We're well past the point of carrying CDs (or cassette tapes!) around just to listen to music. It's even difficult to rip music off of physical media these days. Nope, now we're all in on streaming everything, and we're here to help you pick out the best music streaming services for your smartphone.
Check out our guide and we'll show you what's available.
Best Music Streaming Services
All of these services offer something a little different, and in some cases you might want to double up on some of them. Whether you want the better algorithm recommendations from Spotify alongside Tidal's HiFi music streaming, or you get something for free with another subscription and you want to complement it with a more fully-featured service, there are loads of combinations.
We'll break down the pros and cons of each in this list.
Just streaming
These services are built around building up a library and streaming music. Just add the songs you want from the service's catalog and start jamming out. These will generally have the least amount of work to set things up and can pretty easily live on anyone's device, making them some of the best music streaming services for someone looking for simplicity.
Spotify – Broad appeal
Spotify seems like it just might be the most popular streaming service on the planet. It's got an enormous userbase that fights pretty competitive with Apple Music, and it's available on more devices than anything. Smartphones, video game consoles, TVs, you name it. There are a few key devices missing on Apple's side of the ecosystem, but generally if you want your music library to follow you, you want Spotify.
The service itself is also fantastic. You can build your own library of music and let Spotify deliver some absolutely excellent daily mixes of recommended music based on your personal tastes. It's far and away the best recommendation algorithm you're going to find on this list, so if you want something to help you find new music, this is it, even if you're just using the free tier.
Pricing:
- $9.99/mo
- $14.99/mo family plan
- $4.99/mo student plan w/Hulu & Showtime
- Free tier
The good:
- Tons of device support
- Large catalog
- Best music recommendations around
The bad:
- Lacks a truly HiFi option
- Can't upload tracks or edit song info
YouTube Music – Casual listeners
YouTube Music has plenty of lovers and haters. Most of the haters are probably either Google Play Music diehards, or enthusiasts who really don't like YouTube Music's forced integration of video YouTube and the music library. Regardless, though, for many people that's exactly the point.
If you think Apple or Spotify are impressive by trying to hit 100 million users each month, they're absolutely dwarfed by YouTube. Google's video streaming site boasts 2 billion monthly users, many of which do actually just use the service for music. They find music videos, remixes, or just songs that they'd like to listen to, turn it on, and keep it open in the background or in another tab or whatever. YouTube Music exists to capitalize on those use cases and build a better experience.
The service allows you to build your own library with the songs you find on YouTube, which can be drastically different than what you see on other streaming services, especially for obscure and remix stuff. Music videos are just a tap away, and there's a gargantuan community if you're into social features. It's still lacking some features like the ability to upload your own music, but YouTube says that's coming; plus it has a tier to remove ads from all of YouTube, and that's worth something on its own.
Pricing:
- $9.99/mo
- $11.99/mo YouTube Premium w/no ads
- $14.99/mo family plan
- $17.99/mo family plan YouTube Premium w/no ads
The good:
- Easy music discovery
- Integrates with your YouTube songs
- Huge community
The bad:
- Poor audio quality
- Can't separate music library from YouTube video library
Sign up for YouTube Music here.
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Build your library
These services are for someone that's into crafting their own library. Maybe you've still got some rare physical CDs or albums that you just can't find anywhere else, or maybe you just hate it when Spotify misspells something on your favorite album. These will let you have complete control over your library, and are the best music streaming services for someone who loves to have that control.
Apple Music – Library management
If you have an Android phone, you might think Apple Music isn't even worth checking out. You'd be wrong, though.
Yes, it's an Apple Service that doesn't quite blend in with the rest of Android's UX, but music is at the heart of much of what Apple does, and their streaming service is no exception. It's got an absolutely enormous catalog of music, and it gives you the ability to upload your own tracks to supplement anything that might be missing. You can edit song information if you prefer to micro-manage your music library, and there are a ton of excellent curated playlists for different moods, genres, and activities.
Apple's app isn't too bad, either, since the Android version allows you to cast your music to Google Home devices, and there's a new web player in beta. Plus, if you're at all invested in Apple's ecosystem, it's hard to argue for any other option.
