If there's one constant in the vast, ongoing, streaming music war, it's this fact: Spotify is the big dog. Despite competition from the feature-rich Apple Music and the audiophile-friendly Tidal, Spotify remains the king of the hill due to its large catalog, collaborative playlists, podcasts, and numerous other attractive features. For these reasons and more, Spotify remains a top-rated, overall Editors' Choice winner forstreaming music services, along with Apple Music and SiriusXM Internet Radio.
Part of Spotify's success is its ubiquity. You can access Spotify by launching the web player, by downloading the desktop apps (available for Chromebook, Linux, Mac, and Windows), or by installing one of the mobile apps (available for Android, iOS). You can also find Spotify on TVs, set-top boxes, smartwatches, and home video game consoles.
The desktop apps have an advantage over the web player and mobile apps in that you can use the former to play M4P, MP3, and MP4 audio files that are stored in your computer. This is a particularly cool feature for people who want to play all of their music streams and audio files from one central location. Unfortunately, the desktop app isn't compatible with M4A files.
TheAndroid appandiOS app, however, share an extra benefit. On mobile, Spotify has partnered with Genius, one of the web's most-popular lyrics sites, to offer Behind The Lyrics. This feature displays key lyrics (but not full lyrics!) as they're sung or rapped. There are no lyrics in the web or desktop apps. In addition, Behind The Lyrics delivers behind-the-scenes information, such as song facts or inspirations. It's a cool addition that very much reminds me of VH-1's classicPop-Up Videoshow.
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Apple Music
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iHeartRadio
How Much Will You Pay?
You can dive into Spotify by signing up for Spotify Free or for one of the four Spotify Premium tiers. The free version serves audio and banner ads, and lets you listen at 160Kbps, manage your digital music files, and connect with others using the built-in social networking features.
每月9.99美元的Spotify溢价让你听到select albums before they're released and play songs on demand. You can also cache songs for offline playback on your computer, phone, or other devices. This tier also increases audio quality to 320Kbps. Feature- and quality-wise, Premium is worth the extra moolah. That said, Spotify doesn't let you record its audio asSiriusXM Internet Radio, the Editors' Choice for streaming services focused on live content, does.
Spotify's Family Plan grants six people individual premium accounts for an incredibly wallet-friendly $14.99 per month. That price is in line with the industry standard family plan pricing. Spotify's take on the family plan includes several cool features, such as Family Mix (a vulgarity-free playlist for your family) and Spotify Kids (a separate service aimed at children).
如果你需要一个Spotify计划,只有x和ers two people, Spotify Duo is the way to go. The $12.99-per-month tier is essentially a Family Plan for a pair of people, minus Spotify Kids. It even has its own take on Family Mix: Duo Mix.
A Spotify student plan is available for $4.99 per month, but it's not your typical student plan. This one also includes an ad-supportedHuluplan (normally $5.99 per month) and Showtime (normally $10.99 per month). That's a ridiculously good deal that no other streaming music service can match. The closest comparison is the $14.95-per-month Apple One service bundle that includesApple Music,Apple Arcade, andAppleTV+.
A Deep Content Well
Spotify's library boasts more than 70 million songs, plus audiobooks, comedy, radio dramas,podcasts, poetry readings, and speeches. It's a rich collection, and we're pleasantly surprised that it includesDr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech(part of the HistorySpeaks podcast) in its entirety. In fact, Spotify has alotof non-music extras, such asThe Joe Budden Podcastand select Hulu Originals soundtracks. These extras act as a counter to LiveXLive's DJs and music history channels, as well asTidal-like, in-depth music editorials and exclusive videos. That said, Spotify doesn't have many music videos or concert videos.YouTube Musicis superior in that regard.
