Sunday, April 26, 2020

Battle of Music Streaming Apps: Spotify vs Apple Music vs Deezer vs YouTube Music

Gone are the days when the norm was tuning in to the radio intently to record your favorite songs, or to download a lot of MP3 tunes to stock to your USB. Music streaming apps are undeniably well-known now with their advanced features and abundant music supply.

While almost everyone is stuck at home due to coronavirus, music can be a great company. It can calm you down, boost your mood up, or keep you on track to stay productive. So we analyzed the top 4 music streaming apps in the Philippines, namely Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and YouTube Music, to help you decide which one you should get.

	Spotify	Apple Music	Deezer	YouTube Music
Free trial	3 months	3 months	1 month	1 month
Price	PHP 129/mo	PHP 129/mo	PHP 129/mo PHP 1,290/yr	PHP 129/mo
Family plan	PHP 194/mo	PHP 199/mo	PHP 195/mo	PHP 199/mo
Platform support	Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Windows Mobile, and ChromeOS.	Mac, iOS, Windows, Android, Sonos, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.	Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac.	Android, iOS, and on all browsers.
Offline music	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Curated playlists	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lyrics option	YES by Genius	Yes	Yes	Yes
Podcasts	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Music videos	No	Yes	No	Yes
Casting	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sleep timer	Yes	No	No	No
Maximum bitrate	320Kbps	256kbps	320 kbps 1,411kbps (Deezer Hi-Fi)	256kbps

All four music streaming apps come with competitive price offerings and family plans. For an individual plan, all are priced at PHP 129 per month, but for YouTube Music, you can choose YouTube Premium for PHP 159 for all-in-one access to other YouTube affiliated subscription. Deezer offers a yearly fee of PHP 1,290, or you can opt for Deezer HiFi for PHP 250 to get access to HiFi music.

As for family plans, all offer up to 6 users. Apple Music and YouTube Music are priced at PHP 199 per month, while Spotify is priced at PHP 194 monthly and Deezer for PHP 195.

These music services are all compatible to stream for Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac. Apple Music, being Apple, is also compatible with Apple Watches and Apple TV. Moreover, all also allow access across multiple devices.

If you want to read lyrics while listening to tunes, all apps have lyrics options onboard, yet don’t expect too much from Spotify. Genius powers its feature, wherein it’ll continuously give bits of lyrics and facts about the specific music. If you prefer that more, then, by all means, go for Spotify.

Another feature that only Spotify has so far is sleep timer, which stops the music playback after a specific time assigned.

When it comes to their UIs, all four apps are comfortable to the eye with their clean and dark looking interface. Apple Music and Deezer natively come in white backgrounds, but both have dark mode options. They’re pretty much all easy to navigate with diverse music recommendations right from the get-go.

All apps have a browse or explore page, as well as categories if you can’t decide what to listen to or plainly want to explore. Of course, they all feature playlists creations, radio. Podcasts, however, are so far only available for Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer.

And as for quality, Spotify and Deezer offer a streaming quality of up to 320kbps. It’s also good to note that the higher the streaming quality, the more data it uses. I just leave mine on Automatic, and it does not really affect my day to day data usage. Apple, on the other hand, streams at a constant 256kbps with no other choice, while YouTube Music can do either 128 or 256kbps.

Unless you’re a serious audiophile, we don’t think you’ll be noticing the differences in streaming quality anyway. But it’s also good to mention that all have built-in equalizers in the app so you can make your own necessary adjustments when needed. Then again, if you’re looking for the highest audio fidelity, then Deezer is your best bet with a maximum streaming quality of 1,411kbps for a Deezer Hi-Fi subscription.