When listening to your favorite artists, the last thing you want is a lag or lost connection. Luckily, you don’t need as much internet speed for streaming music as you do for videos or live streaming. Still, depending on how you stream music and the platforms you use, you’ll want sufficient speed to keep your jam session going without missing a beat. For the ultimate streaming experience—from music to movies to videoconferencing—sync up all your devices in perfect harmony with gig-speed internet.
The speed you need for popular music streaming services
When you listen to music through a streaming platform, you’re accessing these music files via the internet. Let’s explore ways to stream music through some of the most popular streaming services and their speed requirements. These requirements may vary based on the quality of the streaming platform and premium plans offered by certain music services.
What internet speed do I need for the most popular music streaming services?
Let’s take a look at a handful of the most popular music streaming services out there, along with their typical speed requirements.
Spotify
Speed requirement: 0.32–0.64 Mbps
Many music enthusiasts consider Spotify to be the streaming platform of choice. Its popularity could be due to its easy-to-use interface, excellent device compatibility, and extensive song catalog. Spotify also offers an ad-free premium plan with cool features like private and shareable playlists and integration with Shazam.
Pandora
Speed requirement: 0.13–0.38 Mbps
Pandora is a popular free streaming platform offering user-friendly features, including monitoring your likes and dislikes to help curate personalized playlists. They offer a premium plan for an additional cost if you want unlimited skips, advanced playlist capabilities, and no ad interruptions.
SiriusXM
Speed requirement: 0.06–0.13 Mbps
SiriusXM might be for you if you crave the radio experience but want some control over your personal soundtrack. Satellite radio is also available even more broadly than LTE and 5G services if you live or travel in remote areas. Pick the stations that best fit your taste and stream them to various devices.
Apple Music
Speed requirement: 0.50–7.46 Mbps
What Apple fan hasn’t immediately fallen in love with Apple Music’s user-friendly features, like the massive music library and their downloading and offline listening capabilities? If you purchase music files, Apple Music offers a digital locker to store your song library.
YouTube Music
Speed requirement: 0.09–0.51 Mbps
Though not as well-known as services like Spotify or Pandora, YouTube Music offers unique features that set it apart. With its premium plan, you can download your ad-free songs and music videos for offline use. And a “background play” feature enables you to keep your tunes going while using other apps.
Tidal
Speed requirement: 0.64–18.43 Mbps
For an outstanding listening experience, you can’t beat Tidal. It has a higher subscription price than other music streaming platforms but added perks like curated playlists, exclusive music offerings, and high-quality audio make it a sound choice.
Understanding Mbps speeds for streaming music videos
Suppose you want to watch a live performance or music video on YouTube. You could eat up data at a rate of 250-600MB per hour. Contrast that with Spotify (150 MB per hour) and imagine how quickly you’d go through data when streaming music during a long session.
If you have a lower-speed internet plan (40 Mbps or less), you can still stream music, but the audio quality may be affected. But why compromise the quality of your experience when you can instead?
Is bandwidth important when streaming music?
When streaming music, bandwidth isn’t as much of a factor as speed. But if you’re sharing your internet connection with friends or family who are gaming, streaming videos, or videoconferencing, it could affect your music streaming experience. With Quantum fibers high speed internet speeds up to 8G choose the right package for you and don’t let your internet slow you down.
Get the most from your streaming experience
Faster internet speed enables you to enjoy music how it was meant to be heard—clearly and seamlessly. You need an internet service that can keep up with your love of music without all the song and dance. Quantum Fiber gives you the speed and reliability you deserve.
To learn more about the benefits of high-speed internet, check out our blog. You’ll find articles on high-speed internet for gaming, streaming TV, and videoconferencing.
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