Which Music Streaming Service Has The Best Quality?
All-time music streaming services 2022: complimentary streams to howdy-res sound
Best music streaming services Ownership Guide: Welcome to What Howdy-Fi?'s circular-upwards of the best music streaming services you can subscribe to in 2022.
Streaming services have transformed the way nosotros consume music and even audiophiles with a stubborn fondness for concrete formats have to acknowledge that it's hard to fully resist the allure of online platforms when it comes to getting your music fix. With the entire history of music collapsed into the modern streaming era and access to tens of millions of tracks at the tap of a touchscreen, information technology has never been easier to hunt down former favourites or detect brand new bands and artists,
How to choose the right music streaming service for you
There's a broad range of streaming services to choose from offer unlimited access to vast catalogues of music, which can be streamed over the cyberspace or a mobile network or downloaded directly to your device for offline listening.
The good news is that most services offering new users free trials of upward to three months equally well as oft having a free tier (supported by adverts with limited playback options) and so yous can attempt out a services interface and curation before y'all purchase.
One time you lot decide to pay it'south usually by way of a set monthly subscription fee, though some services, such equally Qobuz, offer a reduction if you sign up for a full year. There are also discounts to be had for students, as well as savings if y'all share your account with another person or your household.
The quality of these streams varies between services. Those concerned less by the outright quality and more with getting blindside for your buck can listen to compressed streams at 320kbps from the likes of Spotify.
Just you don't have to sacrifice quality. Tidal, Apple, Amazon, Deezer and Qobuz all have subscription tiers that allow you to access CD-quality streams and, where the content is available, even hello-res music. Of course, before paying out for the highest quality, consider what device you'll likely be playing back music on as at present, you tin can't transmit full-fat hi-res audio over Bluetooth.
While some wireless headphone codecs such as AptxHD Bluetooth and LDAC allow for hi-res files to exist streamed wirelessly between compatible devices, they do so using compression. The old supports audio at 24-bit/48kHz, but uses compression and has a maximum data rate of 576kbps. The latter supports up to 32-bit/96kHz over Bluetooth merely just with a data rate of 990kbps. Both of these are lower than the data rate of CD (1411kbps) which isn't technically hello-res.
In the by, subscriptions with higher quality streams take typically come with an increase in the subscription cost. However, Apple recently went rogue and added lossless and hi-res tracks to Apple Music without charging extra, sending a ripple through the industry. Amazon has responded by dropping the actress charge information technology had previously levied for its hi-res and lossless content. Tidal similarly increased the quality of its standard tier though information technology retains lossless, MQA and immersive formats for its top-level, along with a new direct-to-artist payment scheme.
These may exist turbulent times for music streaming services, just they're as well exciting times for those of united states of america who are listening to the music as competition is greater than always before. As paid for access to music takes over from outright buying, users are likely to be signed upwardly to one service or another for decades to come up, and so it makes sense to fully investigate what'due south out there before blindly committing to a rolling subscription for the remainder of your life. So if you lot're looking to try something new, which is the best music streaming service for you? Read on to find out.
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Tidal has long been at the forefront of high-quality streaming, only the service has recently made several changes to its pricing structure that sees it becoming more accessible with the inclusion of lossless xvi-bit 44.1kHz sound streams in its standard program.
For £10 per month, subscribers to the newly rebranded 'Tidal HiFi' plan get interruption-free access to audio at upwards to 1411 kbps (compared to 320kbps previously). However, there are still some perks that are reserved for Tidal'south top tier.
Besides CD-quality streams, 'Tidal HiFi Plus' affords its subscribers access to millions of hi-res audio tracks that are typically 24-bit/96kHz only do become up to 24-scrap/192kHz. Chosen 'Tidal Masters', these music files are encoded using MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) technology, which the visitor says allows for more efficient packing of the hi-res data, though it has its detractors. HiFi Plus costs £20 per calendar month and too includes tracks mixed in immersive sound formats (Dolby Atmos Music and Sony 360 Audio recordings).
But how-do-you-do-res and CD-quality streams aren't the be-all and stop-all of Tidal's offer. Customers in the U.s.a. can take advantage of the service's showtime-ever free program, called 'Tidal Gratuitous', which offers the visitor's complete library of lxxx million tracks at 160kbps with "limited interruptions" from Tidal that will "aim to educate consumers on the music industry."
You can access Tidal through iOS, Android, desktop – all of which offer howdy-res streams – every bit well as a browser-based role player and a good spread of other platforms, such as Sonos. Tidal Connect too now allows y'all to connect via wi-fi to a growing listing of products from manufacturers including NAD, Naim, KEF, Bluesound, Dali, Cambridge Audio, McIntosh and more than.
