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Music streaming feels essential these days. While you can buy tracks from storefronts like Google Play Music and iTunes, streaming music is an affordable way to earn passes to the unlimited buffet. From giants like Spotify and Apple to small businesses like Tidal and Deezer, there are countless options, each with their own pricing and features to win monthly payments.
Believe it or not, next month marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of YouTube Music in its current form. The platform, which eventually took over Google Play Music entirely, has come a long way. Following a launch full of missing features, Google has slowly but surely caught up with both of its previous services. and Its main rival — even this week, the company added a lyrics feature already available on Spotify.
It also happened to be the last time we asked our readers which music streaming service they used. In a way, Spotify has lost the plot, with all its focus on podcasts, TikTok-style home screens, and AI-powered DJs. Apple’s streaming service offers an easy-to-use (but far from great) Android app, but it focuses on lossless quality and spatial audio to a lot of ramifications. Amazon Music has slashed the price of its own hi-fi service to take on Apple, and remains the only place to hear Garth Brooks’ quintessential banger, “Friends in Low Places.”
The four platforms—YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music—are not the only competitors, but they feel like pillars of the industry. So which one are you subscribed to? Personally, I’m still using Spotify, the platform I moved to after Google Play Music died, and I can’t say I’m happy with it. I also have subscriptions to YouTube Music (via Premium) and Apple Music (via a phone plan), but I haven’t found anything impressive enough to put me through the effort of navigating my library.
I’ve opened this up to multiple choice — otherwise hypocritical — but to keep things simple, I’ve stuck with these four main options. Five years ago, Google Play Music completely dominated the competition (alongside the upcoming YouTube Music) and only Spotify could come close. I want to know if it changed and if so in what direction.
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