Music is the soul of life and having a personal MP3 collection on your smartphone is convenient, but there is a limit to how much music you can fit onto your device’s. The major limitation is the internal storage or microSD card, and music streaming services are the way forward.
These may increase your data usage, but offer Music on Demand. Spotify currently dominates this market, although not official in Uganda, there are many who use it in the diaspora and includes a much more competitive family sharing package, but is it the top dog? MTN has recently come out to allow Ugandans access to Tidal using the Mobile Money service as a payment platform. Here we compare the best music streaming apps for Android.
Music streaming services at a glance
| APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | TIDAL | GOOGLE PLAY MUSIC | SOUND CLOUD | DEEZER | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AVAILABILITY IN UGANDA | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FREE TRIAL PERIOD | 3 months | 1 month | 1 month | 1 month | 1 month | 1 month |
| PRICE | UGX 19,000 per month / UGX 30,000 for family membership (up to six people) | UGX 37,000 per month / UGX 57,000 per month for family membership (up to six people) | UGX 15,000 per month/ UGX 7,000 per week price inclusive of MTN data | UGX 37,000 per month / UGX 57,000 per month for family membership (up to six people) | free / ad-free with Soundcloud Go for UGX 19,000 per month, Soundcloud Go+ for UGX 37,000 | UGX 48,000 per month / UGX 72,000 per month for family membership (up to six people |
| PAYMENT MODE | VISA/ Mastercard/Paypal | VISA/ Mastercard/Paypal | VISA/ Mastercard/Paypal/Mobile Money | VISA/ Mastercard/Paypal | VISA/ Mastercard | VISA/ Mastercard/Paypal |
| NUMBER OF SONGS | More than 35 million | More than 35 million | 30 million | More than 35 million | Around 125 million | Around 53 million |
| OFFLINE MODE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LOCAL SONGS SUPPORT | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Apple Music
Apple Music is a recent competitor in the music streaming sphere, released on June 30, 2015. But Apple already had a great pedigree with regards to music services, with the iTunes store having been successful for more than a decade. Though the iTunes store offers in excess of 43 million songs, its streaming service offers a little less, at around 30 million.
Apple Music isn’t just for Apple users, with a Play Store App now available. It allows Android users to stream its immense catalog and comes with some unique extras such as Connect, a blogging feature that seeks to bring artists closer to their fans, allowing them to share music, videos and photos with followers. Apple Music also includes the Beats 1 internet radio station, which plays continuously in more than 100 countries.
It might be too early to tell if Apple Music will be a big hit, but with a huge catalog, three-month trial period and all of the major features nailed, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be.
Spotify
Spotify is not supported in Uganda, in fact you cannot access the app on the PlayStore but for those who can get an APK or live in the diaspora, the can access it. It offers a free, ad-supported streaming service in addition to its paid subscription. A great aspect of this is that you (currently) get access to the same content whether you pay a subscription fee or not, but that might change. Spotify might restrict new album releases to paying users. The main downside to the free service in comparison to the paid is the audio quality, the ads, and the ability to use it offline.
The Spotify Android app is perfect for mobile because it allows you to download any song in the catalog for offline listening on your device. There is also a web-player and desktop app, and all your content and playlists are synced between them.
Spotify’s radio and discovery algorithms are also extremely clever and are what makes Spotify’s personalized playlists (Discover Weekly), delivered every Monday, worth checking out. Many Uganda artists are uploading their music here lately.
Furthermore, Spotify was recently updated with a better family-sharing subscription model so that, like Google Play Music and Apple Music, it now provides family sharing for six accounts at a cost of UGX 57,000 per month.
Google Play Music
What began as a simple music player app is now a full, commercial streaming package with more than 35 million songs available.
Unlimited access to Google Music costs the same as a monthly Spotify subscription, but the key benefit is that it also includes access to YouTube Red, so you also get access to Google’s YouTube video content ad-free, as well as offline and background playback, and original films and TV series.
Tidal
You can register on Tidal with a credit card or a PayPal account and even MTN Mobile Monety. The service offers a basic subscription for UGX 15,00 per month and have has a weekly a daily package.
The 30-day free trial is the same as the others, except that you can play videos. The Hi-Fi mode is also available for testing, although it is mandatory give them your credit card details. The interface of the application is intuitive and full of interesting features, like TIDAL Rising, a music discovery guide.
Soundcloud and Soundcloud Go
Soundcloud is a different breed of app which has a well-deserved place on the list of top music streaming apps for Android. Its aim is to bring independent artists to the forefront.
While the app is free, there is a paid version (Soundcloud Go) with no ads. Artists pay to put their music online, a practice that comes from music producers needing a platform to exchange and collaborate on songs from a distance. Users can listen and comment on tracks, share them with others, and sometimes download them if the artists allow it. Soundcloud is ideal for those who like to discover new artists before anyone else.
Deezer
Jump in and explore over 53 million tracks (and counting), and discover artists and tracks you’ll love with personalised recommendations from the Deezer Editors.
Deezer works across all your devices, both online and offline, with no listening limits. It’s music at your fingertips for waking up, getting going, chilling out, living life.
