Spotify vs. Apple, Amazon, YouTube and more: what streaming music platforms offer and how much they cost

While the record sales and the digital downloads suffered a decline that has been going on for more than ten years, the music industry has found in streaming platforms a new form of business that gathers all over the world $ 16.9 billion.

Although there are more and more options around the world, the world leader in the category of music streaming platforms is Spotify, with a market share of 34%. They follow Apple Music (twentyone%), Amazon Music (fifteen%), Youtube music (5%) and below, Deezer, tide and others (13%), according to the latest report from Counterpoint Research.

The app conglomerate currently accumulates $ 12.3 billion paid 523 million subscribers a audio and video streaming services, up from 443 million in 2020, according to recent data from the World Economic Forum.

Unlike its beginnings, where a colossal library established the boundary between competitors, today that figure no longer has any weight: mostly the songs of there are millions of catalogs – between 70 and 90, in some cases – and can be listened to offline.

One of the differentiating points, which has been incorporated by several apps so far this year, is high fidelity audio, also called hi fi soundwhich is four times higher than MP3.

Other key aspects are the lists they put together, put together by the local teams of most services; the variety of podcast and until the incorporation of video a the user experience provided by the app and the algorithm offered by the new artists.

In this note, a review of the main characteristics of the most popular services in Argentina.

Amazon Music Unlimited

After landing in Colombia and Chile in 2021, the music service of the e-commerce giant is available in Argentina since the beginning of May with local content, podcasts and broadcasting of international recitals streaming, ad-free and on demand.

With Amazon Music Unlimited, subscribers can play more than 90 million HD songs lossless, with a depth of 16 bits and a sampling rate of at least 44.1 kHz (CD quality).

They can also broadcast more than 7 million songs in Ultra HD (better than CD quality), with a depth of 24 bits and a sampling rate of up to 192 kHz. This audio quality is ten times the standard rate, as are the themes encoded in Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio.

While, Amazon Music is based on Prime Musica free service.

If you pay for the Prime membership, in addition to 24-hour shipping, Prime Photos private cloud or Prime Video series and movies, the package also includes free access to music, with no ads.

The volume of the library, as well as the time that can be used, is limited. It has around two million songs and cannot exceed 40 hours per month.

Deezer

It has a catalog with more than 73 million songs and 97% are available in HiFi (70 million). Among other benefits, the HiFi plan includes access to the HiFi Room, with exclusive playlists and collections.

For music lovers, there is a selection with the best albums of each year and decade in your perfect record collection. Also included are reissues (Reissues), which have been remastered.

Furthermore, the algorithm’s artificial intelligence organizes playlists to have access to new suggestions based on the musical taste of each listener.

Youtube music

The initial screen has the characteristic of updating and adapting to each user through the history of the reproductions, as well as – with specific authorization – information of place and context to offer the best themes and artists.

It has features like smart search. When you don’t remember the exact title or just a part of the text of a topic, type it and the matches are displayed.

The Premium version allows you to listen to your favorite music without advertising or connection and even with the screen locked. It is available for mobile devices and desktop computers.

tide

The Norwegian-American music, podcast and video streaming service was launched by the Swedish public company Aspiro in 2014 and is now majority-owned by Block, Inc., the American payment processor.

The platform offers an audio experience of up to 9216 Kbps lossless and high fidelity in all its versions: Normal, HiFi and High Resolution, which provide a mix between mobile phone data usage and best sound fidelity.

With the TIDAL HiFi Plus subscription, the user can listen to 80 million songs in master quality – Master Quality Audio, Dolby Atmos, Sony 360 Reality Audio and HiFi – on devices with an iOS or Android operating system and via the TIDAL app. .

apple music

Its strength lies in the integration with iOS 14 and earlier versions of the system. Although the first interfaces were too confusing, they have been refined to Apple’s degree of sobriety. And while it doesn’t have a free service, you can try it for free for three months.

Maintaining the essence of the brand has allowed it to reach 72 million premium subscribers, surpassing Spotify in the United States. In addition, it is possible to listen to lossless and Hi-Res Lossless Audio songs at no additional cost.

The former can be played on an iPhone or Mac, with a resolution of 16-bit at 44.1kHz. While High resolution lossless audio – which represents a real technological leap – presents subscribers with a resolution of 24 bits at 192 kHz.

The other novelty is the Dolby Atmos spatial audio format already available in thousands of tracks. This surround or 360-degree sound is compatible with all AirPods and Beats with H1 or W1 chips and is enabled by default on devices that support it.

The integration with Siri allows you to issue voice commands through the iPhone to play a song on demand, without having to use the browser.

Spotify

He was the one who opened the door to this office and today he is the largest global subscription service in the worldwith a community of over 356 million users, with over 158 million Premium subscribers, in 178 markets.

Its great merit is to have simplified the software interface. The mobile app and desktop app are designed to make it easier for you to access playlists, listen to the radio and discover new music.

The Swedish streaming service provides the latest album releases, exclusive live sessions and several new singles every Friday in its New Releases tab.

The Fusion Custom feature is a new way for two friends to combine their musical tastes into a playlist selected especially for them.

The free version supported with 128 kbit / s advertising streams via the web player. The app adjusts the quality according to the connection, from 24 kbit / s to 160 kbit / s. In the premium plan it goes up to AAC 256 kbit / s.

SL