Spotify is easily one of the best music streaming services available on the market, but it does have a couple of cons. For one, it seems like Spotify takes up a ridiculous amount of Internet traffic — if you have a slow connection, that makes it difficult to do anything else on your network. This problem is worsened when playing high quality versions of songs. And then, people just have their own subjective grievances with the music streaming service.
So, if you’re tired of using Spotify or don’t like it operates. Follow along below — we’ll show you the best alternatives to the music streaming service below.
YouTube Music
First up, we’re looking at YouTube Music. This is essentially your standard streaming service, with just a couple of exclusive bonuses. YouTube Music answers a feature request that YouTube users have been asking for for years — the ability to listen to music without the YouTube app open. Yes, with YouTube Music you can listen to your favorite songs with YouTube simply open in the background. The other benefit is that you have access to a vast library of songs, as well as the ability to listen to live performances. With a YouTube Music subscription, you won’t have problems with advertisements.
Download it now: Google Play
Pandora
Pandora is known for its radio-like style, allowing you to tune into stations to listen to your favorite songs and genres. That’s one of the great key things about Pandora, but Pandora has actually upgraded their service recently, allowing you to put together playlists with your favorite songs. Or, you can have Pandora curate you a playlist based on your own listening habits.
If you want to stick with Pandora’s radio style, you can actually curate these “stations” to exclusively play the tracks that you like and enjoy. On a track that plays, you can press the “Thumbs Up” button to play songs more like the one you’re listening to, or you can hit the “Thumbs Down” button to never hear a track again. Pandora really has become more valuable in recent days — the ability to search for a track and play it is just awesome, especially in a radio-centric streaming service.
Download it now: Google Play
Apple Music
Apple Music has quickly become our favorite platform for music streaming. They have one of the largest streaming libraries in the world, featuring well over 30 million songs that you have access to right at your fingertips. Apple Music is neat because they try to personalize it for individuals — you follow prompts to enter in your music tastes, such as your favorite artists and genres, and Apple Music will try to cater your experience to those tastes. They’ll recommend you public playlists that you might like. For example, if you choose country as your favorite, Apple will occasionally offer you a “Driving” playlist with some upbeat country tunes that you are most likely to enjoy. It’s a really neat experience. Generally, Apple Music offers a one-month free trial, but you will have to pay the $10 per month to continue use afterwards.
The subscription comes with a lot of neat things, including the ability to download playlists for offline listening.
Download it now: Google Play
Google Play Music
Google Play Music is a fantastic alternative to Spotify. Google Play Music operates on a similar level, where you can pick songs and add them to a playlist, and then play that playlist whenever you want to listen to your favorite tunes. You can listen to individual tracks as well. The neat thing about Google Play Music is that they offer support for playing podcasts and audiobooks, too. Playlists and tracks can be downloaded for offline listening, essentially those times where you don’t have access to an Internet connection or don’t want to use up your data plan on your music. Google Play Music is supported by ads, but you can get rid of those with a premium subscription.
Download it now: Google Play
iHeartRadio
One of our favorite Spotify replacements is iHeartRadio. iHeartRadio isn’t entirely a music streaming service, but it does operate on a similar level. It takes on a more radio style, allowing you to listen to different stations for different genres and artists. You can play your favorite tracks, listen to your favorite genres — country, pop, rock, top hits, you name it. You can also listen to different media personalities on iHeartRadio, whether that be Dave Ramsey, Ken Coleman, Joe Rogan, and so many others. iHeartRadio really is a great Spotify replacement if you don’t mind its radio-centric style.
Advertisements do play on iHeartRadio, but you can get rid of them with a premium subscription to iHeartRadio.
Download it now: Google Play
Verdict
Spotify is an excellent music streaming service, but like everything on the market, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Luckily, you have plenty of alternatives out there, and alternatives that have vast libraries of songs. Some of these services even support things like podcasts, audiobooks, and media personalities. No matter which service you choose off of this list, you’re getting something high quality that works as an excellent Spotify replacement.