{"id":252091,"date":"2018-03-13T18:03:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T16:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=252091"},"modified":"2018-03-26T12:43:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T10:43:59","slug":"spotify-vs-apple-vs-google-vs-deezer-vs-simfy-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/252091-spotify-vs-apple-vs-google-vs-deezer-vs-simfy-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Spotify vs Apple vs Google vs Deezer vs Simfy in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spotify has launched in South Africa, taking on incumbent music streaming services.<\/p>\n

As it does internationally, it offers an ad-supported Free tier that offers only shuffle play and limited skips, and a Premium plan.<\/p>\n

The Premium plan is R59.99 per month, and includes an array of features – such as high-quality streams and no adverts.<\/p>\n

Spotify is not the only platform which offers a combination of ad-supported and subscription music streaming services in South Africa, however.<\/p>\n

While Spotify leads the subscription streaming music industry internationally – with over 159 million active users – it was beaten to market locally by several players.<\/p>\n

These include Simfy, Deezer, Apple Music, and Google Play Music.<\/p>\n

Price<\/h3>\n

The table below summarises the pricing options available from music streaming services in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Spotify said it expects to launch family and student pricing options in South Africa in the future.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Service<\/th>\nPrice<\/th>\nFree Tier<\/th>\nTrial<\/th>\nFamily Plan<\/th>\nAdditional<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Spotify<\/strong><\/td>\nR59.99<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n30 days<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Apple Music<\/strong><\/td>\nR59.99<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\n3 months<\/td>\nR89.99<\/td>\nStudent – R29.99 \/ Annual – R599<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Google Play Music<\/strong><\/td>\nR59.99<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n30 days<\/td>\nR89.99<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Deezer<\/strong><\/td>\nR59.99<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n30 days<\/td>\nR89.99<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Simfy<\/strong><\/td>\nR60.00<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\n14 days<\/td>\n–<\/td>\nWeb and Desktop – R25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Joox<\/strong><\/td>\nR59.99<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n30 days<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Features<\/h3>\n

With little difference in the pricing, the music service you select will likely depend on its features, song catalogue, and user experience.<\/p>\n

The trial periods and free offerings of these services are therefore well worth checking out to see which one suits you best.<\/p>\n

In terms of feature differences, this will be based on the quality of metadata, personalisation, and playlists available on a platform.<\/p>\n

Then there are more obvious differences, such as device support and streaming quality options.<\/p>\n

Of particular note is Deezer\u2019s \u201cbasic\u201d option, which reduces a song’s bitrate to 64kbps, and Spotify\u2019s \u201cdata saver\u201d option which uses a bitrate of 24kbps.<\/p>\n

These are both intended to reduce mobile data consumption.<\/p>\n

Spotify said its data saver mode uses only 10.8MB of data for every hour of streaming. Other services typically use 40MB over the same period, it said.<\/p>\n

There are also major differences in the devices each service supports.<\/p>\n

A full list of devices supported by Spotify in South Africa is detailed on Spotify’s local help page<\/strong><\/a>, and includes mobile, tablet, desktop, speaker, TV, car, and game console options.<\/p>\n

What sets Spotify apart in this regard is its partnerships with Sony and Microsoft for their PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles.<\/p>\n

A summary of supported devices, streaming quality, and catalogue sizes is detailed in the table below.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/th>\nSpotify<\/th>\nGoogle Play Music<\/th>\nApple Music<\/th>\nDeezer<\/th>\nSimfy<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Songs<\/strong><\/td>\n35 million<\/td>\n40 million<\/td>\n45 million<\/td>\n40 million<\/td>\n36 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Streaming Quality<\/strong><\/td>\nAutomatic<\/strong> – 24kbps OGG (mobile only)
\nStandard<\/strong> – 160kbps OGG (desktop), 128kbps AAC (web\/Chromecast), 96kbps OGG (mobile)
\nHigh<\/strong> –\u00a0320kbps OGG (desktop), 256kbps AAC (web\/Chromecast), 160kbps OGG (mobile)
\nExtreme<\/strong> –\u00a0320kbps OGG (mobile only)<\/td>\n		320kbps MP3<\/td>\n256kbps AAC<\/td>\nCompact<\/strong> – 128kbps
\nBalanced<\/strong> – 320kbps on Wi-Fi, 128kbps on mobile
\nEnhanced<\/strong> – 320kbps
\nBasic<\/strong> – 64kbps<\/td>\n		128kbps – 192kbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Platform Availability<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Platform<\/strong><\/td>\nSpotify<\/th>\nGoogle Play Music<\/th>\nApple Music<\/th>\nDeezer<\/th>\nSimfy<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Desktop<\/strong><\/td>\nWindows\/Mac Apps, Web<\/td>\nWeb<\/td>\niTunes (Windows\/Mac)<\/td>\nWindows\/Mac Apps, Web<\/td>\nWindows\/Mac Apps, Web<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Smartphone<\/strong><\/td>\niPhone, Android<\/td>\niPhone, Android<\/td>\niPhone, Android<\/td>\niPhone, Android, Windows Phone 8, BlackBerry<\/td>\niPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tablet<\/strong><\/td>\niPad, Android<\/td>\niPad, Android<\/td>\niPad<\/td>\niPad, Android, Windows 8<\/td>\niPad, Android<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Players<\/strong><\/td>\niPod Touch<\/td>\niPod Touch<\/td>\niPod Touch<\/td>\niPod Touch<\/td>\niPod Touch<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wearables<\/strong><\/td>\n–<\/td>\nAndroid Wear<\/td>\nApple Watch<\/td>\nApple Watch, Android Wear<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
TV<\/strong><\/td>\nSamsung, Motorola STB, LG, Chromecast, Android TV, AirPlay, Sony, Amazon Fire TV<\/td>\nAndroid TV, Chromecast<\/td>\nApple TV<\/td>\nROKU, Chromecast, Bang & Olufsen, Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Philips, NetRange, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, TV Foxxum<\/td>\nChromecast, Apple TV<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sound Systems<\/strong><\/td>\nSonos, Bose, UrbanEars, Marshall, Amazon, Google, Apple.<\/td>\nGoogle Home<\/td>\nHomePod<\/td>\nSONOS, Yamaha MusicCast, ROCKI, Bang & Olufsen, Phantom, LG Music Flow, Harman Kardon, SoundTouch, Samsung Wireless Audio 360, HEOS by Denon, Sony HD Audio, Onkyo Network, NuVo, Bluesound Network Player, Cabasse Stream HiFis, BIG JAMBOX, Philips, MOON.<\/td>\nSONOS, Samsung<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cars<\/strong><\/td>\nWaze, Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, Android Auto, MINI, Volvo, Ford SYNC<\/td>\nAndroid Auto<\/td>\nCarPlay<\/td>\nMirrorLink via RockScout, Android Auto, CarPlay, Fiat 500X, Jeep Renegade, Parrot, BMW, MINI, Clarion.<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Console<\/strong><\/td>\nPlayStation, Xbox One<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Now read: The difference between Spotify Free and Spotify Premium<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spotify has launched in South Africa – here’s how it stacks up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":160360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[31230,22911,19500,35,14809,7927],"class_list":["post-252091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-apple-music","tag-deezer","tag-google-play-music","tag-headline","tag-simfy-africa","tag-spotify"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252193,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252091\/revisions\/252193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}