Streaming Songs in the Summer

Summer means holidays, holidays mean parties, and parties mean music. Playing great music is essential to creating the perfect party and road trip vibe, so subscribing to the best music streaming platform for you can make or break your listening experience. We’ve curated a list of popular music streaming platforms to choose from and outlined their best features to help you create the perfect summer playlist with the best value for money.

1. Spotify

Spotify has been in the music streaming business for a long time, and they’ve used their stacked knowledge to deliver a better music experience with each and every update. What makes Spotify stand out from the crowd is certainly its endless list of playlists. Their playlists are curated, as well as created by users, and can be made accessible to the public. You can even generate collaborative playlists with friends. This allows for a social listening experience between like-minded music-lovers. Its ‘Discover Weekly’ playlist is also unique in that it suggests new music depending on the songs you normally listen to, making sure you’re staying updated on the new releases in your specific music genre.

In terms of usability, Spotify integrates smoothly on different devices, is cross-platform friendly, and has a web player which allows for browser usage. It also has a sleek dark design and a very user-friendly interface.

Another unique and practical feature is Spotify’s ability to let you adjust streaming and download quality between Normal, High and Extreme, allowing for flexible data usage. This can help save your mobile data, especially when you stream music without Wi-Fi, and allows for better music quality when you are streaming with Wi-Fi. 

2. Apple Music

Apple Music is new to the game but it’s certainly got the capital to back it up. A great selling point is its access to early and even exclusive music releases. Like Spotify, it also has a variety of curated playlists depending on genre and mood. If you’re highly invested in the Apple ecosystem, this is possibly the best streaming platform for you, as it integrates seamlessly with other Apple products such as Macs and Apple watches. 

A unique Apple Music feature is the iBeats radio, adding a human aspect to an otherwise robotic listening experience with live radio and real-time commentary. Conveniently, it also has lyrics to all the songs available with a simple scroll, so you can practice singing along to those lyrics on those long road trips. To add icing to the cake, adding a song to your playlist also adds (and downloads) it to your library, saving you time in the long run when curating that perfect playlist.

3. Google Play Music

Google came into the industry to shake it up, and so it did. The innovation it brought with it was including YouTube Red in its monthly subscription, completely changing the game, and there’s no extra cost relative to other subscription prices across the board either. YouTube is the biggest video streaming platform in the world, and with a YouTube Red subscription attached, you can also stream YouTube-exclusive content off-screen with Google Play Music. This means the app will keep playing videos even when the screen is locked – a feature everyone will certainly drool over. 

Google has a wide ecosystem (if not the widest), allowing you to integrate your Google account with your music. Saving internet usage is also possible as Google Play Music allows for manually setting audio quality on your mobile device.

4. Tidal

If you’re a music quality snob, Tidal is the audio streaming platform for you. It is the only platform that allows high fidelity, lossless audio streaming at quite a steep price, but will complement equally high-quality home audio systems – and the difference is obvious to an experienced ear. It also has the most exclusive access to music releases; Tidal is the only place where you can listen to Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’, and it was the only place fans could listen to Kanye’s ‘Life of Pablo’ during its early release. On top of that, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Kanye offer Tidal subscribers early access to concert tickets for worldwide tours. Although this music preference isn’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea, those three have dished out party banger essentials in the past couple of years that are indispensable to your party playlist.

Whether you’re after endless selections of playlists, more content, or the best possible audio quality, you’ll need a great Wi-Fi connection to stream or download your music so you can enjoy a smooth and uninterested listening experience that will keep your party pumping. Browse glimp’s unlimited internet deals to find the perfect unlimited broadband plan for your next amazing summer party!