Which music streaming uses least data?
Music streaming services have become increasingly popular in recent years, allowing users to access vast libraries of music online through apps and websites. With the rise of streaming, however, comes increased data usage as these services require constant connectivity to stream audio files. According to a recent report, music streaming accounts for an average of 25% of overall mobile data usage (https://utilitiesone.com/exploring-the-connection-between-excessive-data-charges-and-streaming-music). This can quickly eat up data allowances, especially for users with limited plans.
In this article, we will provide an overview of the most popular music streaming services and examine how much mobile data each one uses. Understanding the data demands of streaming can help listeners manage their plans and data caps more effectively. We will also offer tips for reducing data usage when streaming music on the go.
Streaming Quality and Data Usage
The amount of data used when streaming music depends mainly on the audio quality or bitrate. Higher quality audio uses more data to transmit a richer sound, while lower quality is more compressed and uses less data. There are three main quality levels for music streaming:
- High quality: Uses 320kbps bitrate and uses the most data.
- Standard/Normal quality: Uses 96-160kbps and is a medium data usage option.
- Low quality: Uses 48-64kbps and uses the least amount of data.
According to sources, high quality streaming at 320kbps uses approximately 150MB per hour. Standard quality at 160kbps uses around 70MB per hour. Low quality at 64kbps uses about 25MB per hour.
The quality level affects how much data is used per song or minute of streaming as well. At high quality, each song uses about 5MB and each minute uses about 2.5MB. At standard quality, each song is around 1.5-2MB and each minute is 0.7-1MB. With low quality, each song is under 1MB and each minute is under 0.5MB.
Most Popular Music Streaming Services
The most popular on-demand music streaming services today include Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music. Spotify currently has the most subscribers globally at over 400 million, followed by Apple Music at over 90 million. However, YouTube Music has access to a vast library of music videos and other content not available on Spotify or Apple Music.
Other major players in music streaming include Amazon Music, Deezer, Tidal and Pandora. While they have a smaller user base than Spotify or Apple Music, these services offer unique features or pricing models that appeal to certain users.
Data Usage for Spotify
Spotify allows users to select audio quality which directly impacts data usage. According to How to Save Data Usage While Listening to Spotify Spotify data usage per hour can reach up to 115.2MB on the “Extreme” streaming quality setting. On the “High” quality setting, which is the default, Spotify uses around 40MB per hour. On “Medium” quality, usage drops to around 24MB per hour. Finally, on the “Low” setting Spotify only uses approximately 12MB per hour.
Looking at usage per song, a 3 minute song will use approximately 1MB on Low quality, 1.5MB on Medium, 2.5MB on High, and up to 4MB on Extreme according to How to Reduce Spotify Data Usage. So choosing a lower audio quality can make a significant impact on data consumption.
Data Usage for Apple Music
Apple Music allows users to choose between different audio quality settings, which impacts how much data is used. According to Google Books, streaming Apple Music on ‘Normal’ audio quality uses approximately 60MB of data per hour. At the ‘High’ quality setting, Apple Music can use up to 135MB per hour. And streaming with the ‘Lossless’ setting enabled can use between 150MB to 200MB per hour, depending on the track.
On average, streaming an individual song on Apple Music uses approximately 3-5MB of data. So in an hour of listening to Apple Music, a user would stream around 12-20 songs, depending on song length. This aligns with the hourly data usage amounts mentioned above.
In summary, audio quality settings significantly impact Apple Music’s data demands. Listeners can reduce data usage by opting for lower quality streaming when on mobile networks or limited connections.
Data Usage for YouTube Music
YouTube Music data usage depends on the streaming quality setting. According to this source, YouTube Music uses:
- 0.7 MB per minute on Low quality (around 42 MB per hour)
- 1 MB per minute on Normal quality (around 60 MB per hour)
- 1.5 MB per minute on High quality (around 90 MB per hour)
- 2.5 MB per minute on Always High quality (around 150 MB per hour)
So on the highest quality setting, YouTube Music can use up to 150 MB per hour. You can reduce data usage significantly by using a lower quality setting. Some users on Reddit reported using 2-3 GB per month streaming 3 hours per day.
Data Usage for Other Services
In addition to the major streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music, there are some other popular music streaming options that people may use. Here is a brief overview of their data usage:
Pandora offers various streaming quality options. At its lowest quality, it can use as little as 24MB per hour. At its highest quality, it can use up to 192MB per hour.
Amazon Music’s data usage depends on the streaming quality. At low quality, it uses about 1MB per minute. At high quality, it uses about 5MB per minute.
Overall, the data usage for these other streaming services is fairly comparable to Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music. The actual amount used will depend on the audio quality setting.
Comparing Data Usage
When looking across the most popular music streaming services, there is a wide range in how much mobile data they consume per hour of streaming depending on audio quality settings. Here is a summary of data usage per hour for some of the top services:
| Service | Audio Quality | Data Usage Per Hour |
|---|---|---|
| Spotify | Low (24 kbps) | 11 MB |
| Spotify | Normal (96 kbps) | 44 MB |
| Apple Music | Low | 8 MB |
| Apple Music | High | 150 MB |
| YouTube Music | Low | 60 MB |
| YouTube Music | High | 160 MB |
| Amazon Music | Ultra High | 175 MB |
As the table shows, Spotify is generally one of the most data efficient music streaming services. At its lowest quality setting of 24 kbps, it uses only about 11 MB per hour which is significantly less than other competitors. Apple Music and YouTube Music at low quality use about 8 MB and 60 MB per hour respectively. At high quality streaming ranges from 150-175 MB per hour across services.
Overall, Spotify provides a good balance of audio quality while still remaining relatively data efficient, especially at lower streaming rates. But all services offer some ability to customize streaming quality to help minimize mobile data usage.
Tips to Limit Data Usage
There are several ways you can limit how much data your music streaming uses each month:
Stream Over WiFi Whenever Possible
When you’re connected to WiFi, streaming music doesn’t count against your mobile data allowance. At home, work, or public WiFi hotspots, always connect to the WiFi so your mobile data is only used when necessary.
Lower Streaming Quality
In your streaming app settings, choose a lower quality streaming option like Standard or Low. Lower quality uses significantly less data, while still being acceptable for most listening. High quality options like Premium and Hi-Fi use much more data.
Download Songs for Offline Playback
Most streaming services allow you to download songs, playlists or albums to your device for offline listening. Downloaded songs don’t use any data when played offline. This is great for when you are in areas with low connectivity.
By following those simple tips, you can greatly reduce the amount of mobile data your music streaming uses each month.
Conclusion: YouTube Music Is the Most Data Efficient Service
Of the major streaming music services compared here, YouTube Music emerges as the most data efficient option. YouTube Music’s standard streaming tops out at 256kbps, versus 320kbps for most other services. This alone results in roughly 20% lower data usage compared to Spotify, Apple Music, and others. Additionally, YouTube Music allows streaming quality to be adjusted down to 48kbps – over 6 times lower bandwidth than the maximum quality on other services. While audio fidelity suffers at the lowest setting, it provides an option for very tight data caps. Other services simply don’t go as low.
Based on the data usage numbers and ability to adjust streaming quality, YouTube Music is the recommended service for users who want to minimize mobile data consumption while still enjoying music streaming. The flexibility to adapt streaming quality to different situations makes it an ideal choice for those concerned about data usage.