Streaming has changed how we consume media. For both the good and bad. Where once artists had to sign big-name record deals, they can now easily upload it themselves and gain viral success. Of course, in the process, they often make very little money, due to the minuscule fractions of a cent that each play earns them.
And for music lovers, while we once had to cough up tens of dollars for physical releases or for iTunes downloads, we now have access to more music than we could ever listen to, all for a low-cost monthly membership.
But which music streaming service is best for your needs? Canstar takes a look.
What music streaming services are there?
The major music streaming services available in New Zealand are:
Spotify
About Spotify
Spotify was, in many ways, the first truly successful mass-market music streaming service. At least, the one that shook up the industry.
Founded in Stockholm, Sweden in 2006, it is now the largest music streaming platform with about a third of the entire music streaming market. That’s roughly double the amount of the next largest provider, Apple Music.
Content
Spotify boasts over 80 million songs, so there’s next to nothing you can’t find. It also has over 4 million podcasts, with a few big-name exclusives, such as:
- The Joe Rogan Experience
- Armchair Expert
- The Michelle Obama Podcast
- The Inspired Unemployed
Price
Spotify premium has several price options:
- Individual ($14.99/month) – one premium account
- Duo ($18.99/month) – two premium accounts
- Family ($22.50/month) – six premium accounts with bonus parental control options
- Student ($7.49/month) – one premium account at a cheaper rate
Note that Spotify states that for Duo and Family plans all users must live at the same address.
Is there a free tier?
Yes, but it comes with a lot of limitations: ads; lower audio quality; you can’t download songs to listen to offline; and if listening through the phone app you can only listen to most music on shuffle.
Audio quality
Spotify offers several audio quality options, depending on the strength of your connection and/or your preferences. You can select automatic, or choose between four tiers depending on if you want to save data or have the highest quality:
- Low: 24Kbps
- Normal: 96Kbps
- High: 160Kbps
- Very High: 320Kbps
While the 320Kbps option should satisfy most music listeners, it doesn’t qualify as hi-fi sound quality. Hi-fi usually starts at around CD quality, which is 1411Kbps. But other platforms offer 24-bit/192kHz which is equal to 9216Kbps!
While that’s a big difference, it’s important to remember that average listeners probably won’t notice a huge difference, not all headphones are capable of playing that level of audio quality, and doing so will be much, much more data intensive.
→Related article: Unlimited Data: NZ’s Best Phone Data Deals
Notable features
Playlists
Spotify places a huge emphasis on finding you the music you want, when you want it. While competitors offer curated playlists, such as hip-hop, pop, rock, indie etc, Spotify takes it a step further. Do you want indie rock, chill indie or feelgood indie? New indie or indie classics? Indie exclusively from the 2000s or indie curated for a road trip?
Spotify even curates playlists for certain occasions. Chuck on a cooking playlist of jazz, soul, classical or even swagger.
Of course, you also have the billions of playlists curated by other Spotify users, which tend to get even more niche and specific. So whatever mood, occasion, or sound you’re looking for, you’ll likely find a playlist for it.
Social features
Spotify regularly curates interesting data infographics designed to be shared with friends on social media. Interesting slides detail your favourite artists, how many hours you listened to them, the unique combination of artists that only you love listening to back to back, and more.
Apple Music
About Apple Music
Launched in 2015, Apple Music is the second largest music streaming service in the world. While it is from tech giant Apple and is most commonly used by iPhone users, Apple Music is available for Android devices as well.
Content
Apple Music boasts over 90 million songs, which is technically a larger library than Spotify. However, when dealing with such large numbers, there is very little on Apple Music that can’t be found elsewhere. But if you are into particular niche music, you may find a higher likelihood of it landing on Apple Music.
Apple Music also has an expansive library of radio shows, hosted by big-name DJs and radio personalities such as Zane Lowe. There’s even the enigmatic Frank Ocean’s Blonded Radio. Or, you can tune in to live radio stations through the Apple Music App.
You can also find music videos on Apple Music, unlike on Spotify.
Apple Music doesn’t have any podcasts, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Instead, Apple has its free podcast app. Although some individual publishers offer premium subscription options on top of the free app.
