Streaming Archives

Streaming

Napster Review

30/12/2021

History Napster started out life as a peer to peer file trading service which was shut down for copyright violations. After bankruptcy and several owners it was bought by Rhapsody another streaming and download service in 2011. Rhapsody amalgamated the two services and rebranded as Napster. In August 2020 MelodyVR acquired Rhapsody and the Napster business and in February 2021 changed its name to Napster. The Napster streaming business has two divisions – consumer and […]

Streaming

Apple Music Review

14/12/2021

History Opened in 2015, Apple Music started as a download service using iTunes. Apple migrated its music service into a streaming model but was initially slow to support non-Apple devices. As the company becomes more dependent on services it has had to embrace competitor devices and support for non-Apple products has continued to improve and now most mainstream devices are supported. Apple announced that it had 60 million paid subscribers in June 2019 and revealed […]

Spotify Review

05/12/2021

History Launched in 2008 Spotify has 381 million active users with 172 million paying subscribers (as at Q3 2021) across 184 countries. Spotify has been the leader in the streaming field for some time and despite not having a CD Quality or HiRes service it has produced a service which has near ubiquitous availability across HiFi, mobile, PCs, tablets, smart TVs and speakers and In Car Entertainment (ICE) systems. That and its ease of use […]

Streaming

SoundCloud Review

03/12/2021

History SoundCloud was originally set up in 2008 as an online audio distribution platform that enabled its users to upload, record, promote and share their originally-created sounds. Recently it has split its subscriptions into a ‘listener’ Go channel which targets users who want music streaming and downloading and its ‘creator’ Pro channel which follows its original focus allowing the uploading of content, downloads for fans and reporting of interest in downloads and streamed tracks. A […]

Streaming

YouTube Music Review

02/12/2021

History The original version of YouTube Music was launched in November 2015 together with a premium subscription, YouTube Red, which covered all of the YouTube platform including the Music app. In June 2018, Google (the owners of YouTube) relaunched the service as YouTube Premium which contained YouTube and YouTube Music and a standalone subscription to YouTube Music. YouTube Premium is £11.99/month and £17.99 for a family subscription (up to 6 family members) and YouTube Music […]

Deezer Review

29/11/2021

History Deezer was launched in Paris in 2007 and claims 16 million active users with 7 million paid subscribers. The streaming service is available in 185+ countries and in 2015 launched its CD Quality streaming service originally branded as Deezer Elite but now incorporated into its Deezer Premium subscription plan. Deezer Flow was introduced in 2014 offering users a unique blend of favourite tracks with recommendations inserted into playlists to encourage music discovery and enhance […]

Streaming

TIDAL Review

26/11/2021

History TIDAL was launched in 2014 and currently does not publish subscriber numbers. Estimates from industry sources range from 1 to 5 million. In January 2017 Sprint, the US mobile carrier, bought a 33% stake in the company with the remainder owned by Jay-Z and a variety of other successful music artists, making it the first mainly artist-owned streaming service in the world. In March 2021, the financial company Square Inc acquired a majority interest […]