Best music streaming services for 2024

Music has always been an essential part of our lives, and thanks to technology, we don't even have to store thousands of files on our devices anymore. With music streaming services, we can listen to almost any track, discover new artists, and create playlists for all kinds of moods and moments. Luckily, integrating your music streaming services with IFTTT, a powerful automation tool that lets you connect and integrate over 800+ services, unlocks additional capabilities that you can’t access through traditional means.

As music lovers find it more convenient to subscribe to music streaming services and get access to an endless library of music, but with many music streaming services available, it can be difficult to see which one is right for you. That is why we have researched and compiled a list of the best music streaming services for 2024, so you can make an informed decision.

Table of Contents

• Spotify
• SoundCloud
• Apple Music
• Amazon Music
• Youtube Music
• How to decide which service is best for you
• Enhance your music streaming experience with IFTTT

Spotify

Spotify is a music-streaming platform with over 165 million monthly active users and a collection of more than 70 million songs. The app has gained worldwide popularity thanks to its endless collection of music that can easily be accessed on any device you own. It is known for its personalized playlists like "Discover Weekly" and "Release Radar," through the use of data analytics to tailor music suggestions to your specific tastes.

Besides Spotify’s personalized music recommendations, another feature that stands out is their playlist feature. With playlists, you can organize all your favorite songs in one place. Spotify has playlists for any mood, making it easy for users to find music for any occasion. Users can also share their playlists with their friends and followers, making it easy for others to discover new music and artists.

Spotify also has a collaborative playlist feature, which enables you to create playlists with your friends. This feature is handy when it comes to organizing music for events such as parties or road trips.

A big plus Spotify has is its ability to integrate with IFTTT, enabling you to streamline your music listening experience. For example, you can add songs from other music streaming services like SoundCloud to a Spotify playlist, allowing you to manage and organize your music collection easily. Here’s a handful of our popular Spotify integrations:

Pricing

If you're looking for a cost-effective way to enjoy music, then the free version of Spotify is a great option. You can access the entire Spotify music catalog and listen to playlists, radio, and more. However, the free version includes ads that can interrupt your music streaming experience. Additionally, this plan only allows you to listen to music in shuffle mode and limits the number of skips to six per hour.

Let’s dive into the different Spotify pricing packages and what each plan offers you as a user.

Premium Individual ($10.99/month): The Premium Individual subscription is only accessible to one user that allows you to download music, listen to music offline, reorder playlists, and skip as many tracks as you want.

Premium Duo ($14.99/month): If you share an account with a partner, then the Duo Subscription is ideal. This subscription allows two people to share an account at a discounted rate. It offers all the features of the Premium subscription, including playlists, radio, and ad-free music.

Premium Family ($16/month): The Family Subscription allows up to six people to share an account at a discounted rate. Each person would have a separate account to keep their personalized playlists.

Premium Student ($5.99/month): If you're a student enrolled in an accredited college or university, you're eligible for a student discount. The student subscription offers the same features as the Premium subscription at a discounted rate.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud is a streaming platform designed for independent and unsigned artists who want to share their music with the world. It is an open platform where users can upload, share and comment on music tracks for free.

One of Soundcloud's most significant features is its scalability. As more users joined the platform, Soundcloud was able to expand its services to offer various tools that made the platform more effective for artists. This included allowing them to share their work directly on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which provided greater visibility and instant feedback.

Additionally, SoundCloud supports HD quality lossless audio files, which have made it one of the most powerful platforms for streaming high-quality music. To cater to its audience, Soundcloud also allows users to download songs, which further increases the accessibility of independent music.

SoundCloud also easily integrates with IFTTT, transforming the way you can use SoundCloud. For example, you can sync your favorite tracks from other music streaming services to SoundCloud, easily share music to your friends, family, and coworkers, and even download and save your music to the cloud. Here’s a list of some of our most popular SoundCloud integrations:

Apple Music

Apple Music is a subscription-based music streaming service that offers users access to a vast library of songs, along with personalized playlists, recommendations, and radio stations. Unlike other music services, Apple Music has a unique feature called the Connect tab, which allows artists to share exclusive content with their fans, such as behind-the-scenes footage and new releases.

One of the key selling points of Apple Music is its integration with Apple's ecosystem of devices and services. If you own an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you can easily access your music library and playlists from all of your devices. Plus, if you have an Apple Watch, you can listen to music and control playback right from your wrist, without needing to pull out your phone. This seamless integration sets Apple Music apart from other streaming services.