Price
Apple Music offers several plan options. Its main plans are:
- Individual ($14.99/month) – one account
- Family ($22.99/month) – up to six personalised accounts
- Student ($8.99/month) – one account at a cheaper rate
It also has a new ‘Voice’ plan for $7.99/month. This plan is designed to work in conjunction with Siri and provides you access to all the same content only with some limitations:
- No offline downloads
- Only available on Apple (Siri supported) devices
- No lossless or spatial audio
- No lyrics
- You can’t see what your friends are listening to
Is there a free tier?
No, but you can typically get a month or more free upon sign up.
Audio quality
Apple Music offers three quality settings:
- High quality (256Kbps): the default setting, it uses around 3MB per minute, less if you’ve a slow connection or are on mobile data and haven’t chosen High Quality in settings
- Lossless 24-bit/48kHz: CD quality, using approx 12MB per minute
- Hi-res lossless 24-bit/192kHz: Uses approx 48MB per minute
Do note that you can’t stream lossless through Apple’s Bluetooth. You’ll need a wired connection. And to play hi-res lossless on an external device you will need an external DAC, as it’s incompatible with Apple’s Lightning-3.5mm adapter.
Apple Music also has Spatial Audio on thousands of songs. Spatial Audio creates a 360° immersive sound experience, much like you would get from a cinema surround sound set-up.
→Related article: Best Wireless Earbuds
Notable features
Apple music offers iCloud Music library, which is a big plus for those who love niche music. This allows you to upload MP3 files to the cloud, and access them on your phone. This means if something isn’t available to stream, you can download it elsewhere and then add it to your Apple Music library.
→Related article: Netflix and Bill: Comparing the Costs of Streaming Services in New Zealand
Tidal
About Tidal
Tidal is a Norwegian-American music, podcast and video streaming service that offers audio and music videos. Launched in 2014, it gained popularity after being acquired by Jay-Z and a host of other high-profile musicians. It also secured a host of Tidal exclusive releases in an effort to boost its profile (a practice that has since been shelved, and/or prohibited by labels).
Tidal markets itself as a platform that releases music the way artists intended. That means a larger share of the profits per stream, as well as crisp, lossless audio quality.
Content
Like Spotify and Apple Music, Tidal has an expansive library of around 90 million songs. Tidal also has an expansive range of podcasts and music videos.
Price
Tidal has two tiers for you to choose from:
- HiFi ($14.99/month)
- HiFi Plus ($29.99/month) – includes more sound benefits and features and direct artist payouts (a percentage of your subscription goes directly to your top artists)
Students can get 50% off their subscription, while a family plans offer six HiFi accounts ($22.49/month) or HiFi Plus accounts ($44.99/month) under one plan.
Is there a free tier?
No, but you can typically get a month or more free upon sign-up.
Audio quality
Tidal places a lot of focus on its crisp and superior audio quality features. Tidal’s HiFi plan offers CD-quality 1411Kbps, which is far superior to Spotify’s Very High audio setting (320Kbps).
The HiFi plus plan offers true 24-bit/192kHz (9216Kbps) sound, as well as other sound features such as Master Quality Authenticated (MQA), Dolby Atmos, and Sony 360 Reality Audio.
Notable Features
Video content
While video content isn’t unique to Tidal, it does have a uniquely wide range. Not only can you get music videos but visual albums to live shows, documentaries, album experiences and artist conversations.
YouTube Music
YouTube Music was once just an offshoot of YouTube. However, it has since grown into a standalone music streaming service (not to be confused with YouTube premium) with an interface similar to that of Spotify.
Content
YouTube Music has well over 80 million songs, similar to other platforms. One thing that sets its video content apart is that it utilises its main YouTube catalogue to offer an extensive range of live performances, remixes and covers you won’t find on other platforms.
Furthermore, as you’d expect from a YouTube service, music videos also play a prominent part. For example, when searching for a song to listen to, you’ll have the option to search for just the song, or the video.
Price
YouTube music just has several plans:
- Premium ($14.99/month)
- Family ($22.99/month) – up to five accounts
- Student ($7.49/month)
It’s worth noting that if you sign up for YouTube Premium ($17.99/month) – which provides an add-free YouTube account, plus the option to play videos in the background while using other apps, and download content to view offline – you get a YouTube Music Premium account included. This makes for a great value package.
Is there a free tier?
Yes, you can use YouTube Music for free. However, it does come with limitations such as ads, no offline downloads, and lower audio quality.
