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Have you ever noticed that basically every moment of our lives has a soundtrack? We celebrate with music, we work out with music, we relax with music – the list goes on and on. Luckily, we don’t have to walk around carrying boomboxes or cases of CDs like we used to – the selection of music streaming services is wider than ever.
In addition to that, they’re way more affordable than buying a ton of separate albums – and by using Honeygain, you can cover your subscription fees effortlessly. The only question left now is, which platform matches your needs best and is the most worthy of spending your earnings on? Let’s review the 10 most popular music streaming services and find out!
🗺️ Countries and territories: 179
🎧 Sound quality: 96kbps / 160kbps / 320kbps
💸 Pricing: $9.99/month
🐝 One Honeygain payout can cover the fee for ✅ 2 months
Spotify is probably the most popular of the bunch – and for a good reason: it’s been around for a decade already, covers almost 180 countries and territories worldwide, offers a huge catalogue and good sound quality – plus, it works on virtually every platform. It’s also worth noting that a new extra-high sound quality (1411kbps) option called Spotify HiFi has already been announced as upcoming!
Spotify does have a free version, and it’s currently the choice of 75% of all of its users. However, it’s really not one of those cases where you can barely feel the difference between free and paid. The free version only allows for up to 160kbps playback quality, includes a ton of ads, limited skipping, and no offline listening – and if you’re listening on mobile, you’ll be stuck with shuffle-only mode!
One of the things Spotify users seem to appreciate the most is machine learning-based recommendations, personal playlists, and discovery features that allow you to comfortably broaden your musical horizons. Aside from songs, the platform also offers a rather sizable selection of other audio content like podcasts and audiobooks.
🗺️ Countries and territories: 61
🎧 Sound quality: 320kbps / 1411kbps / up to 9216 kbps
💸 Pricing: $9.99–$19.99/month
🐝 One Honeygain payout can cover the fee for ✅ 1–2 months
What makes Tidal exceptional is the fact that it’s the first officially artist-owned music streaming service. Among its shareholders are world-renowned musicians like Jay-Z, Rihanna, Calvin Harris, Madonna, and many more – which translates to exclusive content opportunities. And it’s not just minor stuff like behind-the-scenes, either: some entire albums (e.g., The Life of Pablo by Kanye West) were first launched on Tidal.
No one understands the importance of great sound better than a musician, so it’s not surprising that offering exceptional quality is a priority for this music streaming service. Tidal also streams concerts (both live and on-demand) and includes some non-audio content, such as music videos.
Unlike Spotify, Tidal has no free version available – which is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, by collecting more money and, in turn, being able to pay their artists more, a music streaming service can attract more talents. However, others feel like no free option leads to music piracy. Coverage is another issue: as of now, Spotify covers roughly three times more countries than Tidal.
🗺️ Countries and territories: 31
🎧 Sound quality: 64 kbps / 192 kbps / 320 kbps
💸 Pricing: $4.99–$9.99
🐝 One Honeygain payout can cover the fee for ✅ 2–4 months
If you’re at least 30 years old, you might remember a free peer-to-peer file sharing called Napster that was shut down in 2001 due to allegedly encouraging copyright infringement. Fast forward to our time, Napster has been sold, resold, rebranded, and relaunched – it’s now a music streaming service owned by MelodyVR, an organizer of VR music shows.
To be honest, Napster isn’t that unique as a service right now: you’ve got decent (not exceptional, though) sound quality, a rather wide catalogue, playlists, and personal recommendations – nothing Spotify wouldn’t offer. There’s no free option either, so it’s no wonder the number of users just barely tops 5 million.
Nevertheless, the company has already confirmed its plans to combine Napster with MelodyVR and create one unique platform this year. Now this could totally change the game: by combining music streaming, live music shows, and other immersive content that would also be available on VR devices, Napster could gain an exclusive competitive edge. We’re excited to see how this plays out – aren’t you?
By using Honeygain, you can cover your subscription fees effortlessly.
