Pros & Cons
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- Terrific audio quality
- Cool AI-powered DJ
- Collaborative playlists and Group Session options
- Optional desktop app lets you play locally stored audio files
- Premium accounts let you hear select albums before they're released
- Student plan includes ad-supported Hulu
- Free version
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- Slightly pricier than many competing services
- Only a premium subscriber can start a Jam session
Spotify Specs
| Free Version Available | |
| Non-Music Content | |
| Song Lyrics |
If there's one constant in the vast, ongoing, streaming music war, it's this fact: Spotify is the big dog. Spotify remains the streaming music service to beat due to its large library, extensive podcast catalog, collaborative playlists, music videos, high-quality audio, and impressive AI DJ that recalls radio's heyday. For that and other welcome features, Spotify is a top-rated, overall Editors' Choice winner for streaming music services, despite strong competition from Apple and YouTube.
Where to Stream Spotify
Part of Spotify's success is its ubiquity. You can access Spotify by launching the web player, downloading the desktop apps (available for Chromebooks, Linux, Mac, and Windows), or installing the mobile apps (available for Android and iOS). You can also find Spotify on TVs, set-top boxes, smartwatches, and home video game consoles, such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
(Credit: PCMag Composite/Gabriel Zamora)The mobile and desktop apps have an advantage over the web player in that they let you play M4P, MP3, and MP4 audio files stored on your computer. This is a particularly useful feature for accessing your music streams and audio files from a single, centralized location.
Plans and Prices
You can dive into Spotify by signing up for Spotify Free or one of the four Spotify Premium tiers. The free version lets you listen to 160kbps streams, manage your digital music files, and connect with other listeners via the built-in social networking features, but you must endure audio and banner ads.
Spotify Premium ($11.99 per month) lets you play songs on demand and hear select albums before they're released. You can also cache songs for offline playback on your computer, phone, or other devices. This tier enhances audio quality, delivering up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC streams (which we'll explore in more detail later in this review). Spotify's features and quality are a strong selling point, but the service is one of the more expensive streaming music platforms, costing a dollar more than the $10.99 industry standard established by Apple Music, Tidal, and other competitors. Amazon Music Unlimited also costs $11.99 per month (though $10.99 per month for Amazon Prime members). SiriusXM's All Access plan costs $9.99 per month.
Likewise, Spotify's Family Plan (which grants six people individual Premium accounts) is now $19.99 per month, up from $16.99 per month. Spotify's take on the family plan includes several handy features, such as Family Mix (a vulgarity-free playlist) and Spotify Kids (a separate service designed for children).
If you need a Spotify plan that only covers two people, Spotify Duo is the way to go. The $16.99-per-month tier is essentially a Family Plan for a pair of people, minus Spotify Kids. It even has its take on Family Mix: Duo Mix.
A Spotify student plan is available for $5.99 per month, but it's not your typical take on the streaming music tier: it includes ad-supported Hulu. That's an excellent one-two punch, albeit only for students. Apple has a comparable Student deal ($5.99 per month), which bundles Apple Music and Apple TV. Another notable bundle is YouTube Premium—a $13.99-per-month entertainment package—that includes ad-free YouTube and YouTube Music.
The ever-increasing prices may not faze you if you're a Spotify die-hard. Check out The Best Free Online Streaming Music Services if you're looking for no-cost listening options.
Songs, Podcasts, and Lyrics
Spotify's library features more than 100 million songs, plus audiobooks, comedy, radio dramas, podcasts, poetry readings, and speeches. It's a rich collection, and we're pleasantly surprised that it includes Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in its entirety. In fact, Spotify has a lot of non-music extras, such as The Joe Rogan Experience and Up First From NPR podcasts. These extras act as a counter to LiveOne's music history channels, as well as Tidal's in-depth music editorials. Like YouTube Music, Spotify has thousands of music videos, but you cannot stream them with a free account.
Spotify's library won't let you down. We streamed the entirety of Hannah Williams & The Affirmations' Late Nights & Heartbreak, Khruangbin's A La Sala, and Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin II. Overall, Spotify has a good mix of major and indie artists.
Clicking an artist's name displays additional songs by that artist, along with an "About" tab that contains the creator's biography, photos, and hyperlinks to related Spotify pages. In testing, we leaped from Alicia Keys to Isaac Hayes to Booker T. and The M.G.'s, reading the in-depth bios and sampling tracks. However, LiveOne's many DNA stations do a better job of fleshing out artists' profiles through interviews and playing the music that influenced their sound.
In collaboration with Musixmatch, Spotify provides auto-scrolling lyrics that sync with the song as it plays, providing convenient sing-along functionality, similar to Amazon Music Unlimited and YouTube Music.
