While Spotify is the dominant force in the music streaming landsape, it’s not without its flaws, whether that’s price, audio quality, or simply UI. So, if you’re looking for a new Spotify alternative to try, you’ve come to the right place.
Keep reading to see our picks.
Advantages of Spotify Alternatives
- Better audio quality – Many of the alternatives we highlight offer higher-quality audio, including FLAC and lossless music
- Lower prices / less ads – There are several Spotify alternatives that offer cheaper pricing and better deals; or even free plans with less ads
- Platform-exclusive music – Some music streaming services, like Tidal, have exclusive rights to certain music
- Interface / features – Whether you’re a fan of Spotify’s apps and UI or not, you might find yourself appreciating the design and features of another service more
Best Spotify Alternatives
We’ve combed through a whole host of music streaming services to give you our favorites.
Deezer
Price Free to $19.99 per month
Deezer may not have the name recognition of Spotify, Apple, or Amazon, but it makes up for it with a combination of large library, high-quality audio codecs, and the inclusion of cool features, like lyrics with translations for songs and SongCatcher, which identify songs you come across outside the app.
Pros
- Lossless audio
- Huge library
- Cool features
- Free tier
Cons
- Same price as Spotify (and thus more expensive than some of the other alternatives on our list)
Apple Music
Price $5.99 to $16.99 per month
We’re sure Apple needs no introduction here, but many people – including iPhone and Mac users – have never made use of their music streaming service, despite it being the second-most-popular after Spotify.
Pros
- Top-notch audio quality
- Works perfectly with Apple devices
- Cheaper per month than Spotify
Cons
- No free tier
- No discounts for long-term subscriptions
Funkwhale
Price Free
If you’re looking for a music streaming experience that’s less corporate and more personalize (plus cheaper), Funkwhale is worth a look. It’s open source and allows users to upload their music libraries to decentralized servers and share them among each other.
Pros
- Free (no ads)
- Open source
Cons
- Less easy to use than commercial streaming services
Pandora
Price Free to $10.99 per month
If you’re looking for more of an old-school “play it and forget it” radio experience, Pandora really differentiates itself from the other members of our list. Using its patented “Music Genome Project” (and related podcast version), Pandora creates personalized radio stations based on the music you like and don’t like.
Pros
- Cheaper than Spotify
- Preference-based recommendations
Cons
- Less control over what specific songs you listen to
Tidal
Price $5.49 to $16.99 per month
While Tidal doesn’t have nearly the market share of big players like Spotify or Apple, it does boast some of the best audio options, giving users the option of streaming compressed, FLAC, and HiRes FLAC, depending on their connection speed.
Pros
- Best audio quality options
Cons
- Smaller library
- Less features overall than Spotify
Amazon Music
Price Free to $16.99 per month
If you’re an avid Amazon user, Amazon Music is worth a shot. It’s already cheaper than Spotify, but being a Prime member gets you a discount that makes it even cheaper. But there’s a free tier too, if you’d rather not pay.
Pros
- Discount for existing Amazon Prime users
- Audible (audiobook) and podcast integration
- Works perfectly with Alexa
Cons
- Lacks the library and features of some other major streaming services
Best Spotify Alternatives: Wrap-Up
With a variety of choices for different styles and price points, we hope you’ve managed to find a Spotify alternative that works for you.
Of course, there are other streaming services out there, they simply didn’t make our list. But let us know if we didn’t include your favorite!