Family music streaming: Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon, Deezer

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(Pocket-lint) – Once your kids reach a certain age, you will find that it becomes difficult to get everyone to use the same music account. Not only does this disrupt your auto-generated playlists, but more importantly, it means you can’t listen because someone else is using that subscription.

Next is the family plan, aimed at giving multiple users access to streaming services without you having to pay full price for multiple individual subscriptions.

Here we break down the costs, pros and cons of each different system and you will find that they are all competitively priced.

Spotify

Spotify is the big daddy of streaming services, over 70 million tracks, 1.5 million podcasts, and Spotify Radio, but most importantly, there is a lot of support for Spotify on other devices through the Premium service – on smart TVs. , speakers, Android, Apple, PC, Mac – with Spotify Connect a major advantage.

The family price is £ 16.99 / $ 15.99 and for that up to six members get the same level of Premium service. If you are already a Spotify subscriber and join a family, you can keep your playlists.

You all have to live at the same address – but there is no limit on the number of devices – and there will be an individual bill. You will all need to have individual Spotify accounts linked to an email address – along with Spotify Kids, an exclusive part of Spotify Family, with content specifically for young children.

There is Spotify Free ad-supported as an alternative, but it has limitations – and if you’re part of a Spotify family, you can’t use other discounts or use free subscriptions from third parties, like your mobile provider.

There is explicit content filtering, which you can set individually so that the primary account holder is responsible for what family users can and cannot hear.

Apple Music

Apple Music offers 75 million songs and access to Apple Music 1 (formerly Beats 1) radio station. It is supported on Apple and Android devices, Apple HomePod, Sonos, PC, Mac, Amazon Echo devices, and Google Nest devices.

Apple Music includes everything you might have in your iTunes collection, including music you bought from Apple, and you can sync iCloud music you download – each member can share iTunes purchases with family. You also get access to Apple’s growing collection of Dolby Atmos music, as well as higher quality lossless sound on select tracks.

Apple Music costs £ 14.99 / $ 14.99 for a family of six and everyone will need to have an Apple ID to be part of the family, as is the case with Family Sharing. You can create an Apple ID for children under 13 using your own email address as an emergency backup; children over 13 can create their own Apple ID.

You can join a family if you have already subscribed to Apple Music, keeping your playlists, etc.

You can also set content restrictions in Apple Music. This must be set on each device (it is not universal), but the settings can be locked with a PIN code.

Amazon Music Unlimited

While Amazon Music offers “free” access through Prime subscriptions in Prime Music, for the full 75 million songs, you will need to purchase an appropriate Amazon Music subscription – Amazon Music Unlimited. Prime Music only has a catalog of 2 million.

The unlimited family account gives you six members and each user gets an individual account; each member must be at least 13 years old to have an Amazon account, so this is different from other Amazon Household accounts, like Kindle.

You can download music from Amazon Music Unlimited, and music you buy from Amazon, including AutoRip tracks, is included. Amazon Music Unlimited can also be “streamed” to Echo devices on the same network using Alexa Cast.

Explicit speech filtering is available and you will need to enable it on each individual device, but there is no PIN code protection and can therefore be easily disabled.

Youtube music

YouTube Music succeeds Google Play Music and offers a catalog of 70 million official albums, playlists, singles and videos. It is accessible on Android or Apple devices, PC, Mac, supports Google Cast streaming on many speakers, and is natively supported on Google Home devices.

Family membership requires all users to have a Google account, which then allows 6 family members (including the bill payer) to live at the same address. You can only change family groups once a year. You can include the kids you’ve set up using Family Link if your kid is under 13, otherwise everyone needs their own Google Account.

It costs £ 14.99 / $ 14.99 for the family.

There are parental controls in the YT Music app which will allow you to exclude explicit music content.

Deezer

Deezer offers 56 million music streaming tracks and plays well with a wide range of platforms, on Android, iPhone, PC as well as smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Nest devices.

The family price is £ 14.99 / $ 14.99 and that again gives you 6 users – all of whom must live at the same address – with separate profiles. Deezer would like to point out that you will get a lot of content that is perfect for the younger ones with its Deezer Kids option featuring music choices for those under 12.

There is a limit of 13 devices for the Deezer family account – 3 for the primary subscriber, then 2 each for secondary users.

There is explicit lyric filtering which can be activated on each playback device.

Written by Chris Hall. Originally published on December 28, 2018.