Which Music App Beats the Others?
Choosing a music app can feel overwhelming given how many options that are out there. It can be tiresome to compare everything from prices to the amount of music available. Some apps let you listen for free, but force you to listen to ads or don't let you specifically choose your preferred song or artist. There are a few music apps that are so similar that it takes breaking down the finest details to be able to choose the right one. While there are some artists who only allow their music to stream on certain apps, most artists' entire music catalog can be found on each of these apps. Make sure you check with your favorite artist to see if their music is available only on a specific app. But what really sets these apps apart? Here is a list of the most popular music apps, and some details that will hopefully help you find the one that meets your specific needs.
1 - Apple Music
Apple Music is available to all Apple customers for $9.99/month. They do not have a free version of their app, but they do have a $4.99/month option for college students. There are no ads or interruptions to your music, and you can choose any song or album from their vast database to play. They have 70 million songs available to their customers and they give you access across all of your apple devices. Songs can be downloaded to your device to be played offline for when you are not connected to Wifi. They are also constantly working on algorithms to curate playlists based on what you like to listen to.
2 - Spotify
Spotify offers both a free and a paid version. The paid version costs $9.99/month, and they offer a $4.99/month student version, just like Apple Music. In the free tier, you will not be able to listen to any song you choose, just a curated playlist based on an artist or song that you like. Also, to use the free version you have to put up with ads between songs. Spotify premium makes it easy to share your playlists with friends and family so everyone will know what you're listening to. One unique feature that sets it apart from Apple Music is that you can follow your favorite artists and you will be notified when they release new music on that platform.
3 - Pandora
Pandora Premium is priced the same as Apple and Spotify, and just like Spotify they also offer a free version of their platform. The free version has ads and no ability to choose and play a specific song, but Pandora does offer a middle option called Pandora Plus. This allows you to listen to Pandora without ad interruptions, but only allows you to choose a specific song to listen to after watching an ad. So to get the best experience, Pandora Premium seems to be the best option. The main downside to Pandora is that they have the lowest available audio quality, even on the Premium version.
4 - Tidal
Tidal Premium also costs $9.99/month, however for the best quality music, they ask that you upgrade to $13.99/month for the High-fidelity experience. Tidal has less options than the other streaming services for certain artists, however the high quality sound makes it worth the cost to audiophiles. They also have a lot of video content including exclusive concert live streams for those who love to see their favorite artists play live. Tidal is also known for supporting and promoting up and coming artists, so if you want to be the first to discover new music, this is the app for you.
