With so many music streaming services available, choosing the right one can feel overwhelming. To help, this article will list from worst to best the most popular services using three key criteria. First, we’ll examine price and the benefits each service offers to consumers. Next, we’ll consider how much these platforms pay the artists whose music is the primary driver of each platforms’ success. Finally, we’ll evaluate whether each company operates with ethical business practices—a factor that’s increasingly important as corporate greed and questionable policies, by corporations and Republican politicians alike, allow businesses to prioritize profits over people more than ever. By weighing these factors, you’ll be better equipped to choose a streaming service that aligns with your values while meeting your needs.

Worst of the Worst: Spotify

Price and Features

Like most streaming platforms, Spotify recently raised its prices. A Premium individual account costs $11.99 per month. Other options available include $5.99 for students, $16.99 for couples, and $19.99 for families.

Spotify Premium includes standard features like ad-free listening, playlist creation, and song downloads for offline use. However, it lacks unique features compared to other streaming services. While it offers exclusive access to some podcasts, most aren’t particularly noteworthy. Spotify Wrapped is a nice gimmick, but hardly a substantial benefit. Premium also includes a limited selection of audiobooks, but full access requires an additional $9.99 monthly fee. Honestly, it’s unclear why Spotify has such a large subscriber base.

Artist Remuneration

Artist remuneration refers to the amount musicians earn per stream. Artists typically receive an estimated $0.003 to $0.005 per stream, meaning Spotify pays less than half a penny for each stream to the artists who sustain its platform. Among streaming services, Spotify offers one of the lowest rates of artist remuneration.

Ethics

Ethical business practices seem to have been abandoned by Spotify long ago. For starters, 87% of the music on Spotify comes from the four major music companies in the U.S., creating a near-monopoly on available content and offering little exposure for independent artists. In 2023, Spotify generated $13.9 billion in revenue, a 12.9% increase from the previous year. Yet, despite this significant revenue growth, they have not increased artist remuneration and continue to pay artists less than almost any other service.

While offering abysmally low compensation to the musicians who sustain their platform, Spotify somehow had a millions of dollars to spend on exclusivity rights for Joe Rogan’s equally abysmal podcast. Rogan’s podcast is widely criticized for being racist, homophobic, transphobic, and for spreading misinformation. By funding such content, Spotify implicitly supports these harmful values instead of prioritizing the musicians who drive its success.

Spotify’s questionable practices are unsurprising given its CEO, Daniel Ek, appears disconnected from reality. Most recently, Ek faced backlash for laying off 1,500 employees in an unsympathetic and poorly executed manner. He also underestimated the chaos that would ensue from dismissing such a large portion of the workforce, which left Spotify’s daily operations in disarray. Rather than take responsibility for his actions, Ek attempted to justify the layoffs—an egotistical move typical of out-of-touch CEOs. These layoffs occurred during a period of record profits for the company, making them seem unnecessary and heartless.

Conclusion

Don’t waste your money on Spotify, unless you’re comfortable with your money funding Joe Rogan’s platform for spreading hate, misinformation, and lies, or contributing to making a billionaire even wealthier. Save your money for something better. There are better ways to spend your money.

WORST: Amazon

Price and Features

Amazon claims that Amazon Music comes free with a Prime membership, but this is only partially true. Prime members have free access to a limited version of Amazon Music. This version offers features comparable to other streaming services mentioned in this article, including access to over 100 million songs, most top podcasts ad-free, and the ability to download playlists for offline listening.

However, Prime members do not receive the full benefits of Amazon Music Unlimited, which includes a larger catalog of music and podcasts, audiobooks from Audible, and higher-quality audio. To access these features, Prime members must pay an additional $9.99 per month on top of their Prime membership cost. For non-Prime members, Amazon Music Unlimited costs $10.99 per month. A family plan is also available for $14.99 per month or $149 per year, allowing up to six family members to listen on different devices simultaneously.

