Best and cheapest music streaming service? (predominantly a Sonos and Android phone user).

Adamc

I'm currently trialing Apple Music and its sound quality is better than Spotify on my Sonos set up however the UI is annoying and as I use android it's a pain use in the Sonos S2 app / I can't use Airplay.

Spotify is much easier to use - it's just a shame the quality is lower.  

I believe Amazon Music has a 3 month trial deal currently? Has anyone used it 

My wife has Spotify - she would like me Duo with her if we go halves. This would work out at around £7 each saving her around £3. 

My main uses are BBC sounds, News/Radio, Podcasts, and high quality Music streaming - mainly over Wifi but also some 3G/Bluetooth. 

What would people recommend?

RumRat

Have a look at Deezer.... High quality available. Sorry not the cheapest, but they are all in the same ball park area...

Adamc

RumRat said:

Have a look at Deezer.... High quality available. Sorry not the cheapest, but they are all in the same ball park area...

Any major advantages or differences with Deezer?

bob_a_builder

https://www.whathifi.com/advice/hi-res-music-streaming-services-compared

A table half way down the page gives information on streaming quality which might help you

RumRat

Adamc said:

RumRat said:

Have a look at Deezer.... High quality available. Sorry not the cheapest, but they are all in the same ball park area...

Any major advantages or differences with Deezer?

Quality, other than that the same as the others I guess. My wife has Deezer and I have Spotify, neither of us has any problem finding anything we want...

Adamc

RumRat said:

Adamc said:

RumRat said:

Have a look at Deezer.... High quality available. Sorry not the cheapest, but they are all in the same ball park area...

Any major advantages or differences with Deezer?

Quality, other than that the same as the others I guess. My wife has Deezer and I have Spotify, neither of us has any problem finding anything we want...

Do you notice the difference in the higher bit rate with Deezer? Are you a Sonos user?

MattMattMattUK

Adamc said:

mainly over Wifi but also some 3G/Bluetooth. 

Personally I use Spotify, I always leave it on the high bitrate option and in comparisons for most music there is little to no difference, though it is much more noticeable if Spotify is on one of the lower bitrate settings.

A note on the point above though, 3G is being turned off this year so if your phone does not support 4G/5G then you will need to upgrade your phone or it will stop working.

Neil49

Adamc said:

RumRat said:

Adamc said:

RumRat said:

Have a look at Deezer.... High quality available. Sorry not the cheapest, but they are all in the same ball park area...

Any major advantages or differences with Deezer?

Quality, other than that the same as the others I guess. My wife has Deezer and I have Spotify, neither of us has any problem finding anything we want...

Do you notice the difference in the higher bit rate with Deezer? Are you a Sonos user?

I have 2 Sonos One's and a sub. For me there is a significant difference in quality between Spotify and Deezer/Amazon/Qobuz and there's no way I would return to Spotify until they introduce HD streaming. 

I quite liked Amazon until they upped the price (but it's cheaper if you have Prime) and I'm currently running a free offer of Qobuz plus a cheap deal on Deezer. There's little difference between the 3 of them in quality but I found Qobuz less user friendly. If you can get 3 months free on Amazon then go for it. 

In the meantime I highly recommend Radio Paradise which streams high quality music at no cost and is available on Sonos. It also streams in the higher quality mqa format should your hifi setup support it. You have a choice of 4 streams but you can't select any particular artist or track - but it's free.

RumRat

Adamc said:

RumRat said:

Adamc said:

RumRat said:

Have a look at Deezer.... High quality available. Sorry not the cheapest, but they are all in the same ball park area...

Any major advantages or differences with Deezer?

Quality, other than that the same as the others I guess. My wife has Deezer and I have Spotify, neither of us has any problem finding anything we want...

Do you notice the difference in the higher bit rate with Deezer? Are you a Sonos user?

I have both Sonos and Audio-Pro (IMO better than Sonos). You can tell the difference with Deezer Premium on the Audio-Pro but not on the Sonos so much. We've dropped the premium subscription because unless you spend a lot of time with headphones on concentrating on the content, we don't think the difference is worth the extra cost.
. 

visibility

If you are looking for alternative music streaming services to Spotify, there are no shortage of them available.

Here is a list of some of the best, most popular alternative streaming platforms right now (in no particular order):

• Apple Music
• SoundCloud
• Amazon Music (or Amazon Prime Music)
• YouTube Music
• Tidal
• Deezer
• Pandora Radio
• Google Play
• Qobuz

Username03725

The best is Qobuz in terms of audio quality, to my ears. Tidal also provide a hi-res service that's almost indistinguishable from Qobuz so take your pick. Qobuz is slightly cheaper if you pay annually rather than monthly, and that swung it for me. Both of these services are occasionally criticised for gaps in their library so occasionally you may not be able to find a specific music that you were after. 

Cheapest presumably is Spotify; free but with ads.