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Music sure has come a long way since you had to go dig through the bins at your local record store. You can pipe hundreds of millions of songs directly into your headphones from anywhere with an internet connection, all for the price of one CD each month. No more buying tracks or buffing out scuffs.
All of these services’ libraries pretty much mirror each other, with the phrase “over 100 millions songs” being thrown around by multiple services. The things that separate streaming services are the quality of music discovery, the experience on desktop and mobile apps, what devices you can use them with, and of course their sound quality. Most of them have free tiers, but the experience improves if you subscribe and pay a monthly fee.
It was hard work, but I spent the last few weeks jamming out to my favorite tracks, judging recommendations, and crunching the numbers on subscription plans to figure out which music streaming service deserves your dollars.
If you need to upgrade your listening device, we've got guides for the Best Wireless Headphones, Best Wirefree Earbuds, and Best Cheap Headphones.
Updated July 2025: Updated pricing and subscription details for several services, upgraded Deezer from honorable mentions to a full recommendation, removed details about removed features to make room for news about different removed features.
While all the big players are available on most common operating systems, the level of feature support and polish isn't consistent. Apple Music, for example, is tied closely into the iOS digital ecosystem, making it easy to keep all of your accounts and info together, but Android users would need to jump through some hoops to manage their accounts. Amazon Music would prefer if you used Alexa speakers to listen, although support varies.
The top pick on this list, Spotify, does well to support both mobile and desktop platforms, as well as a variety of game consoles, but the other services tend to vary in their compatibility. Make sure to double check that your favorite devices are supported, particularly if you're listening on esoteric hardware like a Garmin Watch or Windows Phone.
Some streaming services offer lossless audio, which just means that the compression used to transmit the file doesn't reduce its quality. A lossless music file generally streams at 1,411 Kbps, compared to a more typical lossy file that typically streams from around 256 Kbps to 320 Kbps.
That sounds great on paper, but the reality is that most people probably won't notice the difference, particularly if you listen on earbuds or Bluetooth speakers. The A/V Experts at WIRED can't really tell unless they listen closely, and NPR has a quiz where you can test your ear to see if you can detect any compression.
You're more likely to hear the difference if you listen on high-end hardware, and it becomes more apparent in classical music and jazz, where pristine recording technology and little extra noise can make certain high and low tones stand out more.
The downside is that these files are often four to five times the size of their compressed audio counterparts. That means they'll take up more storage space on your phone or device, and use up more of your data when you download or stream them. There may be other hardware limitations, like needing Apple-specific audio chips for lossless audio on Apple Music, so make sure to double-check compatibility before you make this a key decision point.
You may also see the term “spatial audio,” which is a feature Apple Music added not long ago. Spatial audio uses Dolby Atmos technology to allow artists to mix music so that you hear the sound from around you and above, for a much more immersive quality. However, you will need Apple-made headphones with an H1 or W1 chip to enjoy Apple Music’s lossless tracks.
Almost all of the streaming services on this list offer some kind of discount for multiple users, usually in the form of a “family plan” even if there's no actual familial requirements. You can often save quite a bit of cash splitting up these monthly payments, and everyone gets their own account with their own playlists, music libraries, and recommendations. Just make sure you trust the people in your family plan to pay up on the first of the month.
Some services also offer discounts for students, which can save you some bucks if you're just trying to put on some tunes for studying or partying.
You may enjoy music more when you can share the experience with friends. If all those friends use Spotify, sharing the same platform will make it much easier. Tyler Hayes has tips for each service in How to Make Your Music Streaming More Social.
Best Overall
Spotify via Matt Jancer
Spotify has the best music discovery algorithms and the slickest, snappiest user interface. It leads me down rabbit holes to find new artists and old favorites, based on what I’ve already liked and listened to on the app.