Artist Remuneration

According to multiple sources, listed in Further Resources at the end of this article, Amazon pays musicians a paltry $0.00402 per stream on average. Which I guess is slightly more than what Spotify and YouTube pay per stream.

Ethics

No one in their right mind would call Amazon an ethical business. It is widely known that their employees are severely underpaid. A recent study found that 53% of Amazon warehouse workers experienced food insecurity, 48% struggled to cover rent or housing costs, and 56% reported being unable to pay their bills in full. According to the same study, “Despite working for one of the largest and most profitable companies in the U.S., Amazon warehouse employees appear to be so financially strained that one-third have relied on at least one publicly funded assistance program.”³

Amazon not only underpays its employees but also subjects its warehouse workers to terrible working conditions. Many have likely heard the rumor that Amazon workers are not allowed to use the bathroom outside of their two 15-minute breaks and their lunch break. While it may seem exaggerated, journalist James Bloodworth, who went undercover as an Amazon warehouse worker, confirmed that employees often have to urinate in bottles or skip bathroom breaks entirely due to excessive fulfillment demands. A labor survey revealed that employees felt “pressured and stressed to meet the new goals” as fulfillment targets were set unrealistically high.⁴ Workers feared being logged as ‘idle’—a designation that could lead to termination—if they missed too many targets or spent too much time away from their station.

Jeff Bezos, one of the richest individuals in the world with an estimated net worth of $223.3 billion, chooses to underpay his employees to the point where many require government assistance to survive. Additionally, he enforces inhumane workplace policies that prevent employees from even taking necessary bathroom breaks out of fear of being fired. A company that fails to provide its workers with a livable wage and treats them like disposable assets can never be considered ethical.

Conclusion

If you already have Prime, the limited version of Amazon Music is probably your best option since it’s free. However, if you don’t have Prime or even if you do have Prime, I wouldn’t recommend spending your money on Amazon Music Unlimited.

WORST: YouTube Music

Price and Features

When I refer to YouTube in this context, I’m not talking about the traditional platform where you can watch videos on virtually any topic, but rather the separate YouTube Music app, which often comes pre-installed on many phones, taking up valuable storage space. Like YouTube, YouTube Music is free with ads, but an ad-free experience costs $13.99 per month, making it one of the more expensive options. A family plan for up to five members costs $22.99 per month, while a student plan is available for $7.99 per month.

An annual plan is an option if you’re willing to pay $139.99 upfront, saving you just under $30 before tax—a modest discount. As for unique features, YouTube Music advertises “ad-free, offline, and background” music, which are standard features for most streaming services, meaning it doesn’t really offer anything unique.

Artist Remuneration

YouTube music only pays artists $0.002 per stream, which is even less than Spotify somehow.

Ethics

YouTube is owned by Google, a company known for some ethical business practices but also a fair share of controversies. For example, in 2021, Google illegally paid $26.3 billion to device manufacturers to ensure it was the default search engine on their devices. This is why many phones come pre-installed with Chrome, YouTube, and YouTube Music. Because these apps are pre-installed, users often cannot remove them.² Google was also found guilty of being a monopoly in 2024. An ethical business would not eliminate competitors in order to control approximately 90% of the search engine market.

Google is widely known for selling your personal information to advertisers. Every time you perform a search on Google, that data is sold. This is also why you receive a slew of advertisements on YouTube for products you’ve recently searched for on Google. You can read more about what information Google collects and sells and how to stop them from doing so here: How to Stop Google from Collecting and Selling Your Person Data.

Conclusion

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is worth approximately $2 trillion. They don’t need your money, and you’d be better off spending it elsewhere. The only reason YouTube ranks higher than Spotify or Amazon on this list is that, at least publicly, it doesn’t promote hateful messages or misinformation like Spotify does, and it treats its employees better than Amazon.

