Which Music Streaming Service Is For You?

With Apple and Tidal entering the fray this year, the music-streaming game is getting more competitive than ever. Here are four of the biggest on-demand streaming platforms available. All of the following services start at $10 a month and have offline playback, a must for travelers without access to the Internet.

Spotify

The reigning champ of streaming continues to defend its keep of 75 million people streaming tracks and sharing their playlists online. Spotify continually releases updates and redesigns for its community of users, though some artists like Taylor Swift and Thom Yorke are displeased with the company and have pulled their catalogue from the service.

Google Play

Play was originally released in 2011 as a cloud storage system for your music, allowing you to access your MP3 files from any device connected to the Internet. From there, Google nurtured their service into one of the most underrated platforms available. The best part is that membership gets you access to ad-free music videos on Youtube.

Apple Music

The pioneer of selling digital music was surprisingly complacent in implementing a streaming service. Apple Music’s free trial released earlier this year has been plagued with bugs and a lack of sign-ups, but there is still promise for the young service to improve. Taylor Swift is on it, but no Beatles as of yet. There’s also B1 Radio, Apple’s own Internet radio station with hosts like Dr. Dre and Zane Lowe.

Tidal

Tidal is a few months older than Apple Music but has sadly become more known for its launch party debacle. One notable feature of Tidal is the availability of pristine, lossless audio for $20 a month, something that’s not available on most other platforms, except for Neil Young’s ridiculous Pono Player.