After Spotify’s arrival in India in 2019, YouTube Music has now stepped into the scene to complete the assortment of music streaming services available in India. This means we now have more competition in the music space which is always a good sign. If you’ve been looking for the best music streaming service in India, most suited for your needs then look no further. We have compiled all the information you would need about each of the music services right here. So without any delay, let’s go ahead and find out the best music streaming service in India.

We did a poll on our Twitter and it shows that users have started to shift to streaming services instead of downloading music locally, all thanks to a widespread and affordable Internet connection (read: Reliance Jio) now available across the country.

List of Best Music Streaming Services in India

1. Spotify

With a 15% market share in India, Spotify is nowhere near the top, but it’s arguably the best music streaming service in India. When Spotify launched its services in India in 2019, it had a patchy start and was embroiled in legal disputes with many music labels. Fast forward now and the company seems to have inked deals with almost all major music studios.

Recently, Spotify resolved its dispute with Warner Music Group, Shemaroo, and one of the largest music labels in India, Saregama. As a result, Spotify has considerably closed the gap in India and now from Bollywood music to international tracks, almost everything is available. Spotify does not put a number to its catalog size in India, but going by the estimates, it’s roughly around 40-50 million songs.

Pros

Cons

Pricing: Ad-supported Free tier, Rs. 59/month for students, Rs. 119/month for individuals, Rs. 149/month for two accounts (Duo), Rs. 179/month for 6 accounts (Family plan)

With a 24% market share in India, JioSaavn is the second-largest music streaming service in India. After the Jio-Saavn merger in 2018, the platform got a solid boost and now hosts a massive music catalog and you’re free to choose from and stream over 50 million songs, be it western, Bollywood, indie, or regional artists in languages like Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and more.

Cons

  • Song recommendation is average

Pricing: Free, Rs. 99/month, Rs. 399/year (effectively Rs. 33/month)

Apple Music does not figure in the market numbers, but it’s a solid music streaming service and one that’s constantly improving especially in India. Its personalized recommendations, classic Apple UI, and a huge catalog of over 70 million songs (probably the largest) make Apple Music a strong contender on this list.

As far as the UI is concerned, Apple Music boasts a completely all-white UI, with not much clutter and random options here and there. There’s an Apple-like simplicity to the service and it’s the perfect app for both iOS and Android users. In the past few months, the Apple Music app on Android has significantly improved and now it also offers a web player too which is in beta.

Pricing: Free trial for 3 months, Rs. 49/month for students, Rs. 99/month for individuals, Rs. 149/month for six users (Family plan)

Check Out Apple Music

Coming to YouTube Music, it possibly has the biggest music catalog & there’s a simple reason for it. The service not just brings along the entirety of Google Play Music’s over 35 million song collection, but also gives you the power of YouTube. You can search for and play live performances, remixes, covers, and other beautiful renditions of any song that you like.

  • Work in progress
  • Constantly changing UI

Pricing: Ad-supported Free tier (No background playback), 1-month Free trial only if you choose a subscription plan, Rs. 59/month for students, Rs. 99/month for individuals, Rs. 149/month for six users (Family plan)

You might not be aware, but Gaana is the top music streaming service in India with a 30% market share due to its massive catalog of regional music. The huge jump in userbase came after Times Internet along with Tencent invested $115 million in Gaana in 2018. According to a TechCrunch report, Gaana has more than 185 million monthly active users which is just mind-blowing.

Coming to the UI and music-playing experience, I found the player screen looks a bit cluttered (even though it has lyrics upfront). Also, the app is packed with features so one might feel overwhelmed. In addition, Gaana supports the highest music playback up to 320kbps which is pretty great.

  • Needless short video integration

Pricing: Ad-supported Free tier, Rs. 149/year for students, Rs. 99/month for individuals, Rs. 199/month for three months, Rs. 399/year 

Pros 

The Airtel-owned music streaming service, Wynk Music has steadily improved its services and now ranks at the 3rd spot in India with a 15% market share. Wynk Music houses over 10 million songs but you would find almost all Bollywood and regional numbers. The app and the web player has been significantly improved since the last time I used the service.

  • Ad-laden free tier

Pricing: Ad-supported Free tier, Rs. 29/month and Rs. 299/year for Airtel users; Rs. 99/month for other users

Having learned how all of the major music streaming services available in India compare, here’s a detailed roundup (with additional info) of their pricing, sound quality, and overall comparison.

Pricing

  • Sound Quality

  • Overall Comparison

Sound Quality

Overall Comparison

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Which is the Best Music Streaming Service in 2020?

Personally, I would pick Spotify as the best music streaming service in 2020. The simple reason is its curated playlists by music experts (and not just algorithms). I absolutely love playlists made by Spotify for every genre out there. The chances of song discovery that matches your taste are pretty high on Spotify.

If you are looking for a free music app in India then I would recommend Wynk Music because it offers offline listening too. Other good options are of course JioSaavn and Gaana.

Q. Which App is Better Than Spotify?

If you are someone who wants to enjoy high-fidelity music without any compression then Tidal is far better than Spotify. It offers a maximum lossless bitrate of 1411kbps which is just out of the world. That said, keep in mind, Tidal is officially not available in India. Apart from that, in terms of song discovery, Apple Music is somewhat closer to Spotify.

Well, that’s about everything you need to know about some of the most popular music streaming services available in India. It’s really tough to pick the best of the lot, but I personally prefer Spotify for its massive music collection, podcasts, and smart playlists. And now that Spotify has resolved most of its issues in India, it has become the perfect music app for me.