Let’s set the scene: a tiny Swedish company, virtually unknown, releases a brand-new way to listen to music. It allows you to stream any genre at any time for a monthly flat rate. As Spotify steadily gathers customers and signs more record labels (and artists), it has the looks of being a triumphant underdog story. But, to make it interesting, there’s got to be a little conflict, and that’s where Apple Music and Amazon come in.
The second anniversary of Apple Music’s release is quickly approaching and, with it, Spotify beginning to feel the tremors of competition for the title of “Best Streaming Service”. Amazon, of course, also had to get its hands in the midst of the booming music-streaming business by releasing Prime Music in June 2014 and then Amazon Music Unlimited in October 2016.
For a limited time only, Amazon is offering four months of Amazon Music Unlimited for 99p.
Here, we will compare the three friendly foes and see what comes out on top.
Spotify
Since Spotify launched in 2008, it has worked tirelessly to achieve and maintain its position as the number-one music-streaming service.
Amount of users/subscribers: There are more than 140 million active users and more than 50 million paying subscribers.
Price: The price for Spotify ranges from free to £14.99. You can try out the premium version with a three-month trial for a total price of 99p or pay the standard price of £9.99/mth. Students enjoy a discount for the subscription at £4.99/mth. The family plan is £14.99/mth for up to five people, making it the cheapest version of Spotify per person at about £3/mth.
What you get: Creating a free Spotify account gives you ad-supported shuffle play of the app’s entire catalogue. The premium subscription comes with ad-free services that include shuffle play, unlimited skips, offline listening and the ability to make playlists.
Streaming speed/audio quality: There are three quality ratings for streamings, all in the Ogg Vorbis format. The choices are Normal at 96Kbits/sec, High at 160Kbits/sec and Extreme at 320Kbits/sec. Users with the free version will automatically get the Normal version, and Premium subscribers can choose at what level of streaming quality the music plays, but the Automatic style is recommended – it will change according to your network connection, with a minimum rate of 96Kbits/sec.
Number of songs available: More than 30 million songs are available to users with the free and premium versions.
Downloading ability: The Premium account allows you to download 3,333 songs on up to three devices. Downloading the songs lets you play them offline with no internet connection.
Added bonuses:
- Every Monday, Spotify releases Discover Weekly, a playlist curated from what you listened to that week and what similar users listen to. It’s available to any user after they’ve actively used for two weeks. The only catch is that it will refresh automatically on each Monday, so you’ll have to save it before then because they’re not retrievable.
- Spotify’s Running feature changes the tempo of the song you’re listening to based on how fast you’re running. Users can also manually change the tempo themselves. The app Runkeeper also works through Spotify, allowing users to track things like their pace and how long they’ve been running.
- Playlists: Users can use a collaborative playlist feature and share a playlist with friends so they can work together to edit it – think Google Docs, but for a weekend’s soundtrack. All playlists also feature the Playlist Extender feature, which recommends songs based on what’s in your track list and the playlist’s name.
Apple Music
Apple’s reign in music isn’t short-lived. It started in 2001, the year the iPod and its extensive digital library, iTunes, were released. But the company’s debut in music streaming just began in 2015, about a year after its £1.79 billion Beats Music acquisition, and they haven’t moved any slower in that realm either.
Amount of users/subscribers: The service has more than 20 million active users, according to the last time Apple officially confirmed this number roughly ten months ago. However, Verto Analytics released data comparing 18 music streaming services – including all three being currently reviewed – and recorded Apple Music as having the most unique monthly users, with 41 million people logging in.
Price: If you’re curious and cautious, Apple Music offers a free three-month subscription to test it out. After that, the prices are pretty comparable to Spotify Premium’s rates: £9.99/mth for individuals and £4.99/mth for students. Apple Music beats Spotify’s family plan, though: £14.99/mth for up to six people, which is about £2.50 per person. Spotify offers a family plan for the same price, but only for up to five people so it equals about £3/mth for each person.
What you get: All users get ad-free unlimited access to songs already in iTunes and the service’s library. Offline listening and curated radio stations are also options.
Streaming speed/audio quality: Everything is streamed in the 256Kbits/sec in the Advanced Audio Coding format.