Pricing

Apple Music offers a 3-month free trial for new users, so you can test the service before committing to a subscription. After the trial, the pricing for Apple Music is:

Voice ($4.99/month): The Voice plan is the most basic plan that includes access to 100 million songs and more than 30,000 expert-curated playlists, usable with Siri, ad-free music, shows, concerts, and exclusives hosted by artists, and available on Apple devices.

Student ($5.99/month): The Student plan is the cheapest option for the access of most features, but you will need to verify your eligibility with a valid student ID to qualify for it. It includes everything in the Voice plan along with the Apple Music Classical app, available on other supported devices, full catalog in lossless studio, Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, Apple Music Sing, ability to see what your friends are listening to, and have the ability to listen online or off.

Individual ($10.99/month): The Individual plan includes everything in the Student plan.

Family ($16.99/month): The Family plan includes everything in the Individual plan in addition to unlimited access for up to six people, personal music library for each family member, and personalized recommendations for each family member.

Amazon Music

Amazon Music is a cloud-based digital music streaming platform powered by Amazon. It offers an extensive catalog of songs, playlists, and albums, which you can access from any device.

Amazon Music is compatible with Alexa, Amazon's personal assistant, allowing for voice-activated music streaming. You can play your favorite songs, create playlists, or search for new music entirely hands-free. Alexa will even recommend songs based on your listening history, and you can control Alexa using your smartphone or a smart speaker.

Pricing

Amazon Music has a range of plans and pricing options that we’ll explore to help you determine which plan is best suited for your needs:

Amazon Prime Music: If you're already an Amazon Prime member, you have access to Amazon Prime Music for free. This plan offers around two million songs and limited features like ad-free listening, offline playback, and unlimited skips. It's a great option if you're a casual listener and can't justify the higher price tag of the other plans.

Amazon Music Unlimited: The plan offers access to over 70 million songs, personalized recommendations, the ability to stream on-demand, and unlimited skips. It's also ad-free and allows offline playback. Amazon Music Unlimited comes in three pricing tiers: $9.99 per month for individual access, $14.99 for a family plan that covers up to six members, and $7.99 for Prime members.

Youtube Music is the perfect music streaming service for those who love to explore new music. The platform is home to a vast collection of official music videos, covers, remixes, and user-generated content.

Another feature of Youtube Music is its search functionality. Youtube is the largest video sharing platform in the world, and its search algorithm makes it easy for users to discover new music. This search capability translates to Youtube Music as well, allowing users to find new artists and tracks through a personalized recommendation service. The app creates custom playlists for users based on their listening history.

IFTTT has Youtube integrations that allows you to manage your liked videos, notifications, and channel. For example, we have Applets that lets you save your liked videos to web drives like Raindrop.io and put.io for easy access and organization. Here’s some of our most popular Youtube integrations we have:

Pricing

Youtube Music, like many other music streaming platforms, offers a range of pricing plans to choose from. The three different plans Youtube Music offers comes with all the same features like listening ad-free, ability to download songs offline, and switch to from audio to video when listening to songs. The Individual plan costs $10.99/month for one single user, Family plan costs $16.99/month for up to 5 other users, and the Student plan costs $5.49/month for eligible students.

How to decide which service is best for you

With so many music streaming services, it can be difficult to choose which one will be best for you. To help with that, consider the following questions to help you make a decision:

• How much are you willing to spend?
• Have you considered the interface of each app (is it easy to use and navigate for you)?
• Determine your music taste and listening habits: If you're a fan of well-known artists, then a platform like Spotify might be the best option for you. However, if you enjoy discovering upcoming artists and unique songs, SoundCloud might be your go-to service.
• Consider the type of device you use: Another aspect to consider is the type of device you use to listen to music. For iPhone users, Apple Music is the obvious choice, as it's integrated into the iOS operating system. However, if you’re an Android user, you may be torn between Spotify and Google Play Music.
• Do you care for additional features like curated playlists, podcasts, and integration with other platforms?

By considering factors such as your music taste, device compatibility, pricing, user experience, and additional features, you can narrow down your options and choose the best platform for you. It’s always a good idea to try out a trial version before purchasing a subscription to ensure the platform suits your needs.

Enhance your music streaming experience with IFTTT

IFTTT is an amazing tool that provides endless possibilities for improving your music streaming experience. It creates a more streamlined and convenient environment for you to enjoy your music through the ability of integrating your music streaming service to countless platforms. IFTTT allows you to create recipes that use your other smart-home devices to control your music, sync your favorite tracks to another music streaming service, automatically share what you’re listening to with your friends and family, and more. So, why not give it a shot? Join IFTTT for free today!