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The best music streaming services offer on-demand access to millions of songs right on your smartphone or computer. A few competing platforms are out there, all with different features, plans, and price points. With multiple options to choose from, it can be tricky to figure out which one is the right fit for your specific needs. If you’re an Alexa fan, Amazon Music Unlimited integrates seamlessly with Echo devices and even comes with a discount for Prime members. Apple aficionados may want to consider Apple Music since it works especially well with iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs. Both Apple and Amazon also support lossless audio, so you get high-quality streaming. However, music fans on a budget may prefer Spotify since it offers an ad-supported plan with tons of songs for free. Below, you can find full details on all of the best music streaming services, including a breakdown of plans, pricing, and features for each option.
Our top picks for the best music streaming services Amazon Music Unlimited Apple Music Spotify
Amazon Music Unlimited
Amazon Music Unlimited (4 Months)
Amazon Music Unlimited offers high-quality playback, integrates perfectly with Alexa, and is available at a discount for Prime members.
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What we like
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Discounts for Amazon Prime members
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Alexa integration
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HD, Ultra HD, and spatial music included for no extra cost
What we don’t like
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No free version of the Unlimited library
Amazon Music Unlimited: $11/month ($10 with Prime) for ad-free streaming Amazon Music Unlimited (Single Device):  $6/month for playback on one Echo or Fire TV device Amazon Music Unlimited Family:  $17/month with support for six family members Amazon Music Unlimited Student:  $6/month for ad-free streaming If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber , then Amazon Music Unlimited is easily one of the best music streaming services you can sign up for. Prime members get a discount, and the platform is also a good option for non-Prime subscribers thanks to its excellent features and high-quality audio playback. Prime subscribers already get access to Prime Music as part of their membership, but that service restricts most albums to shuffle play, so you can’t simply pick any song you want to listen to on-demand. If you upgrade to Music Unlimited, you unlock full on-demand access to the service’s library of over 100 million songs. Music Unlimited also includes HD, Ultra HD, and spatial audio streaming for no extra cost. HD and Ultra HD tracks use lossless audio formats in CD quality or higher, while spatial audio uses the Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality formats to create a surround sound effect. Music Unlimited is available on various platforms, including iOS, Android, and the web. The service is tightly integrated with Amazon’s Alexa, so if you have an Echo device or other Alexa-enabled products, it’ll work perfectly. Regular trials for new members last one month, but extended trials are frequently offered during deal events like Amazon Prime Day . After your trial, your subscription will automatically continue for the regular monthly price unless you decide to cancel. Amazon Music Unlimited does not offer a free tier, but you can stream a small selection of curated playlists with Amazon’s ad-supported service called Amazon Music . Read our Amazon Music Unlimited review .
Apple Music
Apple Music
Apple Music works beautifully on Apple devices, plus there’s an app for it across a range of platforms, including Android. For a limited time, new and returning subscribers can pick up one month of Apple Music for free at Apple.
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What we like
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Easy integration with Apple devices
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Discounted bundle with other Apple services
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Lossless and Dolby Atmos spatial audio support
What we don’t like
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No free ad-supported version
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Doesn’t support Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format
Apple Music Individual: $11/month for ad-free streaming Apple Music Family: $17/month with support for six family members Apple Music Student : $6/month for ad-free streaming Apple One Bundle : $20/month for Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, and iCloud If you use an iPhone and other Apple products, then it’s worth considering Apple Music as your primary audio streaming solution. Apple Music integrates perfectly with Apple’s hardware and software, plus it works with your existing iTunes library. Apple Music has over 100 million songs available to stream on-demand. The service also offers the Apple Music 1 radio station and some exclusive tracks. If you want to tap into what your friends are listening to, Apple Music has curated playlists for that and other playlists for new music, personal favorites, and more. Apple also offers lossless and spatial audio options to ensure the best listening quality. Like Amazon Music Unlimited’s similar features, lossless audio gives listeners access to CD-quality (or better) versions of Apple’s entire catalog, while spatial audio offers an enhanced surround sound listening experience on select songs. However, unlike Amazon, Apple only offers spatial audio using Dolby Atmos and does not support the competing Sony 360 Reality format. New members can receive a free one-month trial, and Best Buy customers can take advantage of a four-month trial . Apple Music is also available as part of a discounted bundle with other Apple services, like Apple TV, which makes it a great value for people who want to fully invest in Apple’s ecosystem of products and platforms.Â
Spotify
Spotify Music Service
Spotify has a huge library of songs, a free plan with ads, and compatibility with a ton of devices, but it still doesn’t offer CD-quality sound.
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What we like
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Free ad-supported plan
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Collaborative playlists
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Group listening
What we don’t like
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Lacks lossless streaming option
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Doesn’t support spatial audio
Spotify Premium : $12/month for ad-free music streaming and 15 hours of audiobook listening a month Spotify Basic: $11/month for ad-free music streaming Spotify Premium Duo : $17/month with support for two family members Spotify Premium Family : $20/month with support for six family members and Spotify Kids access Spotify Premium Student : $6/month with ad-supported Hulu Spotify remains the most popular music streaming service, and it excels when it comes to general usability and its sheer number of features. We also like that it offers a free ad-supported plan, albeit with some key limitations. With a free plan, you can access most of Spotify’s library, but outside a few select playlists you’re limited to six skips per hour and can only play songs on shuffle mode. These restrictions are lifted with a Premium plan, which also gets rid of all the ads. One of Spotify’s main perks is its focus on discovery and playlist curation. This includes the service’s “enhance” button, which lets you add similar songs to existing playlists. You can also filter your saved songs by mood and genre, so it’s easy to find exactly what you want. Spotify also offers audiobooks (Premium plans offer 15 hours of listening a month), podcasts, and video content. Spotify’s music streams at up to 320Kbps, which should be good enough for most listeners, but it isn’t on par with Amazon and Apple’s lossless-quality playback. Spotify announced plans to introduce a lossless CD-quality plan back in 2021, but this tier was delayed, and it’s still not clear when it will be available. All Spotify Premium subscribers get a one-month trial regardless of the plan they choose.