Pricing:
- $9.99/mo
- $14.99/mo family plan
- $4.99/mo student plan
The good:
- Biggest catalog of music on the list
- Apple encoding sounds great
- Library management is top notch
The bad:
- Lack of support for TV streaming devices
- Recommendations aren't as good as Spotify
Plex – Roll your own server
Plex is the service that combines someone that loves tinkering and building with a love for music. There's no real “cloud” library here, since Plex is all about building your own server and streaming things to your devices. Fortunately, Plex supports a huge swath of devices, including phones, streaming boxes, smart TVs, and web browsers, and it's got a ton of updates and is totally customizable.
You'll need the hardware to use this, though, since you manage your own server. But you can adjust your library however you want and even take advantage of some of Plex's pretty cool library playback features, plus invite other users to check out your music collection. It can also link into your Tidal library if you want a little bit of extra music, too.
Pricing:
- Free
- $4.99/mo Plex Pass
- $119/mo Plex Pass Lifetime
The good:
- Totally customizable
- Unlimited library of music
- Tons of device support
The bad:
- You have to find your own music
- Plex Pass required for some audio features, like offline play
- Audio player could be better
Google Play Music – Ol' reliable
I was actually pretty hesitant to put Google Play Music on this list, since, you know, Google's going to kill it, but it's still actually a really solid contender in the music streaming space. It's bundled in with YouTube Music, so if you get one you get the other, but they do work pretty differently.
Instead of relying on YouTube, GPM is more of a traditional music streaming service. You build your library from Google's catalog, but like Apple Music, you can upload your own tunes and edit info for anything in your library. It also offers some pretty good radio stations and recommendation algorithms; all in all, it'll really make you curious about why Google decided to abandon the service.
Unfortunately since it's on the way out it's no longer getting feature updates. It'll eventually be replaced by YouTube Music, but until then, it'll remain a fan favorite.
Pricing:
- $9.99/mo
- $14.99/mo family plan
The good:
- Upload tons of your own music
- Manage your entire library
- No fluff
The bad:
- It's on the chopping block
- Old-school Material Design
- Occasional bugs that don't get patched
Sign up for Google Play Music here.
Audiophile services
These are the best music streaming services built around getting the best possible sound out of your setup. That can be hard to do in the age of music streaming, but there are still a few options left that can deliver almost perfect audio quality over a streaming connection. These might cost a little more, but you know the saying: you get what you pay for.
Tidal – The music enthusiast service
Tidal is the streaming service for someone that really cares about music quality. If you're the type of person that knows they need an external DAC for their smartphone, you're the kind of person that would be interested in Tidal.
At its core, Tidal really isn't that much different from Spotify. Build your library, stream it wherever you're at, and discover new music. But where Tidal stands above the others is its catalog of high-fidelity music files, including some Master Quality Audio mixes of some records. Other parts of the catalog can be streamed in lossless quality, which match what you'd get listening to a CD. No compression here, just the full bitrate as the artist intended.
Tidal also sports some more unorthodox integrations and partnerships. Some Sprint plans include Tidal service, and you can integrate your Tidal library into your Plex library; it also works with services like Roon that don't support other music streaming sites. Check this out if you've spent more on a pair of headphones than your friends can believe.
Pricing:
- $9.99/mo
- $14.99/mo family plan
- $19.99/mo HiFi plan
- $29.99/mo HiFi family plan
The good:
- Best sounding option on the list, even with the free tier
- Works with Plex and other enthusiast solutions
- Exclusive Tidal content
The bad:
- HiFi tier is more expensive, and that's the whole point
- Lacks support for some streaming devices
Sign up for Tidal here.
Qobuz – Up and coming
If Tidal is the obscure music streaming service that only the biggest fans go after, Qobuz is little dive bar on the corner that no one knows about, except they've actually got the best calzones in town. It's all about high-resolution music, and it manages to deliver that at a slightly cheaper price.
Like Tidal, Qobuz offers HiFi files that stream at much higher bitrates than the competition. MP3s are streamed at 320kbps, while over 200,000 albums are available in Hi-Res studio quality that streams up to 24-bit up to 192kHz, and another 40 million are available in CD quality. It's a big jump from your regular old Spotify streams. Plus, they offer some digital booklets for certain albums to bring back the nostalgia of bringing a new record home.
