Top Live Performances: Best Audio Platforms

In this era of technology, nearly everyone is paying for some online music streaming service. If you haven’t made the switch yet, you’re missing out on a world of ease and exploration.

With live music streaming, you can access the music of hundreds of thousands of artists in a matter of minutes. But how are you meant to pick just one when there are so many to consider? In this article, we’ll review the 8 best live music streaming platforms so that you can decide which one is right for you.

1. Apple Music
2. Spotify
3. Tidal
4. Amazon Music Unlimited
5. Qobuz
6. Deezer
7. YouTube Music
8. Pandora

8 Best Music Streaming Services

Selecting the best music streaming service can be an arduous task because of the multiple options to choose from.

Therefore, we’ve compiled a list of the eight best music streaming services based on features, price, and compatibility, to help you make the right decision.

Comparison of 8 Music Streaming Services

1. Apple Music

Price: $4.99 to $14.99 with a free trial.

Apple Music is one of the leading music live streaming services with more than 75 million audio and video songs. In addition, you can find new artists or tracks through the built-in playlist, recommendations, or its ongoing digital radio stations.

If you have purchased music via iTunes or ripped them from a CD, you can add them to your Apple Music library. The apps work great on all the supported devices due to the interactive and decluttered GUI.

Apple Music has recently made a noticeable improvement by introducing Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos support and high-quality Lossless Audio.

Pros

• High-quality Lossless audio on supported devices.
• No extra cost for Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos.
• Organized Playlists.
• Offline listening feature.
• 24/7 Beats 1 Radio for music discovery.
• Connect feature to link musicians and fans.
• Massive library of audio and video songs.

Cons

• Need Apple ID to download or listen to the songs.
• The inability for the users to keep downloaded music after canceling the subscription.
• Mobile app malfunctions sometimes.

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2. Spotify

Price: $10-$16/month

Spotify is arguably one of the best and most popular live audio streaming services where you can find live music streams from your favorite artist. You can also listen to 320Kbps quality prerecorded audios of different genres and albums.

Thanks to its extensive music catalog of up to 70 million songs and user-friendly UI, Spotify always stays at the top when compared to its competitors.

While using the app, you can also create your own playlist. Also, you can connect the app to other Wi-Fi-enabled devices using the Spotify connect feature. If you don’t want to spend money on music streaming services, don’t worry; Spotify offers a free tier without requiring any credit card.

Pros

• The exhaustive music discovery feature.
• Save up to 10,000 audios on 5 different devices.
• Compatible with multiple devices.
• Extensive music library.
• Allow sharing on social media platforms.
• Excellent user interface.

Cons

• Not available in all countries.
• Free tier displays ads.
• No lyrical features.
• Expensive for some users.

3. Tidal

Price: $9.99/month for the standard and $19.99/month for the premium service.

Tidal has been leading the list of top streaming platforms for many years. Recently, it has changed to its services and is offering a free tier, called Tidal Free, making it more accessible to users who cannot afford expensive live stream audio apps.

Some of the features that make Tidal a stellar choice for music lovers and stand out from the rest of the competitors include its lossless 16-bit 44.1kHz audio stream quality, exclusive content, and user-friendly interface.

With Tidal’s HiFi subscription, you will get better CD-quality sound than what Spotify premium offers. Tidal will keep you entertained for hours on end with over 70 million audio tracks and over 250,000 videos on the platform.

Pros

• Impressive sound quality.
• Simple and user-friendly UI.
• HiFi music streaming.
• Huge library of audio tracks, videos, lyrics, as well as live events.

Cons

• No podcast option is available.
• Free tier is limited in features.

4. Amazon Music Unlimited

Price: $10-$15/month

Amazon Music Unlimited is an add-on offering over 75 million high-resolution and CD-quality audio tracks for music lovers at a slightly lower price than its rivals.

Although Music Unlimited does not have all the bells and whistles as another streaming platform, it is still a very credible competitor to Apple Music and Spotify.

