Meilleurs services de diffusion musicale: Spotify contre Apple contre Pandora contre Tidal contre Deezer contre Amazon «Smartphones :: Gadget Hacks

Chaque service doit avoir une option de régime étudiant et familial que Qobuz a également échoué. De plus, Qobuz ne s’est pas encore habitué au marché américain. Le contenu recommandé contient donc un large éventail de musiques européennes suggérées.

Nous avons également supprimé Google Play Music et YouTube Music de notre liste, car Google a rendu les choses très déroutantes pour le consommateur et il est préférable de les éviter jusqu'à ce que les choses se gâtent. Google Play Music, qui ressemble maintenant à "Google Music", est le meilleur concurrent de Google mais sera remplacé par YouTube Music un jour.

Google Play Music contient plus de 40 millions de chansons, alors que YouTube Music contient une somme non divulguée qui pourrait en réalité être plus puisque chaque chanson ou chanson musicale de YouTube est sur le service, y compris les singles, les remixes, les performances en direct et les pochettes de tous ceux qui possèdent YouTube. Compte. Mais dans l’ensemble, lors du développement en coulisse de la combinaison de ces deux services, les choses sont compliquées.

Vous pouvez utiliser YouTube Music gratuitement, alors essayez-le pour voir son apparence actuelle, puis réfléchissez à son apparence lorsque le catalogue de Google Play Musique sera déplacé. Ce sera une menace énorme pour les autres services, mais ce n'est pas encore le cas.

Une autre exigence de notre liste est que le service par abonnement doit avoir au moins 40 millions de chansons dans son catalogue. Par conséquent, iHeartRadio et Napster ont toutes les deux raté la cible.

Dans l’ensemble, les grands services de musique en streaming qui restent comparés incluent Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, Deezer, Pandora, Spotify et Tidal. Mais quel service est meilleur que les autres? Découvrez ci-dessous.

Prestations de service

Principales caractéristiques

Lecture

À 9,99 $ par mois, l'abonnement payant de Spotify est inférieur au prix moyen des services de streaming de cette liste, mais vous n'aurez peut-être même pas à payer autant. Si vous êtes étudiant à l'université, vous pouvez obtenir Spotify à 4,99 $ par mois (vous pouvez également ajouter Hulu & Showtime au plan, pour une durée limitée). Si vous connaissez cinq autres personnes qui aimeraient partager la facture avec vous, vous pouvez obtenir le régime familial de 14,99 $ par mois. Et si vous choisissez le plan à 99 $ par an, vous pouvez gagner 20 $ du prix total ou de l’abonnement régulier payé. Pas sûr de sauter dans le territoire payé? Vous pouvez essayer Spotify Premium avec un essai gratuit de 30 jours ou trois mois pour seulement 0,99 $.

Alors qu'est-ce que l'abonnement payant vous procure exactement? Eh bien, tout d’abord, les publicités ont disparu – zéro interruption. Deuxièmement, vous obtenez des sauts illimités, ce qui signifie que vous recherchez et jouez n’importe quelle chanson sur Spotify et que vous l’écoutez autant que vous le souhaitez. Si vous écoutez un album, vous pouvez ignorer les chansons que vous n'aimez pas, ce que vous ne pouvez faire que de manière limitée dans la version gratuite. Enfin, vous pouvez écouter de la musique hors ligne, ce qui est idéal pour les personnes sans connexion Internet, que ce soit dans un avion ou à l'étranger.

Que vous soyez un abonné gratuit ou payant, vous pouvez écouter Spotify sur un large éventail de smartphones, ordinateurs, haut-parleurs, smartwatches et voitures, notamment Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, PlayStation, Xbox, Roku, Android TV, Fire. Téléviseur, téléviseur Samsung, montre Apple, équipement Samsung, Sonos, Android Auto, CarPlay, etc. Spotify est également compatible avec de nombreux services populaires, tels que Alexa, Google Assistant, Chromecast, AirPlay, Waze et Google Maps. Vous pouvez même l'écouter à partir du navigateur Web de votre choix.

Nous pouvons maintenant entrer dans les fonctionnalités clés qui font de Spotify un tel service séduisant pour tous. Commençons par l'interface utilisateur, qui a connu toute une gamme de changements et d'améliorations générales au cours de la dernière année. Au bas de l’application se trouve la barre de navigation, qui a Accueil, Chercher, et Votre bibliothèque.

