The best music streaming service

The days of buying CDs or storing hundreds to thousands of mp3 in the hard-disk are over. We are all now living in the era of music streaming, everyone can have unlimited access to millions of tracks wherever you are.

There are numerous factors that determine why people choose one service over another. It could be the pricing, audio quality, the app ecosystem and more.

In this article I’m going to recommend to you some of the best music streaming services in the market that I have personally tried using all of them respectively over the years. We are not sponsored by any of these companies, without being biased, here are our reviews to help you make the best choice for you.

1. Spotify

Spotify is probably the most popular music streaming service among all. One of the best things I like about Spotify is that it allows you conveniently switch between desktop, mobile app, smart TV or any other synced device.

The music discovery features is what makes it stand out from all the other competitors as well. Artists hoping to get their songs featured in Spotify playlist in order to get more exposures.

The music discovery algorithms will create and suggest a playlist to the audiences based on their music taste, the more you listen the more accurate the data would be.

Pros:

• Music discovery features

• Intuitive interface

• Free version available

• Best for music discovery

• Podcasts

Cons:

• Hi Resolution Audio only available in selected regions

• No lyrics included

• There is only shuffle mode in the free version

2. Apple music

Apple Music is very similar to Spotify, and it’s now integrated with Itunes. If you are a big fan of the Apple ecosystem, you would love the seamless integration with Siri and the Apple Watch, the app is preinstalled on your Apple devices, all you need to do is subscribe to a membership.

Don’t worry if you are an android user, it’s available on the Google Play Store as well. Apple Music does not offer a free version at this moment, but if you are a new signup user the first three months would be free.

Pros:

• Best for iphone user

• Allowing you to control using Siri with any apple devices

• Combining your library in itunes

Cons: 

• No free version

• No hi resolution audio

3. Youtube Premium

Youtube Music is a good choice that integrates well with Google services like google assistant. Most people including myself would never think of Youtube when it comes to choosing a music streaming service, but with the huge song list plus all the videos content, podcasts, audio books, music, bringing you the endless possibilities.

Although Youtube Music and Youtube are two separate apps, eventually I believe they will all be integrated into one. Youtube music is priced at $9.99 per month, Youtube premium is $11.99. The extra $2 giving you access to all the videos on youtube without ads and playing the video with screen off, this service itself is good enough to tempt many people away from any other music streaming services.

I highly recommend you to go with the premium plan, it’s the best value for the money. Speaking about Youtube might as well check out this great youtube tool too if you plan to start a Youtube channel.

Pros:

• Free version available 

• Best value 

• Giving you access to both youtube music and video without ads

Cons:

• No desktop app

• No hi resolution audio

4. Tidal

Tidal is well known for it’s high sound quality music streaming service, but please be reminded that you need to have compatible audio equipment in order to hear the differences with the high quality files.

The company is founded by Jay Z, and it’s the only place you can listen to his full discography as well as many other artists like Beyoncé’s or Kanye West.

Tidal also does a good job in connecting artists and fans through Tidal X and Tidal Read, the platforms for exclusive live concert tickets, featuring artist interviews.

Pros:

• High resolution audios

• Exclusive contents

• Intuitive interface

• Early access to selected concert

Cons: 

• No free version 

• Hi-res audio only available with hi-fi plan

• Hifi plan is expensive

• No lyrics

What’s Next?

Starting with a free version could be a good option if you want to have a glimpse of the using experience of that particular app to see whether you like it or not and don’t really mind being interrupted by the ads intermittently.

But if you have a little budget, I would suggest you register for a subscription plan. There are many more streaming services out there, for instance if you happen to be in China, NetEase music and XiaMi would be what the majority use, they have the most comprehensive Chinese songs catalog that others do not have.

I hope you find this article helpful for you in choosing the best music streaming service, take your time to try them out.

In case you are looking for a music distributor to publish your music to the music streaming platform, be sure to check out this article that we discusses about the 5 things you should consider when choosing a music distributor.

More content like this will be updated soon, let us know in the comment if there is any topic that you want us to write about, have a nice day!