Best music streaming services 2024

Music is the heartbeat of our lives. It amps us up before a big test or a cardio workout, and soothes us through grief and loss. And since we expect our music to follow us from one device to another, from home to car to work to cafe, having one of the best music streaming services that fits right into our lifestyle is essential. This is what we're here to help you with. While there are several music streaming services available, we're going to focus on those that can be used around much of the world.

Music streaming services for you to enjoy your tunes

Tidal was one of the first music services to provide high-quality lossless audio over streaming, even though it launched with a rather bare selection of artists and songs. Since its inception, Tidal has continued to grow its catalog and added some extra goodies, including high-definition music videos. In addition to the high-quality music available, the company offers more than its fair share of artist-exclusive releases and has even been live-streaming concerts before it was cool.

The feature set for Tidal is also rather robust since it's available on just about every platform, including a desktop application for Mac and Windows, along with a usable web client. There's smart assistant integration with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, as well as the ability to create your own karaoke night with on-device lyrics.

While Spotify used to be our pick for the best overall music streaming service, Spotify has yet to give an actual deadline for when its HiFi tier will actually drop. In comparison, Tidal's base HiFi plan allows users to stream 16-bit audio in the lossless format FLAC at up to 1411 Kbps, which is much better than the quality available at any Spotify tier currently available.

Tidal's HiFi Plus plan is the best streaming service subscription on the market right now for music listeners who really care about the audio quality of the songs they're listening to. While the HiFi Plus plan is a bit pricier at $19.99/month, it includes all the perks of the HiFi tier and boasts Master Quality audio, Dolby Atmos, and Sony 360 Reality Audio.

In January 2022, subscribers to Tidal's HiFi Plus plan saw up to 10% of their monthly fee distributed to their most-listened-to artists. It's something that sets Tidal apart from other major streaming services currently battling artists over royalty payouts. Tidal also teamed up with more than 100 major and independent labels to develop and grow this "user-centric payment system." So, if making sure that the artists are getting paid is important to you, then HiFi Plus is the best plan for you.

While Spotify used to be one of the only music streaming services offering a student discount, both Apple Music and Tidal have since added discounted tiers for students. However, Tidal takes things to the next level by offering a discount of 50 percent on both its ad-free HiFi and HiFi Plus plans. Tidal's student discount is also applicable to both high school and higher education students, while Spotify and Apple Music's student discount offer is limited to students pursuing higher education at a selection supported colleges or universities.

Beyond its student discount, Tidal also offers a 40 percent discount on all of its HiFi and HiFi Plus plans to current or former Military personnel, as well as  active/retired first responders (EMS, EMT, Firefighters, and Police Officers) in the United States.

For the last few years, Amazon has been building up its own music streaming service to compete with the Spotifys and Apple Musics of the world. Called Amazon Music, it is available in two versions, and it all comes down to just how much music you want to listen to.

Amazon Prime Music is available for Prime members and comes bundled with your monthly or yearly subscription. It has a few limitations, the biggest of which is that the number of available songs to stream or listen to is limited to a mere two million. However, it's available on all of your potential devices, and you'll still find that many of the top hits are available. If you want some deep tracks, you might want to take a look at Amazon Music Unlimited.

Amazon Music Unlimited has all the features you'd expect to find when searching for the best music streaming services. There's a free, ad-supported version that lets you browse an array of playlists and stations. You can also get on board with the Music Unlimited Individual Plan for about $11 per month, but Amazon does offer a 30-day free trial to get your feet wet.

For the past decade, Spotify has been delivering streaming music magic and it still ranks among the most popular subscription-based music streaming services on the market today. Its vast genre selection, easy-to-understand settings, and useful algorithms make sure that you keep finding new and fantastic music to add to your library. While Spotify still offers a free tier, the Spotify Premium plan takes that to the next level with no commercial breaks, unlimited skips, and a larger media library.

