For those eager to take the plunge into the future, to “rent” their music and finally lay that crate of Depeche Mode cassingles to rest rightfully in Mom and Dad’s attic, here’s a breakdown of the major players in the music streaming biz and their competing bells and whistles.
Spotify
The so-called iTunes of streaming music, Spotify may be the most popular of the music streamers with its extensive library, Facebook integration, and a little press on Taylor Swift’s announcement that she’d be pulling her music from the service. On its free tier, Spotify is like a glorified radio service with ads – while on the premium tier, it’s less like radio and more like an access code to an unimaginably vast music library. Spotify’s private browsing feature, and the option to send songs and albums to your other Spotify friends, make it the most widely used music streamer to date.
It’s not all hugs and handshakes, though. It’s got some gaping holes in its library, particularly from the less contemporary side of ’70s rock. Though artists receive small royalties from the service (even from those who stream on the free tier), more than a few in the industry are crying foul on its motives.
Summary: Spotify is the music streaming service that has the biggest library, and almost all of your friends are using it.
Google Play All Access
At first shake, Google Play All Access seemed like a shoddy web player for Android loyalists to upload their music and then stream it back. Thankfully, they’ve tightened the design and made it cross-functional on both Android and iOS. Like Google, it is web based and it offers patented “I’m feeling lucky” instant mixes. It also features its very own “discover new music” option. Ultimately though, its major appeal seems to be for those who already have large local libraries of music files that they’d like to upload into a veritable cloud. Users can add their own obscure music to the 30 million pre-existing songs in the library for a zany mix of old faves and hot new cuts.
Summary: Google Play All Access is a great meat-n-potatoes music streamer for those who already own lots of music and simply want some supplementation from the world’s biggest search engine.
Tidal
You’ve heard about Tidal, right? It’s Jay-Z’s newest venture, an artist-owned and equally artist-centric music service aiming to put artists firmly back in control of their own work. The service doesn’t offer a free tier, but it does have two subscription models for users loaded with subscriber-only content. For example, Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money,” wasn’t available on any other platform but Tidal when it debuted. A premium account costs $9.99 (like spotify) and a hifi account costs $19.99 for higher quality audio – which seems a little ridiculous and overpriced.
If we’re being honest, Tidal looks a lot like Spotify, but distinguishes itself by offering HD Videos, audiophile music quality, and of course, the warm satisfaction of directly supporting the artists who make the music. It’s still a little early to make much of a call on Tidal’s future – and Jay-Z’s aggressive Twitter defenses might be fueling a little suspicion as to where it’s heading. But in principle? Mr. Hova, you’ve got a good thing going. Thanks for not going all “Metallica vs. Napster” on everybody.
Summary: Jay-Z owns it and wants to make sure artists get paid for their work. Who’s gonna argue with that? Let’s give it a few months.
Bandcamp
Hooray! The internet has democratized everything and now EVERYONE can be in a band! Problem is, not everyone can (or wants) to get their music onto Spotify. Bandcamp is for the nitty gritty, down-in-the-dirt, just-made-this-on-my-laptop types. It allows artists to sell their music (featuring a “name your own price” tool) and offers a superb mobile streaming app in which users can listen to their collected music. It’s plenty social too, and even allows for users to post reviews of the music they download: an essential tool for independent musicians looking to distribute their work and for users to connect.
Summary: Like things off the beaten path? Wanna check out your stoner roommate’s psychedelic garage band? Wanna drop your own mixtape? Here’s how.
Apple Music
The Apple giant strikes again, this time with a premium music service. You can have access to over 30 million songs, your iTunes library, unlimited skips, the exclusive Apple radio and much more for a flat rate of $9.99 a month or $14.99 for families. If you want a celebrity’s two cents on this emerging platform, Drake does love Apple Music. The singer was previously in discussion to join Tidal, but later endorsed the service at Apple’s 2015 WWDC, stating that they helped him reach stardom in just five years. Apple Music has tons of great features, but comes short on its interface. There are hundreds of complaints about the confusing navigation Apple designed, such as the “For You,” “New,” “Radio,” “Connect,” and “My Music” tabs. Hopefully we can see an Apple Music update in the near feature.
Summary:
If you listen to your iTunes playlists daily and love to discover new emerging artists Apple Music is the way to go.
