We all know that Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube (Music) are ruling the streaming world.
But now it’s time to compare a little less popular music streaming services… The fact that they are less known doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve your attention! They are still used and loved by millions of users.
Why should we consider them? That’s the question we will answer today. Let’s compare Amazon Music vs Google Play Music.
Note: Google Play Music is closing in 2020. Consider transferring from Google Play Music to YouTube or another platform! Learn more in this article.
We can’t imagine our life without music streaming services today. You probably know this feeling when a song that you haven’t heard from ages pops up in your head and you want to listen to it so bad. So the music streaming services such as Amazon Music Unlimited and Google Play Music allow us to play any song at any time.
If you haven’t used any streaming service and you are looking for a perfect one to fit your needs keep on reading our article. We also recommend you to take a look at our previous post on the blog where we’ve compared Amazon Music vs Apple Music and Spotify vs Apple Music.
To start our comparison let’s make a quick summary with the top features of Amazon Music and Google Play Music.
Pros and Cons of Amazon Music
Price: For individual users, the price is $9.99 per month, for Prime users: $7.99 per month
If you’re familiar with products that Amazon is offering, you probably heard about its popular service Amazon Prime. Amazon Music Unlimited is an advanced version of Amazon Prime Music and it gives you access to a big music library of over 50 million songs in a very friendly price. A good way to start your journey with music streaming service.
Pros:
- Amazon Music price per month (if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber)
- Three-month free trial
- Downloading music and offline listening on all your devices
- App for all devices (mobile and the desktop app)
- Access to unlimited music
Cons:
- Unfriendly interface
- Can’t be used at all free
Pros and Cons of Google Play Music
Price: For individual users the price is $9.99 per month, for users using family membership the price is $14.99 per month.
Google Play Music has a very nice mobile application and we can say honestly, that’s close to perfection. We believe that for many people Google’s streaming service will be enough. It has all the most important functions, as well as a big library of good quality music.
There's a free option—it comes with some ads but it's good for tests.
Pros:
- Google Play Music price and two membership plans
- One-month free trial
- Application available for Android and iOS devices
- Nice and friendly interface
Cons:
- Limited music library (40 million of songs which is a small number compared to the other music streaming services)
- Not available in all countries
If you’re still curious and want to know more info about Amazon Music Unlimited and Google Play Music we’ve prepared for you a very detailed comparison.
Let’s find out what we think about those two services: Amazon Music vs Google Music .
How much is Amazon Music Unlimited and Google Play Music?
In terms of pricing, Google Play Music offers 30 days of trial, then it costs $9.99 per month in an individual plan and $14.99 per month in a family membership plan. The family membership plan is designed for up to six people who must live in the same country. Sounds familiar, isn’t it? Almost all music streaming services offer us the same price. If you want to know more about the pricing of different music streaming services, check this post on our blog.
The price of Amazon Music may vary. If you have the Amazon Prime membership – you pay less. The price per month is $7.99. The regular price is the same as its competitor – $9.99 per month. Not a surprise that Amazon favour Prime members, right?
Keeping in mind that the song library of Amazon Music Unlimited is bigger, in this case, it’s better to choose Amazon Music Unlimited.
Can I listen to Google Play Music and Amazon Music Unlimited for free?
You can listen to the music on-demand and without advertisements for one month of Google Play Music’s free trial. When the testing period ends, you can listen to free, ad-supported radio. You can listen through many radio stations depending on your mood, what you’re doing, and how you’re feeling. Free version is not the best experience if you want to listen to your favourite musicians!
In the case of Amazon Music, we have bad news for you. Of course, you can still listen to it for free during the three-month free trial but after this time streaming more music is no longer possible and you have to buy a full subscription.
Even is the music is with ads and you can’t choose exactly the one song you want to, radio stations are still better than no music at all. So, in this category, we give a point to Google Play Music.
How many songs are on Amazon Music Unlimited and Google Play Music?
As we’ve mentioned before, Google Music library is very small compared to the music streaming giants such as Spotify or Apple Music. Google Play Music offers you access to 40 million songs. It’s still a lot of music and you’ll probably find everything you want, newly released hits as well as classics that everyone likes.
By subscribing to Amazon Music you’ll get access to over 50 million sons. All the songs are ready to stream without ads and you can download them to listen offline.
Numbers don’t lie and as the Amazon library is bigger we give a point for Amazon Music.
The score of our competition Google Play Music vs Amazon Music is 1-2.
If you want to read more about Amazon Music and its music library, check out our previous article in which we’ve compared Amazon Music vs Apple Music.
Let’s find out who will be the winner in the next category which is… music quality.
Is Music Quality on Amazon Music better than Google Music?
It’s hard to talk about music quality in terms of Amazon Music because they don’t provide such data. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t choose the music quality. We have the available options in settings, so we can choose between them. But there’s still no info about the specific data what music quality is – we have only a short description. At least something. If we set the settings at the highest rate, we receive a very good quality sound that nobody should complain about.
The thing looks completely different in the case of Google Play Music. We have specific data which is 320 kbit/s quality, which is a very good rate. We can also change settings of the audio quality. If we set a lower quality, our device will be downloading fewer data.
It’s hard to tell which service is better in this category. The quality of the sound is very good in two cases and it’s almost impossible to tell what’s the difference… unless you’re an audiophile 🙂
To be fair, we’re going to give a point to Amazon Music and Google Play Music. They both did a great job.
Google Play Music vs Amazon Music 2-3
Interfaces and Design—Amazon Unlimited Music vs Google Play Music.
The main feature of Google Play Music is cool and intuitive design. The interface is very user-friendly and you won’t have any problems with navigation in it even if you’re using it for the first time. White and light colors look very fresh together with minimalist buttons. We’re sure you’ll enjoy using it and you’ll like it as much as we do.
Unfortunately, we can’t say the same thing in the case of Amazon Music. The design for the mobile app as well as for the desktop app is maintained in dark colors and it’s quite “heavy”. From the other side, the navigation is intuitive just as in case of its competitor.
But as we have to choose the best music streaming service, we have to choose a winner of this category. And there’s only one winner in this category… and it’s, of course, Google Play Music.
Which is better: Amazon Music or Google Music?
We’re really surprised to announce this but the winner is… Google Play Musicservice. It stole our hearts with a very nice and easy-to-use interface. We can forgive the “small” numbers of songs, but it looks like they gave us something in return. Google’s attitude is about “Okay, we know that our music library isn’t too impressive, but hey! Look! We give you a radio to listen for free!” which is quite a good step.
Worry not, it is easy to move your playlists from Amazon Music to Google Music.
But we don’t say that Amazon Music is bad. It still needs some improvement and they can become the main player in a music streaming game in the future. Looking at Amazon’s growth and Amazon Prime it’s sure that they know how to do it, but they only need some more time.