It may have the priciest premium account tier on our list, only Tidal's ease of employ is exemplary, and audio quality is exceptional across the board. The CD-quality streams display excellent levels of detail and expression, and hi-res recordings have this up a level. Sonically Tidal still has the edge over almost all the competition, although Apple Music's ALAC streams manage to match it for openness and subtlety.
Tidal is as well at present distinguishing itself from the residual of the pack past introducing initiatives designed to provide artists with direct payments (from HiFi Plus subscribers only) that represent each user'due south listening habits rather than being attributed by aggregation.
If you lot're a careful music fan looking for the best loftier-quality streaming feel, with an all-encompassing catalogue, immersive content, wide device support, and improved discovery features (and you aren't already tied into the Apple ecosystem), Tidal is unquestionably it.
Read the total review: Tidal
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Despite its critics Spotify remains comfortably the nearly pop and convenient mode to get your music set. Not only does information technology offering decent (by most peoples standards) 320Kbps quality, simply it also boasts one of the nearly exhaustive and easy to navigate catalogues - though some big artists, including Neil Immature, Joni Mitchell, Grahame Nash, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, India.Arie and Nils Lofgren, are absent later recently taking event with the service's stance on Covid disinformation.
The remainder of the platform'due south offering of over 70 million songs can exist played on pretty much whatever device you own, thanks to intuitive iOS and Android apps and support in numerous smart TVs, connected speakers and other AV kit courtesy of Spotify Connect.
The service is renowned for its new music discovery algorithms, which compile excellent weekly playlists tailored to your music tastes. And the more you mind, the more the playlists evolve – a compelling reason to choose Spotify as your streaming service.
Spotify delivers an accessible, comprehensive and complete experience and fifty-fifty offers a 40 per cent discount for students. Plus, if you don't take whatever spare greenbacks to spend, at that place's a free tier that offers lower-quality streams supported by adverts.
Of course the elephant in the room is that Spotify remains the simply major platform non to offer music at lossless quality, with rivals all supporting at least CD-quality streams for the same price or less. The company had announced its intention to launch its eagerly anticipated Spotify HiFi tier by the end of last year merely failed to practice so. Apparently HiFi tier is still coming, although we still don't know how much it'll cost (or official launch engagement), we do know it volition give subscribers the chance to mind to "music in lossless sound format, with CD quality".
Only we're however excited to see what Spotify has got in the pipeline. As noted above, the all-time pick inside Spotify's streaming quality settings correct at present is 'Very High', which delivers audio tracks with a bitrate of 320kbps. By comparison, a CD contains a 1411kbps bitrate. So, 'CD-quality' of around 1411kbps should be a solid step up from what Spotify users are used to. A higher bitrate ways more than data, which should translate to a better sound, somewhen.
Read the full review: Spotify
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Unsurprisingly, Apple tree Music is aimed squarely at Apple users, so Android owners often desire to await elsewhere – although that needn't exist the case. However, if you're fully immersed in Apple'southward ecosystem, Apple tree Music makes a lot of sense. Information technology costs a competitive £x per month, or yous tin can pay an annual fee of £99. There's a £v per month pupil deal, while a family membership covering upwards to six people costs £fifteen per calendar month.
Apple also launched a new subscription tier that only works via voice control that volition price £5. Crucially 'Apple tree Music Vocalization Program won't let you apply the Apple tree Music app to play songs and doesn't offer access to Apple Music'south premium offerings, including Spatial Sound, Lossless Audio, Lyrics and music videos. Yous'll need to switch to Private or Family unit plans if you lot fancy whatsoever of those features.
Whether using the desktop or mobile app, the interface is like shooting fish in a barrel to navigate with a simple yet constructive layout. The service does a great job of curating playlists and serving up useful and intelligent recommendations. While there's no gratis tier, Apple tree has now added back up for lossless sound and spatial audio with Dolby Atmos without charging any actress. The service's 75 million-strong catalogue is available in CD-quality (16-scrap/44.1kHz) with 20 one thousand thousand songs available in hi-res (24-flake/48-192kHz) at launch, increasing to the unabridged library by the end of the yr.
All the same, there are some limitations on what kit tin can playback Apple tree's new loftier-quality offering. For example, although Apple Music with Dolby Atmos volition work with all headphones and Apple's own HomePod and HomePod Mini will support Lossless at some point (post-obit a software update), Apple'due south own headphones don't support lossless audio.
