Hi and hello, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, internet's busiest music nerd. Hope you're doing well.

Ever since we have been doing a lot of regular coverage on this channel about just how awful Spotify is as a music streaming platform – how terrible the artist payouts are, the AI stuff going on over there, Daniel Eck investing millions of dollars into military tech, all that stuff, and it's the tip of the iceberg – we have been getting countless comments across all of my social media platforms just asking "Anthony, what should I be listening to artists on instead?" "What other music streaming platforms are available out there, which ones are the best ones?" And even though that is something we have talked about on this channel before, maybe it's kind of time for an update.

So, in this video, I guess I'm going to do a bit of a tier list and go over not only some of the payouts that these platforms are offering artists for streams of their songs, but also some other pros and cons that are worth considering when choosing a music streaming platform. I want to say before I dig into this, all these platforms – the function that they serve, ultimately – it's all mostly the same, like pretty much all the major and relevant music that you could be listening to or discussing on the internet at any given moment can be found in these places.

And they also, in addition to that, have stuff like, you know, playlist features and the like. The basic meat-and-potatoes expectations that you should have of a music streaming platform are met by all of these brand names. I just want to make it explicit and clear that I'm kind of, like, rating these platforms and deciding where to tier them based on other factors.

With that being said, let's start with Amazon Music – which, when ranked among all of the other music stream platforms, the big ones out there today, it has one of the highest payouts, actually. Which is cool, is impressive...we like artists making more money. In fact, I personally know some people who use the platform. They seem to swear by it and are pleased with the experience they get on it, generally. But, with that being said, none of these companies or corporations exist purely in a vacuum. And when you are giving money to Amazon Music, you are also obviously giving money to Amazon, which is, like, one of the most predatory and greedy and monopolistic corporations on the planet Earth today. So while, again, I can praise Amazon Music for giving artists at least more pay on average than some of these streaming platforms are, there are still some issues to consider. I guess I could throw them in the C row.

Okay, next in the list over here, we have Apple Music. Now, this is the platform that I predominantly use, not strictly, but predominantly. And as far as payouts go, I would say Apple lands around the middle, or [...] the somewhat upper end of the music streaming platform spectrum. Plus, personally, I do think the curation on there, generally, is pretty good. I like some of the original shows and interview content they produce as well...like, there does actually seem to be personal passion going into the sorts of music and albums and artists they feature. Like, I'm not running across tons of playlists that are just packed with AI bullshit, which, if I'm hoping to be spared of anything when I go listen to some music on a music streaming platform, it's that. With that being said, just like Amazon as a company, Apple obviously also has some pretty major issues, not only their long-criticized business practices of exploitatively attaining the minerals that go into the hardware of the products they create, but also, there have been allegations recently of the company, and employees of the company, like, providing these massive donations to the IDF and illegal settlements over in the West Bank.

Insane. Why do I need to worry about whether or not my music streaming platform of choice is contributing to ethnic cleansing and genocide? I do like the functionality of Apple Music as a platform, but, just like with Amazon, there are seemingly, like, a million and one issues to worry about in terms of shady business practices, and I don't really feel like I give them much more than a C, even if I do think the overall experience of listening to music on Apple Music is decent-to-good.

Okay, next in the list here, I want to give a shout out to Deezer. I'll make this one quick and say, from what I have seen in the most recent reports, their payouts are not as strong as Amazon or as Apple Music. But if there is at least one business practice recently from Deezer that I can commend – and I will admit, I don't have all the information on this topic..in fact, I have been in communication with Deezer recently, and I have not had all of my questions answered – but, apparently, they recently rolled out the first site-wide AI music tagging system on a streaming platform. Which, I feel like going forward, if we are going to have to coexist with AI music on these sites, through these interfaces, listeners should at least know and be told what it is they're listening to, so that they know whether or not they are being handed the music of an actual artist who's trying to make an actual career off the actual passion they have for what they do, or if they're merely being handed AI slop.

Now, again, I don't know how exactly they go about tagging what is or is not AI on the platform, and I'm sure whatever means they're using right now are not perfect. But, as of right now, Deezer is at least showing a little bit more initiative than some other platforms are when it comes to curtailing this stuff, and just generally making listeners more aware. So while, again, I feel like there are some solid and notable and commendable things about Deezer for sure, the payouts could certainly be better. So I think I'm just going to throw this over in the C tier as well.

