Best music streaming services in 2024

Hero image for best music streaming services (L-R) the Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal logos
(Image credit: Apple; Spotify; Tidal)

Spotify ranks top among the best music streaming services in the world thanks to its huge music and podcast libraries and sophisticated music suggestion tools — and it could soon get lossless audio. It has over 350 million users and 150 million subscribers (according to a music streaming market report by Business of Apps), but there are plenty of reasons why you might want to consider an alternative to align with your listening habits. 

The best music streaming services may all seem similar, but key differentiating factors can make one service more suitable to some music listeners than others. You might already have subscriptions to one of these top services, but if you're weighing up the pros and cons of your current platform, we're here to help you find out which alternative option you might want to consider. 

As Tom's Guide's audio editor and a hi-fi hobbyist, I care a lot about each streaming service's user experience, sound quality, and value for money. I've had hands-on experience with most music streaming services available today, and am ideally placed to highlight the pros and cons of each service. Read on to discover my pick of the best music streaming services available.

Recent updates

Update June, 2024: New entry added for SiriusXM internet radio streaming service.

What are the best music streaming services? 

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.

At the top of our list of the best music streaming services is Tidal. It was the first to offer lossless audio with its HiFi tier delivering CD-quality sound (16-bit/44.1kHz). Its HiFi and HiFi Plus streaming plans have been merged into one plan that brings access to Tidal's entire lossless and hi-res (up to 24-bit/192kHz) audio library, as well as Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio content for $10.99 per month. That's the same price as Apple Music

Tidal has an extensive music library, wide platform support, and it sounds great. It also supports artists through its transparent remuneration policy.

Apple Music now costs $10.99 per month but offers full CD-quality streams as well as hi-res and spatial audio content. It's great value, has a large library (now over 100 million), and the excellent and easy-to-use interface gives it further appeal. Only the lack of full hi-res support with Windows desktops may limit its appeal for some users.

Whether you're hunting down the best Bluetooth speakers, best wireless earbuds, best audiophile headphones, or best AV receivers, music streaming services are not all the same, and signing up to the right service and audio quality can influence your overall music experience.

The best music streaming services now

Best music streaming service for lossless and hi-res

The Tidal official logo

(Image credit: Tidal)

1. Tidal

Best sound and hi-res audio support

Specifications

Library size: >110 million tracks
Formats: 16/44.1 to 24/192 FLAC and MQA
Free trial period: 30 days
Artist payout per stream: $0.0125 to $0.015

Reasons to buy

+
Sound quality
+
Music library with hi-res content
+
Clear artist remuneration policy

Reasons to avoid

-
No annual subscription plan
-
Limited platform integration
Swipe to scroll horizontally
PlanTidalDJ Extension
Individual$10.99 / £10.99 / AU$12.99 $9.00 / £9.00
Family (up to 6 accounts)$16.99 / £16.99 / AU$19.99 Row 1 - Cell 2
Student$4.99 / £4.99 / AU$5.99 Row 2 - Cell 2

If it’s the music that primarily concerns you, and you’re prepared to pay to listen to it, there’s only one place to put your subscription money — and that’s Tidal. 

Tidal HiFi and HiFi Plus packages have been rolled into one new ad-free Tidal plan that combines all of the service's premium features for $10.99 / £10.99 / AU$12.99 per month. 

Tidal streams in lossless CD-quality at 1,411kbps , while hi-res content mastered in Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos spatial audio, plus millions of true high-resolution audio tracks known as Tidal Masters stream at a giddy 9,216kbps. As of 2023, Tidal has been moving away from MQA and now streams hi-res content in FLAC

Sound quality is pure musical pleasure no matter what you listen on. If, however, you have a compatible system that can realize the full resolution of a Tidal Masters file, you will be rewarded with a rich and detailed presentation that's worth the extra outlay. You don’t need to be an audiophile or spend a fortune on headphones to hear the benefit, you just have to listen.

Plus, if you’re at all bothered about artist remuneration, subscribers to Tidal HiFi Plus can take comfort in the knowledge that almost 10% of their subscription fee is shared between the artists you listen to the most.