MEH: Apple Music

Price and Features

There are four Apple Music plans to choose from. The Student plan costs $5.99 per month, the Individual plan costs $10.99 per month, and the Family plan costs $16.99 per month. They also offer a unique plan called the Apple Voice plan, which costs $4.99 per month. This plan provides access to Apple’s catalog of 90 million songs, playlists, and Apple Music Radio entirely through Siri.

Artist Remuneration

In comparison to other streaming services, Apple offers decent remuneration per stream. According to the sources I mentioned earlier, Apple pays between $0.008 and $0.01 per stream, which is more than double what Amazon, Spotify, and YouTube pay.

Ethics

Like the other corporations on this list thus far, of course Apple is not an ethical business. Like Google, Apple was recently sued by the US Department of Justice in an antitrust lawsuit. Given that the DOJ is now controlled by Trump and his billionaire cronies, it’s likely that the lawsuit will magically disappear. There is no doubt that Apple is essentially a monopoly because in order to use most of their services, you must have an Apple device. For example, the Apple Voice plan I mentioned earlier only works on Apple devices. Another example is that on Apple computers, you must use Apple’s operating system and cannot use other operating systems like Microsoft’s. That is literally the definition of a monopoly.

In 2015, Apple, Google, and other major technology companies settled a class-action lawsuit for $415 million due to their ‘no-poaching’ pact, which prevented employees from changing jobs and therefore obtaining higher wages. Apple also has many labor violations at its outsourced manufacturing hubs in China, which, unsurprisingly, have poor labor conditions. Additionally, Apple has acted poorly in response to workers attempting to unionize. It is also not surprising that there is a lack of racial diversity and women in their executive positions.

In addition to their unethical labor policies, the company generates a massive amount of e-waste that is not properly recycled. This issue is compounded by the fact that Apple essentially does not let you repair your products, forcing you to buy new ones. They don’t even allow you to replace the battery in newer phone models, which is beyond ridiculous. They have also been accused of being wasteful in their use of raw materials during manufacturing.

Conclusion

I really don’t understand the hype around Apple products. They’re not that great, and they’re definitely not worth the price. I was once forced to use Apple TV, and the design of the remote was so counterintuitive that I really don’t understand why anyone would want to put up with it on a daily basis. The only reason Apple ranks so highly on this list is because, in terms of artist remuneration, they’re second best, and in terms of controversies, they’re not quite as bad as Amazon or Spotify. Also, if you have Apple devices, then you have to use Apple Music because they are a monopoly and don’t really support other services on their devices.

OKAY: Deezer

Price and Features

Like the other services in this list, Deezer offers a free account if you want to listen to ads. If you want an ad-free experience, then an individual plan costs $11.99 per month, two accounts costs $15.99 per month, and a family plan up to six accounts costs $19.99 per month. As far as features go, the features offered are fairly standard and comparable with the other services on this list.

Artist Remuneration

According to sources, Deezer pays between $0.0011 to $0.0064 per stream. As of 2023, Deezer adopted a new model that pays higher royalties to professional artists—those who generate at least 1,000 listens a month—explaining the larger gap in their remuneration. While Deezer’s average artist remuneration is lower than most other streaming services, this is to be expected from a relatively new organization that struggled to find its footing in the early days. Perhaps, as they expand and become more profitable, artist remuneration will continue to increase.

Ethics

Like me, you’ve probably never even heard of Deezer. They’re relatively new on the scene, launching in France in 2007, and they did not enter the United States until 2013. Being a smaller and newer company means they’ve had less time and opportunities to accumulate controversies, though that might change now that they became a publicly traded company in 2022.

As for controversies, I could only find two. The first was a massive data breach in early 2023 that potentially exposed the private information of their users. Hopefully, the incident helped Deezer learn how to better protect their customers’ data. The second controversy involved a bitter feud between KPop fans. Apparently, antis—trolls who excessively hate on a particular KPop artist or group—accused fans of Taehyung from BTS of using VPNs to inflate the views on his newest music release. Deezer’s Twitter account responded in a way that seemed to agree with the antis’ baseless claims, which angered many BTS fans.⁵ Deezer was then forced to apologize. The moral of the story is never insult a KPop fandom, especially not one as massive as BTS, and especially not by agreeing with trolls. In terms of controversies, though, it’s relatively mild compared to the others on this list.