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Artist Radio and Recommendation System
Besides listening to singles, albums, and playlists, you can create an Artist Radio station that plays music from your favorite musicians (and similar-sounding artists). We like Harlem's Artist Radio, which served up tunes from Dum Dum Girls and other indie rock notables in testing. You can, of course, like and ban songs to customize the Artist Radio experience, as you can with most music-streaming services.
(Credit: Spotify/PCMag)Spotify enhances its cutting-edge features by refining recommendations for audiobooks, music, and podcasts. When you peruse the mobile app's Home section, Spotify adds personalized, curated previews of recommended audio. Video support has also seen notable enhancements. Looping video shorts called Canvas accompany audio previews, giving the app a dynamic, TikTok-like aesthetic. Podcast and audiobook feeds contain audio previews and customized content tailored to your listening preferences. Followed podcasts and saved audiobooks appear at the top of their respective feeds.
We dig the attractive interface, though the Canvas clips don't appear as frequently as we would like. Likewise, not all podcasts have previews.
Playlists and Spotify Jam
You can create playlists with the many tracks in Spotify's extensive catalog. By default, Spotify streams playlist songs with gapless playback for smoother transitions. Spotify lets you crossfade songs and adjust the fade duration (1-12 seconds). It's not something we often use, but DJs (or wannabe DJs) might find it appealing.
If you want to build a playlist with a friend, activate the collaborative playlist option. Want more? Check out Jam, a feature available to free and premium listeners that lets you and other subscribers simultaneously listen to the same content on their own devices—and control the content playback. In testing, the various jammers added tracks to the queue (though the Jam creator removed any song that dampened the mood). The only downside? Only a premium subscriber can start a Jam. Still, it's a remarkable evolution of the old Group Session feature.
Rich Sound Quality
Spotify's free 160kbps streams are respectable. If you aren't an audiophile, you'll find the sound quality satisfactory. It's leaps and bounds better than iHeartRadio's 128Kbps streams.
On that note, Spotify has finally introduced lossless audio after a 2021 announcement, delivering up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC streams to paid subscribers. The rich, crisp tunes are superior to CD-quality audio but aren't quite hi-res audio. Still, there's far less audio mudiness when you pump up the volume. For the best experience possible, Spotify recommends streaming lossless music over Wi-Fi using wired headphones or speakers on a non-Bluetooth connection, such as Spotify Connect. As of September 2025, lossless audio is available in 50 markets.
This represents a notable improvement over Spotify's previous audio offerings, but it still falls slightly short compared with other audiophile-friendly services. If you want better audio quality (and have a good pair of headphones), check out Tidal's $10.99-per-month Individual plan. With it, Tidal delivers audio in the lossless, hi-res FLAC, and Dolby Atmos formats. They sound terrific. Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, and Qobuz also have hi-res audio.
Spotify's Cool, AI-Powered DJ
Spotify has a personalized listening experience for Premium users in Canada and the United States. Simply called DJ, the feature lives in your Music Feed. Tap it, and the AI DJ delivers a personalized, curated musical selection based on your listening preferences. If you don't jibe with the DJ's ideas, tap the DJ button at the bottom of the screen to select a different artist, genre, or mood.
Don't want to type out your request? DJ received an upgrade earlier this year that lets it take voice requests. Press and hold the DJ button at the bottom right corner and ask for the type of music you want to hear. It worked well in testing, delivering a high-octane playlist when we requested workout music.
(Credit: PCMag Composite/Gabriel Zamora)DJ harnesses Spotify’s personalization technology and OpenAI (the tech behind ChatGPT) to provide essential info about whatever you’re listening to. A dynamic AI voice, based on Xavier "X" Jernigan of The Get Up morning show fame, delivers the narration. It sometimes sounds a little flat (as if it's reading a script), but it's also endearing to hear the DJ recommend music or provide information about the upcoming track. The AI-powered feature helps close the gap in Spotify's otherwise impressive armor, giving subscribers the live, informative content the service previously lacked. But LiveOne still edges Spotify out with its range of informative human DJs (including celebrity curators).
Can You Use a VPN for Spotify?
If you're concerned about streaming your favorite tunes over a public Wi-Fi signal, you need to get a VPN. A virtual private network safeguards your phone, tablet, or PC from snoops and, depending on the location of the VPN server, may let you access music licensed for other regions. Using a VPN to circumvent licensing restrictions is a violation of Spotify's terms of service, so proceed with caution.
Jeffrey L. Wilson contributed to this review.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Spotify)
Spotify
Spotify leads the streaming music pack with its vast music catalog, countless podcasts, early album access, collaborative playlists, and richer audio quality than ever.