🗺️ Countries and territories: 35
🎧 Sound quality: 256Kbps
💸 Pricing: $7.99–$9.99/month
🐝 One Honeygain payout can cover the fee for ✅ 2 months
When we reviewed video streaming services in our previous article, we mentioned that Amazon is one company that has its fingers in a whole lot of pies. Surprise, surprise – they’re in the music streaming business, too! Needless to say, it offers incredible integration with Amazon’s smart devices, so if you’re a friend of Alexa’s, you should definitely think about getting Amazon Music Unlimited to join your gang.
The price of the Premium plan depends on whether you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber: they pay $7.99 a month instead of the regular $9.99 (there are also discounts available for students and owners of Amazon Echo devices). A free tier is available, too – sadly, it only offers a small part of the experience (selected playlists and stations with the sweet addition of ads).
Aside from songs, Amazon Music Unlimited also offers a nice selection of podcasts (including original ones!) and comedy specials. If your idea of a fun night in includes singalongs, you’re in luck, too – the platform has a great lyrics feature when used on-screen: the text scrolls along as the track plays so you’ll never lose your lines!
🗺️ Countries and territories: 18
🎧 Sound quality: 320kbps / 1411kbps / 9216 kbps
💸 Pricing: $14.99/month
🐝 One Honeygain payout can cover the fee for ✅ 1 month
Qobuz is by far the most expensive music streaming service on this list – and you might end up paying even more: aside from streaming, it also offers tracks for purchase (just like iTunes Store). Nevertheless, according to SoundGuys, it also pays the artists the most per stream, so it might be a good choice if you’re into supporting your favorite bands!
The unique thing about Qobuz’s recommendation feature is the fact that, unlike Spotify or Napster, it doesn’t rely on machine learning algorithms: these tasks are actually completed manually. The team also creates editorial playlists and informative articles. While it might sound like a nice personal touch, there’s nothing personal about it – literally. The recommendations will not be adapted to your individual tastes, so finding new favorites won’t be half as easy.
This might not sound like a huge disadvantage to some – however, a smaller catalogue is often a dealbreaker. Qobuz does have one of the absolute widest selections of high-resolution albums – and yet, if we judge it by the overall amount of albums available for streaming, it loses to Spotify, Deezer, and Tidal big time.
🗺️ Countries and territories: 95
🎧 Sound quality: 48kbps / 128kbps / 256kbps
💸 Pricing: $9.99/month
🐝 One Honeygain payout can cover the fee for ✅ 2 months
It’s certainly true that YouTube needs no introduction, but most of us know it as a video platform and not a music streaming service. The thing is, YouTube is owned by Google, and Google’s own Google Play Music is about to be shut down – and its users are already encouraged to migrate to YouTube Music which was introduced in 2018 and slowly claimed the throne of Google’s primary music-related product.
The ultimate selling point of YouTube Music is the level of personalization. Forget just remembering your favorite tracks – you’ll get recommendations based on your location, on the time of day, even on weather conditions! It’s all because Google already knows so much about you: you’re probably using its products for search, navigation, and other stuff everyday. Now, is this something everyone will like? No. Some will be fascinated, and others might get uneasy – it all depends on your view on data privacy!
That’s not where the uniqueness ends, though. Thanks to Google’s enormous databases, you can also search for songs by lyrics with YouTube Music – which is incredibly useful when you hear a song you love somewhere and can’t find your phone quick enough to Shazam it. Remembering a part of the chorus is now enough!
🗺️ Countries and territories: 167
🎧 Sound quality: 256kbps
💸 Pricing: $9.99/month
🐝 One Honeygain payout can cover the fee for ✅ 2 months
Apple is one of those brands that have an exceptionally loyal customer base. If you’re a person that’s used to an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and Siri, it’s more than likely you’ll also opt for Apple Music – if not for the brand image alone, then for the seamless integration with your beloved devices. In fact, it’s the default music app on iOS devices.
As of now, Apple Music offers over 60 million songs. If you’re looking for extras, there are thousands of top-quality music videos, Apple’s flagship radio station Apple Music 1 (curated by live DJs and playing 24/7!), and quite a lot of comedy tracks; unfortunately, you won’t get any podcasts or editorials. The app also supports song lyrics, but they are not available for all the tracks, so it’s not as useful a feature here as it is on YouTube music.