Thanks to Spotify Connect and the many, many platforms Spotify makes dedicated apps for — from Android TV to Wear OS and everywhere in between — you'll also be able to listen to your music just about anywhere. Specifically, Spotify offers an easy-to-use web client that doesn't require any downloads or installations and is ideal for using on a managed computer at work or school. Still, there's also a desktop client available for more intense library management and offline playback. While Spotify also doesn't have a device limit for streaming, its five-device, 10,000-song limit on offline content can spell trouble if you download massive playlists and their entire library for offline listening on a regular basis.

As mentioned above, Spotify continues to be one of the most intuitive streaming services. It also edges out both Tidal and Apple Music in terms of music discovery. That being said, the uncertainty surrounding the launch of the Spotify HiFi tier puts it a step behind Tidal when it comes to audio quality. Spotify also hasn't made a strong effort to work with artists to negotiate more fair payouts, which may be an issue for some music fans. Also, not everyone is a fan of the latest TikTok-style makeover of the app.

Now that Google Play Music is gone, it's been replaced by the company's next music-based venture, YouTube Music. To keep the naming consistent with its offerings of media streaming platforms and considering YouTube's popularity, Google has given it the name YouTube Music. The service has a library of more than 50 million songs and, as you would expect, includes many music videos for you to sit back and enjoy.

If you're the type who wants to download their favorite playlists to listen back to later on, you won't run into any issues. YouTube Music Premium subscribers can download songs, albums, or playlists right to their phones, so they can still listen to their favorites even if they don't have a stable internet connection. The Premium Music subscription starts at $11 per month for individuals. Students can get in on the fun for about $5.50 per month, but there's even a free tier if you're willing to put up with some ads. You can also sign up for individual YouTube Premium for $14 per month and get an ad-free experience across YouTube.

One of the big reasons why Spotify continues to be a fan favorite has everything to do with the algorithms used to provide generated playlists. YouTube Music has a few algorithms of its own, but when pitting YouTube Music vs. Spotify, we did notice some improvement with playlists such as My Supermix, Discover Mix, and others. But as is the case with any music streaming service, the more you listen, the better the playlists will get.

We also finally have a proper YouTube Music app for our Android smartwatches. While the app was initially limited to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic, YouTube Music started rolling out to additional Wear OS 2 smartwatches in late 2021. The app is now readily available to most Wear OS 2 and Wear OS 3 devices such as the Pixel Watch.

Fourteen bucks a month for a robust, stable music player with a built-in music locker service (Google Play Music), the best experience on the most popular video platform in the world (YouTube), and a brand-new but slightly buggy music service built atop the biggest music catalog in the world, including fan content and non-commercially available music (YouTube Music) too? Yeah, sign us up.

YouTube Premium is a video subscription service that gets rid of ads and unlocks premium features in five apps: YouTube, YouTube Music, YouTube Kids, YouTube Gaming, and YouTube VR. Name another video subscription with that kind of value. No, really, we'll wait.

Once upon a time, you could subscribe to YouTube, YouTube Music, or Google Play Music and get access to premium service on all of them, but recent changes to Google's pricing policies have changed things. Pay for YouTube Music, and you just get YouTube Music. Pay for YouTube Premium, and you get everything.

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What's the best music streaming service for you?

When it comes to which music streaming is the best, it comes down to what makes a specific music service the best for you and your family. That being said, we think Tidal has made huge strides since it launched and is only becoming more appealing to die-hard music fans who aren't happy with the direction of Spotify. And while Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music each have their perks and discounts, Tidal still stands out in terms of audio quality and artist support.

Music is fundamental, and it's still one of the core functions of the best Android phones, smart speakers like Google Home, and our computers. As such, picking the right music streaming service to use on the devices you use every day is a big decision.

While our poll in the past saw YouTube Music finish ahead of Tidal, we still think Tidal is the music streaming service to beat. However, one of the biggest issues with the service is that it's only available in 61 countries. That means you might not be able to access Tidal where you live. As such, it's worth pointing out that Deezer is available in more than 100 countries worldwide and is also doing its own experiments with user-centric payouts.

If the sheer size of a platform's catalog matters more to you than audio quality, then YouTube Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music are still solid options for Android users. There's also an argument to be made for the music library hosted by Apple Music, though it doesn't function quite as seamlessly on non-iOS devices.