Conclusion

Overall, I would say Deezer is likely an ethical company as there is no evidence to the contrary as of the date of writing this article. Deezer is slightly more expensive than their competitors, and their artist remuneration is not the best yet, but this is likely due to the fact that they are a smaller company with higher operating costs and lower advertisement sales compared to their competitors, rather than corporate greed. At the very least, you can be assured that your money won’t be lining a billionaire’s already excessively large wallet and that it is unlikely to be used to harm others.

GOOD: SoundCloud

Price and Features

SoundCloud offers two plans: Go and Go+. SoundCloud Go costs $4.99 per month and offers ad-free listening and the ability to save unlimited tracks for offline listening. However, this plan does not include high-quality audio or access to SoundCloud’s full catalog of music. For those features, users must upgrade to SoundCloud Go+ for $10.99 per month. A unique feature of SoundCloud is that it is more interactive than other streaming platforms, allowing users to directly contribute to the popularity of newer artists.

Artist Remuneration

SoundCloud pays artists between $0.0025 and $0.004 per stream, with the variation depending on the country and continent from which the listener is accessing the platform. On average, the remuneration is approximately $0.003275 per stream, which is comparable to what Spotify pays. However, SoundCloud stands out by giving 55% of every dollar directly to the uploader, resulting in a higher overall payment to artists compared to Spotify.

Ethics

SoundCloud honestly started out with good intentions as a platform for lesser-known musicians to distribute their music and collaborate with other artists. It was a way for smaller independent musicians to reach the public and to make money from their music.

However, over the years, in order to attract a larger customer base, SoundCloud moved away from being a supportive platform for smaller, independent artists. Many users claim that SoundCloud ‘sold out’ to big business. For example, in 2014, SoundCloud granted certain copyright holders the ability to remove any content they wished.⁶ While this allows copyright holders to protect their interests, it also permits them to remove music that they deem violates their copyright, whether or not that is actually true. In 2016, SoundCloud removed groups, which concerned many of the artists on the platform because it eliminated their only means of sharing music on SoundCloud. Recently, SoundCloud installed an anti-piracy algorithm that, on the surface, seemed to combat illegal music downloads but ultimately ended up taking down legally submitted and downloaded music. They also gave a third-party group the right to take down any files from any user and the ability to delete any user’s account, which is not a popular policy with customers.

As far as ethical business practices are concerned, in 2022, Russia blocked access to SoundCloud because it refused to remove anti-war podcasts. Therefore, SoundCloud must be commended for its refusal to censor content. According to Comparably, employees rated the company A+ in terms of compensation, happiness, and perks and benefits, suggesting the company is a good place to work. Their remuneration policies, which provide extra incentives to artists, also suggest that the company still values the smaller, independent artists it first catered to.

Conclusion

They were once a great platform for new and indie artists to share their music, but then SoundCloud sold out to big business and is no longer quite as friendly to smaller artists. However, they do still seem to value smaller, independent artists. SoundCloud doesn’t have quite the same level of controversies as Spotify, Amazon, Google, or Apple, and it does maintain some ethical business practices. Overall, it’s not a waste of your money, but it is a bit different from the usual streaming service in that it is more interactive. A benefit of subscribing to SoundCloud is that since it caters to smaller, independent artists, you might just find music on SoundCloud that can’t be found on any other streaming service.

