Music on demand beyond Spotify

BarcelonaThe people who pay for Spotify, who are 290 million around the world, often pay for it for the same reason we always buy from the same fishmonger: habit. The Swedish music-on-demand service accounts for nearly a third of global music subscribers. But the market today has equivalent alternatives and, depending on what is valued, superior ones: sound quality, podcasts and audiobooks, speaker compatibility, price, artist remuneration, or the country where the company is based. We have compared seven services (Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Qobuz, Spotify, Tidal, and YouTube Music) to answer one question: is it worth switching?

The leader by habit

Spotify was born in Stockholm in 2006 and has turned a routine into a business: there is no need to think about it. It has more than 100 million songs, the most worked-on recommendation system in the sector, and a presence so widespread in speakers, cars, and televisions that almost no one considers looking for an alternative. For years it carried a defect that experts were quick to point out: it sounded worse than its rivals. But in September 2025 it launched (for some countries) lossless audio for the same price, and left the competition without one of its favorite arguments.

According to the consulting firm MIDiA, at the end of 2025 Spotify accounted for 31.4% of the world's paid music subscribers, ahead of China's Tencent Music (13.8%) and Apple Music (12.6%), which is not limited to iPhones and other devices of the brand: it also has an application for Android. This popularity mainly measures convenience, which is a legitimate criterion but does not always coincide with quality, price, or the way revenue is distributed.

More bits, less ear

Sound quality is the preferred terrain for music lovers. On paper, the higher the sampling frequency and the more bits the quantization has, the more faithful the digital copy of the original recording is. The reference is CDs: 16 bits and 44.1 kHz; high resolution reaches 24 bits and 192 kHz, and is offered by Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, and Qobuz. Spotify has reached 24 bits and 44.1 kHz since September, Deezer remains at CD quality, and YouTube Music is the only one that still compresses (256 kbps maximum).

In practice, most users will not notice many differences. Standard headphones and speakers cannot reproduce these nuances, and if they are connected via Bluetooth, even less so: standard codecs compress the signal, and lossless transmission (aptX Lossless, for example) is a rarity. Furthermore, authentic high resolution is a minority in catalogs. Qobuz, which makes it a banner, declares about 250,000 albums, which amounts to 3% of the catalog, and not all of them reach 192 kHz.

That sound quality only interests classical music listeners is a myth. Rock and jazz fans, like myself, also appreciate it. Whoever has good equipment and listens via cable will find value in Qobuz, Tidal, or Apple Music. Whoever is satisfied with everyday wireless headphones will pay for a resolution they will not enjoy.

Podcasts, books, and speakers

With Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, and YouTube Music, you can listen to podcasts. Apple Music redirects them to a separate application, and Tidal and Qobuz do not have them. The novelty this autumn is audiobooks: Spotify launched them here last week, with twelve hours per month included in the Premium plan (except for students), and Amazon Music Unlimited gives away one Audible title per month. It is worth noting that twelve hours are enough to listen to a couple of books.

Speakers are the other practical criterion. The reference model is Spotify Connect (since 2013): the mobile phone or computer acts as a remote control and the speaker fetches the music directly from the internet, so receiving a call does not interrupt the playback. Tidal imitated this with Tidal Connect (2020) and Qobuz with Qobuz Connect (2025), compatible with about 60 equipment brands. Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Deezer do not have their own system and rely on AirPlay 2 or Google Cast. Connectivity can decide a subscription. I myself have not switched to Deezer because, although I can listen to it on the stereo, on my mobile, and in the car, I cannot send the music to the half-dozen Amazon Echo speakers I have scattered around the house. With high-end equipment, you must first check what it supports and choose the service afterward.

How much do they cost

Price is the most prosaic criterion. Here, individual plans have stabilized at around 12 euros per month: 11.99 at Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer; 12.49 at Qobuz; 12.99 at Amazon Music and Tidal. YouTube Music, which is sold as part of YouTube Premium (ad-free videos), rises to 15.99. In family plans, the difference widens: Apple Music and Deezer charge 19.99 euros for a maximum of six accounts; Spotify, 20.99; Tidal, 21.99; Amazon, 22.99, and YouTube reaches 29.99. A family that chooses Apple or Deezer instead of Spotify will save about 12 euros a year: enough for a pizza. Qobuz, in addition, sells albums that the user keeps even if they unsubscribe.

Ethics and passport

Some users want to know where their euros end up. Regarding remuneration, one should be wary of the figures, because no service pays a fixed amount per stream and what reaches the artist depends on labels and distributors. With this caution, estimates place Spotify at the bottom (between 0.003 and 0.005 dollars per stream), with Apple Music and Tidal above it. The only audited figure is that of Qobuz: 0.01873 dollars on average for the 2024 fiscal year. Spotify, on the other hand, is the one that distributes the most in total (more than 11 billion dollars in 2025), but since 2024 it pays nothing for songs that do not reach 1,000 annual streams. The Deezer model gives more weight to artists with active listeners and penalizes fraudulent streams and AI-generated music.

Regarding their passport, Spotify is Swedish (headquartered in Stockholm, parent company in Luxembourg), and Deezer and Qobuz are French. Tidal is of Norwegian origin, but it is controlled by the American company Block; Apple, Amazon, and YouTube are American by birth. For those of us who prefer European services, the list is reduced to Spotify, Deezer, and Qobuz.

Switching is (very) easy

One of the reasons for not switching services is the fear of losing years of playlists and favorite songs, but today that is an anachronism. Apple Music incorporated an import tool in May 2025, based on SongShift, which copies playlists and songs from other services. Spotify has offered an equivalent function since November 2025, with technology from TuneMyMusic, and YouTube Music Premium also supports imports. Deezer and Qobuz, for their part, include importing from Spotify in the signup process itself. The process is mechanical: you subscribe to the new service, indicate the source, and in a few minutes the content has moved from one service to the other, without deleting the original. The only risk is that a song might not exist in the new catalog.

Almost all services offer a trial period, so the experiment is free or almost free, and you can always go back. Spotify will remain the most popular, but popularity does not guarantee the lowest price, the highest fidelity, or the fairest distribution. To verify this, it is enough to play with it for an afternoon.