Spotify is the biggest music streaming service in the world. It's got an enormous collection of tracks to listen toa growing audiobook libraryand some of the best music suggestion tools around. But as we wait for the launch of the rumored Spotify HiFi subscription tier for those all-important hi-res tracksit's worth remembering that there are other options out there that give you a different set of features at differentand often betterprices.

The best music streaming services live and die by their music librariesand there are some key competitors out there that could give you more bang for your buck. I've used every single one there is so that I can work out which are the best around right now. I am Tom's Guide's Audio Editor and resident audio-weirdowith strict criteria as to what I want from a music streaming app — so let's find out what my favorite music streamer is as of 2025.

What are the best music streaming services? 

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I've ranked Tidal at the top of the list here — but it is a close one in my book. The Tidal Package is a fabulous onedelivering FLAC streams on some albumsand CD-quality streams for everything that doesn't have a hi-res mix. That's all under one banner nowwith the $10.99 subscription giving you access to everything on the platform. That makes it cheaper than Spotifycrucially — and the same price as the green circle when you opt for the latter without audiobooks.

You also get Dolby Atmos support through Tidal (although some devices don'tand it's not available on desktop). But why is it so close?

Apple Music costs the sameand has a similarly sized music library for the same $10.99 per month price. The hi-res streaming isn't quite as good as Tidal'sand you can't get those top-quality streams on Windows desktopsbut it's a great option for Apple Music.

Complicating matters further is my personal favorite streaming service — Qobuz. Nowthe French streamer is slightly more expensive every month when you go monthlybut choose a year's sub and it works out cheaper at $10.83 per month. For the money you get some of the best streaming quality aroundalong with access to the Qobuz music store where you can buy your music with a small discount. Opt for the more expensive 'Sublime' tier and you get a 60% discount on that store — which soon pays for itself if you like to keep your music locally.

Whether you're hunting down the best Bluetooth speakersbest wireless earbudsbest audiophile headphonesor best AV receiversmusic streaming services are not all the sameand signing up to the right service and audio quality can influence your overall music experience.

The best music streaming services now

Best music streaming service for lossless and hi-res

If it’s the music that primarily concerns youand you’re prepared to pay to listen to itthere’s only one place to put your subscription money — and that’s Tidal.

Tidal HiFi and HiFi Plus packages have been rolled into one new ad-free Tidal plan that combines all of the service's premium features for $10.99 / £10.99 / AU$12.99 per month.

Tidal streams in lossless CD-quality at 1,411kbps while hi-res content mastered in Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos spatial audioplus millions of true high-resolution audio tracks known as Tidal Masters stream at a giddy 9,216kbps. As of 2023Tidal has been moving away from MQA and now streams hi-res content in FLAC.

Sound quality is pure musical pleasure no matter what you listen on. Ifhoweveryou have a compatible system that can realize the full resolution of a Tidal Masters fileyou will be rewarded with a rich and detailed presentation that's worth the extra outlay. You don’t need to be an audiophile or spend a fortune on headphones to hear the benefityou just have to listen.

Plusif you’re at all bothered about artist remunerationsubscribers to Tidal HiFi Plus can take comfort in the knowledge that almost 10% of their subscription fee is shared between the artists you listen to the most.

• Read our full Tidal review

Best music streaming service for spatial audio

Apple has made an impressive journey to the digital music streaming service it is today. Starting as the iTunes downloads platformit morphed (as consumer listening and buying habits changed) into the Apple Music streaming giant we have now. In a more recent surprise moveApple Music upgraded its audio quality output from compressed lo-res audio files to full CD-quality music files as a bare minimumwith little fanfare and no extra charge. Existing subscribers suddenly had access to high-quality music streams without needing to lift a finger. Another reason to ditch Spotify comes with the news that Apple Music now has over 100 million songs available.

This all points to big benefits for quality audio consumers who are reaping the audio rewards along with Apple's spatial audio advances on some contentwhich help to make it the biggest rival to Spotify right now and better value than a Spotify Premium subscription.

