This music streaming service has the widest range of features and offers the best value
Key things
- Spotify offers a solid foundation with over 100 million songs, a great user interface, and quality audio that will work for most users.
- Personalized playlists are one of the streaming service’s standout features, with Spotify creating different mixes based on your listening habits.
- Helpful AI features, compelling social elements, offline listening options and the annual Spotify Wrapped set the service apart from the competition.
There are tons of music streaming services out there these days, and many of them are unrecognizable at their core. However, for me personally, one music streaming service stands above the rest due to its incredible range of features and unbeatable value for money.
Not to be outdone, my preferred music streaming service is Spotify, and I’ve been using (and paying for) it for many years. However, I also tried some other music streaming services to make sure I wasn’t missing out. And I don’t think I am; Spotify is still number one.
1 All basic elements are fixed
The first thing to note about Spotify is that all the essentials are solid. Spotify boasts an incredible music library of around 100 million songs, the user interface is well designed and easy to navigate, and the sound quality is good enough to satisfy all but the pickiest of audiophiles.
If you want to listen to a song, chances are it will be available on Spotify (unless it’s too old or niche). The user interface is fluid and responsive, and the mobile app is especially well laid out, given how many features there are to explore. No, Spotify doesn’t yet boast high-fidelity audio like TIDAL and others, but most people won’t even know the difference, so just tweak Spotify’s EQ until you’re comfortable with the sound.
2 The range and quality of personalized playlists
If there’s one thing Spotify does extremely well, it’s personalized playlists. While there are many ways to listen to music through streaming services, playlists are directly available. In addition to letting you create your own playlists, Spotify creates them for you based on your listening habits.
Spotify boasts an entire ‘Made for You’ playlists section, featuring mixes based on artists, genres and moods, playlists designed to help you discover new music, and an ever-changing Daylist that constantly updating and featuring quirky titles.
3 The AI features are really useful
Generative AI is making its way into many different products and services these days, and Spotify is no exception. However, unlike the AI features being added elsewhere, Spotify is actually useful. Spotify’s AI features range from AI DJ, which provides links between tracks, to AI Playlist Generator, which creates playlists based on text-only prompts.
Spotify apparently wants to experiment with artificial intelligence and explore ways to improve music streaming. However, each new AI feature is methodically tested and rolled out to ensure it actually works. The aforementioned AI DJ is still in beta at the time of writing, for example.
While you can choose to use them or not, Spotify’s social features can add to the overall experience of using the app. You can share songs, albums or playlists with others, create playlists with friends and even follow artists or podcasters.
Each Spotify user has a profile, so you can choose to follow others, have them follow you back, and share your listening activity. These are all simple social features that are easy to use without breaking Spotify’s core.
5 The presence of podcasts and audiobooks
Spotify isn’t just about music anymore, and I think that’s a good thing. While you can still only use Spotify to listen to music, you also have the option to listen to podcasts and/or audiobooks on it. The podcast player is so good that I use Spotify to listen to podcasts instead of a dedicated podcast app.
Not everyone likes the addition of other forms of media and would prefer Spotify to be all about music. However, each medium has different bookmarks, so if you want to use Spotify only to listen to music, you can. Just avoid clicking on podcasts and Audiobooks application section.
6 Offline listening option to save data
One of the best things about Spotify is the ability to download songs, podcasts and audiobooks to listen to offline. This means you can prepare for your vacation ahead of time and then avoid using data completely while you’re away. I’ve downloaded all my favorite songs on Spotify, which means I have a huge playlist to fall back on when I’m away.
I also create specific playlists for road trips and parties and then download them to avoid burning data when I don’t have access to Wi-Fi. The latest addition is a playlist called Offline Backup, which Spotify automatically fills with songs you’ve recently listened to in case you lose your connection.
7 The pure joy of Spotify wrapped every year
Last but not least, Spotify is the best music streaming service because Spotify Wrapped. This annual summary of your year spent on the app is really exciting because you can see how much time you’ve spent listening to music and what your preferred artists, tracks and genres have been over the last 12 months.
While other music streaming services offer similar summaries, none can compete with Spotify Wrapped. The joy of going through your stats before sharing them with others is the highlight of my year and something I will look forward to once the summer is over. As sad as this may sound, it shows how well Spotify can do this.
If you currently subscribe to Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or TIDAL, I’m not going to argue against your choice of service. These great music streaming services let you listen to music on demand. However, for the above reasons, I believe that Spotify beats the competition in terms of the number and quality of features and the price/performance ratio it offers.