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7 Of The Best Music Streaming Services For 2020
Can anything beat Spotify?
Streaming music via our smart tech is now the norm for many of us.
The CDs and cassettes of our childhoods will always evoke nostalgia, but having millions of songs at our fingertips has proved impossible to resist.
Spotify is the go-to music streaming service for a reason, but there are others that might be better suited to you. Classical music fan? Try Primephonic. Love watching music videos? Head to YouTube Music.
How We Test
We put 10 of the biggest and best music streaming services to the test, reviewing the size and range of their catalogue, audio quality, ease of use and any extra features like gapless playback and singalong lyrics.
Sign up to one of our seven favourite music streaming services, and turn the music up!
Joint Best Music Streaming Service
Spotify
Price per month: £4.99 for Spotify Student, £9.99 for Spotify Premium, £12.99 for Spotify Duo, £14.99 for Spotify Family
Spotify offers a huge choice of music from all decades and genres, currently listing more than 50 million songs and over a million podcasts. It’s simple to navigate and offers some brilliant features, including thoughtfully curated playlists, daily bespoke recommendations and gapless playback for listening to continuous albums like Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.
You can read detailed artist biographies, watch their music videos and check out their upcoming tour dates, all without leaving the app. Best of all, you can download thousands of songs onto your smartphone for listening to offline (most welcome on the Tube when the signal goes!).
Spotify is free to use with ads and track-skipping limitations, but an all-access, ad-free subscription costs a reasonable £9.99 per month. Money-saving plans are available for students, couples and families, but note that there are no parental controls for locking songs with explicit lyrics.
Key specifications
Number of songs: 50 million tracks and one million podcasts
Maximum streaming quality: 320Kbps
Compatible devices: iPhones/iPad, Android smartphones and tablet, Windows, Mac OS and Chrome OS laptops and computers, Apple Watch, TV streaming devices, set-top boxes, and games consoles
Offline listening: Yes
Free version: Yes
Lyrics on-screen: Yes
Joint Best Music Streaming Service
Deezer
Price per month: £4.99 for Deezer Student, £9.99 for Deezer Premium, £14.99 for Deezer HiFi, £14.99 for Deezer Family
Deezer has far fewer podcasts in its range than Spotify, but it boasts more songs, live radio and a high-res listening option for CD-quality audio. Handy extra features include SongCatcher, which uses your smartphone’s microphone to identify songs playing in the background, and a personalised playlist called Flow.
It’s a savvy choice for families as it has parental controls and the ability to play lyrics on your TV - fun for Disney singalongs and karaoke parties. The impressive search function auto-suggests songs, even when you’ve spelled them wrongly, and you can download tracks to listen to offline.
The ad-filled free version only lets you skip six tracks per hour, so it’s worth signing up to the £9.99 monthly service.
Key specifications
Number of songs: 56 million tracks including 400,000 podcasts and internet radio stations
Maximum streaming quality: 1,411kbps
Compatible devices: iPhones/iPad, Android smartphones and tablet, Windows, Mac OS and Chrome OS laptops and computers, Apple Watch, Fitbit and Garmin smartwatches, Smart TVs and Xbox One games consoles
Offline listening: Yes
Free version: Yes
Lyrics on-screen: Yes
Best Music Streaming Service For Multiple Devices
Apple Music
Price per month: £4.99 for Apple Music Student, £9.99 for Apple Music, £14.99 for Apple Music Family
You’ll find a wide selection of artists from all generations on this uncluttered app that works on Android smartphones as well as iPhones. Sia and Jack Savoretti are among the many artists who have premiered albums on Apple Music, making it a top choice if you like keeping up with new releases. Stand-out features include gapless playback, personalised playlists and Apple’s Beats 1 radio.
Best of all, Apple Music puts your full music library of up to 100,000 songs into iCloud, so that you can listen to it from any Apple device, on or offline. However, if you use this option, you can’t add any music to your iPhone that’s not available on Apple Music. There’s no free or high-res version and you have to listen to podcasts in a separate app, which is a bit of a pain, especially when the monthly price is the same as Spotify and Deezer.