Clicking an artist's name pulls up additional songs by the artist, and an About tab that contains an artist's biography, photos, and hyperlinks to related Spotify pages. We killed quite a few minutes in testing leaping from Alicia Keys to Isaac Hayes to Booker T. and The M.G.'s, reading the in-depth bios, and sampling tracks. However, LiveXLive's DNA station does a better job of fleshing out artist profiles through the use of interviews and playing the music that influenced the artists' sound.
Playlists and Community
Spotify's library won't let you down. We streamed the entirety of A Tribe Called Quest'sWe Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service, Hannah Williams & The Affirmations'Late Nights & Heartbreak,and Led Zeppelin'sLed Zeppelin II. Spotify has a good mix of major and indie artists, including Taylor Swift, who once had a notable falling out with Spotify over money that saw her remove her catalog from the service.
You can build playlists with any of the tracks or albums in Spotify's deep catalog. By default, Spotify streams tracks on your playlists with gapless playback. Spotify also gives you the option to crossfade songs, and even the ability to adjust the number of seconds (1-12) to fade. It's not something we often use, but DJs (or wannabe DJs) might find it appealing.
If you want to build a playlist with a friend, turn on the collaborative playlist option to let your playlist be edited by others. Group Session, a premium feature, takes that idea a step further. It lets you and other Spotify Premium subscribers listen to the same content at the same time on your own devices—and control the content playback. Group Session supports two to five people and, thankfully, you can invite friends and family to chill out by sending them a link. That prevents trolls from jumping into your sessions.
Spotify's Sound Quality
Spotify's free 128Kbps and Premium 320Kbps streams sound good. If you aren't an audiophile, you'll find the sound quality satisfactory. It's leaps and bounds better thaniHeartRadio's 128Kbps streams.
Coming to Spotify later this year isSpotify HiFi, a feature that delivers tracks in lossless, CD-quality audio (though, notHi-Res Audio）.Spotify HiFi将支持Spotify连接,so you can stream tunes to smart devices and use your phone as a remote control. Spotify hasn't announced a price for this new plan.
If you want better audio quality, and have a good pair ofheadphones, you should look into Tidal's $19.99-per-month HiFi plan. With it, Tidal delivers non-compressed 1411Kbps FLAC audio that's of a much higher fidelity than your standard audio stream. Even better, HiFi includes Tidal Masters, a music collection that offers studio-quality, high-resolution audio streams. They sound terrific.Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music,Primephonic, andQobuzalso offer Hi-Res Audio.
Cool Features
除了听单曲,专辑和播放列表s, you can create an Artist Radio station that plays music from your favorite musicians, as well as similar-sounding musicians. We like Harlem's Artist Radio, which served up tunes from Dum Dum Girls and other indie rock notables in testing. You can, of course, like and ban songs to customize the Artist Radio experience, as you can with most music-streaming services.
As previously stated, Spotify lacks LiveXLive's informative DJs who host particular playlists and the music history-filled Slacker DNA stations. Instead, it has Spotify Sessions, original artist recordings made in Spotify Studios. We tolerated Kelly Clarkson's mediocre cover of Prince's "Kiss," but rather enjoyed John Legend's "All of Me."
If you're concerned about streaming your favorite tunes over, say, a public Wi-Fi signal, you need to get yourself aVPN. A virtual private network safeguards your phone, tablet, or PC from snoopers and, depending on the location of the VPN server, may let you access music licensed to other regions. Using a VPN to get around licensing restrictions violates Spotify's terms of service, though, so tread carefully.
An Excellent Streaming Music Service
Simply put, Spotify is an excellent streaming music service that wins PCMag Editors' Choice award. It has tons of great music, exclusive tunes, and podcasts, all of which combine to make it a top pick for streaming music and more pop culture-related content. If you prefer live performances, check out LiveXLive, which is an Editors' Choice selection for concerts. If you dig Hi-Res Audio and first dibs on concert tickets, Tidal—another Editors' Choice pick—is the way to go.
Featuring a deep song library, podcasts, early album access, and collaborative playlists, Spotify reigns as a top-tier streaming music service.
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