Audio quality
YouTube Music’s audio quality is capped at 256Kbps which is lower than Spotify’s and significantly lower than the HiFi options on Apple Music and Tidal. While fine for the average user, if you’re an audiophile it probably won’t cut it.
Features
Audio-only
Choose audio-only mode if you don’t want to see videos.
Lots of ‘unofficial’ content
Listen/watch live performances, fan covers and remixes of songs
Other options
While the above are the major music streaming platforms available, there are some other notable options available. Again, this is by no means every provider available.
Deezer
Deezer is one of the original streaming music services. Founded in France in 2006, it features around 90 million licensed tracks, over 30,000 radio channels and 100 million playlists. Deezer Premium and Family plans offer 16-Bit/44.1kHz lossless audio. New users also get access to Tune My Music (see below) to transfer their music across.
SoundCloud
Soundcloud is one of the largest music streaming services available. But, it was omitted from the above list due to its different approach.
SoundCloud is primarily a platform for independent artists to share their music, and anyone can upload content to the platform. This includes everything from rough demos recorded on a phone to hours-long DJ mixes.
Amazon Prime Unlimited
Amazon has its own music streaming service that closely rivals Apple Music by market share. It is similar to the above services, offering millions of songs and playlists and an extensive catalogue of podcasts.
You can easily sign up and use the service, however, it’s technically not available in NZ (much like Amazon doesn’t have a dedicated NZ set-up). Instead, like with its main retail site, you can access Amazon Music Unlimited through the Australian service, for AU$13.49/month.
Which streaming service is best?
There’s no real one answer to this question, and it will largely depend on:
a) Your music preferences
b) If you already have one service, is it worth making (or can you be bothered to make) the switch?
c) Whether you have access to free/reduced price Spotify through your telco
Best audio
If you want crisp quality audio then you’re better off going for Apple Music or Tidal, which both offer HiFi audio quality and other audio features, such as Spatial Audio
Content
While the roster of songs available across all platforms is expansive and overlaps, there are a few differences.
If you want great video content or have an affinity for live or alternative recordings of songs then YouTube music could be the platform for you. If you want live radio shows there is Apple Music, and if you want playlists on playlists on playlists Spotify might be the one for you.
But, ultimately, if you are happy with your current provider there’s probably no real reason to switch.
Artist support
If you listen to a lot of smaller and independent artists, who aren’t rolling in big money record deals, do you want to ensure they get fair compensation? If so, Tidal pays a higher rate per stream, while the HiFi Plus plan also gives some of your membership dues directly to your top artists.
However, the reality is streaming isn’t the best way to pay artists. So if you really want to support them, buying physical releases (such as vinyl), merch, or concert tickets will help a lot more!
Price
There’s not a huge difference in price between the platforms on offer. In fact, the standard plans for all the streaming services are currently the same, $14.99/month.
→Related article: Apple Music vs Spotify: Should You Make the Switch?
I want to switch services, how can I take all my music with me?
If you’ve had a music streaming service for a few years, chances are you have hundreds of thousands of saved songs, whether that’s in playlists you’ve followed, albums you’ve favourited, or playlists you’ve spent hours curating yourself.
Giving all that up is a big ask.
Thankfully there are third-party apps that can help you transfer your saved music from one service to another. But be sure to do your research to see what services are available and what data they can transfer.
Two options include:
Streaming takes data
Whichever streaming service you should choose, one thing remains the same. It takes data. While you can download music ahead of time, the best way to get the most from your music streaming service is to have boatloads of data to support your streaming habits. Sharing music with friends, finding new favourites, and browsing specially curated playlists is all part of what makes music streaming great. If you’re away from a wi-fi connection, you’re going to want enough data to keep the tunes coming.
And as part of that, you’ll want the best phone plan. That’s where Canstar Blue can help. We compare phone plan providers, to get you the best deals on your data. To learn more, or start comparing, just click the button below:
Compare mobile plan providers with Canstar
About the author of this page
This report was written by Canstar Content Producer, Andrew Broadley. Andrew is an experienced writer with a wide range of industry experience. Starting out, he cut his teeth working as a writer for print and online magazines, and he has worked in both journalism and editorial roles. His content has covered lifestyle and culture, marketing and, more recently, finance for Canstar.
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