Sound quality is top-notch and when it comes to resolution and bit rateApple Music's "lossless" delivers full “CD-quality” at 16-bit/44.1kHz and up to 24-bit/192kHz for true Hi-Res Audio. The only slight downside is that hi-res output is not supported on Windows desktops.

• Read our full Apple Music review

Best music streaming service for audiophiles

The audiophile landscape has changed a lot since the inception of streaming. Where before you might have ignored most streaming options thanks to their woeful MP3 file types that pale in comparison to your collection of locally stored Flacsyou now find streamers that pride themselves on having the very best formatsbit-ratesand resolutions available at any time on a range of different devices — Qobuz is just one of manybut there are some key reasons it's better for audiophiles than the likes of Tidal.

Its implementation of DACs is excellentfor exampleworking out of the box with a range of different devices. There are more hi-res tracksand they sound slightly better than Tidal too — all housed within a streamer that wants you to engage with the music that you listen toas opposed to just playing it in the background. Each entry in the streamer has a review from a well-known criticor even more details entered by those in the know. It tells you more about what you're listening to than any other streamer and makes things feel more personal.

Streaming quality goes from CD-quality FLACs all the way to DSD files and other more esoteric formats — all to make the music sound as good as possible. Plug in your finest headphonesand you're treated to detailspaceand definition that you've likely not experienced before. Then there's the Qobuz storeand if you opt for the more expensive 'sublime' tierthen you get a 60% discount on the music you buy and download.

There are a couple of things holding Qobuz back from the top spot. The app iswhile much better than beforestill slightly buggyand there's no Spatial Audio should you be interested in the format. All in thoughif you're looking for a streamer that fits with your thousands of pounds worth of HiFi seperatesthen Qobuz is the way to go.

• Read our full Qobuz review

Best music streaming service for value

Operating as a separate Amazon streaming tier from its Amazon Music serviceAmazon Music Unlimited offers a very strong 100 million songs in its library with access to CD-quality streams and higherand supports both Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio content. The service is less focused on curated content than some of its rivalsthoughand the playlist it generates appear to be rather generic.

Amazon Prime members now have access to Amazon Music Unlimited library in shuffle modebringing its full catalog at no additional cost to their membership. The only catch is that you'll need to pay more to get to "All-Access" on-demand streaming that isn't stuck on shuffle mode.

Configured to work with the best Alexa compatible devicesthird-party platform integration is slowly being more widely supported. The sound delivery from Amazon's CD-quality content via the desktop app is glitch-freebut there are some issues when selecting hi-res content that defaults to your laptop's internal audio output settings. This can effectively mean that a hi-res 24/96 audio file is down-sampled to 24/48. There doesn't appear to be any way to override this in the appand you have to resort to continually adjusting the settings of your laptop to ensure that it's outputting full-fat hi-res audio.

• Read our Apple Music vs. Amazon Music face-off

Best music streaming service for social

Deezer is one of the oldest music streaming services aroundalthough it's likely you've never heard of the French streaming platform. It sets itself apart with a club-like aesthetic — all black and neonmaking it a unique-looking service when compared to the more austere competition from the likes of Tidal and Apple Music. That sense of fun extends to its social aspects.

Those social features are what allow the service to set itself apart from the other options out there. Shared playlists that are easy to edit and add totracking your friend's listening habit,s and more make it a whole lot of fun to use Deezer with your buddies.

Then there are the music quizzeswhich ask you to identify tracks based on a few seconds of playback. The quicker you can work out what's playingthe more points you earn. The points are then gathered at the end of the quizand your performance is stacked up against other Deezer users. It's loads of fun.

The streaming quality isn't quite up to snuff with TidalQobuzor even Apple Musicbut it's a lot better than the MP3 files streamed on Spotify. They're CD qualityso they're a whole lot higher resolution than the green circle can muster. Over Bluetooth headphonesyou won't miss the extra resolution of Tidal and co.

Deezer is a solid streaming option if you want something that's more fun than the competition — just be aware that you have to make a few compromises for it to work.

