Whether you’re listening on the best overear headphones, through your smart speaker, commuting with your wireless earbuds, or on an immersive home speaker setup, we’re all consuming more music than ever before. The best music streaming services put millions of songs at your fingertips, ready to play through your phone or tablet, so you can enjoy music everywhere.
Just over a tenner a month (around the price we used to spend on an album alone) grants you access to a digital music library bigger than you could ever physically own, as streaming apps boast over 100 million tracks. These services are ideal for discovering new music too, with clever algorithms that suggest artists and albums based on your listening habits.
There are a lot of options, though, and it’s worth knowing that music streaming services have overlapping catalogues, providing us with the same tracks and albums. This makes them different to video streamers, which offer a lot of exclusive content. Music streaming services aim to make themselves stand out with slightly different features, audio quality and recommendation systems.
Ultimately, it may make sense for an Amazon Prime subscriber to go with Amazon Music, while Apple Music provides value to anyone with a few Apple products. But, if you’re shopping around, here’s everything you need to know.
The best music streaming services
Currently, we’d break down the best music streaming service options like this, but, note, things can change over time as prices increase or as new features launch.
Which music streaming services are the best value for money?
The main streaming services are competitive on price and on the size of the catalogue available. At the time of writing, this is what the individual tiers for the top players cost in the UK:
- Spotify Premium: £11.99 per month
- Apple Music: £10.99 per month
- Amazon Music Unlimited: £11.99 per month (unless you’re a Prime member)
- YouTube Music: £10.99 per month
- Deezer: £11.99 per month
- Tidal: £10.99 per month
- Qobuz: £12.99 per month
So, if your first question was “what is the cheapest music streaming service?” then the answer is either Apple Music, YouTube Music or Tidal. These are all pricematched at £10.99 a month.
Price won’t be the only thing you have to factor into your decision, though, so this buying guide covers the benefits of each service and why we’d recommend them.
Reasons to pick Apple Music
If you’re already in Apple’s world and have an iPhone, iPad and AirPods, it makes a lot of sense to pick Apple Music.
There are exclusive features that provide value for Apple users, like immersive spatial audio for listening over AirPods, access to highresolution music, and excellent performance when playing tracks via your HomePod or HomePod Mini. It’s also important to mention that Apple Music works just as well on the web, and has a great app for use on Android phones and tablets too.
That’s in addition to curated recommendations and dedicated radio stations. There’s also a student plan for £5.99 per month and a family plan for £16.99 per month.
Reasons to pick Amazon Music
For a competitive option at a sensible price – that drops to £10.99 a month if you’re on Prime – we recommend considering Amazon Music Unlimited.
Its main benefits are its colossal catalogue of CDquality content at no extra charge, loads of compatible devices (including Echo speakers like the Echo Dot, Echo Pop or Echo Studio) and Dolby Atmos spatial audio mixes. We don’t love the app interface or recommendations quite as much as rival services, but this is still a great pick for highres streaming at a reasonable price.
There’s also Amazon Music Prime, which is included with an Amazon Prime subscription without you paying any extra. It may be the best perk that you’re not using. You get over 100 million tracks, but it is shuffleonly so you can’t pick specific songs. However, it’s also adfree so you’re not going to be irritated by interruptions.
Reasons to pick Spotify Premium
Spotify offers some of the best value for money, delivering loads of personalised playlists and AIpowered algorithms. One thing that sets it apart is how it’s designed to bring music, podcasts, audiobooks and music videos all into one app.
It’s straightforward to use, offers offline downloads, and has several different tiers that make it good value. Its Spotify Duo plan, for instance, gives you two Premium accounts for “a couple under one roof” – this costs £16.99 per month, but you can reduce it by switching it to a “basic” Duo plan at £14.99 a month (the only thing you lose is audiobook access).
Other music streaming apps to consider
Beyond the most talkedabout options, we’d recommend Deezer as a good alternative to Spotify that offers a lot of useful features, CDquality music and radio stations. YouTube Music is good for YouTube fans as it comes included in a Premium subscription (primarily for advertfree video viewing and offline downloads) and has oneclick access to music videos.
We’d also suggest the likes of Tidal and Qobuz for audiophiles, thanks to their highresolution music catalogues (more on those later) and expertcurated playlists.
Music discovery and personalisation: Which streaming service does it best?