Dans Accueil, vous pouvez voir la musique que vous avez récemment jouée, que vous jouez assez souvent et qui vous est recommandée en fonction de ce que vous écoutez. Les listes de lecture créées spécialement pour vous – Vos Top Songs 2018, Daily Mix, Summer Rewind – sont personnalisées par algorithme. Plus vous écoutez de la musique sur Spotify, plus ces listes de lecture sont adaptées à vos besoins.

Chercher vous permet de rechercher un artiste, une chanson, un album, une liste de lecture ou un podcast, ou de parcourir toutes les options ci-dessous, notamment les nouveautés, les meilleurs classements, les stations de radio, les vidéos musicales, les concerts (acheter des billets), pop, rap, rock, classique, électronique et autres catégories.

Si vous ne voulez rien taper, vous pouvez soit appuyer sur "Rechercher" dans la barre de navigation, soit appuyer sur le microphone qui apparaît en haut à droite de la fenêtre. Chercher page pour faire apparaître Spotify Voice. Dites des choses comme «Recommander quelque chose» ou «Joue à la lumière de Playboi Carti» pour lire rapidement de la musique et des vidéos en utilisant simplement ta voix.

Bibliothèque est l'endroit où toutes vos listes de lecture, podcasts et musique sauvegardée sont en direct. Si vous suivez un artiste, par exemple une chanson, ou si vous téléchargez de la musique hors ligne, vous la trouverez sous La musique languette. dans le Podcasts onglet, vous verrez les podcasts que vous suivez, ainsi que tous les épisodes téléchargés et les épisodes que vous écoutez actuellement.

En plus de vos podcasts habituels, vous avez aussi vos originaux Spotify comme "Dissect" qui plonge profondément dans des albums populaires tels que "Blonde" de Frank Ocean ou "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" de Kanye West, décomposant une chanson par épisode et lors de la production, des paroles et de la vie personnelle de l'artiste pour donner un aperçu du processus de création derrière un album.

Jouez une chanson et vous obtiendrez une fenêtre plein écran avec soit la couverture de l’album, de la chanson ou du podcast, soit un «Canvas», ce dernier étant une nouvelle fonctionnalité qui ajoute un visuel en boucle à l’arrière-plan. En haut à droite se trouve un menu à trois points, où vous pouvez partager la chanson, voir l’album, voir l’artiste, consulter le générique de la chanson (producteur, auteur, etc.), démarrer une radio basée sur la chanson et ajouter à une playlist.

En plus de cela, le reste de la fenêtre de lecture de la chanson est courant: aléatoire, retour, lecture / pause, suivant, répéter, se connecter à l'appareil et la file d'attente compose le reste. Si vous glissez vers le haut dans la fenêtre en cours de lecture pour les chansons les plus populaires, une page Genius peut apparaître, ce qui vous donne à la fois les paroles et les paroles de la célèbre société de médias numériques.

Les pages d'artistes présentent leurs cinq chansons les plus populaires du moment, leur discographie, leurs listes de lecture, des artistes similaires, la musique sur laquelle elles sont présentées, leurs listes de lecture, de courtes biographies (pour les artistes plus populaires), des billets de concert et d'autres offres. , tels que le merch, le vinyle, etc.

Bien que chaque service de diffusion de musique figurant sur cette liste vous permette de créer des listes de lecture de vos chansons préférées, Spotify est l’un des deux avec des listes de lecture collaborative. Vous pouvez donc ajouter vos amis et votre famille aux listes de lecture que vous avez créées pour qu’elles puissent ajouter et supprimer des chansons. Les playlists sont également un excellent moyen d'écouter de la musique incognito. Spotify partage généralement votre activité avec vos abonnés, mais vous pouvez créer une liste de lecture "secrète" et masquer vos choix d'écoute embarrassants au monde entier.

Créez une radio basée sur une chanson et vous obtiendrez une liste de lecture contenant une douzaine de chansons contenant d'autres musiques de l'artiste qui a créé la chanson que vous avez sélectionnée, ainsi que de la musique similaire d'artistes différents. Vous avez également la possibilité de créer ces radios personnalisées à partir d'artistes, d'albums et de playlists. Si vous trouvez une radio personnalisée que vous aimez, vous pouvez la suivre pour la conserver avec vos listes de lecture.

Spotify for Android also has a sleep timer, which you can set for 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes, as well as to the end of the current track. This way, if you're falling asleep to music, you won't get woken up in the middle of the night by an ear-shattering song. For iPhone, you can use iOS' built-in sleep timer.

