Is there a music app that doesn’t use data?
In recent years, streaming music apps like Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music have exploded in popularity. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, streaming revenues surpassed both physical and digital music sales for the first time in 2015 (1). As of 2022, streaming accounts for over 80% of total music industry revenues (2). The convenience of accessing millions of songs anytime and anywhere has led many users to switch from purchasing music to streaming it.
However, one downside of music streaming apps is their high data usage. Unlike downloaded digital music files or physical media like CDs, streaming pulls audio data in real time over the internet. This constant data transfer can quickly eat through monthly mobile data limits, especially for frequent streamers. Understanding how these apps consume data is key for budget-conscious users worried about overage charges.
Popular Music Apps
Some of the most popular music streaming apps include:
- Spotify – With over 430 million monthly active users, Spotify is the most widely used music streaming service globally. It offers a free ad-supported tier as well as premium paid subscriptions. Spotify has over 80 million tracks available and features personalized playlists and recommendations. (Source)
- Apple Music – As the native music app on iPhones, Apple Music has amassed over 90 million subscribers. Apple Music grants access to over 90 million songs as well as exclusive content like new releases and radio shows. Subscriptions start at $9.99 per month after a free trial period. (Source)
- Pandora – Pandora pioneered the music genome project to create personalized radio stations based on listener preferences. The app has over 70 million monthly active users. The free version has ads while Pandora Plus removes ads and adds offline listening for $4.99 a month. (Source)
Data Usage of Music Apps
Music streaming apps like Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music can use significant amounts of mobile data for streaming music, especially at high quality settings. According to Smartmove, streaming music at standard quality on Spotify uses approximately 93 MB per hour, while high quality can use up to 145 MB per hour. Pandora’s mobile streaming at 64 kbps uses about 58 MB of data per hour. Apple Music uses a similar amount of data as Spotify per hour of streaming.
The amount of data required for streaming depends on the audio quality setting in the app. Higher bitrate streaming uses more data but provides better sound quality. Lower quality settings use less data per hour. But even at standard quality settings, streaming music for just a few hours a day can easily use several hundred megabytes per month.
Downloading songs for offline listening is the best way to minimize mobile data usage in music apps. This allows you to listen without needing an internet connection. Spotify cites downloading playlists and tracks via WiFi as one of the main ways to reduce data usage. But streaming always requires a constant data connection and will use MBs of data per hour of listening.
Streaming music apps provide an amazing amount of access to songs, playlists, and artists. However, relying solely on mobile data to power that access comes with some significant limitations and costs. According to Exploring the connection between excessive data charges and streaming music, continuous music streaming for just a few hours can quickly drain a monthly data allowance.
Limitations of Streaming
The most obvious limitation of streaming music over mobile data is the data usage itself. Music apps use a substantial amount of data, especially for high quality streams. For example, streaming at standard quality on Spotify for 1 hour consumes about 60MB. At high quality, this jumps to 144MB per hour. Listening for just a few hours a day can easily exceed even a generous monthly data cap.
Exceeding a data cap often leads to throttled data speeds or expensive overage charges. For those with limited data plans, this makes relying solely on mobile data for streaming prohibitive. Streaming quality and reliability will suffer once throttling kicks in. Furthermore, data overage fees from wireless carriers can add up quickly, leading to much higher monthly bills.
Streaming also requires a consistent high speed wireless connection, which isn’t always available, especially in areas with poor coverage. Any disruption in connectivity interrupts the listening experience. While cached songs provide some relief, cached libraries are limited in size.
In summary, streaming on mobile data works great in moderation, but extended listening has significant limitations. Mobile data caps, throttling, overages, and connectivity issues all hamper the ability to rely on streaming alone.
Alternatives for Low/No Data
For music lovers who want to enjoy their favorite songs and playlists without accruing huge data charges, there are many alternatives to reduce or eliminate data usage when listening to music apps.
The most straightforward option is to download songs, albums, or playlists to your device when connected to WiFi. This allows you to listen offline without using any mobile data. Most popular music apps like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music give you the ability to download music for offline listening.
You can also optimize music app settings to reduce the amount of data they consume. Options like toggling high quality streaming, limiting video playback, and disabling autoplay can cut down on unnecessary data usage.
Strategically utilizing WiFi, whether at home, work, or public hotspots, is another great way to limit cellular data usage. You can configure music apps to only stream or download music over WiFi and avoid using mobile data entirely.
