Technologies

Spotify, Apple Music and more: What’s the best music app for you?

We compare the big streaming music services.

Sure, all the audiophiles and cool kids are talking about a vinyl resurgence and squabbling over the best turntables. But admit it, streaming music still is the most convenient way to listen to your favorite songs. While streaming used to mean sacrificing sound quality, that’s no longer the case. In fact, streaming music can sound indistinguishable from, or even superior to, an old-fashioned CD.

The question is, which streaming music service is best for you? We checked out Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer and Pandora Premium to see how each platform stacks up for your subscription buck. While most offer music catalogs of over 50 million songs, each has its own unique pros and cons. We’ve also left out services that only play music in a radio format and don’t offer a la carte listening to allow you to select your own songs.

Services typically charge $10 a month and don’t have a contract, but swapping between them isn’t as straightforward as TV streaming. If you don’t want to rebuild your playlists and library from scratch when you switch, you have two main options — a music locker service such as YouTube Music, or the library import tool Soundiiz. The latter option can read the library from each of your music services and transfer them, and while there’s a $4.50 monthly charge, you can always cancel once you’ve converted your library.

So which music streaming services offer the best combination of price, sound quality and library size? Read on to find an in-depth look at each of the services and a feature comparison, along with a full price breakdown in the chart at the bottom of the page. We’ll update this list periodically. And if you want the TL;DR, these are the top three.

The best of the rest

Amazon Music Unlimited

Amazon Music Unlimited is the «grownup» (a.k.a. paid) version of Amazon Prime Music, which any Prime subscriber gets for «free.» It offers a greatly expanded catalog for an extra outlay per month: $8 for Prime members and $10 if you don’t have Prime. Rather than focusing on the cutting edge of music as some others here do, the Amazon music service features recommended playlists and radio stations that are grouped around artists you’ve already listened to.

The Good

Cheaper than the top three if you’re an Amazon Prime member
Lyrics automatically pop up on the «now playing» screen
Offers free music stations for Amazon Echo, Echo Dot ($17 at Amazon) and Amazon Tap (includes ads)
Step-up Amazon Prime Music HD service ($12.99 for Prime members) includes high-res and surround music from Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos

The Bad

Artist profiles don’t have biographies
Officially advertised as «tens of millions» of tracks strong, it’s unclear if the catalog is quite as large as its competitors
The service no longer includes a music locker

Best for: Amazon Prime members who want to save a few bucks on a decent music catalog

YouTube Music

YouTube Music is the successor to Google Play Music, and if you sign up for the ad-free YouTube Premium you get YouTube Music thrown in for free. The good news is that YouTube Music is a mostly impressive service, and Google has retained the predecessor’s music locker system. If you have a legacy Google Play Music account you may be able to still transfer your library over to YouTube Music. And it’s not just legacy content: YouTube Music allows users to upload new tracks to its online music locker, too.

In even better news, YouTube Music offers a cleaner interface than Google Play Music. Instead of playlists, YouTube Music offers well-curated radio stations, which are the standout features. Unlike playlists, which are finite and contain specific tracks, radio stations play endlessly and are updated often.

The Good

Monthly fee includes subscription to YouTube Music: commercial-free streaming on YouTube and YouTube Music
Over 40 million tracks
Retains Google Play Music’s music locker system: You can transfer existing songs from the old service, plus upload new ones in YouTube Music

The Bad

The continued existence of Google Play Music is confusing for existing users

Best for: Heavy YouTube users and Android device users.

Pandora Premium

One of the most popular streaming radio services in the US, Pandora also offers the a la carte Premium ($10 a month)and no-ads Plus ($5 a month). The result is more flexibility than most competitors, and Premium has gained plenty more subscribers in recent years, even if the service is behind in terms of overall catalog size.

The Good

One of the largest user bases, thanks to its free version
Pandora’s Music Genome Project analyzes each track according to 450 different attributes in order to give better suggestions

The Bad

Its audio quality is among the lowest available, even on the Premium subscription (192Kbps)
It doesn’t really offer enough of an incentive for an upgrade from the free tier compared to the others here
Not available outside the US

Best for: Pandora Premium is of most interest to people who already use Pandora and want to be able to pick exactly what they listen to. We’d recommend it to almost no one else.

Qobuz

Qobuz launched in the US in February 2019 with a clean interface, hi-res audio streams (which unlike Tidal’s don’t need an MQA decoder) and the ability to buy lossless music. It offers two plans — the hi-res Studio Premier for $15 a month and the $249 annual Sublime Plus, which offers discounts on the store. At 50 million tracks, Qobuz’s streaming catalog isn’t quite at the level of Tidal or Spotify, but it should be sufficient for everything but the more obscure artists.

The Good

The app is really clean and fun to use
Ability to listen to 24-bit music without needing a specialized decoder
One of the most affordable hi-res services
First 24-bit streaming service on Sonos

The Bad

Some gaps in the catalog

Best for: Audiophiles who want hi-res music for a decent price plus the ability to buy and download albums

Deezer

French stalwart Deezer has been operating in the States since 2016, and it has a lot to offer, including a free tier (mobile only) and 56 million tracks. It has more than subscribers than some others on this list thanks, in part, to its previous affiliation with Cricket Wireless. The main Premium plan is $10 a month but users are also able to upgrade to a lossless version (CD quality) for $15 a month. While it reportedly boasts more users than Tidal, the service doesn’t offer enough to differentiate it from its similarly priced competitors.