The last thing you might care about is what's under the hood. Spotify songs stream at 320 kbps (its highest quality available, only in the paid version), but you have the option to go lower (down to 24 kbps) if you have bad service or don't want to run up your data (if limited). If you don't want to change the quality to low, but want to save data, there's a data saver option in the settings that temporarily lowers the quality of your audio when needed. There's a new Spotify Lite version that works great for those of you that have bad service or not a lot of storage.

As an audiophile, you can go into the settings and play with the volume level, the equalizer, cross-fade, autoplay, feedback sounds, audio normalization, and more. As a parent sharing your account with your kids, you can disable explicit content and block individual artists. As a social networking addict, you can share a QR code with other Spotify users to share what you're listening to.

App 2: Deezer

Ask anyone outside of the United States, and it's a sure bet that you'll hear good things about Deezer, the popular music streaming service from France. If you haven't heard of it, there might be a reason for that — it's only been widely available in the US since 2016, even though the service was launched nearly a dozen years ago.

Although there are more popular music streaming services in the US, Deezer deserves your attention: it has over 53 million licensed tracks, over 30,000 radio channels, is available in over 180 countries (more than any other service on this list), and has so much more to offer you.

To start listening with Deezer, you have several options, depending on what you're looking for. First, there's Deezer Free, the ad-supported tier, which gives you access to its entire song library but only allows you to use shuffle. You don't have unlimited skips nor offline mode with this option, however, it is free. Unfortunately, if you want to use Deezer on your computer or your smartwatch, you cannot with this free version. Deezer Free only works on your mobile device.

Next up is Deezer Premium, which is similar to your average entry-level music streaming service subscription. It costs $9.99 a month, removes ads, allows you to get unlimited skips, and download your favorite music for offline playback. You can also use Deezer Premium on all of your devices.

If you want six Deezer Premium profiles with your Deezer subscription, there's the Deezer Family option for $14.99 a month. If you're a student, there's the Deezer Student option, which gives you the same access as Deezer Premium, but for half the price — $4.99 a month.

Lastly, you have Deezer HiFi, which is Deezer's high-fidelity audio service option. It offers everything Deezer Premium has, as well as CD-quality lossless tracks (16-bit, 44.1 kHz FLAC). However, to enjoy FLAC streaming, you need a FLAC-supported device (such as a computer or a compatible smart speaker or dongle) and an adequate broadband internet connection (minimum of 5 Mbps).

If you want to save a little bit of money, you can turn any subscription into an annual plan, which means you pay for only ten months but have the service for an entire year. You'll have to pay more at once, but you'll save money in the long run. For example, a basic Deezer Premium subscription would end up costing $99.90 for a year with the annual plan (instead of $119.88 for a monthly plan). You also have the option to try out any of these subscriptions for free for up to 30 days.

As long as you pay for Deezer Premium, you have tons of connected devices to stream from. You can enjoy Deezer on both your Windows or Mac, using either the desktop application or the web browser version. If you have a wearable, you can use it on the Fitbit, Garmin, Apple Watch, and Android Wear. Got speakers or voice assistants? You can officially use Deezer on Sonos, Bose Music, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, and more. If you want to stream Deezer on your TV, you can use Android TV, Fire TV, Samsung TV, Roku, and Chromecast, as well as your Xbox. In the car, you can use Deezer on Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. And of course, you can also use it on your Android and Apple device.

Open Deezer for the first time, and you'll be asked to enter and select your favorite artists and genres for the app to learn more about you. Once you finish, you can see your personalized home page, featuring your favorite artists at the top, with recommended playlists, popular playlists, genres and moods, recommended releases, top charts, live radio stations, podcasts, and more underneath. You'll also get different playlists depending on time and day, such as "Weekend listening" and "Happy hour's here."

Although Apple Music has Beats 1, Deezer is the only other music streaming service that has several live radio stations to listen to. You can choose from music stations, talk stations, local stations, and stations from around the world. You also have a great selection of podcasts to choose from.

Next on the navigation bar is Couler, which Deezer refers to as "your personalized soundtrack." Here, Deezer gives you several custom playlists and recommendations based on your listening habits. Swipe to view your different playlists, which includes your main Flow playlist, which is more like radio because it does not have a queue, and "Inspired by" playlists, which are track-listed playlists based around your favorite artists.

