Best Music Streaming Service of 2023
Music streaming services are a world of convenience and discovery, allowing you to listen to your favorite artists easily and quickly. In the past, some audiophiles may have scoffed at the quality of streamed music, but a growing number of providers include lossless and spatial Dolby Atmos audio at no extra charge. Besides that, there are numerous extra features, such as karaoke, classical music, podcasts and audiobooks, vying for your attention.
If you’re shopping around, the main two things you need to consider are monthly cost and connectivity. Most of the services have music catalogs with around 100 million tracks, plus they enable you to stream from multiple devices. Until recently, prices were stable at around $10 a month, but both Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited have increased their prices by a dollar.
I’ve checked out the biggest names, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music, as well as smaller contenders such as Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer and Pandora Premium, to see how each platform stacks up for your subscription buck. It’s worth noting that, in this roundup, I’ve purposefully left out services that can only play music in a radio format (such as basic Pandora and UnRadio) and that don’t allow you to select your own songs.
So which music streaming services offer the best combination of price, sound quality and library size? Read on to find an in-depth look at each of the services and a feature comparison, along with a full price breakdown in the chart at the bottom of the page. We’ll update this list periodically.
And if you want the TL;DR, these are the top three.
Read more: Apple Music vs. Spotify: Comparing the Top Music Streaming Services
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Qobuz
Best for audiophiles
See at Qobuz
Qobuz offers hi-res audio streams too, and unlike Tidal you don’t need a hardware MQA decoder to listen to them. They can sound great on an Android phone or a high-end music system, so it’s flexible. Qobuz may not offer Dolby Atmos music, but the selection of ‘immersive’ songs on other services isn’t that impressive anyway.
The service offers two plans — the hi-res Studio Premier ($13 monthly or $130 yearly) and the $180 annual Sublime Plus. Uniquely, the service offers its own hi-res download store, and if you sign up for Sublime you get a discount on purchases.
At 70 million tracks, Qobuz’s streaming catalog rivals Tidal’s and Spotify’s in number, though it may not have the most obscure artists. Qobuz generally steers towards hi-res recordings so it is especially suited to jazz and classical fans, though its rock selection is fairly robust. The fact that it’s cheaper than Tidal, and doesn’t require specialized equipment to listen in 24-bit/192Hz, makes Qobuz our favorite service for serious music lovers.
We like
- The app is really clean and fun to use
- Ability to listen to 24-bit music without needing a specialized decoder
- One of the more affordable hi-res services
- Offers a download store as well
We don’t like
- May be some gaps in the catalog
- No spatial audio
Best for: Audiophiles who want hi-res music for a decent price plus the ability to buy and download albums.
See at Qobuz
Top services compared
Amazon Music UnlimitedApple MusicQobuzSpotifyTidalYouTube Music Monthly fee Prime members: $9, £9, N/A; Non-Prime members: $11, £11, AU$12; Echo-only service: Free, AU$6$11, £11, AU$13;
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$5, £5, AU$6Studio: $13, £13, AU$20; Sublime (per year): $180, £180, AU$250 $10, £10, AU$12Hi-Fi: $10, £10, AU$15; HiFi Plus: $20, £20, AU$24$10, £10, AU$12Free option? Yes, with adsNoNoYes, with adsYesYes, with adsFree trial period 30 days3 months30 days30 days3 months30 daysMusic library size 100 millionOver 100 millionOver 100 millionOver 100 millionOver 100 millionOver 60 millionMaximum bit rate 256Kbps, 3,730Kbps (HD)256Kbps, 1,152 Kbps (estimated)6,971Kbps320Kbps1,411Kbps256Kbps
Family plan? Yes, $15, £15, AU$18 for max 6Yes, $15, £15, AU$18 for max 6Yes, $16.67, £16.67, AU$45Yes $16 per month, max 6Yes, 50% off each additional account, max 4Yes, $15, £15, AU$18 per month for max 6Student discount NoYes, Price varies by countryNoYes, $5, £5 with Hulu and ShowtimeStudent HiFi: $5, Student HiFi plus: $10 (US only)Yes, $5US military discount NoNoNoNoYesNoOffline listening Mobile and desktopMobileMobile and desktopMobile and desktopMobilePremium, mobile onlyRadio stations YesYesNoYesNoYesPodcasts YesNoNoYesYesYesMusic videos NoYesNoYesYesYesMusic locker functionality NoYesNoNoNoYes
Also worth considering
Tidal
Best for rock and urban fans
See at Tidal
Now partly owned by Jack Dorsey’s Block, Tidal has introduced some important changes recently: namely that it now has a free tier called, naturally, Tidal Free. The company also offers the $10 Tidal HiFi plan, which includes lossless playback, and the premium $20 Tidal HiFi Plus tier. It’s worth noting that all of the current catalog is in the proprietary MQA format, but according to CEO Jesse Dorogusker the service will soon offer hi-res FLAC as well.
