Music: Streaming Services Smackdown

In 2018, most any song you can think of is a click away, thanks to music streaming services like Spotify. But which one is the best? I thought it might be educational to compare three of the services I've used recently, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Tidal, in terms of the only criterion that matters to me: song selection.

The comparison will list albums I've been jamming to, and let you know which service(s) have them. Note that Amazon Music requires a subscription to access many songs, which Spotify and Tidal insert annoying ads if you aren't a subscriber.




Halloween Motion Picture Soundtrack (John Carpenter) - They just released the trailer for the Blumhouse sequel/reboot (which John Carpenter is scoring), so it's a good time to fire up the original soundtrack - still the most influential horror movie OST ever made.

Spotify - Yes
Amazon Music - Yes
Tidal - No





On (Altın Gün) - Do you like Turkish psychedelic folk-rock? Of course you do. Try out the deliriously catchy "Cemalim," a danceable version of the Turkish folk song made famous by Erkin Koray.

Spotify - Yes
Amazon Music - Yes
Tidal - Yes




All Grown Up (The Hillbilly Moon Explosion) - Let's up the difficulty - a ten year old album from a Swiss rockabilly band that most people have never heard of...

Spotify - No
Amazon Music - Yes
Tidal - No



Baby Driver - After seeing this enjoyable musical heist film, I immediately looked up the soundtrack. None of the services have all the songs in the album, but Spotify comes closest.

Spotify - Mostly Yes
Amazon Music - No
Tidal - Mostly No

Conclusion

As you can see, no one streaming service has all the albums in this test, which isn't surprising given the labyrinthine world of music licensing. If I had to pick one, I'd probably go with Spotify, since it has the cleanest interface and best search engine, but you're probably best served using a combination and then directly supporting the artists you like.