Spotify vs the world
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Spotify’s bold move to make streaming free and legal almost 15 years ago won it hundreds of millions of users, almost half of whom have since been converted to paying customers. But does Spotify still deserve such loyalty? Is it really that much better than the other streaming services or is it trading on the inertia advantage that stems from being the first company to crack the streaming market?
I’ve been testing six streaming services for the past few months, letting them learn my music habits while I get to learn theirs. If you thought all services were the same, broadcasting the same catalogue at the same quality, I urge you to read on as that’s far from the case.
Spoiler: Spotify is no longer the benchmark for the rest of the industry.
AMAZON MUSIC
The fact that Amazon is the cheapest service on test here is about as shocking as discovering the sun came up this morning. Although Amazon does reserve its best deals for those already paying the company a stipend for Prime.
Amazon delivers a reasonable chunk of its streaming library for free to Prime subscribers, but to unlock the full library you’ll have to pay for Amazon Music Unlimited. Amazon has the lowest entry point of any service here, with the option to create a subscription for a single device – such as the company’s own Echo – for a reasonable £3.99 per month.
A full subscription costs £7.99 per month for Prime subscribers, which is cheaper than the £9.99 you get with most other rvices; otherwise, it’s the regular £9.99. Amazon also offers a discount if you pay for a year upfront, so a full year of Music Unlimited for Prime subscribers costs £79 or £6.59 per month.
To add a further layer of confusion, Amazon wants another fiver per month for Amazon Music HD. This unlocks the library of HD (16-bit, 44.1kHz, average bit rate of 850Kbits/ sec) and Ultra HD tracks (24-bit, up to 192kHz, 3,730Kbits/sec). My fingerin-the-air estimate is that more than half of Amazon’s library is available in Ultra HD, with newer recordings more likely to feel the benefit. You won’t notice much difference if your primary playback device is a regular Echo speaker, but if you own highend gear then you’ll find the Ultra HD sound quality is saturated with detail,
right up there with Tidal’s “master” quality offering.
With such a rich library of music on offer, it’s a shame that Amazon’s apps are blander than the brown cardboard boxes it delivers parcels in. There’s little in the way of curation – no handpicked selections for individual artists, for example, and nothing to rival Spotify’s Daily Mixes. There is a naked attempt to ape Spotify’s Discover Weekly, in the form of the weekly My Discovery Mix, but you’d have to have been living in a cave in Borneo not to have “discovered”
Lou Reed’s Perfect Day or Here Comes
The Sun by The Beatles, which were both on my list at the time of writing.
That’s indicative of a lack of ambition and inventiveness in Amazon’s offering. The suggested playlists largely veer back to the mainstream, everything feels as tired and familiar as a new Coldplay album (sorry, Coldplay fans). If you’re comfortable navigating your own musical path and don’t much care for curation then Amazon Music will deliver at a decent price. If you’re looking to broaden your music tastes, search elsewhere.
APPLE MUSIC
On the basis that if you have nothing nice to say you should say nothing at all, the rest of this review should be left blank because Apple Music is the weakest offering here.
Okay, it has roughly the same library of music that most of the others have and a fair few exclusives recorded for iTunes Festivals and such over the years. There’s a strong library of video and, unlike any of the other services, Apple still persists with its own live radio station, Beats 1, keeping Zane Lowe off the streets. That is about the only thing that sets it apart.
The Apple Music interface is a hot mess – the worst current example of Apple interface design that I can think of. It feels like the old iTunes team and the new Apple Music crew had a dust-up in the car park about what the software should look like on a Mac, and the customer lost. Search is tucked away in a small bar on the left, vast expanses of white space fill the main pane, and you’re caught in a constant tussle with the main interface and the mini-player fighting for attention. To compound matters, it’s desperately sluggish on the Mac.
The iOS/iPadOS and Android app design is better, more like what you’ll find from Spotify and the others, but
It’s the worst current example of Apple interface design that I can think of
Deezer has features that leave even charttopping Spotify in the shade
your cardiologist need not worry about your heart skipping a beat as there’s little here to raise excitement levels. Apple’s algorithms do a so-so job of generating automated playlists, but there’s nothing like Spotify’s Daily Mixes or Release
Radar – you have to manually start “radio” playlists by selecting albums, artists or tracks to spin an automated set from. Confusingly, Apple Music contains actual radio stations supplied by TuneIn, which is also labelled as “radio” from within Apple Music.
