Spotify for Artists is our second app ever, and it’s designed entirely for artists like you, with your needs in mind. It puts control directly into your hands, whether you’re on the road, in the studio, or wherever, and it works smoothly with the regular Spotify app. (Try this: open the options for any track, album, or playlist in the. Spotify was founded in 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden, by Daniel Ek, former CTO of Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of Tradedoubler. According to Ek, the company's title was initially misheard from a name shouted by Lorentzon. Later they thought out an etymology of a combination of 'spot' and 'identify.' Early international launches. The best Spotify add-ons and tricks. Become a streaming music pro in no time. Updated: October 21, 2018. Four hidden tweaks that will speed up Windows. It's the world's go-to music app when it comes to streaming top international artists—whether on your desktop or on your phone, Spotify's got you covered. Listen to thousands of albums, singles, or pick out your favorite songs and create your own unique playlists that you can access offline (if you're a Premium user, that is).
Download Apps: Android, iOS. I am starting this list of apps like Spotify from a popular app.
What makes Spotify great?
From the looks of it, Spotify is rapidly becoming one of most popular music streaming services available. Most people who stream music use Spotify, or have used Spotify at some point in the past. What has Spotify done to become such a well-liked music streaming option? Spotify’s key to success has been a few factors that ultimately came together to form a very powerful, user-friendly product.
To begin with, Spotify is easy to use. This may seem like a very simple explanation, but it’s true. Spotify is easy to use, easy to navigate, and easy to sign up for. Also, Spotify offers an enormous catalog of music as part of its free membership. Some music streaming apps are popular, but they don’t really offer users the ability to pick and choose exactly what they want to listen to. So, in summary, Spotify is easy to use, wallet-friendly, and offers a large selection of music.
When I created this list of the best apps like Spotify, I kept those three factors in mind. Cancel spotify from iphone app. It’s also worth noting, before we get into the finer details of these items, that I only took the apps in account in my writing. Some of these apps may also have desktop counterparts, but I’m only going to address the app’s features.
1. Amazon Prime Music
Amazon Prime Music has only been around for a couple of years, and it’s started to attract a little bit of attention recently. For the most part, a lot of people just use Prime for the free two-day shipping. Recently, though, Amazon’s “More to Prime” advertising campaign reminded Prime users that they were also able to take advantage of Prime Video, Prime Music, and Prime Photos. I have been a Prime member for several years, but I only learned of Amazon Prime music fairly recently.
Amazon Prime’s music selection is pretty big, boasting around 1,000,000 total songs. It’s still dwarfed by Spotify’s selection, however, which has over 20 million. Still, if you’re someone who primarily listens to more mainstream music, Amazon should have all of the songs that you want and more. The app itself is also very well designed, and I think that the interface is slightly more attractive than Spotify’s. Prime Music has all of the features that you would want out of a music streaming app, and I really like it. My only complaint? Pricey! It’s a good thing to have if you’re already a Prime member, but I don’t think the music service on its own is worth $99 a year. Prime is already a great value for the free shipping alone, though, and I think that the Prime Music just adds to that value.
2. Pandora
Pandora is much older than Spotify, and it was probably the leading music streaming service before Spotify hit the streets. Pandora’s model is a little different from Spotify’s. It’s more of a radio app than a streaming app, which may have partially contributed to it being overtaken by Spotify in terms of popularity. When you open up Pandora, you select a station. Pandora then plays a curated radio station with music that is related to that station. You have a limited number of skips that you can use, and you have to listen to the occasional ad.
Best spotify apps. Spotify also has a radio feature, but that isn’t all that it has. Pandora doesn’t really give users the ability to pick and choose what they want to listen to. Its selection is roughly comparable to Amazon’s selection, which is a little underwhelming when you consider how long Pandora has been around. Even so, Pandora is a relatively high quality app, and if you use the Spotify radio feature often, you’ll probably like it a lot.
3. iHeartRadio
iHeartRadio is an interesting amalgam of music streaming features. iHeartRadio is a radio app, much like
Pandora. You can’t just choose whatever music you would like and listen to it. However, unlike most music streaming radio stations, which are basically massive playlists that get put on shuffle, iHeartRadio also offers actual radio stations. This may not be a super cool feature for some people, but I think that the ability to listen to morning talk shows and what not is nice, and something that is missing in most online “radio” stations.
Pandora. You can’t just choose whatever music you would like and listen to it. However, unlike most music streaming radio stations, which are basically massive playlists that get put on shuffle, iHeartRadio also offers actual radio stations. This may not be a super cool feature for some people, but I think that the ability to listen to morning talk shows and what not is nice, and something that is missing in most online “radio” stations.
However, there are also a few other little wrinkles. iHeartRadio doesn’t offer users any skips at all in its live radio stations at all. That’s right, if you don’t like a song, you’re going to have to just sit and listen to it. (However, there are skips in custom radio stations, which are very similar to the radio stations in Spotify. You’re able to thumbs-up and thumbs-down different songs, as well as skip songs that you dislike.) There’s a slight benefit to this in the live stations, though. Since they don’t have skips, that also means that they don’t have any ads. Whether you would prefer one or the other is a matter of personal preference, but I personally find it kind of jarring to be listening to music and suddenly have an ad play really loudly. iHeartRadio is neat, and I think that it’s definitely a little different from Spotify. Different doesn’t always mean worse, though.
4. Slacker
Like iHeartRadio, Slacker is kind of a music streaming mutant. The app is actually called ‘Slacker Radio’, and the apps largest draw is the ability for curators to create their own radio stations. So, it becomes kind of like a faux-radio station. A curator can assemble a large list of songs, and even put in little comments between them. It feels like a real radio, even though it actually isn’t. With a subscription, Slacker Radio also allows user to listen to music from their music on-demand service. Their music on-demand service is pretty big, but it’s still not quite as big as Spotify’s. (I keep saying that but, to be fair, I don’t think many libraries are.)
