Choosing Between Music Streaming Services (Tidal, Amazon, Spotify, Apple)

Nowadays there are so many music streaming services out there, and with technology changing at the speed of light, it can be hard to stay ahead of the curve. We’ve taken a good hard look at some of today’s biggest music streaming services to see how they stand up to one another.

• Apple– Apple boasts a library of about 43 million songs to choose from, the most of any music streaming service. It also features a social component which allows you to follow artists and get news about concert dates and new releases. Cost is $9.99/month.
• Tidal – With 40 million songs to choose from, Tidal’s offerings are almost as robust as Apple’s, and similar to Apple, Tidal offers full membership for $9.99/month. However, for the truly discerning audiophiles out there, Tidal also offer a “HiFi” membership for $19.99/month, which allows you to stream music in a non-compressed 16-bit 44.1kHz FLAC audio format.
• Spotify – The most enticing feature of Spotify is that you can use it for free, as evidenced by the fact that more than half of Spotify’s users don’t pay the monthly fee for premium service. With free service, however, comes a deluge of ads which some users find unbearable. Spotify does offer some 30 million songs, which is not as much as Apple or Tidal, but still quite exhaustive, and if you do opt to pay for membership, it will cost—you guessed it—$9.99/monthly.   
• Amazon – For $9.99/month users can get Amazon Music Unlimited which gives provides access to about 40 million songs. There is a lower-tier service which allows Amazon Prime users to stream music for only $7.99/month, but this option only gives users access to a mere 2 million songs.

From a financial standpoint, these services are practically identical. While Spotify does allow users to “piggyback” on their service, their offerings are significantly less than the others, but still in the tens of millions. Apple’s social component is great for those who want their listening experience to have more of a “music scene” feel to it, but if you’re a stickler for sound quality, Tidal’s non-compressed 16-bit 44.1kHz FLAC audio is the only way to go.  

If you’re looking for an apartment near Lady Lake, FL, where you can pop in your earbuds and listen to your favorite music, contact PepperTree Apartment Homes and we will be happy to give you more information about our community.