5 apps you should use instead of Spotify

I used the premium version of Spotify for a long time but ditched it a while back. It’s a great app overall, and I see why so many people like it, but I wanted to try something new. Something fresh. Something that would allow me to discover alternative music, find new artists, or give me a few extra benefits aside from just music streaming.

I’ve tested more or less every music streaming app over the years, and although a lot of them seem the same at first glance, there are enough differences between them to sway you in a specific direction. Let’s go over the five best Spotify alternatives if you’re looking to move away from the Swedish music streaming giant.

This is by far my favorite alternative to Spotify, and for good reason. I love the app’s design, the music discovery is great, and there are tons of music videos available to watch. I really like the “Speed dial” feature on the home screen that lists all the songs I play on a regular basis, saving me a few taps. I tend to listen to the same songs over and over again, so this feature is right up my alley.

What makes YouTube Music a great choice for me is that it’s bundled with YouTube Premium, which gets rid of those pesky ads on YouTube. I don’t watch cable TV and Netflix isn’t really my thing, so when I do sit down to watch content, I always turn to YouTube.

However, YouTube Music has its issues, at least from my perspective when it comes to the free version. You can’t turn off your phone’s display while listening to music, making it a poor choice if you want to stream in your car via Bluetooth. For that reason, I still keep the free version of Spotify on my phone, which lets me turn off the display. The trade-off is that it doesn’t let me skip songs more than six times per hour, but that’s a limitation I’m willing to live with.

This French streaming service isn’t as popular or well-known as Spotify or YouTube Music, but it should be. In my opinion, it deserves a lot more love, as I really enjoyed using it for many years.

I didn’t experience any downsides compared to its bigger rivals, as all the songs and artists I enjoyed were available on the app. The app is also nicely designed and easy to use, while the discovery of new songs and artists is quite polished. Deezer has a music discovery feature called “Flow,” which plays a mix of tracks based on your mood or preferred music style, and it worked great for me. Sometimes features like these can be a bit iffy, focusing too much on specific mainstream artists, but I had no bad experiences with Flow.

Pricing is in line with Spotify, and there’s also a free plan you can try, as well as a month-long free trial that unlocks all the features. It’s worth a shot, especially if you’re looking for something outside the mainstream platforms.

If you’re not that into mainstream music — meaning you don’t want to hear songs from artists like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift in every other playlist — SoundCloud is a great option. I used it quite a bit, and while many mainstream artists are on the platform, the app is all about up-and-coming artists.

It’s great to hear and support new artists who are just making a name for themselves. It feels more exciting than something like Spotify, where I often hear the same old songs that are already playing on the radio. SoundCloud is different and very community-driven. You can comment on every song and see what other people think of it. The music discovery features are great as well, allowing you to quickly find music that suits your taste.

SoundCloud is also cheaper than Spotify, with plans starting at just $4.99 per month. It has a bunch of different plans available, some aimed at listeners and others at artists.

Tidal has always been known as the superior music streaming service when it came to audio quality, as it was one of the first to offer lossless audio. However, things have changed recently, with competitors like Spotify now offering a lossless option to their subscribers as well.

On paper, Tidal still has the upper hand, offering high-fidelity lossless audio up to 24-bit/192 kHz FLAC, while Spotify offers 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC. Whether that higher sample rate translates into a better audio experience is a topic of debate, but most people likely won’t hear a difference.

I used Tidal for quite some time and really liked a lot of things about it, aside from the high-quality audio. There are all sorts of exclusive videos on the platform, and the app is easy to use. It has always been popular with the hip-hop crowd, as it was once primarily owned by Jay-Z.

Bandcamp is a bit of an outlier on this list. It’s closest to SoundCloud, as its main focus is on musicians who haven’t made a name for themselves yet. However, the main difference is that Bandcamp isn’t a traditional subscription streaming service; you have to buy songs and albums individually to listen to them.

Think of Bandcamp as an online record store and marketplace, where artists can sell not only their music but also physical merchandise — like t-shirts — directly to their fans. The biggest draw here is that you can support your favorite artists directly, as the majority of the money you spend on the platform goes straight to them.

All the music you buy can be streamed within the Bandcamp app. You can listen to songs before buying them, although each artist can set limits on how many times you can stream a track for free. It’s a completely different business model and experience than what you get with Spotify, but it’s one that many people find interesting.

These are the five best Spotify alternatives you should check out, but there are plenty of other ones out there as well. Did I miss any major ones? Let me know in the comments.