The music industry has dramatically shifted towards a streaming model, where music is streamed in real time from centralized servers instead of being played from a CD or even from the local storage of a computer. People like streaming their music because it’s extremely convenient from multiple points of view. And when it comes to music streaming services, Spotify is no doubt the most popular one at the moment. However it’s useful to know that you can replace Spotify anytime, with one of the many replacement solutions available. If you want to replace Spotify for whatever reason, know that you have plenty of options, which we’ll go over next.
Pandora
Pandora is a very popular alternative to Spotify and a fully fledged music streaming service on its own. Technically, it could be better classified as a radio service since it works on the principle of finding and creating radio stations that play the kind of artists you like to listen to. You can create a radio station around violin music or around AC/DC, and it will play the music categorized as similar or associated with your picks.
Tidal
Tidal is a very similar service, in comparison to Spotify. It has the same type of layout, and it even comes with a desktop application. Many would argue that it has a couple of features on Spotify, such as the What’s New? Section where you can check out the latest songs, albums, artists, and overall releases. Tidal also features music videos, not just music, and has a very compelling collection. Whatever you find on Spotify can be easily found on Tidal. If you care about artist royalties, you should also know that Tidal is a platform bought by Jay Z and currently owned by him and several other musicians. It is marketed as a musician’s service that looks over musicians. More of your sub money goes directly to the artists, thus supporting the art.
YouTube
Yes, YouTube is a worthy mention as it can replace Spotify pretty well. If you can’t afford Spotify anymore or would like to take a break so you can save up some money, YouTube is still a free service. There are many smaller artists that can’t be found on YouTube as easily as you would find them on Spotify, and certainly not at the same recording quality. However, if you’re interested in listening to more known artists, you can download your music from YouTube. Just get your hands on a good converted and turn videos into youtube mp3 files, which you can use until you are ready to return to Spotify, or forever, if you find it a more convenient solution.
Soundcloud
Soundcloud is a great platform where you can listen to all kinds of audio content. It’s basically the strictly audio version of YouTube. It’s free, and you can find a lot of great stuff there, including your favorite songs and artists. More than that, it’s a preferred platform for podcasts and stuff like that, so if you’re into listening to an intricate conversation while you’re doing your workout at the gym, Soundcloud is what you might need. Did we mention it’s free?