One of the biggest perks of streaming is the ability to discover new music without even trying. Whether you’re after forgotten favourites, new releases, or artists you’d never have found on your own, this is where each service’s recommendation engine comes in.
At the time of writing, we’re finding that Apple Music does this really well. It balances a great mix of editorial playlists, robust “For You” suggestions, curated mixes like “Favourites” and “New Music”, and a good mix of new tracks, as well as resurfacing old songs you’ve loved in the past.
Spotify is another good pick for music recommendations. It will give you personalised playlists – including “Discover Weekly”, “Release Radar”, “On Repeat” and more – as well as ones curated for you by mood, genre, time period and niches (our profile features a “Gentle Quiet Morning Mix”, for example).
The only downside we’ve found is that it can sometimes focus more on replaying the songs you already like rather than suggesting new ones. Spotify is also highly focused on AIdriven features like the “AI DJ” and an AI playlist called your “Daylist” – these features create custom playlists and provide “personalised” commentary on your listening habits. You may like them, or you may find them useless.
Audio quality and formats: Is a hires music streaming service worth it?
Music on most streaming services is usually compressed to save space by default, which is why some audiophiles may tell you that the sound quality isn’t great. But, before you splurge on highresolution audio, it’s worth knowing that the difference isn’t always easy to hear.
Whether you notice it depends on how trained your ears are and how good your headphones or speakers are. Even with the best wired headphones, it’s unlikely that most of us can hear anything significantly better in “lossless” audio when compared to regular streaming quality.
If sound quality really matters to you, though, many streaming services, including Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon and Deezer offer CDquality or better. Sometimes, it’s included in the regular price, sometimes you’ll have to pay more. Just know that for most people, the upgrade may not be all that dramatic.
Even when we tested it, we struggled to hear a real difference unless we used the most highend headphones. Also, keep in mind: highres audio files are bigger, so they’ll use up your data faster if you’re streaming on the go.
If you’re set on high resolution, though, these are the options:
- Qobuz feels custommade for music lovers. Its interface is clean and uncluttered, focusing on albums over playlists, and it helps you to feel like you’re sifting through an expansive music library. It offers curated playlists, editorial articles, interviews and guides within its “Magazine” tab, and offline downloads. The highresolution catalogue is extensive.
- With Tidal, you’ll get a huge supply of music in CD quality, highresolution and Dolby Atmos. It has an intuitive interface, which you won’t struggle to use if you’re used to Spotify, and it’s easy to use and available across loads of platforms. It’s a great crossplatform option with competitive pricing.
- Apple Music remains a great value option because it offers highresolution files to stream and download. It’s great for Apple users, but available on several other platforms too, and delivers widespread support for lossless and spatial audio tracks.
- Meanwhile, Amazon Music Unlimited features a vast library of songs available in “Ultra HD”, which means they’re highresolution, and this selection may be an even larger catalogue than on rivals.
- It’s worth noting that Deezer offers CD quality, YouTube Music doesn’t offer hires, and, while Spotify did announce plans for a “HiFi” tier, it hasn’t yet launched at the time of writing.
Platform integration
It’s worth thinking about the devices you’re going to use when streaming your music. You probably won’t need to worry too much if you’re mainly playing songs through a portable Bluetooth speaker, but this starts to become more of a concern if you want to use voice control to ask it to play tracks, mixes and albums over a smart speaker or an Alexa device.
We would suggest making sure your speaker has Alexa if that matters to you, or prioritising Siri and Apple Music support on Applemade speakers, like the HomePod and HomePod Mini. In general, though, you’ll find that the apps for streaming services are compatible across a wide range of devices. That even goes for Apple music; it’s not limited to Apple products.
Family and multiuser options
It makes sense to focus on the services that have a family tier if you want to pay once and share the music with multiple family members. Spotify, Deezer and Qobuz offer “Duo” plans too, with the ability to have two independent accounts within a single subscription – this can be great for couples.
Options for families are available from between £16.99 and £19.99 a month, offering six accounts in one plan with individual recommendations and the option of parental controls to restrict music for kids.
If this sounds like something you’re interested in, you’ll be deciding between Spotify Premium Family, Apple Music Family Sharing, Amazon Music Unlimited Family, Deezer Family, or Tidal Family.
Podcasts, audiobooks, and classical music: Which extras do you need?