There is a free version of Apple Music available, but it can barely be called a music streaming service. All you can listen to is live radio – the album library is only available to paying customers. The good news is, you can save a little if you’re using other Apple services, too – for $14.95 a month, you can get the Apple One subscription bundle which includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, Apple Arcade, and iCloud. A single Honeygain payout would suffice!
🗺️ Countries and territories: 185
🎧 Sound quality: 128kbps / 320kbps / 1411kbps
💸 Pricing: $9.99/month
🐝 One Honeygain payout can cover the fee for ✅ 2 months
In terms of origin story, Deezer is somewhat similar to Napster: its first incarnation called Blogmusik was shut down almost fifteen years ago due to copyright infringement-related reasons… Only for the platform to be reborn as the music streaming service we know today. Now, you can use Deezer on a variety of devices from mobile to smart home and car tech.
Deezer might not be as famous as Spotify or Tidal, but it does have 16 million active listeners, as well as 73 million songs, 34,000 radio stations, a nice amount of podcasts and audiobooks (in selected countries). While these don’t really strike as unique features, Deezer Sessions just might. It’s a series of exclusive music sets recorded in Deezer’s studio by the hottest artists, such as Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, and John Legend. Some even compare Deezer Sessions to the absolute classic music series MTV Unplugged!
The price of Deezer Premium plan is comparable with other music streaming services of similar quality, and there is a Free plan available. However, it doesn’t offer much: on mobile, you will be bombarded with ads, and on other devices, you won’t even be able to hear entire tracks – just snippets of 30 seconds. Just like with the free Spotify plan, you’ll have a limited number of skips, poorer sound quality (up to 128kbps), and no offline listening option.
🗺️ Countries and territories: US only
🎧 Sound quality: 32kbps / 64kbps / 192kbps
💸 Pricing: $4.99–$9.99/month
🐝 One Honeygain payout can cover the fee for ✅ 2–4 months
Pandora is the only music streaming service we found that’s only available in one country. On the other hand, this makes 6.3 million paid subscribers look way more impressive – it’s over a million more than Napster has, and Napster covers 30 countries more!
Aside from actual tracks, Pandora has a selection of podcasts, information on live shows, and album commentary. These are nice – but not as nice as its unique feature: the Music Genome Project. To put it simply, Pandora’s musicologists have defined 450 musical attributes they call genes and use to describe and connect different tracks, making music discoveries easier and more precise. Now that’s a unique selling point if you ask us!
Pandora offers 2 paid plans called Plus and Premium – unfortunately, neither of them entails high-fidelity audio. There is a free plan available, too, but it’s ad-supported and doesn’t include offline stations (you do get unlimited skips, though!). Discounts for the Premium plan are available for students, military members, and veterans.
🗺️ Countries and territories: 154
🎧 Sound quality: up to 9216 kbps
💸 Pricing: $7.99–$14.99/month
🐝 One Honeygain payout can cover the fee for ✅ 1–2 months
Out of all 10 music streaming services we’re introducing in this article, Primephonic is undoubtedly the most niche. It specializes in classical music, which means you can find all your favorite symphonies without being bombarded with offers to listen to today’s pop hits (if that’s your cup of tea, of course!).
The platform says it’s currently home to more than 3.5 million classical tracks. Previously a web-based platform only, now it also has iOS and Android applications, and you can define separate quality settings for listening on WiFi and mobile data – which is an absolute must with long tracks of exclusive quality (as well as size). Unfortunately, there is no free tier available on Primephonic – although you can start with a free trial.
The Premium and Platinum plans both offer expert recommendations, podcasts, weekly new releases, offline listening, and smart search. The only difference is the sound quality: you get 320kbps MP3 streaming with Premium and lossless 24bit FLAC streaming (equal to 9216 kbps) with Platinum. And unlike with pop hits, you can really hear a massive difference – given you have an impeccable sound system at home, of course.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a fan of Antonio Vivaldi or The Weeknd – everybody can find a music streaming service that matches their taste. And by using Honeygain, they can cover the monthly fees effortlessly, too! Sign up to Honeygain to start earning free money effortlessly and get an exclusive $2 starting gift by clicking the button below now 👇