What else do you need to know?

Streaming radio vs. on-demand

This guide covers on-demand music streaming services, and for that reason, we’ve purposely left out services that only play music in a radio format. Until recently this list excluded Pandora, but now that the company also offers a Premium tier we’ve included it here. Slacker Radio, TuneIn and iHeartRadio are other radio-style services that play music stations based around a theme or artist, without you explicitly picking tracks.

Music lockers: Your MP3s in the cloud

Amazon was one of the first services to offer uploading your MP3 collection into the cloud, but this was officially discontinued in 2018. Meanwhile, the Apple and Google services listed either allow you to combine your personal music collection with the streaming catalog, though tagging and organization can be a time-consuming challenge (your myriad live Phish tracks won’t organize themselves). Still, if you’ve invested money in digital music over the years, those two services offer a patch to continue enjoying that music online.

Music catalog sizes compared

The number of songs offered by a music service used to be one of the main differentiators, but most now have between 50 million and 70 million songs or more. However, depending on your favored genre, some of them have a more robust catalog that include many under-the-radar, indie or hip-hop artists. If you’re musically inclined, constantly on the hunt for your favorite new band, a streaming service like Spotify or Tidal may be more up your alley. Users who are less ambitious about expanding their musical taste will be satisfied with the smaller catalogs Amazon Music Unlimited or Pandora offer. Apple Music is somewhere in the middle, offering a healthy mix of mainstream tunes and underground unknowns.

Technologies

Resident Evil Requiem Revealed, but Where’s Leon Kennedy?

The Resident Evil 9 trailer showed off a new character, but not the much-rumored return of Leon.

After a fake-out earlier in Summer Game Fest on Friday, Resident Evil Requiem, or Resident Evil 9, was shown for the first time.

The new title is the first mainline entry since Capcom released Resident Evil Village in 2021, and is rumored to feature series stalwart Leon Kennedy. In the trailer, the only person we saw was a character named Grace Ashcroft, who works for the FBI and appears to have ties to Raccoon City.

For the most hardcore Resident Evil fans, the name Ashcroft will ring a bell. Alyssa Ashcroft was one of the survivors of the online-only title, Resident Evil Outbreak for the PS2. Alyssa was a journalist who was trapped in Raccoon City during the events of Resident Evil 2, and she, along with other survivors, had to escape the city before it was destroyed.

Grace is Alyssa’s daughter, and in the trailer, she is going to visit the Remwood Hotel, where Alyssa was murdered. Later in the trailer, images from what appears to be the remnants of a destroyed Raccoon City are shown — including the police department from RE2 — so it appears Resident Evil 9 will return to where the series started.

Leon’s (rumored) return is a big deal for the series, which has made some of its best games with him in the starring role. He first showed up as a rookie cop in Resident Evil 2, which built on the original game’s success with more story and improved monsters and level design.

He showed up again in Resident Evil 4, which took the series in a new direction by introducing an over-the-shoulder perspective, instead of the usual static camera angles and tank controls. Leon was also one of several playable protagonists in Resident Evil 6, a game that seemed to forget about its survival horror roots. We mostly don’t talk about that one.

But the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 was an excellent return to form, bringing RE4’s gameplay and much better graphics to a fan-favorite entry. The RE4 remake was a similar success.

Resident Evil Requiem is set to drop Feb. 27, 2026, for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, but we’re hoping to get our hands on it this weekend. If you want to catch up on older Resident Evil games, Capcom is having a sale that includes basically all the games, including Village and the three remakes.

Technologies

The Switch 2 Is Here, and I’ve Scoured the Internet for Every Accessory Available Right Now

Technologies

T-Mobile’s Free Premium iPhone 16 Pro Deal Explained. Learn Exactly How It Works

Along with a free iPhone, you can get an extra $800 to pay off your old device.

If you’re starting a new cell phone plan, most major mobile carriers require a multiyear commitment so it’s a big decision you need to consider carefully. First, think about the plan and provider itself: What’s the best coverage in your area and how many lines do you want to add? Next, compare the best mobile phone plan deals to save yourself the most money

T-Mobile has some fantastic deals right now you can take advantage of that make it a pretty competitive pick — especially for Apple fans looking to upgrade.

T-Mobile’s incentives include free lines and streaming services but one huge highlight is the chance to snag the top-rated iPhone 16 Pro free. The language on some of these offers can be a little confusing so we’ve broken down how T-Mobile’s current deals work below. Note that there aren’t any set expirations for these offers so they could vanish at any moment. We wouldn’t wait too long if you’re hoping to take advantage of these savings.

Why these deals matter

You more or less need a phone with reliable coverage these days but costs can add up quickly. Whether you’re looking to upgrade your mobile device or shopping for the best family plans, these T-Mobile deals can help save you some serious cash each month.