Top 8 Spotify Alternatives iPhone

Spotify has quickly become the premier iPhone app all over the world for streaming and downloading music directly to your smartphone or tablet, but with such success will obviously come many different kinds of competition: pretenders to the throne! Currently, music streaming is perhaps the one market of apps that is crowded more than ever, with huge, heavyweight companies vying for the same patch of turf. Google have their own Google Play Music service, whereas Apple have iTunes Radio and the recently purchased Beats Music. Everywhere you look, there is a nice music app out with powerful financial backing looking to entice both users into shifting their alliance and also to give artists an incentive to create and release exclusive content on their platform. All of this makes for some interesting competition, both when it comes to the different features we see within these apps and the prices that they offer, always attempting to undercut the opposition. With this all in mind, we recently took time out to test run most of the music streaming apps available on the App Store to come up with this Top 8 alternatives to Spotify!

8. iTunes Radio (Free)

This is almost like a default first entry, since it’s the logical choice for Apple fans and iPhone or iPad users everywhere. I’ve noticed a conscious push in Apple’s policies recently, especially when it comes to small, third party apps that look to offer some kind of limited (perhaps questionable) music streaming or downloading service, perhaps taking advantage of some kind of existing service and piggybacking on its archives, such as the music found on SoundCloud. Apple seems to have wiped many of these apps from the App Store, and any attempts to follow links to their old pages will result in being directed to the page for iTunes Radio. I think this makes Apple’s intentions very clear: maximize exposure and sweep up all those first time users. And with their recent purchase of Beats Music, Apple now has potentially two horses in the race!

7. Napster (Free)

This is more of a nostalgic entry, since I remember spending hours back in the day downloading not albums but single songs from Napster. Of course, technology has advanced well past that point, with users now able to download entire albums in a matter of seconds while on the bus to work. While Napster was one of those to bear the full force of the music industry against piracy in the 1990s, the name has somehow survived and there is a nice Napster streaming service available for the iPhone today. Though, we assume that this is mainly because the name is one that so many people hold dear as an important point in their lives, rather than the fact that Napster can actually compete with the likes of Spotify. – Download from iTunes

6. Rdio (Free)

Rdio is a beautifully packaged alternative to Spotify, with well over 30 million songs to choose from – so people certainly can’t criticize it of not offering a wide enough selection. There are offline playback options, available with the premium version that starts at around $9.99 for unlimited listening and of course the elimination of all thsoe pesky ads. While Rdio lacks the exclusive pop music tie-ins that make Spotify so popular, I’d say that it’s certainly the best looking of all the music streaming apps on the iPhone at present, with a beautiful minimalist interface. – Download from iTunes

5. Beats Music (Free)

We mention Beats above, and it’s worth mentioning it again. The meain reason it seems to stand out at the moment is because of its fantastic abilities regarding playlist curation, or the ability to give you new stuff to listen to each time you tune in and to allow users to easily discover new music that fits with their own specific tastes. There is just about something for everyone here, with subscriptions from around $10 a month including offline playback and a whole lot more. – Download from iTunes

4. SoundCloud (Free)

In terms of music discovery, I’d say that Soundcloud is my app of choice at the moment. I’m not the kind of listener that will follow the charts or be particularly bothered about the latest Justin Timberlake or Lana Del Rey record, so the whole exclusive content thing that Spotify holds as its trump card is lost on me. And I know quite a few people who are exactly the same, so perhaps that is something for developers to bear in mind! SoundCloud is basically made for indie artists, and for the kind of listeners who like to find new music and find it early. It is both a wonderful platform to share  your music, whether you make electronica or acoustic music or simply remixes or reimaginations of existing songs. As such, some users tend to get alienated with SoundCloud when they search for big names and albums and can’t find them. That’s not really what the app is about, though! – Download from iTunes

3. Google Play Music (Free)

Then we have Google’s aforementioned entry, Google Play Music which offers millions of songs on demand and ready to be streamed or downloaded. In something of a parallel between this and SoundCloud, Google Play Music also has the fantastic option to upload your own content – 50,000 of your own songs that can be uploaded and added to the service. Not necessarily music that you have made, but songs that you listen to that perhaps aren’t available to stream or download at present. This is an excellent way to save storage space if you don’t mind using up data by streaming the songs later on. Like so many of the apps on the list, subscription here starts at $9.99 a month. – Download from iTunes

2. Slacker (Free)

Slacker is another of those like SoundCloud that appeals to my own sense of seeking out unheard content, outside of the mainstream. When it comes to indie artists especially, but also things like sports broadcasts and comedy performances, Slacker has you covered. So if you’re the kind of person that hates sifting through Spotify to find original, independent content, then this may well be the Spotify alternative that you’ve been looking for. Besides, the subscription starts at just $3.99 a month as well, which is a lot cheaper than the other options and gives you both unlimited listening and removes all of the ads from the app. – Download from iTunes

1. Pandora (Free)

In terms of Spotify alternatives, I’d still say that Pandora stands out above the rest. Their level of curation is great, and has been since the very beginning when the personalized radio station service was launched upon a bewildered nation of music lovers on the web. The great thing is that Pandora learns your taste as it goes on, and is very intuitive when it comes to providing you as a listener with exactly what you want to listen to, and playlists that are consistent. The price is also a lot more affordable than other apps, especially Spotify, at just $4.99 a month or around $40 a month which will get rid of all those annoying ads. – Download from iTunes