Best music streaming service for spatial audio

Apple Music logo in white on a red background

(Image credit: Apple Music)
Impressive music library with strongest selection of spatial audio content

Specifications

Library size: >100 million tracks
Formats: 16/44.1 to 24/96 ALAC
Free trial period: 30 days up to 6 months
Artist payout per stream: $0.006 and $0.007

Reasons to buy

+
Extensive music library
+
CD-quality audio at no extra cost
+
Excellent sound quality 

Reasons to avoid

-
Hi-res content won't play on Windows desktops
-
Limited integration outside of iOS
Swipe to scroll horizontally
PlanApple Music
Individual$10.99 / £10.99 / AU$12.99
Family (up to 6 accounts)$16.99 / £16.99 / AU$25.95
Student$5.99 / £5.99 / AU$5.99
Annual$109.99 / £109.99

Apple has made an impressive journey to the digital music streaming service it is today. Starting as the iTunes downloads platform, it morphed (as consumer listening and buying habits changed) into the Apple Music streaming giant we have now. In a more recent surprise move, Apple Music upgraded its audio quality output from compressed lo-res audio files to full CD-quality music files as a bare minimum, with little fanfare and no extra charge. Existing subscribers suddenly had access to high-quality music streams without needing to lift a finger. Another reason to ditch Spotify comes with the news that Apple Music now has over 100 million songs available.

This all points to big benefits for quality audio consumers who are reaping the audio rewards along with Apple's spatial audio advances on some content, which help to make it the biggest rival to Spotify right now and better value than a Spotify Premium subscription

Sound quality is top-notch and when it comes to resolution and bit rate, Apple Music's "lossless" delivers full “CD-quality” at 16-bit/44.1kHz and up to 24-bit/192kHz for true Hi-Res Audio. The only slight downside is that hi-res output is not supported on Windows desktops.

Best music streaming service for value

Amazon Music Unlimited desktop

(Image credit: Amazon)

3. Amazon Music Unlimited

High-quality audio but clunky interface

Specifications

Library size: >100 million tracks
Formats: 16/44.1 to 24/96 FLAC
Free trial period: Up to 90 days
Artist royalty payout: $0.004 to $0.008

Reasons to buy

+
Extensive music library
+
Good sound quality
+
Reduced price with Amazon Prime 

Reasons to avoid

-
Some desktop audio output issues
-
Complicated pricing structure
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PlanAmazon MusicAmazon Music with Prime
Individual$10.99 / £10.99 / AU$12.99$9.99 / £9.99
Family (up to 6 accounts)$16.99 / £17.99 / AU$20.99-
Single device$5.99 / £5.99 / AU$6.99-
Student$5.99 / £5.99 / AU$5.99-
Annual-$99 / £99

Operating as a separate Amazon streaming tier from its Amazon Music service, Amazon Music Unlimited offers a very strong 100 million songs in its library with access to CD-quality streams and higher, and supports both Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio content. The service is less focused on curated content than some of its rivals, though, and the playlist it generates appear to be rather generic.

Amazon Prime members now have access to Amazon Music Unlimited library in shuffle mode, bringing its full catalog at no additional cost to their membership. The only catch is that you'll need to pay more to get to "All-Access" on-demand streaming that isn't stuck on shuffle mode.  

Configured to work with the best Alexa compatible devices, third-party platform integration is slowly being more widely supported. The sound delivery from Amazon's CD-quality content via the desktop app is glitch-free, but there are some issues when selecting hi-res content that defaults to your laptop's internal audio output settings. This can effectively mean that a hi-res 24/96 audio file is down-sampled to 24/48. There doesn't appear to be any way to override this in the app, and you have to resort to continually adjusting the settings of your laptop to ensure that it's outputting full-fat hi-res audio.

Best music streaming service with a free tier

Spotify logo displayed on phone

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

4. Spotify Premium

Rich feature set and integration, but audio quality lags behind

Specifications

Library size: >100 million tracks
Formats: Ogg/Vorbis up to 320kbps
Free trial period: 30 days
Artist royalty payout: Approx. $0.003 to $0.005

Reasons to buy

+
Strongest platform support
+
Extensive curated content features
+
Social media integration
+
Great ease of use and reliable search tool

Reasons to avoid

-
Audio quality is bettered by rivals
-
Poor artist remuneration
Swipe to scroll horizontally
PlanSpotify Premium
Individual$10.99 / £10.99 / AU$12.99
Premium Duo$14.99 / £14.99 / AU$17.99
Family (up to 6 accounts)$16.99 / £17.99 / AU$20.99
Student$5.99 / £5.99 / AU$6.99
Annual-

If you can tolerate ads between songs that interrupt your music streaming experience, then Spotify can be yours for free. Frankly, though, you get a miserly 96kbps or 160kbps audio quality at best, which is chronically inadequate for any musical enjoyment in our experience. 

Spotify's prices are about to increase, but for now a Premium subscription fee is $10.99. Spotify Premium streams run at 320kbps, which is better than the free version but still not great. Although Spotify's audio format does do an effective job at delivering an engaging sound at around one-third of the data rate of rival services, if you listen closely on a good set of headphones or speakers, it's possible to hear the differences in detail levels when compared to the same content played via a service that takes audio quality more seriously. 

