Top 15 Best Spotify Alternatives

Launched in 2006, Spotify is a digital platform for music, podcasts, and videos. It offers you access to an extensive library of millions of songs.

There are several alternatives to Spotify are available. Here, we have selected some of the best Spotify alternatives available for streaming music and more.

1. Apple Music

In 2015, Apple Founders created Apple Music in Cupertino, California, United States. The iPod was one of the best sellers of its time, and with iTunes, Apple enabled users to download songs of their choice.

spotify-alternatives

It offers over 90 million songs and is now available in more than 180 countries all over the globe. As of June 2019, it has over 60 million registered paying users.

2. Amazon Music

Amazon Music is another tech giant that offers a music streaming service, including over 90 million songs. Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder, launched Amazon Music very recently in the year 2016. It is headquartered in Seattle, United States.

It has a huge subscriber list. The membership is usually complimentary for people with Amazon Prime subscription. It also offers many discounts; hence, the price is much less than Spotify or other music streaming platforms.

In 2020 Amazon declared that it had crossed 55 million registered paying users. According to recent reports, Amazon Music will beat Pandora, the second most famous streaming service in the United States.

3. Pandora

Pandora is another music streaming platform similar to Spotify. It was founded by Doug Barry, Jon Kraft, Tim Westergren and Will Glaser jointly in 2000 and has its headquarters in Oakland, United States. SiriusXM owned Pandora in 2019 for $3.5 billion. It has a podcasting feature and also works with TikTok to aid creators.

As of 2021, Pandora has around 55.9 million active monthly users and 6.4 million subscribers. The prime source of its earnings comes from advertising. As of the 2020 fiscal year, it has earned $1.2 billion from ad revenue. However, Pandora is set to be taken over by Amazon towards the end of 2022.

4. YouTube Music

YouTube music is a popular music streaming platform developed by YouTube in 2015. The platform has its headquarters in San Bruno, California, United States. This music streaming platform lets users listen to various music genres in audio and video.

Google Play Music has been replaced by YouTube music. With more than 70 million songs on the interface, you can stream music for free or by getting a subscription. In 2021 it crossed 50 million subscriptions.

5. SoundCloud

SoundCloud, with its 175 million users, is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. It was founded by Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss and Alexander Ljung in 2007. It was established as a platform on which individual artists could form their careers.

SoundCloud allows users to upload, promote, share and stream music. Famous artists like Billie Elish and Post Malone started their music careers out on this platform.

As of November 2021, SoundCloud has more than 76 million active monthly users and it has over 175 million global audiences. This platform offers over 300 million tracks and both free and paid membership.

It has gross revenue of more than $200 million and has about 425 employees. Rapper Future has recently become the first to get 10 million followers on SoundCloud.

6. Deezer Music

Deezer is a similar music streaming service to Spotify that allows its users to listen to songs, music, and podcasts. Music tracks like big record labels such as UMG (Universal Music Group), WMG (Warner Music Group), and SME (Sony Music Entertainment) are available on Deezer.  

As of now, the company has 881 employees and made a revenue of $219.6 million. Deezer’s unique features such as providing high-quality audio files are the ones that can even attract Spotify users. Currently, Deezer Music has 16 million users from 180 countries.

7. Napster

Napster was co-founded by Sean Parker, Shawn Fanning, and John Fanning in the year 1999. It is mainly located in California, United States.

Initially, Napster was created to share files which eventually turned into a music platform due to legal battles.

It is the oldest of its kind and the first-ever platform to have been founded, like Spotify. Currently, it has about 42 million songs on the platform with 5 million and more subscribers. The ownership is now with MelodyVR.

8. Tidal

Aspiro, a Norwegian company, founded Tidal in 2014 as a music subscription service. A year later, Project Panther, led by Shawn Carter, paid a cool $100 million for the business. The application, which allows access to high-resolution music and videos, requires a subscription charge. It’s not free, and you won’t be able to acquire it.

The platform’s royalties are split between the artists and the platform’s owners. Tidal has a variety of subscription plans, including Premium and HiFi. Artists from all walks of life are represented, including some who are just starting. This product has 305 employees and annual revenues of $ 147.6 million.

9. JioSaavn

In 2007, Anjali Naik, Anurag Gupta, and three others jointly founded JioSaavn in Mumbai, India. Given the population in India, for a better presence in the economy, it included all the major languages in its list. The interface is a lot similar to Gaana and Spotify. It also has international charts on it. Currently, it has 60 million songs on it. While Gaana took a while to pass the 100 million user mark, JioSaavn only had that covered in a week’s time.

10. Bandcamp

Bandcamp is a lot similar to SoundCloud and has similar features. It was founded in 2008 with headquarters in Oakland, California.

It allows individual artists to release music and reach listeners all over the globe. It presently has more than 5 million songs and 600,000 albums from 183 different countries. The platform can be accessed free of cost by both music launchers and listeners. The revenue it collects is around $7 million currently.

This platform is best for independent musicians who can easily promote themselves.

11. iHeart Radio

Headquartered in New York City, United States, iHeart Media founded iHeart Music in 2008. As the name goes, users can usually listen to local radio stations live on this platform.

Its services are mainly available in Canada, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and The United States. A total of 860 radio channels can be found on this platform.

The geographical limitations did not stop it from gaining a huge number of users, i.e., around 150 million. The podcasts on this platform have a monthly download record of 422 million.

12. Gaana

Gaana was founded in 2011 by Avinash Mudaliar in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is one of the largest music streaming platforms in India. The Song list exceeds 45 million, with Indian artists primarily on it. Indian music catalog is entirely present on it in 12 different languages.

With more than 200 million subscribers registered on the platform, there are over 100 million monthly downloads. The application is available on both iOS ad Android software. A new podcast feature has also been introduced on it.

13. Anghami

Anghami is an Arab music streaming service that has more than 57 million songs (Arabic and international) podcasts and playlists. If compared to Spotify, Anghami is better positioned to take advantage of the region’s tremendous expansion.

As a result of a collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office, the company, which was founded in Lebanon, has relocated to the United Arab Emirates. The Anghami Research and Development Center in Abu Dhabi is part of ADIO’s $545 million Innovation Program. Thanks to the partnership, Anghami’s standing in the industry has been fueled.

14. Wynk

Telecom Giant Airtel is the owner of Wynk, another music streaming platform. Users can browse, search, listen and download music on Wynk.

Wynk Music has more than 2.8 million songs in different genres and languages such as English, Hindi, Telegu, Bengali, Punjabi, etc. As of 2021, the company has around 72 million monthly active users. The revenue that Wynk generates is from ads and in-app purchases.

15. Mixcloud

Mixcloud, a British online music streaming and distribution service, has made it to the list of Spotify competitors. 

Mixcloud’s community of users creates content together. On average, four hours of fresh content is added to the site every minute, and the site may play over a thousand hours of music every day. As of now, the company has raised millions of dollars as revenue and the number of monthly active users is approximately 10 million.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes Spotify different from its competitors?

When it comes to differentiating oneself from the competition, Spotify does it by providing a vast variety of music that appeals to a wide spectrum of listeners, as well as by offering users tailored playlists and music recommendations.

Conclusion

Now you know the best alternatives to Spotify. You can try the mentioned music streaming platforms and enjoy the features.