Dark Posted September 6, 2020 Posted September 6, 2020 Streaming music is the most convenient way to listen to your favorite songs. Sure, vinyl may be making a resurgence among audiophiles with lots of great inexpensive turntable options, but wrangling physical records is a pain for casual music fans. And if you are concerned about sound quality, it may surprise you that streaming music can sound indistinguishable from, or even better than, a CD. The question is which streaming music service is best for you. We checked out Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and Pandora Premium to see how each platform stacks up for your subscription buck. While most offer music catalogs of more than 50 million songs, each has its own unique pros and cons. We've also left out services that only play music in a radio format and don't offer a la carte listening. Services typically charge $10 a month and don't have a contract, but swapping between them isn't as straightforward as TV streaming. In most cases you'll need to build your library and playlists from scratch if you switch, unless you use a music locker service. There is another option -- Soundiiz -- which can read the library from each of your music services and transfer them. There is a monthly charge of $4.50, but you can always cancel once you've converted your library. Spotify is the pioneer in the music-streaming space arguably the best known. It offers a number of curated music discovery services, including its Discover Weekly playlist, and is constantly implementing new ones, such as Stations. It's a close race between Spotify Premium and Apple Music, but Spotify wins as the best music streaming service overall thanks to a fun, easy-to-use interface, an extensive catalog and the best device compatibility. Spotify also offers our favorite free tier: without paying a dime you can still stream over Spotify Connect to numerous devices and you don't even need to provide a credit card. The Good Free version is impressively robust Spotify Connect simplifies connecting to wireless speakers and AV receivers Easy to build your own playlists and sync them for offline listening Allows you to follow artists and to be alerted when they release new music or announce an upcoming show The Bad Advertisements in the free service can be intrusive You can't listen to specific songs in the free tier, just a mix based on the requested music Best for: People who want a solid all-around service, and especially for people who love to make, browse and share playlists for any scenario. Read our Spotify review 4
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