SPOTIFY vs THE WORLD Still top of the charts?
Spotify’s bold move to make streaming free and legal almost 15 years ago won it hundreds of millions of users, almost half of whom have since been converted to paying customers. But does Spotify still deserve such loyalty? Is it really that much better than the other streaming services or is it trading on the inertia advantage that stems from being the first company to crack the streaming market?
I’ve been testing six streaming services for the past few months, letting them learn my music habits while I get to learn theirs. If you thought all services were the same, broadcasting the same catalogue at the same quality, I urge you to read on as that’s far from the case.
Spoiler: Spotify is no longer the benchmark for the rest of the industry.
AMAZON MUSIC
The fact that Amazon is the cheapest service on test here is about as shocking as discovering the sun came up this morning. Although Amazon does reserve its best deals for those already paying the company a stipend for Prime.
Amazon delivers a reasonable chunk of its streaming library for free to Prime subscribers, but to unlock the full library you’ll have to pay for Amazon Music Unlimited. Amazon has the lowest entry point of any service here, with the option to create a subscription for a single device – such as the company’s own Echo – for a reasonable £3.99 per month.
A full subscription costs £7.99 per month for Prime subscribers, which is cheaper than the £9.99 baseline you get with most other services; otherwise, it’s the regular £9.99. Amazon also offers a discount if you pay for a year upfront, so a full year of Music Unlimited for Prime subscribers costs £79 or £6.59 per month.
To add a further layer of confusion, Amazon wants another fiver per month for Amazon Music HD. This unlocks the library of HD (16-bit, 44.1kHz, average bit rate of 850Kbits/sec) and Ultra HD