At just $14.99, it's slightly cheaper than Tidal, but they do offer a more expensive $249.99 yearly plan that plays into their other selling point: a music store.
Yep, Qobuz still operates one of the only digital music storefronts in 2020, and they do deliver Hi-Res music files for audiophiles. Subscribing to their top-tier package gives you discounts on these albums, too, so if you're planning on buying a ton of music, it might be worth checking out.
Pricing:
- $14.99/mo
- $149.99/yearly
- $249.99/yearly Sublime+ with music store discounts
The good:
- One of the few places to still buy Hi-Res music
- Phenomenal streaming quality
- Massive catalog of high-quality files
The bad:
- Less device support
- Long term stability is questionable
Amazon Music HD – Alexa's ecosystem
Amazon isn't who you'd expect to jump into the HiFi game. At least, it wouldn't be my first guess when they announced that they'd be directly tackling the likes of Tidal and Qobuz with Amazon Music HD.
The service is part of the reason that Qobuz dropped its pricing, since it comes in at just $14.99 (or $12.99 for Prime subscribers), undercutting both Tidal and Qobuz at the time. It includes the regular Amazon Music Unlimited subscription that costs around $9.99 per month, anyway, but delivers a higher resolution sound quality with music files.
It features a pretty robust catalog of Hi-Res and CD quality audio, and its app/desktop site look almost identical to Amazon Music Unlimited, so you should be pretty familiar with it. And it'll automatically work with your existing Echo devices, including the killer sounding Echo Studio, and it's where Amazon streams its 3D audio tracks that are encoded with Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio. It's intriguing, to say the least.
You're going to want to commit to Amazon's ecosystem to really take advantage of this, but this might just be the thing that gets your casual audiophile into Alexa's grasps.
Pricing:
- $9.99/mo ($7.99/mo with Prime)
- $14.99/mo Amazon Music HD ($12.99/mo with Prime)
The good:
- Tons of Hi-Res tracks and audio
- Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio support
- Integrates with Alexa
- 90 day free trial
The bad:
- Boring interface
- Ecosystem lock-in
I don’t understand Hi-Res Audio and Phones.
I mean sure, you can listen to music with your phone, like you can take photos with it and videos.
But a phone will never ever replace a good camera with a bigger Sensor like 1″, APS-C or even fullframe.
The same is for Audio. If you really are into high quality Audio, you _need_ an Hi-Res Audio Player. Not a single Smatphone on the market is really capable in making use of those high quality audio files.
And there comes the issue with streaming services. Most High Quality Hi-Res Audio Player don’t have Mobile Broadband connections (for a good reason, that would be not good for audio quality in any aspect).
Sure you can use Bluetooth and connect via your smartphone, but most non-Sony Phones don’t support LDAC (990kbit/s) so you’re mostly stuck with either aptX HD (576kb/s) or worse, standard Bluetooth at around 320kb/s
And even LDAC is pretty lame. Some Hi-Res Audio files have 24bit/88Khz which translates to roughly 4320kb/s, so more than 4x of what LDAC can transport (which is the best we have right now).
So if you are really into Hi-Res Audio, you are stuck at buying music anyway so Qobuz and レコチョク (for japanese music (most of which you can’t have with the streaming services mentioned above if you live outside japan)) are your only options really.
But if you still want to stream, even though you take a big loss in quality, unlimited data plans are a must. A 24bit/88KHz Song in FLAC is roughly 100mb in size. So 1 Album is >=1GB and then you downscale all the beautiful sound quality via your bluetooth connection. Meh.
If you are fine with <=990kbit/s then well, there you go. But if you are really into high quality audio, there is no real other choice than buying music and putting it on your Hi-Res Audio Player and _not_ on your phone.
Even an <200€ Hi-Res Audio Player like the Sony Walkman A50 Series outperforms every phone on the market by far, and this is not the best player you can get.
Even the cheaper no-brand china Hi-Res Audio players for ~70-100€ outperform every smartphone.
So if you are into Hi-Res Audio, grab one of these and grab a good pair of (non bluetooth!) headphones.
And lets be serious, we all see whats happening to Netflix right now. The least thing you want is to loose your most favourite music because some company owns the right of some other companies music or whatever.
Just buy your Music in FLAC and you own it till you die.