What else we considered
YouTube Music is a solid service but we prefer the superior quality of Amazon and Apple’s plans, and the usability of Spotify.
Sarah Saril/Insider
Tidal – When Tidal first launched in 2014, it differentiated itself from other music services by placing a big emphasis on a high-resolution, lossless audio experience. However, in recent years, competitors like Amazon and Apple have also added high-resolution, lossless streaming for the same price. As a result, there isn’t a whole lot that differentiates Tidal from its rivals. Read our Tidal review . YouTube Music – Google’s YouTube Music service is another solid option, especially if you’re already plugged into other Google products and services. However, it costs the same as Amazon and Apple’s services but does not offer lossless or spatial audio playback. That said, we do like that there is a free ad-supported option. You can also get a discount if you bundle YouTube Music together with ad-free YouTube video streaming as part of a YouTube Premium plan. Read our YouTube Premium review .Â
Music streaming service FAQs
iFi Audio
What is lossless audio? Lossless audio formats enable listeners to hear the full range of an original music recording without any drop in quality due to compression. Some music streaming services, like Spotify and YouTube Music, only offer plans that let you listen to songs in “lossy” audio formats. This means that some of the original audio recording’s quality is sacrificed to compress the track in order to make the file smaller and easier to stream. Though this makes listening to music on a slow internet connection possible, lossy digital audio isn’t equal to the quality you’d hear on a CD. This loss in quality can be hard to notice for the average listener, but audiophiles prefer “lossless” music since it preserves the full range of the original track. Different platforms brand their lossless audio plans under different names, including HiFi and HD Music. These terms all generally refer to streaming audio tracks that are presented in at least CD quality. Some services even offer formats that deliver high-resolution, lossless audio that exceeds CD quality. Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, and Tidal are some of the best music streaming services with lossless audio options, making them a better fit for listeners who want the very best quality. Spotify also announced plans to launch a lossless audio plan, but a release date has not been revealed. On the downside, lossless audio streaming requires more bandwidth, so you’ll need a fast internet connection and a bigger data plan. To fully enjoy the audio quality benefits, you’ll also need a nice pair of headphones with a dedicated digital-to-analog converter  or a high-end set of speakers . You can learn more about lossless audio formats in our guide to HD audio .
Steven Cohen
Senior Tech Editor
Steven is a home entertainment product expert with over a decade worth of service journalism experience. He oversees coverage around home entertainment products, including TVs, streaming devices, headphones, and soundbars. Experience Steven is a Senior Tech Editor for Business Insider’s Reviews team. He is responsible for developing buying guides, reviews, and deals coverage for all of the latest TV, video, and audio products. Steven works with a team of experienced freelancers to establish testing methodologies, test products, and select the best of the best for our buying guides. He also has a background in film criticism, having reviewed over 400 movies and TV shows. Steven studied filmmaking and uses his knowledge of video and audio production workflows to help inform his testing parameters when reviewing home entertainment devices.  Before joining Business Insider in 2019, he was High-Def Digest’s Gear Editor. His work has appeared on Ben’s Bargains, Steve’s Digicams, Big Picture Big Sound, and Consequence. Why you can trust Steven Steven is not only passionate about TVs, he is also one of the industry’s foremost experts in display quality. In 2019, he was one of a select number of journalists invited to get a hands-on first look at LG’s debut 8K OLED TV. He was also among the earliest journalists to demo Dolby Atmos and DTS:X technologies for home theaters in 2014 and 2015, respectively. In 2018, Steven served as a judge for TV Shootout, the premier annual display competition that crowns the best TVs of the year. He also attends yearly industry launches and reviewer workshops for new TVs and audio products from top brands, like LG, Samsung, Sony, and Sonos. Steven knows that it’s easy to get overwhelmed by tech jargon and premium prices on high-end gear, which is why he is passionate about recommending quality options for all price ranges and explaining which features are really worth the money. Expertise His expertise includes: Televisions Soundbars Speakers Streaming devices Headphones HDR video formats Spatial audio technologies Education Steven holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Central Florida. Outside of work Steven lives in Orlando, Florida, with his girlfriend, their dog, and cats. When he’s not covering tech products, Steven loves to explore the theme parks of Orlando and watch movies on his dream home theater setup, complete with the biggest Dolby Atmos speaker system he could fit in an apartment. Learn more about how our team of experts tests and reviews products at Insider here . Learn more about how we test tech and electronics .
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Ben Blanchet
Streaming Fellow, Insider Reviews
Ben is a former Streaming and Home Entertainment Fellow for the Business Insider Reviews team, where he covered the latest in streaming services along with roundups of popular TVs, speakers, and headphones. He previously reported for The Buffalo News’ Sun newspapers and was an editor at the University at Buffalo’s independent student newspaper The Spectrum. He comes from a background in music journalism and he’s one of the minds behind “More Than A Hit,” a podcast with his brother Brenton where the two talk with music stars from their childhood. See below for some of his work. Â Learn more about how our team of experts tests and reviews products at Insider here .
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Angela Tricarico
Streaming Editorial Fellow
Angela Tricarico is a Streaming Editorial Fellow for the Insider Reviews team, where she covers the latest in streaming services. In addition to her arts and entertainment reporting at the University of New Haven and for The Ensemblist, she has a background in theater and loves to tell people what it means to be a dramaturg. When she’s not writing, you might find her reading comics or a book club pick, cooking, baking, or trying to catch up on the last ten years of television.
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