Prev Next 1 of Previous Next Until a few years ago, those who wanted to listen to music, watch movies or TV series in streaming and in a legal way did not have many options, on the contrary: in some cases only one or only one really satisfactory. Today, however, there are several companies that provide similar services and given that the offers available change and new ones arrive, every now and then it is worth checking that you have chosen the most suitable service for us. For streaming music we had already done it last year: this is an updated version of that article, made by comparing the main services in the sector.
In short, the subscriptions you can do all have the same monthly price for the two main forms of subscription: what changes is the quality of music reproduction, the possibility or not to listen to free music and some special offers, for university students or ” old subscribers “, in a sense.
Spotify
It was the first of the streaming services as we know them today to become really “mass” and for this reason it has reached a great diffusion. It can be used both in free and paid version, ie “Premium”. In both cases, you have to register and download an application, even from a computer. In the free version there are advertisements and if you use Spotify from the mobile app you cannot choose which single song to listen to but only select a playlist, a disc or the discography in which It's contained. Finally, you can only skip to the next song six times in an hour.
Until June 30, the offer for subscribing to a Premium account provides for the payment of 0.99 euros for the first three months, of 9.99 euros per month thereafter. It is an offer only available to those who have never had a Premium account in the past. In addition to having no advertising, the Premium account allows you to download songs (even if you can always listen to them only through the app) and does not differentiate between what you can do from a computer and from a smartphone. If you are a university student and you certify it, you can subscribe for a full year by paying 50 percent less. With the Premium offer you can download – in the sense of being able to listen offline, without consuming data, but always and only with the Spotify app – up to 3,333 songs per device
There is also an option to share your subscription with other people: with Premium for Family, for 14.99 euros per month, you have six different accounts together, each of them. which, however, must be made out to people residing at the same address. Basically all subscription options cost the same as Apple Music's. With Spotify, however, you can have a Premium account at a discounted price with some telephone operators who include it in their offers.
As for audio quality, Spotify's mobile plays are normally 96 kilobits per second (kbps), which an audiophile expert will tell you is pretty low. However, it can be set to 160 kbps, with a higher data consumption (which can be a problem if you are connected without wifi). 160 kbps is also standard desktop quality. Subscribers can play music at 320 kbps , on both mobile and desktop.
Apple Music
It doesn't have a free version – like Spotify – but it's only paid, but you can try it for free for three months. The standard subscription costs 9.99 euros per month, discounted to 4.99 euros for university students who prove they are. There is also one for families of up to six people: it costs 14.99 euros per month.
Apple Music works through the same iTunes app, and therefore allows excellent integration between your music library (of songs you own the file) and those in streaming. Starting from the service you can download songs to listen to them offline through the app: there are no limits to the number of songs that can be downloaded, unlike what happens with Spotify. There is no Apple Music version for Windows Phone.
For those who listen to music through Apple's AirPort system, to send it to speakers via wifi, Apple Music has an advantage: you can only transmit the iTunes signal, keeping that of your computer separate, with which you can continue for example. to listen to videos on YouTube (with Spotify the audio of the whole computer must be sent to the external speakers, therefore also that of advertising banners and videos).
The music quality of Apple Music is at 256 kbps . It's lower than Spotify's maximum, for example, but uses a different compression system: Spotify uses Ogg Vorbis, Apple Music uses Advance Audio Coding. As with all things audiophilia, there are those who claim the superiority of one and others of the other: they are perceptible differences by those with trained ears, for others they will look very similar.
On Apple Music you can also watch videos of the songs and even a comedy series in which singers and other famous people sing in the car: Carpool Karaoke.
The trailer for the “Carpool Karaoke” series, produced by Apple
Google Play Music
Recommended especially for those who use a lot of Google services and its store, for Android users in particular, and want to integrate with the things they use a streaming service. It works similar to Apple Music in the sense that you use it through Google Play, which is the same place where you can buy records and movies. You can try it for free for 30 days, then pay 9.99 euros per month, 14.99 if you use the service with a Family group: can group up to a maximum of six accounts belonging to people residing in the same country. Even with Google Play, as with Apple Music, the number of songs that can be downloaded for online listening is unlimited.
So you spend as much as with Apple Music, but unlike this, it also has a free version: it does not allow you to listen to music in streaming, but only to save up to 50 thousand songs in the cloud, and then listen to them from a desktop or a mobile device. Another difference is that there is no student discount. As for the quality of the music: it gets to 320 kpbs , like for Spotify.
However, a new music streaming service from Google is coming soon: YouTube Music. In some countries it already exists, in Italy not, for now. It might change things a bit for music streaming services, as many people are used to using YouTube to listen to it.
YouTube announced YouTube Music, a new ad-free paid streaming music service
Amazon Music
We put it in the background because it's the newest one. Like the others, it provides a monthly subscription for 9.99 euros for a single account and one for 14.99 euros for a maximum of six accounts distributed among the members of a single family. However, there is an advantage for those who already have an account Amazon Prime , Amazon's program to receive deliveries in one day (which now costs 36 euros a year): Amazon Music does not it is included but if you subscribe for a full year you don't pay for two months. So the individual annual subscription costs 99 euros, the family one 149. In all cases, Amazon Music is free for the first 30 days. The quality of Amazon Music music is at 256 kbps , like that of Apple Music, and there is no limit to the songs you can download and listen to offline.
Update June 6: There is now a free form of Amazon Music included for existing Amazon Prime subscribers. It provides the ability to listen to more than 2 million songs (a selection of the total catalog, which is 50 million) per month, without advertising. Even offline, by downloading the songs on your devices.
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