Does Spotify one of the best music services? With the onrush of new music services, it can be hard to find the one that’s right for you. Helpfully, here are some reasons that might help you on your journey.
These days, there are many music services. Some of them make it easy to listen to your favourite tunes on the go, while others offer high-quality sound for those who prefer high-fidelity audio.
Music streaming services are a dime a dozen, but there are big differences between them. The biggest one is the music library — the music you want to hear.
For example, if you like classical music and you want to listen to something outside of your norm, Spotify may be a better option than Apple Music.
However, if you’re a country music fan and want to listen to classic country songs from the ’80s and ’90s, Apple Music may be your best choice.
6 Best Music Service Is Spotify?
Music streaming services are great, but which one is worth checking out?
Best service for custom radio and playlists
Spotify
Price: from $11.95 per month
Need a selection of playlists that evolve and really respond to your choices? That’s Spotify.
Apple Music and Spotify both offer soundtracks to your life. Apple Music offers a curated selection of playlists, but Spotify’s approach is more customizable. This approach allows users to create their own playlists and radio stations based on their individual tastes.
For those who don’t know, Spotify is a music service that allows you to create your own stations. Compared with Apple Music, the music selection on Spotify’s custom stations is consistently strong and similar to what you had chosen at first. The music choices get less connected and aren’t as well picked two or three songs in.
Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, and other services are all great for listening to playlists. But when it comes to variety, variety, variety, Spotify might be the best. Playlists are updated so frequently that it’s almost impossible to run out of music.
Best service for the value
Apple Music
Price: from $11.99 per month
In terms of what you get for your monthly price, Apple Music wins hands down.
Every service comes with a monthly fee for an all-you-can-listen music buffet. Fine. Sure. We get it.
Apple Music offers both high-resolution audio and spatial audio, which is much more immersive than traditional stereo sound. Other services such as Tidal and Qobuz offer high-resolution audio, but spatial audio is only available on Apple Music. Apple’s flavour of spatial audio even plays nicely with its headphones, supporting directional spatial audio able to track the position of your head.
Basically, you get more value at Apple Music, plus a good assortment of radio stations, custom and otherwise, and a bunch of playlists, too.
Best service for music videos
YouTube Music
Price: from $11.99 per month
If you love watching videos, not just listening to them, YouTube Music could be for you. Google is continually expanding its reach into the video business. If you’re a music lover, this Google product will let you enjoy music and videos from the same platform.
Google’s YouTube Music isn’t the only service with music videos, as you can find the visual art form of music on both Apple Music and Tidal, but YouTube does it better.
When listening to music on YouTube, you can make the video and audio synchronize. This lets you switch between the two as you listen. The Google-powered technology behind this is called music visualisation. It allows users to listen to music and watch videos at the same time. It’s not always perfect, but if you’re keen to skip long sections of a music video and get stuck into the song, it’s one way to get ahead, so to speak.
Best service for DJs
Tidal
Price: from $11.99 per month
Music is a form of expression that everyone uses in their own way. Some people listen to music and some people use it for its artistic value. However, if you’re looking for a quality music service, you might want to check out Tidal. It’s a streaming service that allows you to mix the songs you listen to, and it also has a high-quality sound.
While every music service has a dance section, Tidal’s contribution to the world of DJ-friendly music allows its music buffet to work with music mixing apps and hardware, meaning you may not have to actually buy music to mix with, choosing instead to mix tracks paid for by your Tidal subscription fee. From what we understand, the quality can change, too, so if you opt for the more expensive Tidal HiFi account, you’ll also get a better resolution of dance music to mix from.
Mixing platforms are an awesome new feature that is unlike anything else on the market. It’s a cool way to try out new music without paying too much. Uniquely, this service supports multiple music platforms. It’s a handy feature for DJs who are interested in creating mixes with their favorite tunes.
Best service for radio
TuneIn
Price: Free or $14.99 per month
Instead of finding the perfect radio station for you, try TuneIn. It’s a great streaming service that lets you listen to all of your favorite stations for free. You can also pay to listen to news stations, but it’s not necessary.
TuneIn is a radio app with a heavy emphasis on the US. It’s not as useful for Australians as it is for Americans, but it’s a great way to find and listen to new radio stations.
Best service to spend nothing
Spotify Free
Price: free
It’s 2017, and some of us are already paying for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify, Hulu, e-books, e-readers, video games, and streaming services. Plus we’re paying for food, gas, clothes, and student loans. We all have limited budgets.
If you don’t want to pay for a monthly subscription, Spotify has a free version. It’s called shuffle and it lets you listen to a bunch of playlists for free. And you can listen to anything you want, as long as it’s on the shuffle platform.