
Even Spotify has announced a high-quality offering called Spotify HiFi, but although it promised to deliver this top-tier option by the end of 2021, it still isn't available…Įven then, there are still differences in terms of how much you pay for CD-quality audio and how many tracks you can listen to that would be audiophile-approved.

Over the past year, many of the best music streaming services in this list have ramped up the quality of the tracks they offer, with Apple Music and Amazon Music HD both bringing hi-res audio to their platforms. It's hard to know for sure, but more artists could follow suit.Īnother point is audio quality. These days you'll find most artists on most platforms, but there are still a few that crop up on some and not others. In early 2022, both Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their music from Spotify due to the ongoing controversy surrounding The Joe Rogan Experience. What's more, you'll need to check your favorite artists are available on the music streaming platform you're considering signing up for. Most people will get the hang of any new app after a week or two, but we found Spotify and Tidal to be the slickest and most intuitive.
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If the service you have in mind has a free trial, it is really worth signing up to see if you like how it works and looks. But if you're looking for something specific in terms of experience, audio performance or interface, that's when you can be more picky.įor example, although all the music streaming services we've included below have a similar interface, they're not the same. They all, largely, offer the same kind of service with a huge choice of music and cool discovery features. There weren't too many choices and most people went for Spotify – and this is one reason why it has more than 365 million users today.

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Which will you opt for? Keep reading, but do note that Apple Music's personalized Spatial Audio update is now live thanks to iOS16, so if you have an iOS device and a set of Apple's latest AirPods, it's a supremely tempting proposition…īecky Scarrott, senior audio staff writerįinding the best music streaming service used to be easier. Spotify's service remains the popular, sociable choice though. The first three choices on our list, in contrast, offer both CD-quality and higher bit-rate streams, in most cases at an equal or even lower price to those lossy files. The key reason? Sound quality: Spotify is limited to lossy, compressed audio – and its long-awaited HiFi tier is still nowhere to be seen – while Deezer doesn’t currently offer (or plan on offering) a high-res audio tier. Our music streaming service buying guide now reflects the higher value that services such as Tidal, Apple Music (which recently upped its student subscription by one whole dollar or pound), and Amazon Music HD offer subscribers compared with Spotify and Deezer.