BEST: TIDAL

Price and Features

TIDAL’s prices are comparable to the other major streaming services, starting at $4.99 for students, $10.99 for individuals, and $16.99 per month for families (up to six accounts). According to this review on Tom’s Guide, TIDAL offers the best audio quality. They also offer access to more than 110 million tracks, 650,000 videos, and exclusive content that includes livestream concerts and podcats. By far, TIDAL offers customers one of the largest catalogs of all the streaming services

Artist Remuneration

Not only does TIDAL offer the best audio quality and the largest catalog of music and exclusive content, but they also provide the best artist remuneration. According to sources, TIDAL offers an average of $0.01284 per stream, and up to $0.015 per stream. This is more than three times what Spotify, Amazon, and YouTube offer artists.

Ethics

Until 2021, TIDAL was artist-owned by artists such as Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Madonna, among others, although it was primarily owned by Jay-Z’s company, Aspiro. Unfortunately, Kanye West was also one of those artists, and you don’t need me to tell you that Kanye West is not a good person. Because the company was started by musicians, this is likely why they offered the highest remuneration rate. In 2021, Square Inc. acquired majority ownership of TIDAL, though Jay-Z and the other musicians retained board positions.

As far as controversies, under the ownership of Jay-Z’s company, Aspiro, TIDAL was accused of inflating the number of customers and intentionally falsifying streaming numbers to inflate royalty payouts. For example, TIDAL claimed that Kanye West’s album The Life of Pablo, which had been exclusively released on TIDAL, received 250 million streams in its first 10 days. Considering TIDAL only had 3 million subscribers at the time, it’s statistically impossible for West’s album to have received so many streams in such a short amount of time.

TIDAL also claims that their audio is Master Quality Authenticated (MQA), which supposedly delivers “master-quality recording with the highest possible resolution to its HiFi subscribers.”⁷ However, MQA has been accused of being essentially a lie and just a scheme to attract customers. The controversy led Neil Young to remove his music from TIDAL, claiming, “TIDAL’s master is a degradation of the original to make it fit in a box that collects royalties.”⁷ In fact, the business behind MQA has since gone bankrupt and been replaced by TIDAL as its quality standard. Others have pointed out that TIDAL’s so-called high-quality audio is also meaningless because the average user with average headphones can’t even tell the difference.

In 2023, TIDAL’s CEO Jack Dorsey laid off 10% of its workforce—approximately 40 people—under the guise of ‘right-sizing’ the team, which is essentially corporate speak for unnecessary layoffs. While these 40 layoffs were likely unwarranted, they pale in comparison to Spotify laying off 1,500 employees, most of whom were essential for day-to-day operations.

As for the company that now owns TIDAL, Square Inc.—also known as Block Inc.—most of its controversies involve its Cash App, which is accused of several illegal activities. While TIDAL and Cash App are different companies, they share the same CEO and are owned by Block Inc., so the controversies surrounding Cash App cannot be disregarded.

Conclusion

Overall, TIDAL rates the best as they genuinely seem to care about offering proper remuneration to artists. This may change now that Square Inc. owns the company, but hopefully, it won’t as long as Jay-Z and the other musicians sit on the board. They also offer the largest catalog of music, videos, and podcasts at the highest quality of audio, with costs comparable to other streaming services. In terms of controversies, TIDAL’s ethical miscues do not hold a candle to Amazon’s underpayment of workers or Spotify’s exclusive rights to promote hate and misinformation.

Further Resources

Music Streaming Payouts Comparison: A Guide for Musicians — VIRPP
Streaming Payouts Per Platform & Royalties Calculator ()

Streaming Royalties Calculator: What Your Streams Are Worth

1: Spotify’s CEO Says Laying Off Many Employees All at Once May Have Been a Mistake

2: U.S. v. Google: As landmark ‘monopoly power’ trial closes, here’s what to look for

3: Half of Amazon warehouse workers struggle to cover food, housing costs, report finds – CBS News

4: Amazon warehouse workers skip bathroom breaks to keep their jobs, says report – The Verge

5: Why is “DEEZER APOLOGIZE TO TAEHYUNG” trending on X?

6: SoundCloud – Wikipedia

7: Tidal (service) – Wikipedia

Disclaimer: This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

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