend a lot of time listening to a selection of the best audio headphones as well as a selection of the best wireless headphones to build a picture of how each service sounds. We listen to a selection of music tracks that can be found across each platform and rate audio performance in different resolutions. In addition to testing material, we also listen extensively to a wider range of content and evaluate additional features to see how well they implement.
We rate streaming services on a 5-point system (1 = worst, 5 = best). Products that excel in one or more areas and are rated 4 stars or higher may also receive an Editor’s Choice award.
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