Deezer creates the songs and recommendations in these Flow playlists by looking at what music you listen to, which songs you like or dislike (more on that later), and which artists and genres you selected when you first signed up. The "Inspired by" playlists are updated daily with 40 recommended tracks. However, if you're a Deezer Free subscriber, you can only listen to Flow playlists on shuffle mode.

Play a song, and the background will take on the color of the album cover. You have icons to add the song to a playlist, like or dislike a song (dislike only appears within your Flow playlist), go back, play/pause, play the next song, configure audio settings, view your queue list, and access more options (like share to Instagram and view album or artist page). If the song has lyrics, an icon that says "Lyrics" will appear; tap on it to see them, which may be time-synced (on more popular songs) or just normal.

If you create a playlist, you can upload your own image as the cover for the playlist. You can also make a playlist collaborative, which means any added Deezer user can add or delete songs to it, but you'll need to do it from the web version on your Android or Apple device.

Next is My Music, where your favorite tracks, playlists, albums, artists, mixes, and podcasts live. You can also easily access any songs you have downloaded for offline listening. At the top of the page, you can see recently played music. Here you can access artist pages, where you'll see top tracks, most popular releases, discographies, artist mixes (which are like "Flow" playlists), similar artists, playlists, and features.

At the end of the navigation bar is Chercher, where you can type in keywords to find an artist, track, playlist, or more. You can also search for music through some genres, moods, etc. Another way you can search for music is by using SongCatcher, Deezer's feature similar to Shazaam. Tap on the blue banner that says "What's this song?" to identify the song playing around you. You then have the option to play the song, add it to a playlist, view the artist or album, share the song, and so on.

Back in the My Music page, you can view the settings, which features several useful options, including audio settings, app settings, connected devices, offline mode, and experimental features. In audio settings, you can turn on an equalizer, change the audio quality, and set up a cross-fade. In the app settings, you can exclude explicit content from your recommendations, manage disk usage, and empty the app's smart cache. Lastly, there's Deezer Labs, where you can enable temporary experimental settings such as car mode.

You can't officially stream music on any gaming consoles, Chromecast, and several other non-Apple services, dongles, and devices, which is a letdown. At the same time, if you're an Apple fanboy or fangirl, Apple Music shines because it makes the whole process of listening to music pretty seamless across the devices it does support.

Inside of Apple Music, you'll find a minimal user interface, similar in look to every other staple Apple app. The navigation bar at the bottom consists of Library, For You, Feuilleter, Radio, et Chercher.

Library features your playlists, artists, albums, songs, downloaded music, and recently added music. The downloaded music option is a nice touch because it quickly helps you find your offline music when you don't have an internet connection. The recently added music underneath is prendre ou partir because it doesn't do a great job at showing the difference between albums and songs. Instead, it shows cover art for everything you've recently added to your library, and sometimes even duplicates, which can make this page confusing.

For You is just that — a page made just for you, with recently played music and recommendations. Depending on what you listen to, you'll get personalized playlists, albums, and new releases based on artists, genres, and moods. The more you listen to music on Apple Music, the more personalized the playlists and selections become. These pages update quite regularly, so you'll always see something new to listen to.

If you're not looking for something in particular and want to see what Apple Music has to offer, go into Feuilleter. Here you'll find featured artist profiles at the top, showcasing relevant artists based on new music, culture, festivals, movies, up-and-coming, interviews, and more. Underneath you can search for music by new music (in different genres), mood (chill, sleep, romance, fitness, etc.), top charts (various countries), just updated, hot tracks, music videos, and other categories.

Although it doesn't beat YouTube Music for the most videos, Apple Music does have a pretty extensive library of popular and classic music videos. You'll have to dig deep to find them, but they're there, and they're definitely worth exploring.

Next is Radio, which features a slew of recently played custom radio stations (which you create from songs and artists), semi-automated pre-created radio stations, video interviews, and live radio stations like Beats 1. The already-created radio stations are a combination of automated content and custom matches (based on your listening). You can find a radio station for almost any genre you like, including alternative, indie, country, jazz, and reggae.

Finally, you have Chercher, where you can type to find artists, songs, albums, playlists, music videos, radio episodes, and Apple Music users. A search feature recently added to Apple Music allows you to type in lyrics to find a song, in case you remember the words but not the song title or artist.

You can also choose to search for music in either Apple Music or your library, the latter of which is music you've uploaded to iCloud Music Library or is downloaded to your phone, whether it's from iTunes (your own music) or Apple Music itself. Apple Music is the only service on this list that offers music uploads.

