Which streaming service is right for you? It may come down to your personal ethics
[This was my weekly column for GlobalNews.ca. – AC]
A new survey earlier this month reported that streaming provides 84 per cent of the revenue for recorded music consumption in the U.S. I have a feeling that it’s slightly lower in Canada, but we continue to adopt the technology more and more every month. Streaming is not just the future but the present.
When choosing a streaming music service, there are more options than just the Big Four: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music and YouTube Music. There’s a second tier of platforms that includes Deezer, Qobuz, Tidal, SoundCloud and Napster (the legal one and formally known as Rhapsody). Going deeper, there are 8Tracks, Tunein, AccuRadio, iHeartRadio, Boomplay, Jango and perhaps a dozen more.
There’s another tier that specializes in specific ethnicities and genres. JioSaavn and Gaana, for example, focus on Indian material, Patari services the Pakistani market, Moov is all about Southeast Asian music and Anghami is for the Arab world. IDAGIO is designed for classical music fans, while ROXi is for those who love karaoke. All draw from the same massive catalogue of more than 120 million digital tracks.
When it comes to the West, most music fans stick with the Big Four. Spotify has the most customers, with more than 600 million average monthly users (AMUs), 246 million-ish of whom pay for a subscription that unlocks all the features of the app and user interface. (This is slightly less than China’s QQ Music, a joint venture between Spotify and China’s Tencent, but that streamer is mostly for the worldwide Chinese market.) Apple Music, Amazon Music, and the fast-growing YouTube Music each have around 100 million AMUs.
When it comes to the West, most music fans stick with the Big Four. Spotify has the most customers, with more than 600 million average monthly users (AMUs), 246 million-ish of whom pay for a subscription that unlocks all the features of the app and user interface. (This is slightly less than China’s QQ Music, a joint venture between Spotify and China’s Tencent, but that streamer is mostly for the worldwide Chinese market.) Apple Music, Amazon Music, and the fast-growing YouTube Music each have around 100 million AMUs.
With all these choices, which one is right for you? That depends. What sets these platforms apart? Let’s take a look.
