The playlist

Here are our carefully curated recommendations of the best music streaming service for those who value sound quality above all. Form an orderly queue...

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There was a time when the likes of Spotify (which, back when, didn’t have much, if any, competition) was something that fans of hi-fi and high-quality music would have prized more for convenience than sound quality.

The relatively lower-res streams, typically 256kbps or 320kbps, AAC, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis, wouldn’t pass muster in our hi-fi listening rooms when compared with CDs in particular. But, recommendations and clever algorithms held the day, and convinced an entire generation to ditch even their MP3s, which had already trounced CDs for convenience and personal playlisting.

These days, of course, everyone streams. But the good news for fans of quality music replay is that much higher quality files can now be passed in far less ‘lossy’ fashion over Bluetooth.

First Tidal began offering hi-res tracks in the form of MQA files (24-bit/96kHz), but now Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited and Qobuz provide the option of higher-resolution listening, in some cases for free within the basic subscription. With catalogue numbers now pretty similar in size, that means it can be hard to decide which streaming service to throw your lot in with.

But that, as always, is where we come in. Over the next few pages we present a round-up of five of the main music streaming rivals vying for your attention and, of course, cash.

We have used all these services extensively, and dug deep into the quality of music offering, the intelligence of the curation and all the other features that we think you, as discerning music listeners, will be looking for from a music-streaming service.

Ease of use is just one metric we take into account – nobody wants to be frustrated by a piece of software, no matter how cool it makes itself look. Features such as recommendations and curated playlists, the ability to play your owned tracks alongside streamed ones and additional bonuses such as Spatial Audio are all taken into consideration in our round-up.