Spotify has been promising a ‘HiFi’ tier of its own since 2021 — but details (of the launch date, the number of titles that will be available, and what it means by ‘HiFi’ in this context) remain sketchy, although recent rumors hint that it could get bundled into the oddly named forthcoming 'Supremium' tier.

One of Spotify's strengths is its integration with social media, which is the best of any we've experienced. You can share Spotify content on Instagram and Facebook, and create links to share playlists on pretty much any messaging platform. 

Lastly, Spotify has been in the spotlight over artist remuneration in the past, and although some progress has been made, Spotify doesn’t pay a set amount per stream of each individual song. Instead, it calculates a ‘stream share’ by totaling up the number of streams per month and estimates the proportion of those that were for a particular artist or song. It’s probably more easily expressed as “give most of the money to Ed and Taylor."

Best internet radio service

SiriusXM

(Image credit: Future)

Specifications

Library size: 425+ channels
Formats: Not specified
Trial period: 3 months for $1
Artist royalty payout: N/A

Reasons to buy

+
425+ audio/video channels
+
Multi-platform accessibility
+
Personal recommendations
+
Pause and rewind playback

Reasons to avoid

-
Can’t play a specific song
-
No desktop app
-
Web interface feels sluggish
Swipe to scroll horizontally
PlanPlatinumMusic & entertainmentMusic showcaseAll access
Features425+ channels including 165+ in car400+ channels including 155+ in car100+ including 80+ in car425+ channels app only
Individual$23.99$18.99$13.99$9.99
Family friendly$22.99$17.99Row 2 - Cell 3 Row 2 - Cell 4
Student$4.00Row 3 - Cell 2 Row 3 - Cell 3 Row 3 - Cell 4

Available to U.S. subscribers only, SiriusXM is an internet radio streaming service that lets you tune into live music, talk, and sports radio stations as well as access a library of hundreds of on-demand channels including podcasts and videos. Subscribers can listen on a computer, smartphone, tablet, or via a wide range of car kits. It's an evolved radio streaming approach with an interface that enables listener's find other stations that fit their listening habits.

There are hundreds of channels to choose from. Some of the stations are live, with DJs guiding you — our review found these better than Spotify’s AI DJ. Other stations are pre-programmed without a host. The channels are all ad-free, but that’s only if you don’t count the frequent station IDs and cross-promotions. The app does a good job of suggesting channels and shows based on your listening patterns, and sound quality was decent throughout our trial.

There's no way to select a particular song you want to hear, but SiriusXM is a useful add-on to one of the streaming services above.

How to choose the best music streaming services for you

Unlike the best streaming video services, you're unlikely to want more than one subscription to a music streaming service. It's all about picking the right platform and audio-quality content that's right for your budget. 

It's important to consider the device you're most likely to use it on and how you interact with your friends and family over the music you enjoy listening to. You may want to share some of your listening habits with friends and family, for example. 

Although the pricing structures have remained pretty static in light of growing competition while audio quality and features have improved, there are still some who don't want to pay to listen to music. If you care about music and the artists that produce the content you enjoy listening to though, there's never been a better time to consider how these services compensate the musicians whose work they offer up. Spotify's long had a bad reputation for its remuneration policy, but if you want to see how it compares to Apple and Tidal read our look at who pays artists more?

How we test the best music streaming services

Testing music streaming services is both serious work and good fun. As you'd imaging, we spend a lot of time listening on a selection of the best audiophile headphones as well as a selection of the best wireless headphones to build a picture of how each of the services sound. We listen to a selection of music tracks that can be found across each of the platforms and evaluate audio performance at different resolutions. As well as the test material, we also listen extensively to a wider selection of content and assess additional features to see how well they are implemented.    

We rate the streaming services on a 5-point system (1 = worst, 5 = best). Products that excel in one or more particular fields and that's rated 4 stars or above may also receive an Editor’s Choice award.

More from Tom's Guide

Lee Dunkley
Audio Editor

After 2.5 years as Tom's Guide's audio editor, Lee has joined the passionate audio experts at audiograde.uk where he writes about luxury audio and Hi-Fi. As a former editor of the U.K.'s Hi-Fi Choice magazine, Lee is passionate about all kinds of audio tech and has been providing sound advice to enable consumers to make informed buying decisions since he joined Which? magazine as a product tester in the 1990s. Lee covers all things audio for Tom's Guide, including headphones, wireless speakers and soundbars and loves to connect and share the mindfulness benefits that listening to music in the very best quality can bring.

  • Keylard
    Please include Qobuz with these services. Its library has caught up and it has great sound quality and it deserves a big mention.
    Reply
  • m_j_s
    Yes, you’ve missed out Qobuz, which has a great library and arguably is the best service in terms of quality and definitely hi rez files in particular
    Reply
  • Mirtma
    I'm surprised you didn't include Deezer.
    Reply