If you're an iPhone user, you have the bonus of using Siri and Siri Shortcuts to search for and play music in Apple Music. As mentioned before, Apple Music shines when it comes to the Apple ecosystem because they all work well together. You can use Siri to search for and play songs on your phone, speaker, TV, and more. Even Google Assistant works. On Android, you can use "OK Google" commands to play music, but there is little support for Apple Music.

The artist page features the newest release (single or album) towards the top, followed by top songs (eight in total), essential albums, albums, music videos, official Apple artist playlists, singles and EPs, features, more to hear (which is anything else by the artist that doesn't fit in the other categories, such as radios or podcasts), biography, and similar artists. Out of all the artist pages from the different music services on this list, Apple Music's is the most comprehensive.

You can add a song either to your library or to your playlist. If you add a song to your library, it automatically uploads it to your iCloud Music Library, which allows you to access your entire music library from your iPad, Apple TV, Android, and other devices. The feature is useful for when you have a vast library of your own personal songs on your computer and want the ability to stream them from your mobile devices.

Creating playlists in Apple Music is much like any other service, but there is one extra feature that is useful if you're into customization. When you create a playlist, the cover art for the first four songs or albums in the list appear as the playlist cover. However, you can edit your playlists and either take a photo or choose one from your device to change the cover art.

Play a song, and a full-screen window appears with icons for back, pause/play, next, AirPlay, queue, lyrics, and a menu. If you tap on the lyrics icon, the lyrics take the place of the song or album cover art, playing in real-time, meaning you don't have to scroll through it as the song plays, it does it automatically. Just like karaoke. You can also see the regular lyrics view if you want.

Although songs are streamed at 256 kbps AAC on Apple Music (compared to 320 kbps on other music streaming services), don't let the lower bit rate fool you. Many times, bit rates are incomparable because the quality of the music isn't just defined by the bit rate, but also by the audio format. AAC is of higher quality than MP3 and has long been considered its successor. The difference between Spotify and Apple Music should be indiscernible when listening to music from your smartphone, whether it's through the device's speakers or your headphones.

Aside from what you see, there isn't much that you can play around with within your settings. If you're on Android, you can go into the app's settings to manage cellular data use, adjust EQ, and restrict content, but if you're on an iPhone, you must go into your Settings app to manage things like library syncing, automatic downloads, volume limits, and sound checks.

Back to the paid tiers, there are several options for discounted offers. If you're a family and want to use up to six accounts, you can pay $14.99 a month for Premium or $29.99 a month for HiFi. If you're a student, you can pay $4.99 a month for Premium or $99.99 a month for HiFi. Lastly, if you're in the military, you can pay $5.99 a month for Premium or $11.99 a month for HiFi. You can also take advantage of a 30-day trial of either tier, though, it offers better trial lengths from time to time.

Tidal is relatively new to the scene, and it shows when it comes to device and operating system compatibility. Although it does have applications for iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows, it doesn't have any console apps, and it isn't compatible with many smartwatches (only Tizen OS). Luckily, it does work with Alexa, Chromecast, and AirPlay.

Tidal's user interface is busier than most, featuring moving slides, large graphics, and a navigation bar at the bottom with Accueil, Explore, Chercher, et My Collection. At the top of Accueil, you have slides showing off exclusive albums, livestreams, new music, and more. Underneath, you'll find suggested new tracks and albums, popular artist and playlists, master-quality albums and playlists, top charts, podcasts, radio stations, and much more. Again, like many other services in this list, the more you listen, the better and more tailored these recommendations become.

Explore is a bit similar to your home page because it has some of the same content, just packaged differently. At the top, you'll see featured content, but instead of only music, it has articles, podcasts, series, and films. Tidal is the only service that offers such a unique quality and quantity of other media besides strictly audio and music videos. Underneath, you can browse through music according to genre, mood, new, top, and video.

Aside from the high-quality music, Tidal shines when it comes to its video content. There are tons of video playlists, featuring new and old music videos for every genre. You can also watch Tidal exclusives, such as interviews, backstage footage, live concerts, behind-the-scenes clips, album videos, short documentaries, TV episodes, short films, and more. All of the content is very high quality.