If you’re just focused on music, additional perks like podcasts and audiobooks aren’t going to make a difference to you, and it’s quite straightforward to find podcasts in their own dedicated apps anyway. But, if you like the sound of these being included in the service, it’s worth looking out for and Spotify is wellregarded as an “allinone” solution.
Audiobooks can be a good extra too, allowing you to listen to a certain number of books within the same app you’re using for music. Once again, Spotify offers this benefit with a certain amount of listening hours allowed per month (15 hours, at the time of writing). Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers can also access the Audible audiobook library, with the ability to listen to one audiobook each month.
Classical music enthusiasts should go with Apple Music, as it includes access to the Apple Music Classical app. This is an extensive resource for both recent and traditional classical tracks, and you can search by composer, work, conductor and more, allowing easier access to various movements, or a way to hear the huge number of different recordings of famous classical pieces. It features stations chosen by Apple Music’s editors and timesynced listening guides to help you understand how the music was created.
Which are the best free music streaming services?
Some music streaming services offer a free, adsupported version that limits how many times you can skip songs. For an adfree, limitless listening experience, though, you’ll need to sign up for a monthly premium subscription.
We recommend picking the free tier of the service that you may eventually want to pay for, as you’ll be able to build up a listening history that will inform your future recommendations.
Reasons to pick Spotify Free
Chances are, you’ve already got a Spotify account. It’s the world’s largest music streaming platform, with over 500 million users. The free tier works well for getting access to the same full catalogue of over 100 million songs, but it’s only in shuffle mode, and you’ll just have to listen to an advert every now and then, with a limit of six skips per hour. It also still gives you personalised playlists, including Daily Mix, Discover Weekly and Release Radar.
Reasons to pick Amazon Music Free
Have an Amazon account? Then you already have access to free Amazon Music. You don’t need to have a Prime membership. Once you have the app on your phone, you’ll find you can listen to top playlists and thousands of stations, and you’ll hear adverts every three tracks or so. You can also only skip six songs per hour. It’s a solid option if you only need to play music on Echo speakers and Alexaenabled devices, and don’t mind ads.
Reasons to pick Deezer Free
There aren’t many differences between Spotify Free and Deezer Free. They both offer a similar selection of music and you can listen in shuffle mode with occasional adverts, with Deezer serving up personalised playlists and a great “Flow” playlist that we like for how it gives you an infinite mix of your favourites and new tracks to discover. We also like how Deezer has radio stations built into the app, and we found it easy to tune into Heart, Capital and Sky News.
What is the cheapest music app for students?
Some streaming services offer students reduced prices for their premium plans – these include Spotify Student (£5.99 per month), Deezer Student (£5.99 per month), Amazon Music Student (£5.99 per month), Apple Music Student (£5.99 per month) – and you’ll need to confirm eligibility with your UNiDAYS account or TOTUM card.
Simon Cocks is Good Housekeeping UK’s Technology Editor, overseeing tech shopping content and strategy for the title. He previously also worked across other titles including Esquire UK, Digital Spy, Men’s Health UK and Women’s Health UK.
Simon specialises in testing the latest smart gadgets, home entertainment gear, headphones, speakers, portable chargers, radios, ebook readers and smartphones. He’s reviewed top tech products from brands including Google, Apple, Amazon, JBL and Bose.
A magazine journalism graduate from Kingston University in 2014, Simon also worked on the Discovery and Silkroad inflight magazines. He then gained experience writing about entertainment at SFX and Total Film. He also contributed reviews and interviews to TwitchFilm (later ScreenAnarchy), CultBox and Frame Rated.
He joined Good Housekeeping UK as the Editorial Assistant for Special Projects and was part of Good Housekeeping’s Consumer Affairs Team between 2014 and 2019. In this role, he conducted price comparison research, wrote detailed household and moneysaving advice guides and edited thousands of indepth reviews for the Good Housekeeping Institute.
He has focused on technology and gadgets since 2020, where he started by testing out power banks and instant cameras. He writes reviews, roundups, news articles and deals updates, and also covers top tech deals during sales like Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
When not testing out the latest gizmos, you’ll find Simon either catching up with the newest releases at his local cinema or out shooting with his beloved compact camera.
You can follow Simon on Instagram, on Bluesky, on LinkedIn and on Threads.