• Read our full Deezer Review

Best music streaming service with a free tier

If you can tolerate ads between songs that interrupt your music streaming experiencethen Spotify can be yours for free. Franklythoughyou get a miserly 96kbps or 160kbps audio quality at bestwhich is chronically inadequate for any musical enjoyment in our experience.

Spotify's prices are about to increasebut for now a Premium subscription fee is $10.99. Spotify Premium streams run at 320kbpswhich is better than the free version but still not great. Although Spotify's audio format does do an effective job at delivering an engaging sound at around one-third of the data rate of rival servicesif you listen closely on a good set of headphones or speakersit's possible to hear the differences in detail levels when compared to the same content played via a service that takes audio quality more seriously.

Spotify has been promising a ‘HiFi’ tier of its own since 2021 — but details (of the launch datethe number of titles that will be availableand what it means by ‘HiFi’ in this context) remain sketchyalthough recent rumors hint that it could get bundled into the oddly named forthcoming 'Supremium' tier.

One of Spotify's strengths is its integration with social mediawhich is the best of any we've experienced. You can share Spotify content on Instagram and Facebookand create links to share playlists on pretty much any messaging platform.

LastlySpotify has been in the spotlight over artist remuneration in the pastand although some progress has been madeSpotify doesn’t pay a set amount per stream of each individual song. Insteadit calculates a ‘stream share’ by totaling up the number of streams per month and estimates the proportion of those that were for a particular artist or song. It’s probably more easily expressed as “give most of the money to Ed and Taylor."

• Read our full Tidal vs. Spotify face-off

Best internet radio service

Available to U.S. subscribers onlySiriusXM is an internet radio streaming service that lets you tune into live musictalkand sports radio stations as well as access a library of hundreds of on-demand channels including podcasts and videos. Subscribers can listen on a computersmartphonetabletor via a wide range of car kits. It's an evolved radio streaming approach with an interface that enables listener's find other stations that fit their listening habits.

There are hundreds of channels to choose from. Some of the stations are livewith DJs guiding you — our review found these better than Spotify’s AI DJ. Other stations are pre-programmed without a host. The channels are all ad-freebut that’s only if you don’t count the frequent station IDs and cross-promotions. The app does a good job of suggesting channels and shows based on your listening patternsand sound quality was decent throughout our trial.

There's no way to select a particular song you want to hearbut SiriusXM is a useful add-on to one of the streaming services above.

• Read our full SiriusXM review

How to choose the best music streaming services for you

Unlike the best streaming video servicesyou're unlikely to want more than one subscription to a music streaming service. It's all about picking the right platform and audio-quality content that's right for your budget.

It's important to consider the device you're most likely to use it on and how you interact with your friends and family over the music you enjoy listening to. You may want to share some of your listening habits with friends and familyfor example.

Although the pricing structures have remained pretty static in light of growing competition while audio quality and features have improvedthere are still some who don't want to pay to listen to music. If you care about music and the artists that produce the content you enjoy listening to thoughthere's never been a better time to consider how these services compensate the musicians whose work they offer up. Spotify's long had a bad reputation for its remuneration policybut if you want to see how it compares to Apple and Tidal read our look at who pays artists more?

How we test the best music streaming services

Testing music streaming services is both serious work and good fun. As you'd imagingwe spend a lot of time listening on a selection of the best audiophile headphones as well as a selection of the best wireless headphones to build a picture of how each of the services sound. We listen to a selection of music tracks that can be found across each of the platforms and evaluate audio performance at different resolutions. As well as the test materialwe also listen extensively to a wider selection of content and assess additional features to see how well they are implemented.

We rate the streaming services on a 5-point system (1 = worst5 = best). Products that excel in one or more particular fields and that's rated 4 stars or above may also receive an Editor’s Choice award.

More from Tom's Guide

• Tidal is streamlining its premium features into one affordable tier
• 10 hidden Tidal features to make your streaming experience sound even better
• I've been overpaying for Tidalhere's how to avoid making the same mistake