Who said Spotify should be your only option when it comes to streaming music? A few years back when there were fewer choices, the decision to go with Spotify might have been easier, which is why it now has over 365 million users worldwide.
Fast forward to 2022, where a lot has changed, and people no longer feel the need to rely solely on Spotify for streaming music.
Nowadays, the market is filled with numerous streaming music services, but only a few make it to our recommendations. From playlist creation, to personalized suggestions and a gigantic library of tracks, to seamless compatibility across all devices—these platforms offer each and everything.
Now you have access to billions of tracks at a single tap of the phone, and finding your next favorite artist, or the track that you can listen to on loop, is easier than ever.
The tricky part is to decide which streaming services to choose as they all offer a combination of sound quality, library sizes, compatibility, and prices. This is why we have compiled this guide that will go over, in in-depth detail, the features of the top music streaming applications.
Reasons Why Millions Love Music
Music’s popularity is immune to the changes the world has had to go through over the last two-years. But music lovers, lured by music’s universal appeal and glued to millions of other hearts through music’s power to connect, have listened on, pandemic or no pandemic.
Every year a lot of different people, from different cultures and walks of life, flock to attend festivals. Whatever your musical bent, there are a wide array of musical genres playing at festivals to satisfy everybody’s tastes.
For instance, classical music fans would like a visit to the festival for classical music lovers, where the music artist pays tribute to the classic artists of the past. All the classic music lovers look forward to the performances of their favorite classical bands and be a part of a uniting experience with fellow classical music enthusiasts.
Best Music Streaming Applications Of 2022
The music industry is saturated with different streaming music applications that differ from each other in terms of compatibility, monthly price, and other factors. With the amount of freely-available music on these platforms, the prices don’t matter a lot.
Here are the top apps that offer the best streaming music experience in 2022:
1. Spotify
It is still the best music streaming service, first launched in 2008, and its library offers more than 70 million tracks and 2 million podcasts. It definitely doesn’t come as a surprise when you find that it has more than 365 million users globally, a number that keeps growing.
It’s the pioneer music streaming application in the industry and offers the best service. It offers unique services like Discover Weekly playlists, Stations, Spotify Lite, Spotify HiFi, and constantly innovates with the offerings.
All this allows Spotify to meet users’ demands for intuitive experience at affordable rates. Undeniably, it stands out from other competitors due to its fantastic recommendation algorithm, customized playlists, social tools, and device compatibility.
There is no doubt that Spotify’s catalog, constant attempts at improving user experience, user-friendly interface, customized playlist, major exclusives, access to podcasts, and affordability features prove to be the secret sauce in its success with music lovers.
Its intelligence algorithm makes up for a personalized listening experience, making it the best music-streaming service to date.
2. Pandora
When it comes to free music applications, Pandora stands out, and for good reason as well, as the customary choice for millions. The Music Genome Project powers Pandora with a commitment to offering information with tracks.
The pricing of Pandora is almost the same as the other streaming apps in the market, making it affordable yet competitive. But it lacks innovations and a personalized listening experience and tends to stick with the basic features. The key advantage of Pandora is its flexibility in meeting every user’s needs at a different price point.
Its core features include offline listening with the download option, on-demand playback, ad-supported playback, audio quality, and a vast library of stations. But when a user opts for a paid plan, it becomes an ad-free and uninterrupted music streaming service.
3. Apple Music
Apple Music comes in as a close second to Spotify, and it provides its users with more than 75 million songs to choose from. Not only this, it offers a friendly interface and compatibility on Android as well as iOS.
Besides, it has spatial audio albums available absolutely free of cost. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Apple Music is your best choice if you are invested in the Apple ecosystem.
There are loads of curated playlists of musical artists to enjoy, but, unfortunately, the platform lacks a steady sharing option. Its algorithm makes it easier for users to discover new music that aligns with their tastes.
Moreover, it offers spatial and hi-resolution music for just $10 per month. It has a digital locker for storing your own song library. With Apple Music, the users can easily combine their iTunes library with music lockers. In short, it is the go-to choice for people enmeshed in the Apple ecosystem.
4. Amazon Prime Music
Amazon Prime Music comes as a free added bonus along with Prime’s other memberships, but, the premium version offers unlimited music along with other music-related benefits. Music Unlimited offers original HD service with millions of lossless tracks and spatial remixes. Amazon Prime gives its users access to more than 2 million stream on-demand songs at no extra price.
All of the above features are compatible with iOS/Android devices and offered on Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos soundbars. Additionally, in terms of usability, the interface consists of playlists, podcasts, and other features designed to pique audiophiles’ interests.
It is indeed the most budget-friendly paid music streaming service with access to Hi-res and spatial audio. Moreover, it has the added functionality to automatically display lyrics on the ‘now playing’ screen.
The best bit: it comes with no advertisements and works exceptionally well with Alexa.
Bottom Line
Undeniably the world of music streaming apps at times might feel impossibly overwhelming to navigate. Both musicians and music lovers have access to an abundance of music resources and applications that can meet their need for the tunes. This guide was meant as a primer on what music apps are popular among music lovers that you need to try out in 2022.
