Do you remember the times when people were condemned to spend hours on Limewire? Downloading and creating “playlists” for MP3s took your lifetime. Now, think about the reduced stress and time you spend listening to music with the option to build a personal library! We are used to quickly accessing music streaming services without regard to all these. Considering the former difficulties, the streaming services’ prices come as fair.
Within seconds, you can access a huge library of unlimited music with a specific sound quality without any effort. Moreover, algorithms make recommendations, and you can use different music streaming services from various apps. There are a lot of advantages of other music streaming services.
Don’t worry, we are here to help! We tested them all and decided this year’s best music streaming service is Tidal! Please keep reading to learn about other services we selected as the best!
The 6 Top-Tier Music Streaming Services
Choosing one of them may be tricky, especially considering that there are many music streaming services now.
Spotify’s reign is over with a variety of different services. It is one of the best music streaming services still, but now it is not the only option.
Let’s explore the best music streaming services together.
1- Tidal
If you are a passionate audiophile who enjoys high-quality music, Tidal is for you! It includes Dolby Atmos Music with surround-sound technology. Here are the other advantages of Tidal other than having the very best quality:
- Optional hi-res audio tier
- Lyrics
- Video content, including backstage, live stream, and concert records
- Supports Dolby Atmos
- Profiles of musicians
- Free tier
The Tidal Free subscription offers 160kbps streams of the whole music library with occasional disruptions. Prices may seem high, but they state that they have a Direct Artist Payouts Program in which they pay 10% of your subscription fee.
Additionally, Tidal has a $20 Tidal HiFi Plus tier, which is the premium plan. It includes Dolby Atmos spatial audio and Sony 360 Reality Audio. Also, it supports the Master Quality Authenticated format. On the other hand, the $10 Tidal HiFi plan includes lossless playback. $10 Tidal HiFi plan streams at a CD-quality 1411kbps.
Tidal offers hi-res music streaming with Tidal Connect. Utilizing the Bluetooth connection from your phone, you can stream music straight to wireless speakers and other audio types of equipment. All of these advantages of this top-notch service make it the best among other streaming music services.
2- Apple Music
Apple Music, with its extensive music library, is a great choice for you if you are committed to the Apple ecosystem. Plus, they only have one premium tier, which already offers CD-quality audio. So you don’t need to pay extra costs to upgrade your existing premium plan. They upgraded the quality to CD without creating any other plan, so you don’t have to pay extra to play music!
Apple Music, in a way, ends the recent years’ competition with its rivalry Spotify with its premium features of music quality and enormous library. In addition to high-quality audio, Apple Music’s lossless audio provides CD-quality streams at 16-bit/44.1kHz and up to 24-bit/192kH. Also, human creators’ creating themed playlists is another plus of Apple Music if you ask us. The spatial audio is a plus.
One of the few cons of Apple Music is the high-res audio cannot be enjoyed on Windows. Apple Music is the second-best music streaming service, especially if you have an Apple ecosystem. Still, you can access it on all your devices, even though it works better with Apple devices.
3- Spotify
Spotify, as the pioneer in the industry, has an enormous library of songs with more than 100 million tracks and 5 million podcasts. It is the most popular streaming service.
It has the best music discovery algorithms as the pioneer streaming music service created with insightful data. There are a wide range of curated playlists for you. The customized playlists are pretty successful compared to others.
Its integration into social media is another of Spotify’s best qualities. You can share songs on Instagram easily and create collaborative playlists that are fantastic for music lovers! If you see yourself as part of these music enthusiasts, you would love to create collaborative playlists that allow you to share playlists and enrich your taste. You can even have official playlists with a high number of Spotify plays, which you can acquire easily with Views4You within minutes!
Therefore, having no lossless audio option doesn’t suit it well, which began as the first successful music streaming platform that is especially known for personalized playlists. Having no lossless format is a shame at this point for Spotify. In terms of audio performance, it doesn’t go well with it. Also, if you have a free tier, it is full of ads.
4- Amazon Music Unlimited
Amazon Music Unlimited is the best option for Prime members since you can access it by adding a little extra. Amazon Prime Music is already available to Prime members. It has a wide range of music catalogs with Hi-res audio.
Amazon Music Unlimited is $9 per month for only Prime members. Also, there is a free version of Amazon Prime Music for three months. Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality formats are used for spatial audio. Lossless audio formats are also used for HD and Ultra HD music files. The streaming quality of Amazon Music Unlimited is quite impactful.
5- YouTube Music
It is the best music streaming service for especially Android users since it is compatible with Androids. Even though it lacks hi-res audio and does not have the best audio quality, it has many benefits, too.
YouTube Music offers a free version with ads. YouTube Music costs $10 per month but provides a free one-month trial. If you want to have a library of your own audio files, YouTube Music Premium is one of the best. Also, YouTube Music provides location-based playlists that you can download for offline playback. It has a great desktop app as well as being one of the most successful mobile apps.
6- Idagio
It is the best streaming service for classical music enthusiasts. Considering the fact that other streaming services lack classical music, Idagio is an exceptional service. Idagio provides a great selection of classical music. Also, it includes live performances and interviews.
Even though other streaming platforms also include classical repertoire, Idagio has a particular service with a special focus. Suppose you are one of these people, passionate about symphonic music. In that case, Idagio is the best for you since it allows you to find a favorite recording of, for instance, Nikolai Medtner’s concerto. The chances are less for other music services to find a peculiar composer. Idagio offers search tools so you can find the concertos more quickly than other mainstream services.
FAQs
What is lossless audio?
In its simplest definition, it is a way to compress digital audio without losing quality. It keeps all the data as a whole, which leads to the highest sound quality. Therefore, it is best for audiophiles.
How do streaming services pay artists?
The artists are paid through a portion of paid subscriptions and advertising revenues on these platforms. However, predicting how much they earn from streaming services is quite challenging since it depends on many factors, like the listener’s location, subscription type, the artist’s royalty rate, and the currency of different places.
What are the differences between free tiers of streaming services and free trials?
A free tier is the permanent free version of a streaming platform. There are restrictions like ads, low audio quality, or limited activities like downloading the content. Spotify, for instance, has a free version of the app that allows you to listen to music with interruptions of ads and have no offline access.
On the other hand, free trials offer temporary access to premium features at their full functionality. For instance, Apple services offer a one-month free subscription to enjoy the platform at its best.