The 5 best apps for listening to music on your phone:Music apps

Smartphones continue to change the way we listen to music, even as downloads and CD rips give way to cloud streaming. That, of course, means there’s a wide variety of music apps available to help you rock out no matter how you like to collect and listen to your digital tunes.

Here we’ll round up the best options for Android and iOS, from music apps that let you access millions of tracks in the cloud, to those that manage the beats stored on your device.

Introducing best 5 music apps for Android and iOS

1.YouTube Music

Google’s move to replace Google Play Music with YouTube Music as its flagship music player remains a work in progress, but the company seems dedicated to its plan, so that’s why we’ve chosen it for this particular list. As an app, YouTube Music is slick and intuitive, and because YouTube itself is a treasure trove of both official tracks and live or rare recordings, you’ll have access to some songs you might not be able to get anywhere else.

You can use the app for free if you want, or upgrade to YouTube Music Premium for $10 a month. That’ll remove the ads, allow you to listen to tracks even while the app’s running in the background, and enable offline syncing, too. We’re also fans of the YouTube Music recommendation engine that seems to hit the mark more often than not.

YouTube Music is $10 per month for Android and iOS

2.Spotify

Part of the point of this roundup is to get you to consider some alternatives to Spotify, but there’s no doubt it’s an impressive music app, especially if you sign up for Spotify Premium. As a free user, you’re a bit limited and can only access a handful of recommended playlists on your phone, but you can still create unique playlists on the desktop and web apps.

Sign up for a monthly subscription and you’ll get all the Spotify goodness: offline syncing, on-demand access to more than 50 million songs, support for a wealth of devices and speakers, and smart recommendations and auto-playlists that Spotify seems particularly adept at crafting—perhaps thanks to all that listening data it’s gathered over the years.

Spotify is free or $10 per month for Android and iOS

3.Apple Music

Every iPhone comes with a Music app you can use to play tracks synced from iTunes, whether you’ve bought the audio files digitally or ripped them from a CD. It’s basic, but it’s simple and offers the advantage of smart playlists—it’ll queue up tracks you haven’t heard in a week or list all the songs you’ve rated with five stars, for example.

Give Apple $10 a month and the Music app transforms into Apple Music, which is also available on Android (where it lacks the free iTunes syncing functionality). In addition to your local iTunes library, you’ll get access to more than 50 million jams, smart recommendations for what to listen to next, and offline playlist syncing.

Apple Music is free or $10 a month for Android and iOS (built-in)

4.Deezer

It might not attract the same amount of attention as Spotify or Apple Music, but Deezer is a comprehensive and capable music streaming service packed with useful features. It’s got smart music recommendations based on your listening history, an option to include your own MP3s in playlists, a web player that works in your browser, and plenty more.

From easy music curation to built-in support for podcasts and online radio, Deezer comes very close to the big names with its abilities, and it has its own library of more than 50 million tracks, too. As with Spotify, there’s an option to use it for free, but that’ll limit you to shuffling through your playlists when you’re listening on mobile.

Deezer is free or $10 a month for Android and iOS

5.Amazon Music

If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, Amazon Music is definitely worth a look. You’ll get access to 2 million ad-free songs on demand, plus offline sync. It works a lot like Spotify or Apple Music, but the interface isn’t quite as polished. Still, it gives you access to customized playlists, recommendations based on your listening habits, and popular tracks and albums.

One feature that does stand out with Amazon Music is the ability to display and follow along with a song’s lyrics as it plays—very handy for those impromptu karaoke sessions. Whether you’re a Prime member or not, you can sign up for Amazon Music Unlimited for $11 a month. It’s the same app, but it’ll dramatically increase your choice of tunes to include more than 50 million tracks.

Amazon Music is free with Prime or $11 a month for Android and iOS