How to listen to music on the Internet?

On June 30, the streaming music service Apple Music launched in a hundred countries, including Russia. It allows you to listen to music on your phone or computer without downloading or buying it anywhere - you just need a constant connection to the Internet. You need to pay for Apple Music once a month (in Russia - a little more than 150 rubles, the first three months the service is free). Apple Music has quite a lot of competitors: some of them work in Russia, like Deezer and Google Play Music, some, like the most popular streaming service Spotify, are not yet available. We'll tell you how it works and what to choose.

Streaming services do not sell music - they provide access to tracks at any time when there is an Internet connection. In case of a trip on the subway or an airplane flight, you can save several of your favorite albums for offline listening. Most major services have applications for smartphones, the ability to listen to music directly in the browser, and separate programs with selections of songs, recommendations, playlists and much more. Streaming services completely defeat the purpose of the iPod Classic and similar players - why do you need a separate device for several thousand albums if Spotify or Apple Music has millions of records.

All streaming services differ in essentially minor nuances. Some, like Deezer, Spotify, Google Music and Russia's Zvooq and Yandex.Music, have a free web version, while others, like Apple Music, have a powerful recommendation service, subscriptions to musician updates and their own 24/7 radio. Spotify in Russia does not work without additional tricks, and the same story with Jay Z’s recent project called Tidal. In fact, you have to choose from Google Music, Apple Music and Deezer - all of these services operate in Russia and have a fairly extensive music library.

Now it is, but then it won’t be. Courts have repeatedly forced VKontakte to delete songs; you cannot listen to music at all in the official iOS application. Well, then, musicians don’t get a penny when you listen to them on VKontakte, and listening to them on Apple Music or Deezer brings them small, but still money.

Apple Music has the most extensive library. If only because iTunes, from which the service borrowed its music base, has long been the most popular online music store. iTunes has, if not everything, then a lot, including obscure underground bands and ancient rarities. But the bases of all popular services generally overlap - yes, Deezer does not have albums by electronic musician Andy Stott, but there are no problems with Rihanna, Foo Fighters and other popular artists.

Listen the old fashioned way. There are no albums by The Beatles on any streaming service, and Prince recently removed himself from all services except Tidal and Google Music, which is unavailable in the Russian Federation. Apple Music almost lost Taylor Swift right before its launch, but still made concessions to the author of last year's best-selling album and agreed to pay musicians for the first three months while the service is free.

Everything is fine. Music gets to streaming services through official channels; it is not clear at what stage of mixing a stolen record or radio recording is. Otherwise, this is ordinary compressed digital audio with all its pros and cons.

They all cost about the same - no more than 200 rubles per month.

It's a difficult question. In the subjective opinion of Meduza's editors, Apple Music lacks literally a little to become an ideal service - better search, less demanding quality of mobile Internet (Spotify still works more reliably under the same conditions) and correction of minor errors. But there are convenient recommendations, excellent Beats 1 radio, thematic playlists hand-picked by editors from Apple and leading music magazines. So Apple Music, but after a couple of updates. Or Google Play Music - as the most minimalistic and at the same time having a fairly large library. Yandex.Music and Zvooq are suitable if you want to support a domestic producer, and the presence of this or that rare album is not so important.