High Resolution Audio’s guide to getting the best family plan for your musical entertainment.
What is the best music streaming family plan?
Updated 23/04/2024 to reflect recent TIDAL and Spotify price plan changes.
The top contenders for best music streaming deals for families all of which offer up to 6 individual accounts are Amazon Music, Apple Music, Qobuz and TIDAL.
Amazon Music when combined with an Amazon Prime subscription will also give you video streaming, access to Amazon Prime discounts and next day shopping which might make this a ‘must have’ purchase for the busy family. For those who also want an audiophile experience with CD Quality, HiRes and Spatial audio then an upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited plus Prime shopping is a compelling package.
Apple Music for those of you who live in the Apple ecosystem with iPhones, iPads, Macs and Airplay will likely want to continue with Apple’s famed ‘ease of use’ for their music streaming especially if there are younger or less computer savvy family members in the household. With lossless streaming up to HiRes and the recently introduced Apple Music Classical this is an excellent value package for families with members who like classical music and want the very best in audio quality.
Qobuz is not as famous as Amazon and Apple but with 100 million tracks and a strong catalogue of CD Quality and HiRes tracks at a similar price then it is definitely worth considering. It also boasts a significant portfolio of classical music tracks and for the smaller family it has a Couples plan which might provide a useful stepping stone as your family grows.
TIDAL was one of the first music streamers to offer HiRes as well as CD Quality tracks with its adoption of MQA technology. When MQA went into administration and was subsequently bought out by Lenbrook, TIDAL adopted FLAC format files as its default Lossless format. It still supports MQA but having adopted FLAC it has very much joined the mainstream and with its extensive catalogue of high quality audio tracks this is definitely a streamer to consider. On the 10th April this year, TIDAL amalgamated its HiFi and HiFi Plus tiers into one lower priced Individual plan offering both CD Quality and HiRes FLAC streaming at the low price of £10.99/month and Family subscriptions at £16.99/month which makes it £1/month cheaper than a Spotify Family plan.
What is the best music streaming plan for the smaller family?
For those of you just starting a family then Qobuz’s Couples plan branded Duo could be the answer. Spotify also offers a Duo subscription plan but as it still hasn’t come up with its promised Lossless service it doesn’t feature in our top list of recommendations.
What are the best music streaming deals for couples?
Try before you buy
All of our top choice music streamers offer a free trial period so you have the opportunity to try all of them before committing to any one of them. None of them tie you into a contract so you are able to cancel at any time.
The best of the rest
Deezer tops this list with its CD Quality streaming service, only missing out from our top recommendation as it does not offer HiRes as part of any of its plans. With its Flow discovery feature it is well worth considering if HiRes is not something you and your family aspire to.
Spotify drops down the list of recommended music streamers as it has failed to deliver its lossless streaming service and a recent price increase makes it up to £3/month more expensive than its mainstream competitors. With its extensive list of podcasts and innovative features it has been the go-to streamer for many years but the lack of a lossless service in 2024 is surprising to say the least and will put off many who aspire to better audio quality.
Napster is still shaking off its chequered file sharing past and whilst not in our Top List would certainly not be a poor choice especially now it has started to include Lossless tracks as part of its service. The streamer does not advertise how many tracks are lossless and so it is difficult to make a firm recommendation.
Runners up
YouTube Music is Google’s replacement for Google Play Music but with audio quality topping out at 256kbps it is unlikely to appeal to hifi minded families. However, if YouTube videos are the must have subscription in your family a YouTube Music top up might hit the spot.
SoundCloud is very much the odd man out in this list of ‘best recommendations’ as it does not have a family subscription plan. With its enormous number of tracks – currently 320 million – and its focus on new and innovative music this could well be an interesting add-on subscription for artists and seekers of the new.
The specialist classical music streamer IDAGIO is firmly out on a limb here. When Apple bought its main classical music rival Primephonic and relaunched it as Apple Music Classical it raised the bar for what consumers might expect from a classical music service. It will be difficult for IDAGIO with its specialist offering to continue to compete with Apple Music Classical when it is bundled for free in Apple Music.
Music streaming services with family plans
Amazon Music/Amazon Music Unlimited
Amazon Music is an ad-free on-demand service offering online access and offline playback to 100 million tracks, ad-free podcasts and thousands of playlists and stations and is included free with an Amazon Prime account. Audio quality is restricted to their lossy SD quality (256kbps). Prime membership is £8.99/month or £95 for an annual subscription. Two adults can link Amazon Prime accounts in an Amazon Household account but unfortunately Prime Music is not shareable. There is no family plan for Amazon Prime.
