The Best Spotify AlternativesTop Music Streaming Services & Audio Players like Spotify

Deezer is an excellent option since its user experience is quite similar to Spotify, but it also has approximately 70 million songs available, about 30 million more than its competitor. It also has a feature similar to the Shazam called SongCatcher, which you can use to identify the name of the songs that are playing. Flow is another cool feature missing on Spotify, with recommendations created exclusively for you and songs that you no longer remember so you can enjoy long hours of music. The free version of Deezer works similar to Spotify (although with less advertising between songs), but you can always get the premium version from $10 USD.

Soundcloud is known for having an impressive music and audio library. We are talking about more than 200 million files between songs and podcasts. This is mainly because it is the preferred music streaming platform for new indie artists, those that you probably couldn't find on Spotify (shoutouts to electronic music lovers). The main disadvantage with SoundCloud is that you won't find a lot of well-known established artists.

It also works as a kind of music social network where you can share, like, and comment on entries; highlight parts of songs; create your own lists and podcasts; and follow your favorite artists. All this means that you can find an impressive variety of content compared to Spotify. Soundcloud has a free version with ads, but you can subscribe to one of their premium memberships from as little as $5 USD per month.

YouTube Music has an important advantage over Spotify, in addition to its extensive music catalog, it includes millions of videos and uses the extremely intelligent and powerful YouTube search engine, which means that you just have to type or say some word that identifies a song or part of the lyrics and you will surely find it.

Its interface is really easy and familiar to navigate, on its main page you will find different playlists according to your mood. Thus, if you need more energy, need to focus, or need to relax or cheer up, you can use them to forget about looking for specific genres or songs.

But beyond the content, there are two main advantages: you can have your music offline or watch videos without having to be connected to WiFi or mobile data. In addition, you can have YouTube videos in the background and continue using other applications without the music being cut until you decide. You can purchase YouTube Music Premium from $10 USD.

Funkwhale is one of the most popular options when it comes to Open Source and Self-Hosted alternatives to Spotify. You can have control over your personal music library without worrying about it ever disappearing from the platform for any external reason. Unlike Spotify, Funkwhale consists of several independent websites or "pods" (sometimes called "servers" or "instances") where you can upload your personal library to be streamed to mobile devices or shared with friends. Funkwhale is completely free, giving the user an experience free of tracking and ads.

Apple Music leads over Spotify with a catalog of just over 50 million songs. If you are within the apple ecosystem, you will find Apple Music really interesting due to its integration with the OS without the need for third party apps. In addition to its well balanced user interface design, you have the option to dive through recommended lists, hits, genres or personalized and updated playlists. It's also possible to follow artists, as well as compare and comment on songs, a significant advantage over Spotify.

You can use the service not only on devices with MacOS or iOS, but also on Android and Windows, but keep in mind that it doesn't give you the possibility of listening to music with advertising, you can only use the service by paying a $10 USD membership.

It is an excellent option for independent musicians that combines many features from a social network where you can display your music, with an ecommerce function that lets you sell your merchandise. Unlike Spotify, Bandcamp allows users to stream your music or buy your discography in physical or digital formats (with a commission of 10 to 15%). 

If you are a musician, the premium version offers you several extra benefits such as: Sending private messages to your fans, seeing the location of your buyers and how they have reached you, batch uploading audio to the platform, adding videos to your music and related merchandise, sending VIP songs through private links, the ability to configure a custom domain, connecting your profile with Google Analytics, and disable some songs so that cannot be listened for whatever reason.

Tidal is a great alternative to Spotify if what you are most interested in is audio quality, as it has standard sound options but also HiFi quality ($19 USD/month). It also has support for official videos in a big part of its catalog. In addition, it offers you the option to select your playlists from other platforms and transfer them to Tidal, which is a great advantage if you want to change your usual streaming music app and try Tidal without losing your music. On the other hand, on many occasions you will be able to access exclusive events with artists and buy tickets for their shows before they go on sale to the general public.