Dans Chercher, you can look for tracks, artists, albums, videos, and playlists. It's pretty easy to find what you're looking for. If you go into an artist page, you can read their autobiography, create a radio based on the artist, save the artist to your collection, play their top tracks, and go through their albums, EPs, singles, credits, and videos.

Finalement, My Collection features unique mixes for you (based on your listening history), created playlists, saved albums, tracks, videos, artists, and downloaded songs. Underneath that, you can view your recent activity.

Play a song, and get your usual music playing window, where you can skip a song, go back, pause and play and more. Through the settings, you can add a song to your collection, throw it in a playlist, share the song, create a radio from it, view credits, go to the album in which the song is featured, and go to the artist page.

While Tidal has tons of content (more than other services), it doesn't have many settings. You can set loudness normalization, enable autoplay, change the audio quality, and block certain content, but that's really it. It's probably because it doesn't have as many features as other music streaming services on this list, which can be a good or bad thing, depending on what you're looking for.

Aside from the tiers above, families (up to six users) can pay $14.99 a month for Pandora Premium. If you're a student, you can get Premium for $4.99, and if you're military, you can get it for $7.99 (one of only two services in this list that offers a military discount). There are no discounted tiers for Pandora Plus, but there is a 60-day free trial for anyone that wants to try out Pandora Plus without having to pay.

Another plus for Pandora's seniority is that it's available on many devices and operating systems. Pandora has dedicated apps on PC, Mac, iOS, Android, PlayStation, Xbox, Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku, Samsung TV,watchOS, Tizen OS, Wear OS, Android Auto, CarPlay, and the list goes on. It's also compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant, Chromecast, AirPlay, and Waze. It's up there with Spotify in how compatible it is, but it has even more support for devices and services.

Pandora's user interface and home page are strikingly different than other music streaming services because the app is a hybrid of the traditional radio stations that made Pandora popular and a newer on-demand music service that it created to compete. Open the app, and you'll see only My Collection et Feuilleter in the home page, which you can use to view recently played, see your saved music, and browse through genres, decades, moods, activities, new music, and podcasts (lots of them).

You can use the search icon in the top right to search for artists, songs, stations, podcasts, playlists, and albums. Search is a little more complicated because Pandora emphasizes its radio stations, which it does excel at, but if you're trying to play a song or find an album, you'll need to take advantage of the search tools. You can also use Pandora's voice search feature for a hands-free experience. Simply say "Hey Pandora" from anywhere in the app and ask it to play individual radio stations, albums, artists, songs, and more.

Open an artist page, and you'll notice that it's very bare, but it's quite refreshing because they have everything that you need (latest releases, most popular songs, top albums, dedicated artist radio, etc.) and nothing else. Artist pages also feature links to their social media accounts, if that's your thing.

If you create a station from either an artist or song, you'll get a window where you have your usual playback controls, but you'll also have a thumbs down and thumbs up to personalize your station as you go through songs. Tap thumbs down to skip the song and thumbs up to continue playing it and have the playlist play more songs like it.

This is where Pandora works best because it has an incredible algorithm to give you great recommendations. Although Pandora can play the music you search for, it's best when used as a platform to find new music or a radio station of your favorite hits. And best of all, the free tier offers all of this, albeit in a limited manner.

In each song in a station, you have the option to collect it (which puts it in your collection), download it, share it with friends and family, add it to a playlist, start a station from it, and add it your queue. You can also tap on the information icon in the top right to view more information about the artist and album, as well as lyrics. There are also station settings which show you which songs you have liked.

If you want to go back through your radio and play an older song, you just swipe right and tap on the replay button in between the thumbs down and thumbs up icon. You can also change whether you like or dislike the song by selecting the opposite thumbs icon.

Back on the home page, you'll see any stations you have played under My Collection, as well as any playlists you may have created or were created for you based on your likes. On the top left, you can tap on the three-dash menu to access a social feed (if you follow other Pandora users), notifications, your profile, and your settings. In your profile, you can view all of the songs you've ever thumbed up and your playlists.

Back to the sleep timer that was mentioned before: While it has its auto-feature that does something similar, Pandora also has an actual sleep timer you can control. You can choose between 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes, where music will stop playing automatically. There's also an alarm clock feature if you're into that.

Although Pandora doesn't have many settings to play with, you can make your profile private (hide it from friends and family), block explicit content, enable voice assistance, conserve battery, enable autoplay, change audio quality, set a sleep timer, and turn on an alarm clock. It's missing an EQ, crossfade, and other audio-related features, but it works without them.