Apple does put effort into curating playlists. Search for any well-known artist and you’ll likely find “Essentials” and “Next Steps” playlists for them, allowing you to get a taste for their wares. But even doing something as simple as “loving” a song to help train Apple’s algorithms to your tastes requires a right-click on the Mac. Songs can also be added to your “library”, but they seemingly disappear into a void never to be seen again. It’s hard to imagine how Apple got something so simple so wrong.
Sound quality is pegged at a maximum of 256Kbits/sec AAC, which is lacklustre compared to Amazon and Tidal’s lossless streams, and surprising given Apple’s usual desire to deliver maximum quality.
So there’s nothing that sets Apple Music apart from its rivals and plenty of reasons to give it a wide berth.
DEEZER
Deezer is a bit like The Stereophonics – it’s been around for ages without ever becoming anyone’s favourite. That comparison is, on reflection, a tad harsh on Deezer, because the French service has a number of excellent features that leave even Spotify in the shade.
Let’s start with the music quality. The top-grade Hi-Fi plan (£14.99 per month for six users) gives you access to CD-quality, lossless 16-bit FLAC streams delivered at 1,411Kbits/ sec, which means you’re making no compromises if you’re streaming through high-end audio gear you have a compatible pair of cans, Deezer also offers a selection of albums in what’s called 360 Reality Audio, which claims to deliver immersive surround sound. It’s gimmicky, but gives tracks such as Bowie’s Space Oddity a new tilt.
Unlike the majority of rival services tested here, Deezer also builds radio stations into its service – by which I mean stations such as Radio 6 Music and Absolute Radio, not Spotify-style “radio”, which is merely algorithm-chosen song selections. One very thoughtful touch is that Deezer displays the song currently playing on radio stations, allowing you to add them to playlists or favourites with a donk of the finger. Podcasts are included too, making Deezer a one-stop-audio shop.
Even if you’re not listening to music on Deezer itself, the service has you covered if you hear a great tune on the TV or blasting through shop speakers. The mobile app has a Shazam-like SongCatcher built
in, letting the phone listen to what’s playing and name that tune.
Deezer’s algorithms are finely tuned. Whereas Spotify tends to play it safe, driving you back towards the mainstream hits with its automated playlists, Deezer finds more eclectic selections. Asked to build a playlist off a track by the niche, Mercury Prize-nominated singer Tom McRae, for instance, Spotify opted for artists such as Mercury Rev, Paul Weller and David Gray. Deezer, on the other hand, reached for more esoteric artists such as Jeremy Messersmith, The Staves and Théodore, Paul & Gabriel, broadening my musical horizons and introducing me to great artists that I’ve only previously brushed past.
It too offers Spotify-like Daily playlists and Monday Discovery, and there’s a strong selection of editorially curated playlists and content. Take, for example, the At Home section, which includes workout playlists, playlists designed to keep the kids occupied, “binge-worthy” podcast series such as The Harrowing and podcasts to help you learn a new foreign language. Like everything else on the service, it’s impressively well thought out.
Deezer isn’t going to be the first service audio equipment manufacturers think of when it comes to integrations, but it’s not a poor relation in this department either. Deezer can be accessed through Amazon Echo speakers, Google
Home devices and a range of other mainstream equipment. And note Spotify users: if you start a stream on, say, your Amazon Echo speaker, it doesn’t immediately cut off the stream on your phone or computer – a major irritation. That said, the Echo skill is particularly poorly reviewed by users and you can see why. Automated playlists stop after one track and it couldn’t find specific playlists saved in my Deezer library.
That is one of the few flies in the Deezer wine glass, though. It’s a comprehensive, intelligently designed service that has several features that many of its better-resourced rivals omit.
SPOTIFY
Spotify might not have reached Hoover levels of ubiquity, but it’s getting there. Think streaming music and most people think Spotify.
Omnipresence has big advantages. For instance, no mainstream smart speaker or home audio system would dare to launch without Spotify support; smartwatches have Spotify apps; in-car audio systems proudly announce they too support Spotify. The same can’t be said for any of the other services on test here.
Aside from ubiquity, Spotify’s biggest strength is its algorithms. It does a tremendous job of finding music that matches your tastes and delivering that in a variety of forms. Take the automatically generated Daily Mixes – up to six different never-ending playlists that are based on your recent history.
They guarantee you can head out on a long drive and never have to worry about running out of music. The equally excellent Discover Weekly is a broader, more eclectic “mixtape” of tunes in your orbit, while the weekly Release Radar ensures you don’t miss any new releases from favourite artists. You could spend your entire Spotify existence listening to the se auto-generated lists alone and be perfectly sated.