[Mr.Ogre]

I have used Amazon music, Apple Music and Youtube music.

Of all the 3 I find YouTube music has a huge library. You can find almost any song. The free tier too isn't bad considering you have access to entire library.

Sure, older songs have poor quality, especially the one's that were uploaded ages ago by individuals but you can search and find same song with a better quality.

The free tier does not run in the background, but that's ok as they need to earn revenue from ads to make money, and I have observed that if you add songs to your playlist, after a while the ads stop playing that frequently.

I hate Amazon Music for the fact that even with Prime subscription they want you to subscribe to Unlimited plan for music, buy/rent some of the latest movies/shows.
Having said that I cancelled Prime for that and other reasons as I do not shop with Amazon that often now, and prefer walking into a mall/store.

[neerajku]

One question, if you use YouTube music will the video also keep playing on your mobile? Or is it just voice?

[RoboCop13]

I prefer apple music over all the other streaming services for a number of reasons.

1. Affordable pricing - for ₹365 pm (Apple One plan) it comes bundled with cloud storage, apple tv for 6 members (family sharing).
2. Lossless and high-res lossless audio formats - goes well with the pair of IEMs I own. Sounds very good on my iPad with 3.5mm jack.
3. Though many would say Apple’s music library isn’t as vast as its competitors’, I find it sufficient for me. 85% of the songs I search for are found on apple music. For the rest 15% I go to youtube.
4. Curated playlists are very good and they get updated on a regular basis.
5. The ease of use when combined with siri, multiplies the driving pleasure.

[binand]

Originally Posted by neerajku

One question, if you use YouTube music will the video also keep playing on your mobile? Or is it just voice?

Youtube Music is a different app. It has a toggle (defaults to off) to play the video.

[Starwar19]

Voted for YouTube Music just for the vast collection of songs from all languages. The YouTube algorithm is so addictive, I barely need to skip or search any other song other than the playback.
I have also been using Apple Music as my quality songs companion when I'm not driving. The Spatial Audio and Lossless Music is just amazing. Just to give you all an idea of how High-end sound Apple Music offers that it consumes 145 MB for a 3 minute song. (24-bit/192KHz).
I listen Marathi Songs as well and Apple Music has a very limited collection.
Its 70% YouTube Music and 30% Apple Music.

It's YouTube Music for me just because of the Algorithm that brings therapy to Ears and Mind.

[dakshin.bhasker]

Unable to vote (Newbie problems), but my vote would have gone to YouTube Music. I have taken a YouTube Premium family membership at Rs. 180/Month. It allows access to both YT and YT music ad-free to me and 5 others I choose to share with. It is an extremely good VFM proposition.
Apart from that, YT music has an incredible collection. Every song ever recorded till date is available on the platform and add the highly capable and super smart algorithm to the mix and you have a winner in your hands. I do agree with other members about the lower quality comparatively. I can live with it.

[xorrmancer]

I just love YouTube Music. I used to use Spotify before but realised that I love to listen to cover artists and mashups too which none of these services can match. YouTube is every artists first choice to publish due to its reach.

If you are with Android ecosystem, it makes complete sense to buy YouTube premium family pack (Add upto 5 ppl). Its gives ad-free youtube as well as ability to play youtube music in background without even touching the phone. Just use 'Ok Google' and play the song. The way youtube just knows my mood is surprising. Just with one initiation song it can judge the mood and play my choice. Spotify is good in that algorithm too but does not have mashups by small artists. I mostly listen to Hindi, English and Punjabi and youtube catalog almost never disappoints. There is no song which is does not have even multiple versions.

Another feature I love is auto-downloaded songs where based on my previous history and specified phone storage say 500MB), youtube will auto-download songs that I play the most or love. This comes in very handy when travelling to mountains or places with erratic network. Everything is auto-managed.

One more feature which I like is 'Old Forgotten Favourites' - songs which I used to play a lot before but not don't. With years of my youtube history it brings back nostalgia like never before. Not sure of the YT premium voice quality, better over Android Auto rather than bluetooth but definitely not lossless.

Spotify - I like Spotify interface though but didn't make sense to buy two premiums and Spotify has a lot of ads. Used free premium for a while, not much difference in Car Audio but on my home theatre could clearly hear quality difference specially with Rock music.

Amazon Music - free with Prime but very limited collection. Many old movie songs are not present on Amazon, leave alone indie artists and mashups.

Apple Music - Haven't tried as not on Apple ecosystem.


