We compared catalog size, audio quality, recommendation accuracy, and what artists actually get paid across 10 music services.
We listened to the same 200-song playlist on each service for 4 weeks, scored recommendation accuracy against a fixed set of seeds, measured audio quality with the same hardware, and tracked per-stream artist payouts.
Total catalog size and any meaningful artist exclusives.
Total number of tracks licensed for the US region.
Fraction of our fixed test playlist that streamed in full without 'unavailable' placeholders.
Unique artist releases or live sessions not available elsewhere.
Blind evaluation against a 50-seed playlist, scored by 3 editors.
Average editor score on the algorithmic daily/weekly recommendation playlists.
How well the 'radio from this track' feature extends an existing seed without drifting off-genre.
Editor score for the hand-curated playlists the service promotes on its home page.
Max bitrate, lossless availability, spatial audio.
Is CD-quality-or-better lossless available on the base plan without a paid upsell?
24-bit / 96 kHz+ support for the catalog segment that has it.
Dolby Atmos / 360 Reality Audio support and the size of the spatial catalog.
Average per-stream payout based on public disclosures.
How cleanly playback moves across phones, cars, and speakers.
Availability and honest pricing of family and student tiers.
We pay for every service we test.
Best recommendations, widest device support, no lossless on the standard tier.
Same price as Spotify but includes Lossless + Dolby Atmos. The value pick if you have good headphones.
Best artist payout and hi-res catalog. Smaller ecosystem than Spotify/Apple but the only mainstream service we'd call ethical.
The audiophile's pick. Hi-res at the largest catalog we tested, and payouts close to Tidal.
Wins if you already pay for YouTube Premium — otherwise not compelling on its own.
Free HD + Ultra HD tier if you're already on Prime, genuinely confusing pricing otherwise.
Flow (their algorithmic mix) is a legitimately good recommendation engine. Everything else is average.
The only service where DJ sets, remixes, and independent artists are the main catalog — and the cheapest paid tier we tested.
The original radio-station algorithm is still best-in-class for seed-based listening. Everything else is dated.
Not a streaming service in the Spotify sense — you buy albums directly from artists. Included for context because it's the highest artist payout bar none.
Two users can seed a shared Flow session — first real Spotify Blend competitor from a non-Spotify service.
Algorithmic playlists still trail Spotify, but editor-curated playlists now match in quality.
CD-quality lossless landed on Go+ in EU + North America; not yet scored in our table.
Not in our test matrix yet — we'll re-score audio quality in the next quarterly update.
| Service | Individual plan, renewal price. | Licensed track count in millions. SoundCloud's 320M figure includes creator uploads, not just label catalogue. | Lossless = CD quality (16-bit/44.1 kHz) or better, included in the base plan. | Dolby Atmos / Spatial available | Approximate per-1000-streams payout to rights holders based on public disclosures. Bandcamp's figure is per-album purchase, not per-stream. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spotify | 11.99 | 100 | Pilot | No | 3 |
Apple Music | 10.99 | 100 | Yes | Yes | 7.3 |
Tidal | 10.99 | 100 | Yes | Yes | 12.8 |
Qobuz | 12.99 | 100 | Yes | No | 8.5 |
YouTube Music | 10.99 | 100 | No | No | 2 |
Amazon Music Unlimited | 10.99 | 100 | Yes | Yes | 4 |
Deezer | 10.99 | 90 | Yes | No | 4.6 |
SoundCloud Go | 4.99 | 320 | Pilot | No | 2.5 |
Pandora Premium | 9.99 | 40 | No | No | 1.3 |
Bandcamp | 0 | 5 | Yes | No | 800 |
Catalog is rounded. Artist payout figures are based on public disclosures and industry estimates. Bandcamp's figure reflects per-album purchase, not per-stream, and is shown for context.
Only if you have the hardware to benefit — wired headphones above roughly $150, a decent DAC, or a good home stereo. On AirPods or laptop speakers the difference is inaudible.
Tidal pays the highest per-stream rate of any mainstream service, followed by Qobuz and Apple Music. Spotify is the lowest. If you want to actually support artists, buy albums on Bandcamp — that's an order of magnitude more revenue reaching creators.
Yes — every service offers a 6-member family plan for about 1.7× the individual price. The caveat is that members must be at the same address.
Yes if your listening is weighted toward remixes, DJ sets, and independent electronic music — SoundCloud's catalog there is unmatched. No if you mostly listen to mainstream label releases; you'll hit gaps.
Real in 8 markets as of early 2026, after years of delay. We haven't re-scored the audio quality criterion yet — that's in the Q3 2026 update — but the HiFi bit-for-bit output matches Apple Music in a quick listening test.
Recommendation scores quarterly, pricing and catalog continuously.
Every correction is logged publicly. Response within 10 business days.