Millions of songs delivered free of charge by music streaming services. But when it comes to the apps themselves, the wheat is separated from the chaff. At least that is what the investigation by Stiftung Warentest suggests.
Music streaming services almost all offer a similar price and all in all a similar offering. The individual subscription costs around 10 euros per month, a family subscription for up to six individual accounts is available for around 15 euros. But anyone who thinks that streaming services are not very different just because they have similar subscription prices is wrong. Stiftung Warentest compared nine music streaming services. And even if the winner is not really surprising, the findings are interesting.
Also read: The major music streaming services in the TECHBOOK comparison
Music streaming apps are very popular – and very different
According to the Stiftung Warentest, the differences between the music streaming services are mainly expressed in the apps. These are the key to the endless digital catalogs of songs, radio plays and podcasts. This was determined by Stiftung Warentest in a comparison of the audio applications (each for Android and iOS) from nine music streaming providers. Both in terms of the range of functions and the technical implementation, the apps were sometimes far apart (“test” issue 10/22).
Although the playback itself worked largely without problems and in a similar way in all applications. According to the information, some apps got confused when the Internet connection was interrupted. They stopped playback and went offline. The testers also found differences and problems when creating, managing and especially when sharing playlists.
deficiencies in data protection
Some of the apps send unnecessary data, including detailed technical information about the cell phone used. The experts found clear deficiencies almost everywhere in the data protection declarations, the general terms and conditions (GTC) were clearly or very clearly objectionable in almost half of the applications.
Unsurprisingly, Spotify made it onto the podium for both Android (overall score 1.4) and iOS (overall score 1.5). Second place was taken by the French music streaming service Deezer with an overall score of 1.9 for both operating systems.
Offline mode is climate friendly
All tested apps have a so-called offline mode. It is not only practical in principle, but can also help users to improve their own climate balance, especially when they are on the road.
Since data transmission via the mobile network is more energy-intensive than data transmission via the landline network, according to the Federal Environment Agency it helps to download music at home via WLAN and then listen to it in offline mode on the go.
In addition, you can reduce the sound quality and thus the data rate for streaming via mobile communications in the app settings. Because if less data flows, less energy is consumed.