The free tier, with advertisements, defaults to a low-quality 96-Kbps streaming bit rate, but you can bump that up to 160 Kbps. For $12 a month (a $1 increase from the last time we updated this story in January 2024), the Premium tier ditches ads entirely and streams up to 320 Kbps, which is the standard streaming quality these days. These are bit rates for the app; the web player sticks you with 128 Kbps and 256 Kbps, respectively. Spotify announced a HiFi tier back in February of 2021 which has yet to materialize, and even though occasional signs point to it still being in the works, there's no firm release date over four years later.
Spotify lets you add an unlimited number of songs to your personal library. As a long-requested feature, the 10,000-song limit is gone and you can now add unlimited songs to each playlist. If you turn on social sharing, you can see what your friends have been listening to and create sessions wherein a group simultaneously streams a playlist. There’s an option on each Artist page to listen to only the songs of theirs you’ve liked, which is a very welcome change from previous years.
The way Spotify groups albums, compilations, and singles in one location—with an option to separate them—is much smoother and more convenient than the old setup, which forced you to view them all separately, all of the time. Playlists and albums get their own shuffle buttons, which is a nice touch that lets you know when you’re on shuffle and when you’re listening to everything in order.
The Audiophile Pick
Tidal via Matt Jancer
Tidal and Apple Music have been trading places in our guide to best audiophile pick for a while now. As both have introduced, on certain tracks for their highest tiers, 24-bit, 192 kHz-bit-rate quality, the differences remain razor thin. While Tidal continues to streamline its subscription model and features, it still has better support for different platforms and hardware than Apple Music.
Tidal HiFi offers 16-bit, 44.1 kHz (CD-quality sound) at $11 a month, with support for Dolby Atmos Music and 360 Reality Audio, and there are even tracks you can play at “Max" quality (24-bit, 192 kHz). There used to be a free tier, but now your only option if you don't want to pay is a one-time 30 day free trial for new users.
Tidal's “Direct Artist Payouts” scheme, in which “up to” 10 percent of your subscription fee is delivered to the artists you listen to most, is dead. It was a very thoughtful addition, and if you cared about the state of the music industry, and the effect streaming has had on it, the knowledge that you’re supporting your favorite bands and artists was a factor in our awarding Tidal this high recommendation. Now there's even less separating Tidal from its neck-and-neck challenger, Apple Music.
Tidal’s catalog includes more than 100 million songs. The selection draws from the same broad swathe of genres as its competition, and it no longer leans primarily on hip-hop tracks, as it once did. All of its songs are currently available in lossless format.
For Apple Aficionados
Apple Music via Matt Jancer
Apple Music was our audiophile pick until Tidal knocked it off the pedestal, but it’s still a very solid choice for lossless quality at $11 a month if you’re an Apple user. For select songs, audio streams at 16-bit, 44.1 kHz or 24-bit, 192 kHz quality. The latter matches Tidal's best efforts. The biggest catch here is that Apple Music works best on iPhones, MacBooks, and other first-party Apple Devices. If you're on Android and Windows, it's best to look elsewhere.
Apple's song catalog numbers over 100 million songs, all of which are available in lossless format. Some tracks are also available in Dolby Atmos. Apple Music’s regular, lossy format streams songs at up to 256 Kbps, which isn’t noticeably different from Spotify’s 320 Kbps.
Apple’s human-curated discovery options aren’t as fun as Spotify’s. As on Spotify, you can see what your friends are listening to if they’ve turned on social sharing. You’re limited to 100,000 songs in your library, but there are no limits to how many you can put in each playlist. Spotify is one of the few services to offer unlimited likes, if that's a deciding factor.
I like the iPhone app, and the Android version is OK, but the desktop app is dreadful. Songs occasionally refuse to play, clicking “Add to Library” rarely works, and the Back button is a dysfunctional mess. Adding music to your library is tedious. If you navigate away from the browsing tab, the Back button takes you to the home screen, so you have to navigate all the way back to the album or artist you were looking at—except for when it nonsensically disappears. If you’re considering making the move, check out our guide to switching from Spotify to Apple Music.
