Apple Music

Apple aces many things, but is streaming music one of them?

Since an underwhelming start in 2015, Apple Music has grown in popularity and estimation thanks to a smart redesign, wider availability for both iOS and Android users, and offering new, substantial features at no extra cost while delivering a well-curated, wellstocked catalogue that sounds great too.

Its individual monthly plan costs £10.99, while an annual membership is £109, for a small saving. A Family Plan for up to six members costs £16.99 per month, while students can get in for just £5.99. This is on a par with Tidal, and undercuts Spotify’s rising fees for Individual and Family plans considerably. And remember, Apple Music throws hi-res quality streams and spatial audio into the mix too, as well as a companion Apple Music Classical app.

Apple Music boasts over 100 million songs, equalling the catalogues of Spotify and Qobuz, and just shy of Tidal’s 110+ million quoted library. You can download songs for offline listening (up to 100,000 songs) and music from your original iTunes library is also integrated into your Apple Music library. This is easier to navigate through the desktop app rather than mobile, and you’ll have to download tracks onto your device if you want them available to stream whenever you wish from the app.

Two tiers of hi-res quality – Lossless (24-bit/48kHz) and Hi-Res Lossless (24-bit/192kHz) – are encoded in the ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) format, while standard tracks remain 256kpbs in the AAC format. This is comparable to Tidal’s hi-res tracks available in 24-bit/192kHz FLAC, and certainly beats Spotify’s measly 320kbps cap on streaming resolution. Again, there is no extra cost to play the hi-res tracks as they are part and parcel of your subscription.