Okay, next in the list, we have Napster over here. Good old Napster. If you are a music head, a music historian, you most likely know of them as, you know, being one of the predominant illegal music downloading platforms when that was initially becoming a thing back in the day in the early years of the Internet. But recently, the platform has actually gone legit in terms of just, like, being a straight-up music stream platform now, on which you could hear, just, pretty much any major artist or album that you could anywhere else. And on various lists and studies that I have read, they have all sort of, like, agreed that Napster has one of the highest payouts in the industry.

Seemingly, on paper from what I'm reading, it's far above one cent per stream. That is sort of, like, an industry standard that a lot of artists unionizing against platforms like Spotify are seeking at the bare minimum. At the very least, Napster is meeting that – again, on paper. But also, as recently as this month, Napster has been locked into a lawsuit with Sony Music over unpaid royalties. And apparently, back in June, Sound Exchange sued Sonos and Napster for unpaid streaming royalties, too. I mean, in digging around, I wasn't able to find a whole lot of testimonials of single independent artists not being paid royalties over, you know, their music being uploaded over there. But still, multiple instances of this coming up seem a little sketchy and a little weird, which is why I think, for the sake of maybe erring on the side of caution, I am going to put Napster over in the D row... because, while having one of the highest payouts on paper is good, multiple lawsuits over unpaid royalties...not so good.

Okay, next in the list over here, we have Pandora, which is one of the earlier music streaming services to be out there. It has a flow and a functionality to it that maybe younger listeners might not be used to or be all that interested in, because the way Pandora has always worked, it's almost like you have a bunch of stations.

And, while I understand that the platform has since expanded beyond that with its functionality in recent years, it isn't one of the more popular platforms out there in terms of, like, you know, artists uploading their music there and making sure their music [has] got to be on Pandora: "if it's going to be on Tidal, it's going to be on Apple, it's got to be on Pandora, too..." There may be limited access to some things that you may be interested in. On top of that, apparently, they don't have many of the same lossless audio features that other music streaming platforms provide, and its payout is, like, really just a smidge or two above Spotify itself. While Pandora, you know, seemingly on the surface, doesn't seem to be as deeply involved in quite as many awful business practices as Spotify is, I do find it to be a pretty unimpressive platform as far as music streaming goes. I'm going to put it over here in the D row.

All right, next in the list, we are going to go over Qobuz, which is a service that has been getting a lot of attention and discussion recently, and for a couple of different reasons.

One, not only can you stream music there, but you also have the option to actually purchase the music that you are listening to – which, even if a lot of users on there are not opting for that, I like that they at least provide the option that if you are really passionate about an artist or a project that you're experiencing there, you can, like, sort of kick in a bit of extra money to actually further support the work that you care about. And even if you are just streaming there and only streaming music there, they do have one of the higher payouts in the industry. There's also editorial stuff there, reviews and the like, which...I always appreciate a platform supporting that. However, as of right now, it's not one of the most popular music stream platforms out there, so the library may be a little limited in comparison to other services, and it does have a higher price tag in comparison with an Apple Music or a Spotify, so there is that to take into consideration, too. But if it's something you are willing to put money down for, it does seem to offer a bang for that buck, which is why I guess I could throw it over in the B row. That's cool. B, B is fine.

Next, Spotify. Do I even need to go over why Spotify is going to very quickly be placed over in...I'm going to say E. I'm going to say E? They probably are going to place the lowest. I don't foresee myself putting anybody lower than Spotify at this point in the video. But I'm going to put them in E because...you know what? With Spotify, there's always room for disappointment. Just when you think they are at their lowest and they're at their worst, and they couldn't make the music industry any more terrible than it currently is, they just find some way to just eke out just a little bit of progress on that front. But yeah, what can I say at this point that has not already been said, that we have not covered on this channel numerous times over? The crappy payouts, the fact that they set the standard for crappy payouts on the music streaming front, super subpar audio quality, the AI stuff, the military tech stuff, the paying of hundreds of millions of dollars to the likes of Joe Rogan to spread just absolutely stupid mind-numbing bullshit, the CEO payouts, and...just everything.

