The way we consume music has evolved somewhat in the past 50 years. But one of the biggest changes in the last few years is the shift from ownership of physical and digital music to streaming – playing songs in real time from a library in the ether.

Streaming has in some ways provided a huge boost to the music industry, offsetting the decline in sales of physical formats and reshaping the way music is packaged, distributed and consumed. According to global music industry representative IFPI, streaming currently accounts for 43 per cent of digital music revenues. It is the industry’s fastest-growing revenue source, with an estimated 68m people worldwide paying for a music subscription service – up from 41m in 2014 and 8m in 2010.

There are plenty of streaming services vying for attention: Deezer, Napster, Google Play Music and YouTube Red (not yet available in the UK). Tidal, with its CD-quality loss less streaming, has made ripping CDs a thing of the past, while Qobuz’s Sublime offers a hi-res download store. Amazon and Soundcloud are both due to launch streaming services too.

But the biggest two by far are Spotify and Apple Music. Since 2008, Spotify has been at the forefront of streaming. One of the longest-running, and most subscribed-to services, its dominance has seen many rivals fall by the wayside. But Spotify arguably faces its biggest threat yet from Apple Music (Beats Music until Apple acquired it in 2014). We compare the two giants to see which most deserves your money.

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