Tidal HiFi Plus may be the most expensive of all the services, and while it offers hi-res and Dolby Atmos mixes, it recently had another good reason for this. Tidal’s main hook has always been that its higher subscription price translates to better payouts to artists — especially musicians who aren’t at the top of the pop charts. While this may be true, the service has also discontinued its Direct Artist Payouts (DAP) program which paid your top streamed artist each month a 10% cut of your subscription fee.
While Tidal used to be the best option for audiophiles, Qobuz has caught up by promising arguably better sound quality (no MQA decoder required), a cheaper price and some recent improvements in its catalog. Based on my own experience, Tidal still trumps it for breadth — and it now exceeds 100 million tracks, including longtime holdouts Metallica. If you’re an audiophile, a fan of urban music or a mix of both, then Tidal should appeal to you.
We like
- High-fidelity music streams including Dolby Atmos surround mixes
- Lots of video content, including concert livestreams
- Profiles and record reviews on every page, plus up-and-coming artist spotlights
- Free tier, while its top tier offers payouts for favorite artists
We don’t like
- The mobile apps and web player aren’t as straightforward as some others
- The catalog isn’t as exhaustive as Spotify Premium
- Most high-res music uses MQA, which needs a specialized decoder
Best for: Musically inclined purists who care deeply about sound quality and discovering new, up-and-coming artists.
See at Tidal
Amazon Music Unlimited
Best for Prime members
See at Amazon
Amazon Prime Music comes “free” as part of a Prime membership, but users can choose to upgrade to Music Unlimited. In addition to an expanded catalog, the step-up now includes the original HD service at $9 for Prime members, or $11 if you don’t have Prime. Music Unlimited now gives you access to millions of lossless tracks as well as over 1,000 “spatial” remixes, which can be played on Dolby Atmos soundbars, Android or iOS devices and the Amazon Echo Studio. In terms of usability, the Music Unlimited interface is also more powerful than before with playlists, genres and podcasts all accessible from the main page.
We like
- Cheaper than the top three if you’re an Amazon Prime member
- Lyrics automatically pop up on the “now playing” screen
- Hi-res and spatial audio from Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos at no extra charge
- Offers free music stations for Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Amazon Tap (includes ads)
We don’t like
- Artist profiles don’t have biographies
- The service no longer includes a music locker
Best for: Amazon Prime members who want to save a few bucks on a decent music catalog and higher-quality streams.
Read our Amazon Music (Android) review.
See at Amazon
We also tested
Music streaming FAQs
How do you transfer your library between services?
Without contracts it’s pretty easy to cancel one service and start with another. That said, swapping between music services isn’t as straightforward as swapping between movie locker services using Movies Anywhere for example. If you don’t want to have to rebuild your playlists and library from scratch when you switch, you have two main options — a music locker service such as YouTube Music (but this implies you have a library of ripped or bought MP3s), or an library import tool such as Soundiiz. The latter is a service that lets you import the songs from each of your music services and transfer them, and while there’s a $4.50 monthly charge, you can always cancel once you’ve converted your library. Recently, Deezer has offered the ability for new users to convert their libraries from other services for free (via another service called Tune My Music).
Do I need spatial or Atmos audio?
The short answer is “no” and the long answer is “sort of, maybe.” Stereo music has been around since the ’50s and the catalog dwarfs the handful of Atmos audio tracks by comparison. Apple may rave about how “magical” spatial music is, but unless you have an expensive Dolby Atmos system, you may not be able to hear the differences anyway.
In our own tests, we’ve found that a well-mixed Atmos track on a dedicated setup can be fun — it’s like a rollercoaster because it’s great but you wouldn’t want to use it as your sole form of transport. By comparison, using a pair of compatible AirPods we found the tracking to be laggy when attempting to move our heads around. On the other hand, spatial audio does make sense if you’re watching a movie as you’re not moving your head that much. The music industry tries unsuccessfully to push surround music every 20 years or so — Quadraphonic in the 1970s, DVD-Audio in the 2000s — but good old stereo will never go out of favor.
Which music streaming service has the biggest catalog?
At the time of writing, Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited have the largest catalogs with 100 million tracks each, followed by Spotify with 82 million. But that’s not the end of the story: The number of songs offered by a music service used to be the main differentiator, but as always, it’s quality over quantity that counts — and particularly if you’re looking for more obscure tracks. Depending on your favorite genre, some of the services may offer a better catalog for under-the-radar (Spotify), indie (Apple) or hip-hop artists (Tidal). Users who are less ambitious about expanding their musical taste should be satisfied with the catalogs that all the services offer.
Which services include music lockers?
Amazon was one of the first services to offer uploading your MP3 collection into the cloud, but this was officially discontinued in 2018. Meanwhile, both the Apple and YouTube services allow you to combine your personal music collection with the streaming catalog, though tagging and organization can be a time-consuming challenge (your myriad live Phish tracks won’t organize themselves). Still, if you’ve invested money in digital music over the years, those two services offer a patch to continue enjoying that music online.