Key specifications
Number of songs: 60 million tracks
Maximum streaming quality: Not disclosed
Compatible devices: iPhones/iPad, Android smartphones and tablet, Windows and Mac OS laptops and computers, Apple Watch, Apple TV and some smart speakers
Offline listening: Yes
Free version: No
Lyrics on-screen: Yes
Best Music Streaming Service For Amazon Prime Members
Amazon Music Unlimited
Price per month: £3.99 for Amazon Music Unlimited, £4.99 for Amazon Music Unlimited Student, £9.99 for Amazon Music Unlimited Individual (or £7.99 for existing Prime members), £14.99 for Amazon Music Unlimited (6 profiles), £14.99 for Amazon Music HD (£12.99 for existing Prime members)
If you’re already an Amazon Prime member, consider adding Amazon Music Unlimited to your subscription at a discounted rate. You can buy a single device subscription for just £3.99 - ideal for using with an Alexa speaker if you’ve got one.
There’s a fantastic choice of both new and older music, and any digital track or physical CD bought through Amazon is automatically made available, too. Some tracks are available in a high-quality format called 3D Music, designed to make you feel like you’re listening to them live.
The gapless playback feature works well but the recommendations aren’t nearly as personalised as those from Spotify and Deezer and you can’t listen to podcasts.
Key specifications
Number of songs: 60 million tracks
Maximum streaming quality: Not disclosed
Compatible devices: iPhones/iPad, Android smartphones and tablet, Windows and Mac OS laptops and computers and some smart speakers
Offline listening: Yes
Free version: No
Lyrics on-screen: No
Best Music Streaming Service for Music Videos
YouTube Music
Price per month: £4.99 for YouTube Music Student, £9.99 for YouTube Music Premium, £14.99 for YouTube Music Family
You’ll find 50 million songs and the biggest choice of music videos in this clear and simple app, including live performances and B-sides. The key features are all there, including well-curated playlists and parental controls.
We love the search function, which lets you search by a lyric if you don’t know the song title, and the Offline Mixtape, which automatically downloads up to 100 songs based on your streaming habits so that you’ll never be caught without music.
The free version lets you skip tracks limitlessly, but you’ll have to put up with endless adverts. There’s no high-res streaming option or way of listening to podcasts, either.
Key specifications
Number of songs: 50 million tracks
Maximum streaming quality: 256kbps
Compatible devices: iPhones/iPad, Android smartphones and tablet, Windows, Mac OS and Chrome OS laptops and computers, Google Home smart speakers
Offline listening: Yes
Free version: Yes
Lyrics on-screen: No
Best Music Streaming Service For Classical Music Lovers
Primephonic
Price per month: £9.99 for Primephonic Premium, £14.99 for Primephonic Platinum
This classical-only music streaming service might be niche, but signing up is a no brainer if Beethoven and Bach are your jam. There are one million traditional and contemporary classical tracks to listen to on a variety of devices, including Windows and Mac laptops.
Playlists and albums (though not individual songs) can be downloaded for offline listening and you can choose to upgrade the sound quality to high-res. The audio automatically adjusts if your connection drops, meaning there’s never any frustrating buffering.
It’s a shame there’s no free version but you can try it for 14 days before signing up for the monthly subscription. It lacks some of the jazzy features of other music apps, but classical aficionados will love it.
Key specifications
Number of songs: 3.5 million tracks
Maximum streaming quality: 1,411kbps
Compatible devices: iPhones/iPad, Android smartphones and tablet, Windows and Mac OS laptops and computers using Google Chrome or Firefox browsers
Offline listening: Yes
Free version: No
Lyrics on-screen: No
Best Music Streaming Service For Audiophiles
Tidal
Price per month: £9.99 for Tidal Premium, £14.99 for Tidal Platinum
Tidal was founded by high-profile musicians wanting a better royalties deal than other streaming services were offering. Though heavily backed by Jay Z, it doesn’t only feature hip-hop, with more than 60 million tracks and 250,000 HD videos to browse.
It offers a high-resolution subscription that lets you enjoy thousands of songs in better than CD quality. We like that you can browse an artist’s discography in the app and click links that take you to their social media channels.
Unfortunately, there’s no free version or podcasts, but it’s worth forking out if you’re fussy about audio quality and fancy access to album exclusives (Beyonce’s Lemonade, for example), artist interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.
Key specifications
Number of songs: 60 million tracks
Maximum streaming quality: 9,216kbps
Compatible devices: iPhones/iPad, Android smartphones and tablet, Windows, Mac OS and Chrome OS laptops and computers, smart speakers, smart TVs and TV streaming devices
Offline listening: Yes
Free version: No
Lyrics on-screen: No
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