As well, while Apple'due south iPhones (since the iPhone seven) natively support lossless, that merely applies to Apple Music Lossless and not the highest quality Hi-Res Lossless. And so if you want to mind to Apple tree Music tracks above 24-scrap/48kHz on your iPhone, you'll need to shell out for an external DAC and use a wired pair of headphones.
Apple hasn't revealed the bitrate information technology uses for its standard streams, just tracks still sound clean, snappy and entertaining. Compared with similar tracks on Spotify (320kbps streams), Apple's have greater subtlety and more space around instruments while its ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) streams match Tidal for openness and subtlety fifty-fifty sometimes sounding but a touch on clearer.
If you're an Apple user, this service is undoubtedly the most attractive and best-value hi-res streaming service out at that place.
Read the full review: Apple Music
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At £10 per month, Amazon Music Unlimited's pricing is competitive with our top picks for streaming services. And if you subscribe to Amazon Prime, this drops to just £nine (from May 2022), which simply undercuts the remainder of the field and there'due south also a Single Device program, which lets you use the service on a single Amazon Repeat or Echo Dot wireless speaker for £4.99 / $4.99 / AU$5.99.
Amazon includes its Amazon Music HD library as function of Amazon Music Unlimited at no extra cost. Featuring 75 million tracks with a CD-quality bitrate of 16 bit/44.1kHz plus millions more in 24bit and up to 192kHz, we gave it 5 stars under intense review back when it incurred an extra £v accuse.
Music Unlimited is compatible with smartphones and tablets via its Android and iOS apps and PCs and Macs via its spider web player or desktop app. Burn down tablets and TVs are also compatible while some in-machine systems and sound products (including Amazon Echo and Sonos speakers) also support the service.
The mobile app looks good on smartphones and tablets, but isn't quite equally intuitive and reliable as those provided by Apple or Spotify. Those rival services also take the edge when it comes to music discovery and curated recommendations although Amazon does provide enough of suggestive guidance, assuasive y'all to browse the catalogue with minimal fuss and notice new music.
Amazon has been coy about revealing its streaming bitrate for its standard tier, claiming to support "multiple bitrates", just information technology sounds not different from Spotify'southward 320kbps streams. Listen to the two side-by-side and differences are barely audible: Amazon is a bear upon improve in terms of dynamic subtlety, and in that location's a pleasantness to its rounder-sounding presentation.
While information technology may be evasive about its standard tier, Amazon Music has gone all-in on high-res and 3D formats and is not at all bashful about information technology. The number of Ultra Hd songs on the platform has tripled since the format was introduced in 2019 and unlimited subscription-holders too have admission to a rapidly growing catalogue of songs mixed in Dolby Atmos and Sony's 360 Reality Audio, an offering that (co-ordinate to Amazon) has grown by more than than twenty times since spatial audio was originally introduced to its listeners.
Notably, Amazon Music Unlimited listeners can now stream music mixed in spatial audio on iOS and Android devices with their existing headphones – no special equipment required – as well equally on select devices that support Alexa Cast.
For Prime number subscribers looking to take advantage of the reduced subscription cost and the added CD-quality and how-do-you-do-res tiers provided by Amazon Music Hard disk drive, Music Unlimited makes a lot of sense and is certainly a tempting culling to more premium services.
Read the full review: Amazon Music Unlimited
- Get a four-calendar month free trial of Amazon Music Unlimited (opens in new tab)
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Dorsum in 2017, Deezer became the first music streaming service to celebrate its 10th altogether. As with any meaning coming of age, the French visitor historic by making 2017 a year of big change. It rebranded its CD-quality tier, giving it a new proper name and price, and making it accessible on more apps and platforms.
Fast frontward to 2022, and while Deezer has teamed upward with hullo-res streaming partner, MQA, in that location's no sign of hi-res audio streams on Deezer as yet – simply xvi-chip CD quality which refers to as high-fidelity. That puts it at a disadvantage compared to the hi-res music yous'll find on Tidal and Qobuz. Meanwhile, its core, non-HiFi subscription, falls just a whisker curt of Spotify when it comes to ubiquity, discovery and presentation.
Its single user Premium programme costs £12/mth, while a Family tier for £18/mth offers half dozen different accounts. If yous pay upfront for a whole year however the cost of a unmarried business relationship is reduced by 25% to simply £ix/mth.
Deezer was also the first streaming service to offer 360 Reality Audio tracks, an immersive format that's a flake like Dolby Atmos, only specifically for streamed music. Information technology'due south a nice addition merely Deezer has since been joined past the likes of Tidal and Amazon Music HD making it no longer a unique offering.
