As streaming services increasingly become the preferred method for most consumers to listen to music, the competition among providers is heating up. Just recently, Apple threw its hat into the streaming ring.
With the launch of Apple Music, the tech giant will be hoping to take a bite out of the market share of established players on the music-streaming scene, like Spotify and Amazon Prime.
With 20 million subscribers and an additional 55 million other listeners, Spotify is king of the streaming universe at the moment. Spotify is on top in part because of its catalog, which contains over 30 million songs with over 20,000 added each day. This vast music library trumps what’s offered by most other streaming services.
Spotify also has a social media aspect. By connecting to the service with Facebook you can follow and be followed by friends and check up on what people you know are listening to during the day. Spotify is available on Windows, Mac, PlayStation 3 and up, Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
Despite its impressive song library, Spotify has been less successful with its Radio function. Unlike some competing services, Spotify hasn’t really made radio a priority, resulting in an algorithm that’s not as finely tuned as rival Pandora.
While Spotify is ideal for streaming whole albums you are already aware of or want to check out, its music discovery “Playlists” or “Discover” options are arguably better than its radio feature.
Spotify’s basic service is available for free. Upgrading to Spotify Premium, which allows you to use the service ad-free on your phone as well as your computer and even while you are offline, costs $10 a month. Spotify also offers a 30-day free trial of its Premium service.
Up until now, no other streaming service has been able to rival Spotify’s music library, but Apple Music has stepped into the ring with somewhere around 37 million songs in its own library.
Apple Music has the added bonus of integrating users’ iTunes libraries into its interface; meaning users no longer need to toggle between different apps to stream or play their own collection.
Currently, Music is only available on iOS, Mac and Windows. The service will be rolled out for Apple TV and Android in the fall of 2015 reports CNET.
As part of Apple Music’s launch, the tech giant has announced the launch of Beats 1, a live radio station that will broadcast around the clock in over 100 countries.
Masterminded by DJ Zane Lowe, Beats 1 will feature 24 hour programming from LA, NYC and London. Programming will include live sets from Low and his DJ cohorts as well as exclusive artist interviews, guest hosts and more.
Beats 1 is the flagship station in an array of curated stations spanning dozens of different genres that will be available through Music. Apple Music also offers suggestions for artists you might like based on your listening history.
Although Apple had originally intended to undercut its competitors by pricing music at $8 a month, pressure from the labels that own its music catalog forced the tech company to charge what is effectively the market rate of $10 a month.
One cost break Apple offers that Spotify doesn’t, is the availability of a family sharing option that enables users to connect up to six individual accounts for just $15 a month total. So even if there are just two users in your household, you can potentially save $5 a month.
Like Spotify, Apple also provides a free version of the service with limited features and offers a 90-day trial of its subscription service.
Known as Prime Music, Amazon’s music streaming service is free for Prime members. Prime Music allows users to download as many songs from the catalog as they want to onto their phones, enabling users to listen even when they have no connection.
The player also pulls in any music purchased through Amazon and will even retroactively add the digital versions of any physical music inventory you’ve purchased through Amazon to your library.
One of Prime Music’s biggest drawbacks is its relatively paltry catalog of just over one million songs. More disheartening is the fact that Amazon hasn’t added any songs to its catalog since the service was launched in 2014.
Prime Music is available for Fire phones and Tablets, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Amazon Echo, iOS, Android, PC, Mac and through Amazon.com.
Until recently, there was no radio function for Prime. However that changed earlier this year with the release of “Prime Stations;” a selection of ad-free streaming music stations for iOS users subscribed to the service.
Prime Stations, which features a thumbs up or down algorithm as on other services, it not yet available to Android users.
Prime Music is available as part of Amazon’s Amazon Prime membership program. A Prime membership also entitles subscribers to 2-day free shipping, Amazon Prime Instant Video access, and the ability to check out material from the Kindle Lending Library.
The good news is that if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you already have a free streaming service at your disposal in Prime Music. As Cuepoint points out, Amazon hasn’t done the best job of educating Prime subscribers about their membership benefits, however, and a great many of the tens of millions of Amazon Prime subscribers are unaware of their Prime Music access.
Due to its limited song catalog, Prime Music on its own isn’t really a strong enough reason to become an Amazon Prime subscriber.
If you are shopping for a streaming subscription, you can pretty much expect to pay around $10 a month for Spotify, Apple Music, Beats Music, or Rdio.
Given Apple Music’s family sharing option available at just $15 a month for up to six separate accounts, if there’s more than one user in your household Apple’s newly launched streaming service would seem like the best value for the money.
