If you’re reading this, you’ve heard of Spotify or you’re an existing customer. While it’s the most popular music streaming service used today, it’s not always the most popular among critics. It can be argued that there are better Spotify alternatives. 

You also may have recently heard that CEO Daniel Ek made a 100 million Euro investment in an AI defense company called Helsing.ai, a tech company that plans to use artificial intelligence to support militaries in battlefield assessment operations, (from Mixmag)

Whatever your reason is, here are some Spotify alternatives that might help you out: 

#1 Tidal

We’re big fans of Tidal over here. 

The reason we think Tidal is at the top of Spotify alternatives is that they place focus on supporting artists to the best of their ability. Since Jay-Z’s Roc Nation acquired the music streaming service from Aspiro (which Spotify’s Daniel Ek coincidentally founded) they’ve publicly toted that they are a by-artists, for-artists platform. Most recently they added features like a Direct Artist Payout Program which pays artists more according to how much they get listened to by fans. 

This program will give artists access to another payment stream by allocating 10% of monthly subscriptions at the HiFi Plus tier to each listener’s most-streamed artist. – Tidal Twitter. 

Here is our breakdown from our Tidal Vs Spotify Article. 

#2 Pandora 

Pandora is a music streaming service owned by Sirius XM Holdings based in Oakland, California, United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the Music Genome Project. 

In a nutshell, this means that Pandora prides itself on being a pioneer of choosing music you might like by creating a perfect radio experience. They also recently acquired Next Big Sound.

The acquisition of Next Big Sound gives Pandora more power to analyze new and trending artists. It’s very good at recommending new music you like but might not have heard yet. 

#3 Apple Music 

Apple Music is a nice fit for many reasons and one of the best Spotify alternatives.

First, it’s native on iPhone which makes it seamless with the other media on your device and meshes with your existing MP3 or downloaded catalog (if you’re still using MP3s and downloads) 

Apple Music is also run by artists. In HBO’s The Defiant Ones, it shows Trent Reznor (From Nine Inch Nails) and industry mogul Jimmy Iovine working at Apple Music. 

The music streaming service places emphasis on helping artists with tools like Apple Music For Artists, a tool that helps artists track plays and track fans that follow them on the platform. 

#4. Youtube Music Premium 

Among Spotify alternatives, Youtube music is at #4. Why? The reason is that they’ve been robbing musicians forever by somehow paying less in royalties than everyone else. 

The reason we still give them a vote is; as much as I love musicians getting fair pay, I also hate closing my phone and a Youtube stops playing. For that reason alone, it’s worth considering, it’s a nice perk to have content continuously play especially podcasts and live performances. 

Aside from that, it looks like they are putting quite a bit of work into improving the app and optimizing it for music streaming. The fact that they have google-money behind them means this could get a lot better over the next year or so if they pick up traction. 

We also did a Tidal vs Youtube Music comparison here.

Check out this video for more insights