On-demand music streaming services are becoming more and more popular these days. The reason why they are so common is that they are cheap (sometimes even free), user-friendly, convenient, and rich in content. With such services on the market, the 4K Download team has prepared a review of these A comprehensive review of services. We will consider the big five of music streaming software - Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, Soundcloud and Tidal.
Spotify
When it comes to music streaming platforms, people always Yes, this service comes to mind. Although there is huge competition with the likes of Apple Music and Google Play Music, Spotify is probably the leader among such platforms. Intuitive user experience, expanded catalog rich content and convenient device compatibility are Why. You can listen to millions of tracks online or offline on any device. Spotify has a web player, desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and mobile apps available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, and even compatible with TVs, set-top boxes, smart watches, and home video game consoles. If you want to download an album or playlist offline, you can easily do it in Spotify.
Content
Music Library on Spotify It’s huge. The website says it has millions of tracks, but there’s no exact number, but rumors say it’s closer to 50 million. In addition to songs, Spotify also offers podcasts, audiobooks, radio dramas, speeches, languages
Based on its smart algorithm, Spotify generates playlists and recommends songs and podcasts you haven't heard yet but might like. Playlists are built based on music genre or mood. Discover weekly features that Spotify thinks you'll like songs, which is a great way to discover new musicians and tracks when all the old music is boring.
All in all, content discovery is personalized and based on your interests and "Wrapped" playlists, Your Daily Drive and seasonal roundups to name a few.
With the Daily Mix feature, the platform can create playlists based on songs you've already listened to.
On Spotify, you can build your own Playlists or create artist radios to listen to your favorite musicians and other artists who sound like them.
Pricing
Spotify offers free and premium subscription plans. The free version is ad-supported, which Meaning you'll hear an ad every few songs, and you won't be able to skip it. The free plan also doesn't allow saving tracks for offline use.
The premium version costs $9.99 per month and gets you Get unlimited access to a catalog of 50 million songs. For your family, you can subscribe to the Family plan for just $14.99 per month. Up to six families will get individual Premium accounts. The Premium plan offers an opportunity to listen to unreleased albums, on-demand Songs, save content offline on up to three devices and choose different quality levels, with the highest level being 320Kpbs.
It’s worth mentioning that all songs you save when using the Premium version will be deleted when you cancel Expires after subscription. This happens because you don't actually download the content and can only use it when you open the app.
Apple Music In 2019, there were 50 million Apple Music users in total. According to its slogan "Lost yourself in 50 million songs", this is the exact same number of songs that the service has.
If there had been iTunes earlier, as Apple claims, in 2019, iTunes on Mac was phased out and now has three separate services - Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts.
The service is available on Apple devices, as well as Amazon Alexa speakers and Sonos. Android and Windows users can install it via a special app The software.
Contents
In addition to the 50 million songs Apple promises, their listening is absolutely ad-free, and there are human-created playlists for any genre and mood, featuring music from every Global hits of the country's top 100 songs, including new releases playlists, activity-oriented playlists such as workout, party or office tracks, upcoming hits, popular tracks,
Apple Music also offers radios, which are grouped by genre or selected by editors.
The "For You" section recommends music you've listened to recently, your favorite tracks, and Songs the service thinks you'll like.
Those of us who always forget song titles but remember some lyrics will love the lyric search feature. Exclusive documentaries, video series, and video clips are also available to suit your taste.
Pricing
Unlike Spotify, Apple Music does not have a free plan, but does offer a 90-day free trial. Apple Music plans are divided into three types: Personal, Student, and Family plans. The Personal plan is $10 per month, and the Family plan $15, with the most affordable being the student plan at $5 per month.
Once your free trial ends and you've paid for your subscription, you'll enjoy an ad-free experience, offline listening, uploading from CDs or legacy iTunes accounts The ability to make your own songs, a lyrics search feature, and tons of exclusive content curated by Apple.
Google Play Music
Released in May 2011, Google Play Music is another widely used music streamer Services. The platform offers compatibility with Android TV, Chromecast, Google Home, Android Wear, Sonos, CarPlay, and iOS or Android mobile devices. In addition to the app, you can also listen to music on Google Play Music using your browser. Mobile and desktop sound quality up to 320Kpbs.