Caching songs, playlists and stations on WiFi also allows you to listen to some content offline later when not on WiFi. Apps like Spotify intelligently cache recommended playlists and stations to reduce hits on mobile data.
With the right settings tweaks and smart connectivity habits, music lovers can keep listening to their favorite apps while staying within their mobile data limits.
Best Data-Saving Music Apps
There are several good options for streaming music apps that can help minimize data usage. Here are some of the top picks:
Spotify Lite
Spotify Lite is a lightweight version of Spotify designed for areas with limited connectivity. It uses less storage, memory, and data than the regular Spotify app. Key features include the ability to control cache and clear stored songs to save data. You can also disable the data saver setting for unlimited, high-quality streaming when connected to Wi-Fi.
Amazon Music
Amazon Music allows you to select the streaming quality under Settings > Download Quality to optimize data usage. You can stream music in low, medium, high, or best quality. Downloading songs for offline playback can also help limit data usage. Amazon Prime members get access to a library of 2 million songs ad-free.
YouTube Music
YouTube Music has an “Audio only” mode that allows you to stream music with the screen turned off. This uses significantly less data than streaming video. You can also download songs, playlists, and albums for offline listening when not connected to the internet.
Pandora
Under Account Settings, Pandora allows you to adjust streaming quality as low as 24kbps to minimize data usage. The lower quality stream works well for background listening. Pandora also lets you download up to 3 stations for offline listening.
Optimizing Music App Settings
Most music streaming apps provide options to control how much data they use. Here are some tips for adjusting settings in popular music apps to reduce data usage:
In Spotify, enable ‘Data Saver’ mode, which decreases streaming bitrate quality. You can also download songs for offline listening to avoid using data when streaming.
In Pandora, go to Settings > Advanced and adjust the audio quality slider to a lower quality to use less data.
In Apple Music, go to Settings > Music > Cellular Data and enable ‘High Quality Streaming’ to use less data for streams.
In YouTube Music, go to Settings > Streaming and toggle on ‘Limit data usage’ to decrease the resolution and bitrate.
Adjusting these settings can significantly reduce the amount of data used when streaming music from various apps.
Using WiFi to Your Advantage
One of the best ways to minimize data usage for music apps is to strategically use WiFi connections whenever possible. By default, most music apps will use mobile data even when connected to WiFi, so some optimization is required.
When you are at home or in a location with a stable WiFi connection, go into your phone’s settings and force the music app to only use WiFi. In iOS, go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options > and toggle off cellular data for the music app. On Android, go to Settings > Network & Internet > App data usage > Mobile data > and turn off mobile data access for the music app.
You can also configure music apps like Spotify to only stream/download when connected to WiFi in their own settings. Go to Settings > Streaming quality and select “Stream Only On WiFi.” This will prevent the app from ever using mobile data.
By proactively managing connections and restricting data access, you can force music apps to rely primarily on WiFi and drastically cut down on mobile data usage.
Caching Songs for Offline Listening
One of the best ways to save data while listening to music apps is to cache or download songs for offline listening. This allows you to listen to songs when you don’t have an internet connection or want to minimize data usage. Some popular music apps like Spotify, Apple Music, and SoundCloud provide features for downloading songs for offline listening
According to Recharge’s article, “How to listen to music offline: the 8 best apps,” Musify is one of the top free music apps that lets you download unlimited songs for offline listening without registration or logging in https://www.recharge.com/blog/en/us/the-8-best-offline-music-apps. Musify has a catalog of over 15 million songs you can download to play offline when you don’t have an internet connection.
Audiomack is another top free music app highlighted by Recharge that gives you unlimited downloads for offline listening. As described on the App Store, “Audiomack lets you download and offline the hottest albums, songs, mixtapes and playlists” https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/audiomack-play-music-offline/id921765888. Downloading content on Audiomack allows you to access your favorite music without using mobile data.
Using the download features in music apps like Musify and Audiomack lets you build up a library of cached songs you can listen to anywhere without needing an internet connection. This saves data and gives you offline access to your favorite music.
Conclusion
In summary, there are some great music apps that allow you to listen to music without using mobile data. Streaming apps like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music can consume a lot of data, so optimizing their settings to reduce streaming quality can help. However, the best options are apps like Spotify Lite, SoundCloud Go+, and Amazon Music, which allow downloading songs for offline listening. You can also cache playlists on other apps for offline listening later. Using WiFi whenever possible is key to reducing data usage. So in answer to the main question, yes there are music apps that enable listening without mobile data usage through offline playback features.