Amazon Music Unlimited has an intuitive interface with exclusive features like ads-free listening and personalized recommendations. However, the software does not offer any free tier to its users.

Pros

• Hi-Res audio streaming quality.
• Huge music catalog.
• Strict integration with Amazon devices and Alexa.
• A good on-budget option.
• Podcasts.

Cons

• No live radio.
• Podcasts content is limited.
• No free version.

5. Qobuz

Price: $10-$18/month

Qobuz is a live-stream music service that offers high-quality, lossless audio streaming. With this platform, you can listen to your favorite music without any compression, ensuring you hear the song exactly as the music artist intended.

With its 70 million immersive songs selection, Qobuz is the perfect rival to Spotify and Tidal. Moreover, the platform meets the need of the users when it comes to sound quality and has comprehensive rock music.

Since Qobuz is more geared toward providing high-quality tracks and is a perfect heaven for classical music live stream and jazz music lovers.

Pros

• Huge Hi-Res tracks library.
• 24-bit/192Hz music quality.
• Offers music purchasing and streaming options.
• Compatible with multiple devices.
• Improved user-interface.
• Comes with liner notes in PDF format.

Cons

• No free version is available.
• No podcasts.

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6. Deezer

Price: $10-$15/month

Deezer is among the first few music streaming service apps that have provided 360 Reality Audio tracks, a format specifically designed for streaming music, and rivals Dolby Atmos.

With this platform, you can create and share playlists, listen to radio stations, discover new music, or download tracks and listen to them offline. In addition, Deezer is compatible with various devices, including smartphones, tablets, computers, and more.

There are over 90 million audio tracks, decent non-music content, and CD-quality recordings, making Deezer the best choice for any high-fidelity music sound lover.

Pros

• Vast music catalog.
• CD quality and HiFi recordings.
• Offers live radio, audiobooks, lyrics, and podcasts.
• Support MP3 uploads from your device.
• Easy-to-use and clean interface.

Cons

• Requires a separate 360 Reality Audio app.
• Social features are limited.
• No Hi-Res streaming capabilities.

7. YouTube Music

Price: $10-$15/month

YouTube Music is definitely worth checking out if you’re a music lover. You can create your own personalized stations or listen to pre-made ones based on your mood or favorite artist.

In the music world, YouTube Music catches the eye of users with its search-by-lyrics functionality, customized playlists, community uploads, multiple device compatibility, extensive music catalog, and official studio releases.

You can listen to YouTube Music for free with ads or pay a monthly subscription fee to remove advertisements and get some extra features.

Pros

• Impressive search feature.
• Cool audio - video switching capabilities.
• Time-based and collaborative playlists.
• Works splendidly with Google Assistant.
• Huge library of live recordings.

Cons

• Music catalog needs to be improved.
• Cannot browse your own music library.
• No Hi-Res audio.

8. Pandora

Price: $4.99-$14.99/month

Pandora is the best music streaming app that offers a personalized listening experience and comes with the Music Genome Project feature, which analyzes the musical attributes of your favorite songs and uses those attributes to find other tunes you might like.

If you are fond of an artist or a song, you can make a custom station, and Pandora will play similar music for you.

Pandora has a massive library of songs, a simple GUI, and a variety of ways to customize your listening experience. Furthermore, it’s affordable, which makes it an excellent option for those on a budget.

Pros

• Exclusive algorithm for music discovery.
• Free plan is available.
• Offers music, lyrics, and podcasts.
• Easy-to-use and simple interface.
• Offline Listening.
• Can skip or replay more tracks.

Cons

• The social sharing feature is only available on premium plans.
• Only available in the US.
• Low audio quality in the free version.
• No Hi-Res tracks.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve recommended eight different live music streaming platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Qobuz, Pandora, and more. These services were chosen for their huge library of music, user-friendly interface, and affordable pricing.

Hopefully, you find this in-depth review helpful and can now decide which platform best suits your music listening needs.

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8 Best Music Streaming Services

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