Open Amazon Music Unlimited on your iPhone or Android, and you'll see your run-of-the-mill user interface — nothing special really, although there is more to access than some of the other music streaming services on this list.

Dans Feuilleter, you'll see sliding banners for new music right above new releases, charts, recently played music, and recommended artists, albums, playlists, and more. You can also browse this music from the options that appear at the top. le Feuilleter page packs a ton of music, but it could get overwhelming if you don't know where to look.

La prochaine étape est Recents, which shows you your recently played music, as well as your song history and recently added and downloaded songs. It's a pretty simple page, which probably could have been combined with another (such as My Music). Sous My Music, you'll find your playlists and any saved artists, albums, songs, and genres.

Finally, there's Alexa, which brings up the voice service. Although you can use the magnifying glass icon to search for music in Amazon Music Unlimited, Alexa works great and is a useful feature if you want to stay hands-free. There's even a setting that you can toggle on that allows you to say "Alexa" and ask the service to play or control music whenever the application is open. You can also ask Alexa to search for music using just lyrics, a feature unique to Amazon Music Unlimited.

Artist profiles are typical, but a bit bare; You can randomly shuffle through top hits, follow an artist, or go through their discography. You can't create a personalized radio or see much more than a few related playlists or related artists, which isn't much.

The now playing window (when you play a song) is pretty dull. It has your typical playback controls and device connection icon, but it also has the Alexa icon at the bottom to use the voice service. If you tap on the three-dot menu, you can download a song, add it to a playlist, share it, or view the album or artist. Also, if the song is popular enough, scrolling lyrics will appear underneath the cover art; tap on the lyric bar to maximize it.

Amazon Music Unlimited is also another app on this list that offers a sleep timer, so songs don't wake you up in the middle of the night after falling asleep with your headphones on. You can choose between 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes.

Songs in Amazon Music Unlimited top out at 256 kbps, just like Apple Music. However, it is planning to launch a high-fidelity music streaming service like Deezer and Tidal, so that audio quality will improve soon, but at a higher price tag. Aside from changing sound quality, there are very few settings you can toggle in Amazon Music Unlimited, including blocking explicit songs.

En conclusion

The best thing about Spotify, our number one pick, isn't that it has the best artist exclusives, sound quality, or music video library — it's the most excellent music streaming service in the world that has something to offer to every kind of listener. Whether you need to listen to podcasts in the car on the way to work or classical music while you study in the library, Spotify has something to offer you. Now how can you beat that?

It was a close call, but Deezer hit second place because some of its features are more interesting and useful than some of Apple Music's. Deezer has only been around the US for a few years, but it has captured a broad audience thanks to its free-tier features, massive song library, and high-quality audio. Flow is also an enormous advantage because it's very good at its job.

Apple Music has only been around a few years, but it has worked hard to grab a top spot in the list of best music streaming services thanks to a massive music library, iTunes Music Library feature (upload your own music), popular artist exclusives (Frank Ocean, Drake, Taylor Swift), radio-style programming, and seamless integration with other Apple products (speakers, smartwatches, TV). If you're a die-hard Apple fan, it's easy to understand why you might choose Apple Music over Spotify or Deezer.

Tidal is excellent when it comes to content because it offers a wide array, ranging from songs and music videos to articles and short films. It's also one of the only music services that provides lossless audio, so if you're interested in high-quality sound, Tidal is a must. Also, if some of your favorite artists (Rihanna, The White Stripes, Alicia Keys, Daft Punk) have exclusives with Tidal, it's enough of a reason to stay. However, for most casual listeners who are only interested in listening to their favorite tunes, there are better options.

Pandora has really great features that set it apart (incredible music discovery tools, vast compatibility with devices, hundreds of thousands of podcast episodes), but it's also lacking certain elements (poor search, confusing user interface, only available in the US, etc.) that do cripple it in relation to other music streaming services. If you're looking just to find new music and are a fan of radio, Pandora is definitely for you, but if not and you cherish being able to find your favorite tunes easily, you might want to look elsewhere.

Unfortunately, Amazon Music Unlimited is missing other types of content that make the rest of the streaming services on this list superior. You won't find any videos, whether they're live performances or music videos, and there are no podcasts. All you get is music, which isn't enough when the other services offer so much more. Unless you're an Amazon Prime member and want that two-dollar discount, there aren't many unique features or other reasons why you should pick Amazon Music Unlimited over any other service in this list.