The best music apps for your Android

Whether you want to store your own music collection or explore new sounds, your Android phone has an app to meet your needs. Free apps abound, but if you’re serious about your music, you should consider one of these high-end options.

Spotify Premium

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Even with a zillion free apps on the market, serious music fans are happy to hand over $10 a month to use Spotify Premium. In addition to the playlist and on-demand features available in the free version of the app, Spotify Premium lets you download your music for offline listening. This is a huge plus when you’re away from a Wi-Fi connection. Spotify Premium also offers high-definition (320 kbps) playback. The difference is noticeable, especially if you listen using noise canceling earbuds or a high-quality speaker.

Amazon Music

The Amazon Music app is free, and if you are already a Prime subscriber, you have access to piles of free music in a mind-boggling spectrum of genres. Music you buy from Amazon is automatically stored in the app, and it’s available to you via the cloud no matter where you roam. Many physical CDs that you buy from Amazon come with an automatic free download, which is a great way to gift music to others and receive some tracks for yourself at the same time.

Tidal

A free music service for serious audiophiles, Tidal boasts lossless compression in offline mode and access to music videos and interviews. The app will tailor suggestions to help you discover new music from among its 25 million tracks. With a nice armband and some earbuds, you can set yourself up to discover some new tunes on your next run or jog.

Quello Concerts

Are you a live music aficionado? If you like to watch musicians in action, Quello Concerts was designed with you in mind. The free app brings you over 1,500 full-length performances and music documentaries, featuring artists like Lady Gaga, Pink Floyd, and Nirvana. If you like watching your music instead of listening, consider a simple phone stand so you can free up your hands while you watch.

NPR Music

If your tastes are a little less mainstream, you might fall in love with NPR Music’s dedicated app. It offers access to popular public radio programs like First Listen, All Songs Considered, and Tiny Desk Concerts, but that’s only the beginning. The NPR app also connects you with live music streams from more than 100 public radio stations. That’s a lot of streaming music, and public radio has a knack for bringing obscure artists and genres to your attention. This app should keep you from getting bored with your music.

Musixmatch

Are you a lyrics lover? Whether you like to sing along or simply enjoy the pure poetry of song lyrics, Musixmatch is for you. The service boasts the largest catalog of lyrics in the world, and its app will sync any song in your library with lyrics from the database. Do you have a few words of a song stuck in your head but can’t remember the rest? Musixmatch will come to your rescue by letting search the database using whatever you remember.

Shazam

No matter which music player you choose, you’ll want this handy little app on your phone. Shazam lets your phone listen to any music playing around you and instantly identify the song by title and artist. Shazam gives you access to videos and song lyrics, and it will also take you to streaming services where you can buy the track you’re hearing and discover related ones.

YouTube Music

If you’re a music video lover, you’ll enjoy Google’s YouTube Music app, which serves up more than 30 million videos for your viewing and listening pleasure. The app lets you generate Pandora-like personalized stations based on an artist or genre. YouTube Music also delivers remixes, albums, covers, and more.

Old-school music apps like Pandora and iTunes are still in the mix, but music aficionados have a lot more to choose from these days. Give these apps a try to put a lot more music in your pocket.