If you’re planning to splurge on an Apple Music subscription with Dolby Atmos and lossless audio, you will need a pair of Apple-made headphones (to go with your iPhone and HomePod Mini). If, however, you favor Alexa-enabled speakers, you might want to consider Amazon Music, even if it’s not one of our top personal picks.
Surprisingly Good on Desktop
YouTube Music via Matt Jancer
YouTube Music’s interface is slick and well laid out. It doesn’t try to copy Spotify’s look, and I like how the song queue and lyrics pop up in a vertical window within the app, which makes navigating faster and more convenient. You can also easily switch from listening to a song to watching the music video, if one is available.
YouTube used to offer music recommendations based on your precise location, which could be creepy. That’s gone in the current YouTube Music, although you can still choose to see popular song recommendations based on your approximate location.
The service has more than 100 million songs in its catalog, and I liked its band suggestions. You can keep 100,000 songs saved in your library, and you can create and share playlists with your buddies. YouTube Music combines Apple Music’s and Spotify’s best artist-tracking features. You can see your “liked” songs by artist, and you can subscribe to an artist to see their entire catalog and new releases.
The free tier has a major downside—on the smartphone app, the music stops playing when you turn your screen off or jump to another app. That means you’ll probably need to pony up $11 a month for YouTube Music Premium, which also cuts out the ads and lets you download songs for offline playback. The desktop app doesn’t have the same critical weakness.
Note: If you watch a lot of YouTube, consider YouTube Premium instead for $14 a month. It gets rid of ads on YouTube and offers unlimited access to YouTube Music Premium.
The Rising Star
Deezer via Brad Bourque
This international audio streaming service has been around for a long time, and has slowly added features that have turned it into a legitimate competitor. While there were low limits before on liked songs, that cap is now 10,000 on all devices, which is lower than our other picks. It boasts both Hi-Fi FLAC and 320 kb/s audio quality for all premium plans (depending on your country), excellent support for desktop and mobile platforms, and simple, reasonably-priced subscription levels.
I also found the artist and song discovery have improved a lot since the last time we wrote about Deezer. It had me choose 15 of my favorite artists as I set up my account, and as a result did an impressive job of finding my style and recommending new songs and relevant playlists right out of the box. I didn't have any issues finding artists I listen to on other platforms, including more obscure offerings, and I didn't run into any issues with region-locked songs.
Deezer is also a great pick if you care about musicians and the economics of streaming. The company is constantly iterating on features like artist-centric payments and AI detection that help support independent and smaller artists, as well as protecting you from hearing AI slop if you don't want to. Overall I'm surprisingly impressed with Deezer, a service I'd only heard of recently after the surge in AI music across platforms, and it was the service that came the closest to getting me to switch off Spotify.
Honorable Mentions
Amazon Music: The best thing about Amazon Music is that you get a basic, ad-free version included with Prime, but there are a lot of catches, and the capabilities offered between the four available plans are so intricate they require a sizable chart to decipher. There are differences between which playlists you can access, whether you can shuffle or not, audio quality levels, and even supported devices. Overall, Amazon Music's clunky interface, so-so music discovery, and overly complicated subscription model hold it back from being a top pick.
Pandora: Once the king of music streaming, Pandora is still very popular, but it has steadily lost listeners over the last decade. The free tier is full of ads. There’s a visual ad in the app window, ads periodically interrupt your listening on the curated radio stations, you need to watch ads to skip tracks, and you need to watch ads to search for and play specific songs. Paying $5 a month gets rid of them, except you still have to watch ads to search for your own tracks. The $10-a-month Premium tier lets you search for songs without ads, but like the other tiers it promises unlimited skips but has fine print saying that “skips (are) limited by certain licensing restrictions.” The maximum bit rate of 192 Kbps is too low to be worth paying for. It’s a bad deal all around. Pandora is simply falling further and further behind.
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