This year we have got tonnes of apps and services for everything, including Music. But with so many choices available, it often gets a little confusing to choose which apps to prefer. In this post, we present to you the best Music Apps for both Android and iPhone so that you can decide which apps and services you want easily.
Also read: 9 Free Music Download Apps for Android
List of Best Music Apps for Android & iPhone
1. Spotify
Spotify is currently the world’s most used music service app. The music service is one of the oldest and still retains its original mission to provide great suggestions and high-quality music.
Spotify works with playlists and perhaps that’s the best reason you would want to sign up for it. It has millions of playlists and it also suggests you about them, based on the time of day and your location.
Talking about suggestions, Spotify gives you the best music suggestions you’ll ever find. The discover weekly section is also tough to beat as it provides spot-on music of your taste every week. The Daily Mixes have unlimited songs based on what music and genres you listen to. Spotify offers Android and iOS app in addition to Android TV, Chromecast, Apple TV, and even smart assistants.
Spotify also has a vast number of Podcasts available. With the recent update, Spotify categorized two different collections for both Music and Podcasts so that it’s easier for you to browse both.
Well, there’s free Spotify of course, but we’d recommend you to get Spotify Premium as it unleashes the best that Spotify has to offer. Spotify Premium is available for just ₹129 per month in India. If you live in the US, it’s $9.99 and for the UK, it’s £9.99 a month. Do note that songs from artists signed up with Time Warner are still not available in India due to licensing issues.
PS: You can find my Spotify Playlists here.
2. Apple Music
Apple Music is the best streaming service if you own an Apple device. It works flawlessly within the ecosystem and incorporates other services like Musixmatch and Shazam as well.
Apple Music doesn’t offer a free version but it does have an impressive 3 months free trial period similar to YouTube Music. Once you get the subscription, there’s no restriction on how many songs you download or even how many devices you’ve added. It works on iOS and even has an Android App. You can also access your entire library on iTunes for Windows.
There’s also extensive music channels and radios like Beats 1. Apple wants fans to connect and socialize more with their favorite artists and it takes multiple steps to make this happen. The For You section also creates suggestions based on your listening habits. If you’re looking for something new, you can check this section out.
Apple Music is on par with pricing as other music apps. You’ll have to pay $9.99/£9.99 per month for the standard package and 14.99 for a family one. In India, it’s available for ₹120 a month, after 3 months’ free trial.
3. Google Play Music
Google Play Music is the default music service app on stock Android. Not only does it have an extensive collection of songs, but you can also even upload your own songs to listen on other devices. It is available on both the Google Play Store and the App Store and it also supports Chromecast, Android TV.
Although the app is free to use if you upload your own songs, to access its extensive collection of unlimited songs, you will have to buy a subscription. It is available in dozens of countries and also has a vast collection of regional songs as well.
Uploaded songs are automatically categorized into the Artists, Albums, Songs, and Genres sections. Moreover, they can be sorted by name, length, artist, album, and the number of times you listened to them. The app’s UI hasn’t been updated for a while and still feels like it’s from Android Marshmallow days.
You can add your playlists from iTunes or Windows Media Player to Google Play Music from your computer. If you already have a collection of songs you’d want to play and stream for free, Google Play Music is the best option for you. But for unlimited music, you can get a subscription or YouTube Premium which includes both YouTube Music and Google Play Music.
4. YouTube Music
YouTube Music is a recently launched music service again by Google. It combines various elements of YouTube to give you a really awesome music listening experience. YouTube Music is a strong competitor to Spotify with a really advanced music suggestion system.
It is a great music service for people who listen to music only on YouTube and it is also integrated with Google Play Music. A subscription also gets you ad-less YouTube Premium (where you can finally run YouTube in the background and it will continue to play the audio) and the ability to download videos (legally!)
YouTube Music’s UI is quite refreshing and easy to use. It arguably has the most number of music collection available in any such app as it literally has all the YouTube videos that are live performances, covers from unsigned artists, and random songs and more. The app is available on both iOS and Android but doesn’t have a PC app which is a bummer.
You can use the ad-supported version of YouTube Music for free. Then there’s a $10-per-month ad-free version called YouTube Music Premium, and a $12-per-month subscription for YouTube Premium. This includes YouTube Music Premium as well as YouTube Original shows and ad-free viewing on the traditional YouTube app and website.
There’s a 3 months trial period of YouTube Premium for Indian users if that’s something you’re interested in.
5. Amazon Prime Music
Amazon Prime Music is perhaps the most affordable service in this list. It is included in the Amazon Prime subscription so you get a lot of perks including Prime Video and free one-day delivery. In India, Amazon Prime costs you ₹1000 per year so it’s super valuable.
The app offers a decent UI, with a dark theme. You get all your trending songs and curated playlists on the home tab. There are also suggestions offered by the app, but it doesn’t come anywhere near to what Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Premium offer.
If you’re someone who enjoys listening to the same set of songs and wants to keep things plain and simple, then Amazon Music is the best thing for you. You can also use Alexa to voice-search for any song you like. You can even ask Alexa to play the top songs in your city.
Amazon Music offers both Android and iOS apps, as well as support for Windows 10 and Mac. It also runs on Android TV, Chromecast and of course, Amazon FireTV.
Final Words
All of these apps are top-notch and provide a stiff competition to each other. But honestly, Spotify is the best among the best. It’s no surprise that it is the world’s largest and most popular music streaming service.
Spotify continues to provide high quality experiencing whist adding crucial features on the go. Although the desktop app needs some work, its mobile counterparts work perfectly.
Which music app do you use? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Thanks! Glad to be of help. :)
Very helpful for me thanks for sharing this with us.