There has never been more music to listen to, nor have fans ever faced greater choices on how they’ll listen. While YouTube Music and Spotify take up most of streaming’s bandwidth, deep-pocketed rivals such as Amazon Prime and Apple Music are making a push for your eardrums, and disruptors from Tidal to Qobuz hope to stand out by tweaking or improving the listener experience.
So which is best? Well, that depends a lot on your needs. Are you mindful of artist payout rates, or more concerned about your own wallet? Do you crave a top-shelf audio experience? Do you care about podcasts? Is there ever a reason to bust out Pandora?
Consequence is here to help. Our streaming guide ranks eight of the best and most popular streaming platforms on a wide variety of criteria, from the easily quantifiable (how much does it cost?) to more poetical concerns (how good is the sound of the drum break on Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight?”). Read on to find the platform most suited to your needs.
Amazon Music
Price
Amazon has three different tiers of their music platform: Free, Unlimited, and Prime. The free version only requires an Amazon account and features a wide library of songs and podcasts — but not all. Similar to Pandora, there’s a skip limit, meaning when you listen to a radio or playlist, there are only so many songs you can skip in a row. Amazon Music: Free also has ads.
Meanwhile, anyone who has an Amazon Prime subscription is automatically eligible for the Prime tier of Amazon Music, which has no skip-limits and allows listeners to shuffle-play albums, playlist, and artist catalogs (except for special All-Access Playlists, which offer on-demand streaming for the Prime tier).
To leverage the ultimate experience out of Amazon Music, though, the Unlimited tier is the cream of the crop. Priced at $9.99/month for Amazon Prime subscribers (and $10.99/month for non-subscribers), it gives users access to Amazon’s full music and podcast library on or offline, with unlimited skips and an ad-free listening experience. Additionally, the Unlimited tier was recently integrated with Audible, granting users access to over 1 million audiobooks.
Currently, Amazon is also offering a three-month free trial for Amazon Music Unlimited.
Podcasts?
Yes! Amazon Music has an extensive podcast library. Add in the Audible integration, and the platform has a vast offering of spoken-word content.
Audio Quality
The audio quality is solid, and has been improving in recent years. Though it’s not quite on the same level as platforms like Qobuz or Tidal, it still provides an excellent listening experience, including access to CD-quality recordings. Plus, Amazon Music offers a growing selection of spatial audio content mastered in Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that speakers matter — many Amazon Music streamers will use Alexa or Fire TV to stream, which are convenient options, but if you want a true deep listen, you may want to opt for headphones.
How Good Does the Drum Break on “In the Air Tonight” Sound on This Service?
On quality speakers, it absolutely gets the job done.
Artist Payouts
Amazon Music offers artists roughly $0.004 per stream. An artist would need 250,000 streams to earn $1,000 in royalties.
Biggest Strength
Amazon Prime is already a very popular platform for shopping and streaming TV and movies, so it’s definitely a strength that they essentially offer unlimited music streaming with the package. Plus, it easily integrates with Amazon products.
Additionally, for those who prefer spoken-word content, podcasts and audiobooks are also very well-represented on Amazon music — considering the Audible integration, they may be the strongest choice for this of any streamer.
Biggest Flaw
The free tier isn’t much, considering the skip limit, reduced library, and ads. The unlimited tier, on the other hand, has a wide-ranging library, but can be a bit unintuitive to navigate because of the user-interface design.
Subscribe if you…
Already have Amazon Prime, or want higher-quality audio for a cheaper price. Amazon’s library is huge, and the connection to actually purchasing physical records or merchandise from artists via Amazon is a nice plus.
Additionally, there seems to be a larger focus on using Amazon Music as a radio a la Pandora rather than building your own library of songs, so if that’s the type of music streamer you are, it’s a good fit.