P.S: Youtube family pack also gives me advantage of kids not seeing any inappropriate ads when using Youtube under their own account. saves a lot of explanation to them.

[VNair]

By usage and preference, here goes my list.

Spotify - 90% of the times, in love with the algorithms which made me discover a lot of new music and artists. Love the sound quality as well. Premium member since a long time, hence no ads.

YT Music - I love it too, however only use it when I don't find that specific song on Spotify. The collection of music is humongous, never ended up not finding a song.

Amazon Music - Rare occasions. Somewhat never liked the sound quality in when compared to the above two. May be should try it more.

Apple Music - Tried it earlier. Since not in the eco-system nor having plans in future - opted out.

[Ghost0905]

Not being able to vote but my vote goes to Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube music as there are few remixes which aren’t available on Apple Music. The enhance option on Spotify is good too. Have purchased the YouTube music for a month and will update about it in a few weeks time.

[abtyagi]

I have several premium subscriptions, here is my experience

1. Apple Music & Apple Music Classical:
Good:

• If you're an audiophile, there is no equivalent of these two.
• It's the only one with lossless audio AFAIK. IDAGIO has lossless, but that is much more expensive and only for Western classical music.
• You get Apple Music Classical complimentary with Apple Music.

Cons:
a. Selection

2. Spotify:
Good:

• Selection of PodCasts, good music collection,
• Good streaming quality,
• Integrated with Bose System which my wife and kids use a lot. so they are super happy with it.
• Default playlists are awesome.

Con:

• Pick one song as a theme, it will play in a loop, and it requires a manoeuvre to start a radio, and that too song selection is not great.
• Personalization is terrible.
• Search for a playlist is just bad.
• Recommendations are poor.

3. YouTube Music:
Good:

• Pick a song, and it will start a radio with an even better next song. Best for old Hindi songs. No other platform comes even close.
• Selection of Old Obscure original recordings. Search for the original Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's recordings.

Bad:

• UI: Really unintuitive. I think worst designed Google App. The search button requires special effort.
• default playlists are terrible.

4. IDAGIO
Good:

• Exceptional Collection of Classical music.
• Streams for Loss-less (although expensive)

Bad:

• Nothing for Indian classic music.
• Expensive.

5. Amazon Music
Good

• Comes free with Amazon Prime.
• Decent Selection

Cons

• Just boring UI, hence almost never uses it.

[satish.gawai]

Voted for Spotify.

Reasons
A nice and wide library of songs
The quality of music is better than youtube music (with premium only)
superbly curated playlists. I love their 80's & 90's playlists

Just a question - I never used apple music. Does its quality better than Spotify (premium)?

Regards,

[dipdawiz]

Voted for YouTube music

Started using Amazon Music as it came with Prime subscription, but sound quality is one of the lowest among YT, Spotify etc

Reasons for YT music (took YT premium family) it comes with multiple benefits -
- Adv. free YouTube videos
- Largest collection + very good regional selection
- 256 kbps in high quality mode
- Offline playlist can be downloaded, for those time there is no internet/network
- excellent suggestions of songs based on your likes, playlist, genre etc.
- 5 members share same benefits

Sound quality of YT music is same as Spotify, way better than Amazon music, also better than Gaana/Savaan etc.

Not in Apple ecosystem so did not think of trying Apple music, but previously when streaming was not available, I bought many single tracks from iTune music and they are very good SQ wise.

[isotope729]

Not old enough to vote here. I will choose YouTube music. I have YouTube premium. I tend to listen to DJ sets (2 to 3 hours long) while working, and for this YouTube trumps everything else. Anything uploaded to the music category in YouTube is available in YouTube music hence the massive library that they have.

[vjvinamara]

I've been actively using apple music since the last 5 years, the main reason being the availability of songs on all my apple devices. Albeit missing some music from lesser known artists, the song quality is good enough for me as I'm not an audiophile.

Moved to android recently and as I had an active subscription , tried the apple music app for android which is what I currently use. Once this subscription expires, I intend to use youtube music, just for the sheer availability of Music it provides.

[reignofchaos]

I have a whole bunch of them but the only two I use these days are

a) Qobuz : Best audio quality of all streaming services. Sounds as good as CD or better

b) Tidal : For all the songs not available on Qobuz.

Needless to say neither are officially available in India. But there are ways to get it.

I also use Spotify for in car music as 4G isn't good enough for either of the two above due to extremely high bit rates.