Stream & Enjoy: The Best Android Music Apps In 2024

Many people enjoy listening to music during their free time, and I’m known to blast my favorite tunes for hours on end. Besides the music player app on your device, many others are available on the Google Play Store. Check out what we think is the best music app for Android tablets and some alternatives worth mentioning.

Best Music Streaming Apps

Music streaming apps usually require an internet connection to stream audio files that aren’t downloaded on your Android smartphone or tablet. While some apps allow downloads or play imported audio files, their focus isn’t on this feature. We’ll include four apps below.

Spotify

Spotify is undoubtedly the best music app right now, as the sheer amount of content is unmatched by other apps. Users can easily find many popular songs or obscure music by searching for it. The app also builds a personalized playlist once it familiarizes with your musical tastes. Choose from millions of tracks whenever you want, and new music is uploaded daily.

Spotify Premium is available if you want the benefits. The Premium subscriptions remove ads, let you download tracks for offline listening, organize your playback queue, and listen to music at a higher audio quality. You also get 15 hours of audiobook listening time per month. There are three tiers available.

YouTube Music

YouTube Music is Google’s music streaming app designed to provide easy listening to people with a Google account. The interface is very similar to the standard YouTube app, so there won’t be a learning curve picking up this app. Like Spotify, YouTube Music can generate curated playlists that reflect your preferences.

Both YouTube Music and Spotify have enormous libraries, but one substantial difference is audio quality. Spotify can go up to 320kbps if you pay for a Premium subscription, while YouTube Music only reaches 256kbps if you have YouTube Premium. If you’re using the free accounts, the sound quality maxes out at 160kbps and 128kbps, respectively.

Anyone with a YouTube Premium subscription can enjoy YouTube Music’s paid features, such as zero ads, background play, and offline listening. Between YouTube Music and Spotify, I recommend picking whatever you like best.

Amazon Music

Amazon Music may not be as popular as the two apps above, but you can’t deny it has an extensive library. The experience isn’t too different from Spotify and YouTube Music in that you can provide the platform with your preferences to get curated playlists. With 100 million tracks to explore, you have plenty of exploring ahead.

Amazon Prime subscribers get to enjoy ad-free listening, but something Amazon Music Unlimited offers is spatial audio. This feature allows users to perceive audio as coming from all directions. The service also provides higher quality audio tracks if you upgrade from the free tier, ranging from HD to Ultra HD audio.

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Though less famous, Amazon Music is still a worthy contender and deserves to be on this list. If you ever need a break from music, the many podcasts in the library are there for you to listen to.

TIDAL

TIDAL is the premier hi-fi music app for audiophiles, boasting audio quality up to 24-bit, 192kHz. Besides 100 million songs, TIDAL has plenty of videos with the same audiophile quality. Unlike the services I mentioned above, TIDAL doesn’t have a free plan, though you can enjoy it for 30 days free before paying.

Since TIDAL is a paid service, you won’t see ads while listening to music. In other respects, you have typical music streaming app features like curated playlists, listening to music with friends, and more.

I highly discourage getting a TIDAL subscription unless you have the necessary hi-fi equipment to enjoy high-resolution audio files. An example of the equipment you need is a hi-fi music player. If you’re interested, TIDAL has a list of supported devices on its website.

Music Player Apps

Unlike music streaming apps, music players are designed to play downloaded music on your device or a micro SD card. You don’t need to be connected to the internet to use these apps.

Neutron Music Player

Neutron Music Player is an audiophile-grade music player app that plays high-quality audio files up to 32-bit, 1.536mHz. The player’s proprietary audio engine processes audio files independently from Android. If you own a USB digital-to-analog converter (DAC), Neutron can output audio through it for the best listening results.

Some of Neutron Music Player’s features, like a parametric equalizer, graphic equalizer, crossfeed, and compressor, are designed for users who prefer fine-tuning their listening experience. Similar to TIDAL, we only recommend this app if you have more experience with hi-fi audio.

Neutron Music Player is a paid app, but you can download a 5-day trial version before committing to the purchase. Very few audiophile music players can compete with it, so it gains first place on our list.

Musicolet

Musicolet is an offline-only music player that doesn’t even use the internet. It only plays audio files on your device’s internal storage or external SD card. Therefore, you won’t see any ads whatsoever while using the interface. It’s free forever, and we can thank the developer’s kindness for that.

Some music players let you set up queues, but Musicolet supports multiple queues. You can always swap to your jazz queue if you’re done listening to progressive metal. You can pick up where you left off if the metal mood is back. If you like adjusting the frequencies, the player’s equalizer comes in three to 31 bands.

Finally, if you like singing along to your favorite songs, Musicolet reads lyric files. It can create lyrics files that sync to your tunes, but you can also download lyric files and import them to your phone. As a free player, Musicolet has a surprisingly robust set of features.

Omnia Music Player

Rhythm Software’s Omnia Music Player is another top-tier free app that promises an excellent music-listening experience. It has zero ads and plays lossless files flawlessly. The app’s user interface is also beautifully designed if you consider app aesthetics important.

Some features include a 10-band equalizer with presets, Freeverb-based adjustable reverb, sound balancing, crossfade, and even Google voice commands support. The playback quality is superior to Android’s sound engine thanks to a built-in audio engine. Don’t worry if you fall asleep listening to music, as Omnia Music Player has a sleep timer.

The app is free to download, but you can purchase some premium add-ons to support the developer. These premium features are entirely optional.

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Oto Music

An impressive-looking music player is eye candy, but minimalists will love Oto Music. It has a simplistic interface that takes no time to master. There’s also the ability to change the accent and highlight colors. Devices with AMOLED support can also switch to an AMOLED theme with gorgeous black colors.

Features-wise, you have an equalizer, gapless playback, custom and smart playlists, lyrics support, and many more. If you prefer widgets on your screen, Oto Music lets you choose from five designs to suit various screen sizes. Regarding lyrics, you can download and edit lyrics using the app.

Oto Music is free to use and has everything a music lover needs in an app. There are some in-app purchases, but like Omnia Music Player, you can get by without them.

Simple Music Player

As the name suggests, Simple Music Player aims to provide a streamlined and no-nonsense experience while you listen to your favorite songs and albums. While Oto Music is designed to be minimalist in theme, Simple Music Player takes this concept further. You only get some basic features music player apps today have.

These features include playlist-making, a simple equalizer, widgets, and more. It offers nothing beyond this limited feature set, but that’s the reason it’s here. Some apps can be overwhelming for beginners, but Simple Music Player has fewer functions than some stock music player apps your devices ship with. Best of all, it’s free to download.

Conclusion

Music streaming services make famous and obscure songs widely available, and they’re easy to use because you don’t have to download audio files. On the other hand, some people prefer downloading their music, and that’s where the best music players come in. All nine apps above are reliable services you can trust. I hope you’ll find something that suits your needs.