Slacker offers a free plan, and two paid subscription plan. The free plan is pretty standard, with limited skips and advertisements. The first paid plan (Radio Plus) is $3.99/mo, and allows unlimited skips, no advertisements, and the ability to listen offline. The second plan (Radio Premium) is $9.99/mo, and it offers all of those features plus the ability to create playlists and replay songs. Slacker isn’t quite as popular as the other apps on this list, but I think it should be. I think that the user-created radio stations are a really cool concept, and I think the user interface looks pretty good. It’s more unique, and it works.
5. Google Play Music
Google Play Music might be Spotify’s greatest competitor, out of every other item on this list. It offers Spotify’s same level of simplicity, while bringing even more functionality to the table. Google Play Music only offers its on-demand selection with it’s paid membership (which is $9.99/mo) but I think it’s pretty worth it. Google Play Music offers over 30 million songs, which is considerably larger than Spotify’s selection. Their coolest feature, though, can’t be found anywhere else. They actually allow you to upload your own music (up to 50,000 songs) to the cloud, and access them whenever you want.
Not only does this expand their own collection, but it’s just a really cool service in itself. I have A LOT of music stored across different devices, and Google Play Music is an absolute lifesaver. I can have all of my stuff in one place, and listen to it pretty much whenever I want! Still, it’s a little depressing to me that there isn’t a free option for Google Play Music users. With that considered, I don’t think I can say that Google Play Music is actually better than Spotify. It’s just different. However, it’s definitely an alternative that I recommend you look into.
Do you have another app you think would be a good fit for our 2018 list of spotify alternatives and competitors? Let us know in the comments below!
Jonathan Nackstrand—AFP/Getty Images
Music fans are plenty familiar with Spotify, the online streaming service that lets users listen to millions of songs on-demand for free or with a no-advertisement subscription.
However, with Spotify’s myriad settings and apps that extend its functionality, you might not be using it to its full potential. Here, TIME rounds up 8 tips that will help users see Spotify in a whole new light:
Hide Your Guilty Pleasures From Friends
The ability to follow friends’ musical habits is one of Spotify’s best features. But maybe you don’t want everyone to know exactly how many times you listened to “All About That Bass” this summer.
On the desktop version, you can select “Private Session” from the main Spotify menu to stop broadcasting your musical selections for a certain period (the same setting is found on the “social” menu within settings on the mobile version). To permanently stop sharing your listening choices, go to the “Spotify” menu, then “Preferences,” and uncheck the boxes for “Share my activity and what I listen to with my followers on Spotify” and “Share my activity and what I listen to on Facebook.”
Improve Your Search Queries
Navigating Spotify’s massive catalogue can be a chore. Next time, try using qualifiers to narrow your search. They work much in the same way as Google search queries. You can specify searches based on artist, title, genre or year. So if you’re looking for just Jay-Z’s output in 1997, “Jay-Z year:1997” to pull up the desired results. Here’s a full list of the search qualifiers you can use on Spotify.
READ MORE Spotify Now Makes Playlists Based On What Your Friends Listen To
Use Folders to Organize Your Music
One criticism of Spotify is that people’s music collections often devolve into a jumble of playlists and favorites songs. Consider using folders to provide more order for your playlists. On the desktop app, go to “File” and then “New Playlist Folder” to create a new folder. Then you can place any playlists you like within the new folder.
Toggle High-Quality Streaming On or Off
Spotify Premium users have the option to enable “high-quality streaming” from the Preferences menu on the desktop, which plays songs at a bitrate of 320 kbps rather than the standard rate of 160 kbps — making everything sound better.
On mobile, songs automatically play at a lower bitrate of 96 kbps to conserve data. All users can bump that figure up to 160 kbps, and premium users can also use the 320 kbps setting. Just be careful, since a higher bitrate will eat into your mobile data plan faster.
Add Songs That Aren’t on Spotify And Listen to Them Offline
Spotify’s catalogue is hardly comprehensive, but users can easily add songs from outside sources to their libraries and listen to them within the Spotify interface. Simply go to Preferences and enable showing tracks from local sources. Those sources can include iTunes, the Downloads folder on your computer, or specific folders that you select.
Even better, if you have a playlist filled with non-Spotify songs and toggle on the “Available Offline” option at the top of the playlist, you can download the songs to your phone for offline listening. Spotify for roku free.
See the Lyrics to Every Song
Trying to prep for your next karaoke session? Turn on the musiXmatch app (you can find it in the “App Finder” tab on the left-hand sidebar) and you can see the lyrics of most songs as they’re playing within Spotify. There are lots of other handy apps in the “App Finer” menu, including recommendation apps that offer features like curated music lists from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone.
READ MORE 6 Biggest Tech Debuts to Watch in 2015
Add a Visualizer
If you miss the cheesy visualizers from your days using Windows Media Player or Winamp, Spotify has you covered. Can you use spotify offline. In the search bar, just type in “spotify:app:visualizer” to bring up a range of different visual options that will play in time with your tunes.
Link to a Specific Part of a Song
Want to send a friend “Free Bird,” but skip the pretenses and get right to the guitar solo? Spotify makes that pretty simple. If you’re sharing the URL of a song (a special kind of Spotify-specific link that only works within the Spotify app), add a “#” sound to the end of the character string and then the timestamp you want to zoom to. To get to the “Free Bird” solo at 4 minutes and 25 seconds into the song, for example, you’d write this: spotify:track:1xt1TX045OgURfw0MAcVNF#4:25.
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