Thankfully, Deezer's all-encompassing catalogue, vast device support, convenient interface and decent non-music content lays the foundations for a service that can still rival the best. And there's a free tier if y'all want to effort it commencement.
Read the full review: Deezer
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Qobuz might not be the nearly well-known streaming service, but it is arguably the most avant-garde in terms of file quality. Its Studio Sublime tier gives users access to FLAC streams at 24-Bit and up to 192 kHz as well equally discounts of up to 60% on hello-res downloads. However, it is only bachelor every bit an almanac subscription of £180 for a solo user, £275.88 for two people who live at the same address (Duo plan) or £350 for up to 6 accounts at the same address (Family plan).
Beneath this tier sits its hi-res Studio Premier tier, which does not offering discounted downloads simply is available equally either a one-off monthly payment with no delivery of £13 for a single user (or £130 annually), £18 for the Duo plan (or £180 annually) and £21.xc per month for the Family plan (or £215.88 annually).
Qobuz is bachelor on lots of devices. In that location's a spider web thespian, desktop and mobile apps, plus several networked streaming products that are also compatible with the service. While its 'Carplay Online' feature allows users to view and launch their favourite playlists and tracks directly from the integrated screen of their car. Overall, Qobuz's interface is nice to use across desktop and mobile, and it has more filter options in its search engine than any other service, although the curation could be better.
Only to remedy this the service recently introduced 'My Weekly Q'. This AI-powered recommendation engine serves up a personalised playlist of musical discoveries it thinks you'll enjoy, based on the listening habits of other users with similar tastes to yours.
When it comes to the library, Qobuz isn't quite every bit popular-heavy as its closest rivals and has some pretty major blind spots in its catalogue and when building our monthly playlist of test tracks we almost inevitably notice one or two are missing from Qobuz'south catalogue that are like shooting fish in a barrel to notice on other services. But there's withal a decent rest and of course, it'southward e'er growing so it's worth the free trial to encounter if most of what you desire is on in that location.
The only other result is that, while Qobuz claims to have more hi-res tracks than rivals, Tidal's hullo-res streams besides sound marginally better for timing and dynamics. Qobuz is, notwithstanding, the first music service to bring 24-bit hullo-res audio streaming to Sonos speakers, making information technology a proficient choice if you've invested in the Sonos ecosystem.
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The service rather underwhelmed us at launch, but YouTube Music is at present starting to look like it's prepare for the claiming. The user interface is solid, and the search part is terrific, turning up long-lost musical gems through its video vaults. The problem is that the contest's quality remains an issue: Spotify and Apple tree Music are the mass market place titans to tackle, and both already offering five-star services.
There are a few adept reasons to choose YouTube Music, though. The free tier is easy to use and supported by ads but, for £10 per month, you tin sign upwards to YouTube Music Premium, which is advertizing-free and allows downloads for offline listening likewise. (Students tin get it for just £v).
The app is available through Sonos speakers and anything Google Assistant-powered, such as Google Abode devices or third-political party devices such as the Sony LF-S50G and JBL Link 20. As for audio quality, the 256 kbps streams are far from unlistenable simply audio compressed in a way that main rivals don't.
Still, if you like the USP here – music videos, rather than audio – and the ability to seek out a recording played live at a certain venue on a certain date, YouTube Music has plenty to offer.
Read the full review: YouTube Music
How we test music streaming services
We have state-of-the-art testing facilities in London, Reading and Bathroom, where our team of experienced, in-house reviewers test the majority of hi-fi and AV kit that passes through our door.
When nosotros exam a streaming service it's paired with a variety of appropriate best in form playback equipment - from hardwired and wireless headphones to smart speakers and, of course, our reference howdy-fi system. Nosotros'll try out both the desktop and smartphones versions of the interface and, considering What Hi-Fi? is all well-nigh comparative testing, we directly compare the service to others in its price and features grade.
We are always impartial and do our all-time to make certain we're hearing content at its very best, so we'll endeavour plenty of different styles of music with both advanced and standard audio formats. We'll cheque all the features, and allow for enough of listening time before we begin reviewing.
All review verdicts are agreed upon by the team rather than an individual reviewer to eliminate whatever personal preference and to brand sure we're existence equally thorough as possible, likewise. There'southward no input from PR companies or our sales team when information technology comes to the verdict, withWhat Hi-Fi?proud of having delivered honest, unbiased reviews for decades.
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Which Music Streaming Service Has The Best Quality?,
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