The music streaming landscape is vastly different to what it was just a few years ago. As the big players each compete to offer the most fully-featured services we start to see all manner of new capabilities and content built into – arguably – one of our most used apps year in, year out.
2022 saw companies jostling to add more exclusive content, whether that be live broadcasts and podcasts from Spotify, exclusive live concerts, music videos and interviews on Apple Music, or spatial audio rolling out across Amazon Music, there’s been plenty of development as each provider seeks to gain more subscribers.
Our top picks for the EE Pocket-lint Awards 2022 each had a reason for being on our shortlist, and after going through a judging panel of experienced tech journalists and experts, we’ve crowned our number-one choice for this year.
Best music streaming service of the year: Apple Music
Apple Music is packed full of features, with Apple also putting quite a big focus on exclusive material like radio shows, podcasts and interviews with your favourite artists as well as hosting music videos and – of course – music.
Many of its albums and songs are available in ‘lossless’ audio formats, for higher fidelity music, plus we’ve seen quite a big rollout of its Spatial Audio feature powered by Dolby Atmos. A compatible pair of headphones – like AirPods – adds another dimension to the Apple Music listening experience.
Highly Commended: Spotify
Spotify is a market leader in the world of streaming and is compatible with pretty much any internet-connected music-playing device available. Whether it’s your phone, smartwatch, Amazon Echo, Nest Audio, TV or computer, you can get Spotify on it. What’s more, with Spotify Connect you can control it all from one device.
Spotify has a wide selection of Premium plans available too, including individual and student plans alongside a family plan for up to 6 subscribers and a unique Duo account that lets couples get access to the service without paying for a family plan.
The best of the rest
Of course, Apple Music and Spotify weren’t the only contenders this year. Before voting whittled it down to our favourite two services we had a number of other providers on our shortlist, each deserving of praise.
That list included Amazon Music Unlimited, which offers 360 Reality Audio plus ‘CD quality lossless’ albums and a really cheap single device subscription. There’s Deezer too, which has its own ‘SongCatcher’ feature for tagging and recognising songs playing nearby plus YouTube Music with its video-centric service and – of course – the HiFi champ: Tidal.
What are the Pocket-lint Awards?
The EE Pocket-lint Awards take place annually to celebrate the best of tech from the previous 12 months. Products need to be fully reviewed by the Pocket-lint team to be considered for the Awards, with judging taking place towards the end of the year. Through a process of longlisting and shortlisting, the panel of expert judges scores the devices to result in the overall winner and a Highly Commended runner-up.
The Pocket-lint Awards was run for the 19th time in 2022.