Content
Google Play Music provides users with a large library of 40 million tracks, radios, playlists, charts, releases, and podcasts. You can upload your own files and build custom playlists within the app. The service works based on smart algorithms that provide you with music you might like. If you click the thumbs up icon next to the song you're listening to, more will be recommended to you Similar tracks. All the songs you listen to are automatically sorted by artist, album, genre or you can store up to 50,000 songs on Google Play Music.
Pricing
Users can enjoy it for free on Google Play Music Music is $10 per month for a single user and $15 per month for families. The paid version allows use of the service on up to ten devices, but you can only stream on one of them at a time. With the family plan, you can Add another six people to the subscription, and each person can stream independently on up to ten devices. The premium subscription also gets access to free YouTube Music - a music streaming service that is slowly replacing Google Play Music.
SoundCloud
This music streaming platform is the perfect place to discover new artists and talents. It has the largest music library of all the platforms we mentioned in this article - more than 2 million songs. You can download it through the browser version, available for Apps for Android and iOS devices, Chromecast, Sonos and Xbox One Enjoy this vast collection of music.
CONTENT
There is truly a vast amount of content on SoundCloud. Here's the look for fresh musicians The place to upload music and discover new genres on the platform. The flow of new people is constant.
The service allows searching for new music by genre, album, band and track, and by upload time, length of each song Even licenses (which means whether you can use the track for commercial purposes) filter content.
SoundCloud hosts podcasts, various hit and pop charts, playlists, and distribution collections. Use countries filters and you will find user-uploaded music from different corners of the world. You can build custom playlists, follow other users to stay on top of their uploads, share music on social media and email, skip an unlimited number of tracks (like Spotify, the free version does not allow this) etc. But there are no lyrics like in Apple Music or Amazon Music Unlimited.
Due to the large amount of user-generated content on the platform, it is sometimes difficult to find exactly what you want What to look for, as a search will bring up many other irrelevant results.
Pricing
SoundCloud has three pricing plans - Free, Go and Go+. The free version does not have skip limits like Spotify, But you can only listen to a few tracks from major label albums, the full album is available on Go+. The sound quality is 128Kbps.
Go Plan costs $4.99 and has absolutely no ads. Offline listening is included with the plan Another benefit, but downside is that the sound quality isn't as good. Pay an extra $5 for a better experience.
The Go+ plan is $9.99 and gives you full access to the SoundCloud music library, which includes mainstream music at 256Kbps quality Label Music. For this price, you'll be able to listen to over 200 million songs, but most of them are user-uploaded tracks or independent content.
Tidal
By Jay Z in 2014 Founded, Tidal is the only streaming service that offers extremely high sound quality. The lowest quality streaming speed is 320Kbps, and the highest is uncompressed 1411Kbps, which is lossless. Tidal stores music recorded in the studio, so this is why.
Content
Tidal is the place to store your music. Stores exclusive records from hip-hop artists like Jay Z, Beyonce and more. Early hip-hop albums that are hard to find elsewhere are also here. Exclusive albums, music Related articles, themed playlists, tracks, video clips, concerts, backstage filming, live performances, sneak peeks, live streams, early access to concerts and even sporting events are all provided by Tidal. But all of them lack lyrics and there is no free version .
Android and iOS allow you to save content for offline use.
Pricing
Like Apple Music, there is no free version, but there is a 30-day free trial, you still need to provide a credit card /Debit Card.
Tidal Premium is $9.99 per month and you will get 320Kbps of music, Hi-Fi membership is just $19.99 and the quality will be 1411Kbps. Premium Family Plan costs $14.99 with Hi-Fi Family Plan - $29.99 per month for up to 5 people (up to 6 people on Apple Music and Google Play Music).
Tidal is available for students (50% off), military personnel (40% off), and One person offers discounts to respondents (40% off).
The above five are not the only music streaming platforms out there. You may have heard of online radio Pandora, Qobuz, Amazon Music Unlimited, YouTube Music, Primephonic Classical Music Streaming, and a few others. They are all pretty much the same, only the individual features and subscription price are the key factors in your decision. But each of them has something you will love and You'll get away with stuff, so test everything on a free trial (if possible) and you'll be sure to find the best music platform.