Amazon Music Unlimited is an ad-free on-demand service offering online access and offline playback to Amazon’s complete catalogue of 100 million tracks and podcasts. There are more than 70 million tracks in CD Quality Lossless FLAC (branded HD), millions of tracks in HiRes (branded Ultra HD) and an unknown number of tracks in spatial audio. Access to all these lossless formats are included in the basic subscription price. An individual subscription costs £10.99/month (£7.99 for Prime members) and a Family plan will set you back £17.99/month – both options available with a 30-day free trial. The Family Plan allows up to six accounts with streaming on up to six devices at once.
Student plans are available for both Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited services but no couples plan.
Apple Music
Apple Music has been slowly catching up with the other streaming services offering lossless streaming of 100 million tracks in CD Quality, HiRes and spatial formats with no increase in its basic subscription price. With its recent addition of the free add-on Apple Music Classical combined with its easy integration into the Apple ecosystem it is an attractive proposition particularly for iPhone/iPad and Mac users.
An individual plan cost £10.99/month and a family subscription for up to six members is £16.99/month.
Student plans are available but there are no couples plans.
Deezer
Deezer Premium an ad-free on demand service offering online access and offline playback to 120 million tracks in CD Quality Lossless FLAC and this will cost you £11.99/month. A Family Plan is available for up to 6 users and a total of 13 devices across all six Deezer Family profiles and will set you back £19.99/month. Each user can have their own profile which allows kids, teens and parents to enjoy the music they like.
For those on a tight budget there is Deezer Free which is a free ad supported streaming service with no offline mode and a reduced streaming quality (128kbps MP3). A Deezer Student plan is available at £5.99/month but there is no couples plan.
Napster
Napster has come a long way from its peer to peer file sharing days. It now offers an ad-free on-demand service with a catalogue of over 110 million tracks some of which are now lossless for £10.99/month. A family plan for up to 6 accounts is available for £14.99/month. There is no student or couples plan.
Qobuz
Qobuz has two subscription tiers, both of which offer a Family plan. For the smaller family they offer a Duo subscription for couples and more information can be found here.
Studio – This gives you access to over 100 million tracks in lossless FLAC many up to 24-bit/192kHz. There is an offline listening feature in this package. An individual subscription comes in at £10.83/month and a Family subscription for 6 come in at £17.99/month on an annual subscription.
Sublime – You get everything in the Studio package plus a discount of 60% on HiRes downloads. An individual subscription comes in at £14.99/month and Family subscriptions for 6 come in at £17.99/month on an annual subscription.
Spotify
Spotify offers Individual, Duo, Family and Student subscription plans. A Premium individual subscription is £11.99/month and a Duo subscription is £16.99. A Premium Family subscription for 6 comes in at £19.99/month. Despite promises of a lossless streaming option this has yet to materialise.
TIDAL
TIDAL recently amalgamated its HiFi and HiFi Plus plans into one low priced tier offering Individual, Family and Student options.
Individual – this offers 110M+ tracks in lossless, HiRes FLAC and Dolby Atmos; Ad-free, offline listening and personalized mixes, editorial playlists, and Live sessions at £10.99/month. MQA files are still available when these have been supplied by the artists’ record companies.
Family (up to 6 members) – there are 110M+ tracks in lossless, HiRes FLAC and Dolby Atmos; Clean playlists and curated content for kids and each member has an individual account. Family plans cost £16.99/month.
Students can get a discount of 50% on an individual plan but there are no couples plans available.
YouTube Music offers access to an ad-free streaming service with over 100 million songs, videos and live performances. An individual plan cost £10.99/month with a Family plan for up to 6 individuals coming in at £16.99/month. A Student subscription can be had for £5.49/month but there is no couples plan. Audio quality is 256kbps AAC and Opus which is the lowest of all of the streamers here.
Music streaming services without family plans
IDAGIO
IDAGIO is a specialist classical music streamer which does not offer a Family Plan. Their CD Quality streaming service called Premium+ will cost you €9.99/month and there is both a restricted feature Free plan and students can get a 50% discount on the Premium+ service. There is also a Premium+ Concerts plan which gives you access to exclusive videos of classical music concerts and international music competitions some of which are livestreamed. This top end plan costs €16.67/month billed yearly for €199.99. There is no couples plan.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud offers individual plans (SoundCloud Go+) starting at £9.99/month with a student discount of 50%. However, there are no couples and family plans available.
