We looked at the big names including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music And YouTube musicas well as smaller ones like Tidal, QobuzNapster, Deezer And Pandora Premiumto see how each platform performs for your subscription dollar. Most services have music catalogs of around 100 million songs and are supported by a wide variety of devices.
Since all services basically have the same libraries, we evaluated each service based on:
- Ease of use.
- Costs.
- Features.
- Sound quality.
While Spotify objectively offers the “worst” quality based on numbers alone, most people won’t notice a difference, especially on phones or Bluetooth speakers. The biggest advantages for Spotify users are the service’s ubiquity, community features, and the ability to easily pair with other devices.
Apple also gets high marks for its compatibility with iOS and Mac users, and the ability to listen to higher-quality streams at no extra cost. If the service were more accessible to PC users and smart-home fans, Apple Music would easily become the service we’d recommend. In short, Spotify is better for users of almost any phone, smart device, or computer.