Number of songs available: Apple Music has more than 40 million songs available and is known for having music first when it premieres – some of the most notable triumphs it had recently were getting their hands on Frank Ocean’s Blonde album and Drake’s Views. Users can access all of the music that they had in their iTunes before downloading the service.
Downloading ability: Users can have up to 100,000 songs – which can be downloaded for offline listening – in their iCloud Media Library, according to Apple Music’s page. But Apple’s Service and Conditions states that songs from Apple Music and iTunes don’t contribute to this quota. So unlimited?
Added bonuses: Twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week, Apple Music streams the radio station Beats 1, which features songs, interviews and co-host sessions with the most popular artists and DJs. However, the reception to this channel has been lukewarm at best.
Prime Music
Amazon dominates headlines with the successes that have made CEO Jeff Bezos the second-richest person in the world. However, the company made things complicated by offering two streaming services, instead of just one. When looking further into it, though, you’ll realise only one of their options is really competitive.
One key point, though: Prime Music is relatively puny, with just two million songs. That sounds like a lot, but compared to Spotify’s range of more than 30 million, you’ll quickly spot gaps. Amazon Music Unlimited is Spotify’s true rival, but it doesn’t come free with Prime.
Amount of users/subscribers: This one is trickier than others. Amazon, true to form, will not release the total of how many people subscribe to its services, but that doesn’t stop people from guessing. The latest projections for the number of Prime members, released by Consumer Intelligence Research Partner in April, marked it at 80 million. Since every Prime member automatically gets access to Prime Music, this projection marks Amazon’s music service as having significantly more users than any other. But there’s no telling whether every Prime member actively uses the streaming service.
Price:
- Prime Music is included with a Prime membership, which costs £7.99/mth for regular members or £79 annually, equating to £6.58/mth. Students can get a free six-month trial for Amazon Prime and then pay £39 per year, which equates to £3.25 per month. Amazon’s family plan allows two adults and four children to register with one account and access benefits such as one-day delivery and Prime Video. This plan is £79 per year, but also a 30-day free trial. All of these prices include Prime Music as well as all of the membership’s other benefits such as quicker shipping and Prime Video.
- Amazon Music Unlimited: If Prime members want to upgrade from Prime Music to Amazon Music Unlimited – which is pretty much essential to make the service comparable with Spotify and Apple Music – it is an additional £79 per year. Non-Prime members can also subscribe to this service for £9.99/mth, so Prime members technically get two months for free when you break this down. There’s also a family plan for £14.99/month for non-Prime members and a £149.99/year option for Prime members (so technically £12 per month). People on the more tentative side are in luck because Amazon is currently offering Prime members their first four months for 99p.
What you get: With Prime Music, users get ad-free listening, unlimited skips and the ability to download songs if you have the app downloaded onto a phone or tablet. Amazon Music Unlimited gives you all the same features as Prime Music, and the main advantage is a far larger selection in overall songs and available playlists (see below).
Streaming speed/audio quality: Amazon has been picky about releasing the specifics of the audio quality, but has said that they support “multiple bit rates.”
Number of songs available: There is a significant difference between the libraries available on Prime Music, with two million songs, and Amazon Music Unlimited, with 40 million songs.
Downloading ability: You can download songs from Amazon’s music services to any device that’s authorised for your account – the maximum is 10.
Added bonuses:
- If you’re not a subscriber but have an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot, you can get Amazon Music Unlimited on that device for only £3.99/mth.
- Prime Music and Amazon Music Unlimited both offer Prime Playlists – handcrafted collections of songs from Amazon’s Prime Music catalogue. The type of music you’re listening to can be filtered by searching or picking a mood or genre, and you can save a playlist for later by adding it to a “Followed Playlists” tab within the service.
The winner:
Call us old-fashioned, but Spotify is the winner. It has a loyal following, lets users choose the streaming speed, a nicely sized library and features – such as Discover Weekly and the Runkeeper partnership – that give users a sense of reliance on the app, making it part of their routines.
It’s clearly no secret, though, that the other services are turning heads. Prime Music may be appealing as well, but probably only if you already pay for the Prime membership. The true competitors are Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited, which both offer larger libraries, comparable prices and downloading abilities that may make even the most staunch Spotify advocate test them out – especially when Amazon is offering four months of Amazon Music Unlimited for only 99p in the run-up to Prime Day. The war rages on, and we’ll be paying close attention.