Spotify is awful. Spotify is the reason I'm doing this goddamn video. If Spotify wasn't such a massive disappointment and total failure of a company in terms of, like, actually serving music and music fans and musicians, I wouldn't be making this video in the first place. So there you go.

Alright, next, let's quickly talk about TIDAL, which is also one of the more high-end services in the list today. But, like with Qobuz, you do seem to, in terms of functionality, audio quality, and the like, do get some bang for that buck. I do also use TIDAL in addition to Apple Music, and in my experience, as well, the editorial stuff and the playlists over there are very thoughtful, and quality, and good. They do seem to have a really massive and impressive library as well. Pretty much any record anybody is demanding to talk about or, you know, listen to out there in the wider world of music discourse today can be found on TIDAL in most cases, too. In addition to all of that, TIDAL has had one of the strongest payouts of all of these different industry players, which, again, is not, like, the greatest thing that I think you could give an artist for streaming their song, but it's much better than what a lot of streaming services are offering.

But I mean, among all of these other names, I think I can put TIDAL over in the B column for at least, like having decent functionality, sounding good, and not paying artists garbage...and, at least, going the extra mile to advocate for artist pay publicly here and there. And in addition to that, not...you know...freaking load their platform with AI trash. The bar is in hell, people.

Alright, what I have here is certainly not the last music streaming platform out there, but it is the last one I would like to address, and that's YouTube Music. And YouTube Music overall...is fine. Like, I'm not super impressed with the functionality, but it's not the worst out there. The payouts could be better for sure. YouTube Music is, you know, also connected to Google, where I am...we are. And Google, I don't know if you need an update, not the best company out there right now in terms of business practices. However, Google has swallowed up so many aspects of the internet at this point. They're pretty much a company that is nearly impossible to avoid entirely. With that being said, like, if you have the choice and you have the option as a music fan to put your money elsewhere other than in, like, Google's pocket for some music that you're passionate about, maybe go the other way.

But still, I guess we can put YouTube music around C, D. Clearly, there are options that are superior to Spotify in terms of artist payouts and general business practices. With that being said, like, the reason I'm doing this video is not to give you guys, like, the answer or the silver bullet with music streaming, to say "oh, here is, like, the most perfect, moral music streaming platform out there on the market today. They pay every artist, like, the most amount of money that they can, and their business practices are, like, almost godly in terms of their ethics." The reason I'm making this point in doing this video is to illustrate that, look, while there is validity to vote with your dollar politics, for sure...you know, boycotts, for sure, are cool and have a history of actually working in a lot of different contexts... but simultaneously, merely taking that route as as a means of fixing a problem, especially a problem that is as deep and as massive as music streaming and fair treatment of artists today, it has its limitations. When I say that, it's not that I'm advocating that you shouldn't try and that you shouldn't switch to a different platform. I think if you are using Spotify and you have the ability to move somewhere else, you most likely should.

But that, and that alone, is not going to be the thing that fixes all of this, unfortunately. Like, we need an all of the above approach, where us, as music fans, are advocating for artists on a regular basis, and are also supporting the efforts of various groups and organizations that are actually fighting for the rights of artists out there in the music industry today, like United Musicians and Allied Workers. Because, just generally, as a means of supporting artists, it doesn't matter which platform it is. Music streaming, the music streaming industry as it currently is, is not great. And if you actually want to support the music of the musicians and bands that you actually care about, that you really are passionate about...actually showing that support and making sure those musicians and artists continue to be around to make the music that you love, that most likely is going to involve you going the extra mile to support that artist by buying their music, by going to a show, giving them some other support...other than "I'm just going to stream your music on Spotify." Which, while I know that's easy and that's convenient [...] just because the option is simple and mostly thoughtless for you, as a user, that doesn't mean it's good and beneficial for the artist.

So, I'm going to leave this here for now. Those are some of your options out there. But again, no, just switching to a different music streaming platform isn't going to fix all this. It's something we should do. It's something we should consider. It's an option. But, again, it's one of many things we should be doing collectively as music fans to change this issue. That's all I'm going to say about this. Over here next to my head is another video that you can check out. Hit that up or a link to subscribe to the channel. Anthony Fantano, forever.