Play music to drive away those self-quarantine blues: Best music apps and their subscription plans

There is no doubt that music in general is one of the most common stress busters. All thanks to technology, you can now stream your favourite music anywhere. Given that you are self-quarantined at home, music is a good companion to help you through the day.

Most music streaming apps follow the freemium business model which basically means that there is a free as well as a paid version of the app. In most cases, the first month might be free followed up by a monthly subscription plan.

If you are not interested in paying for your music, you will have to make peace with ads. It's not that we are asking you to subscribe to either streaming service, but it would be good to realise that a paid subscription comes with perks like downloads etc besides an ad-free experience.

Here are 6 music streaming apps you can pick from:

1) Spotify

The one-stop shop for all kinds of music and podcasts hit the Indian market in early 2019. The Swedish company managed to get as many as 1 million users in the very first week itself.

Spotify curates personalised list of suggestions depending upon what the user has listened to in the past. The paid subscription plans start from ₹119 per month onward. The benefits of premium plans include ad-free music, multi-device access features etc.

2) JioSaavn

It made its debut as Saavan in 2007 and came to be known as JioSaavn after merger with JioMusic in 2018.

The app boasts of a collection of over 45 million songs in English, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and other Indian languages. JioSaavn paid monthly plan starts at a price of ₹99.

3) Gaana

One of the leading music streaming apps in India, Gaana has over 150 million users per month and was founded in 2010. Gaana is available in 21 languages and has a song collection of over 45 million.

Users can create their own public music playlist which can also be accessed by other people on the app. Gaana Plus, the premium version of the app, offers plans which start from ₹99 per month. In the premium version, users get HD music streaming, no ads and unlimited offline download.

4) Wynk Music

The Bharti Airtel-owned Wynk was one of the first apps to offer the feature of free downloads. However the free feature is only available for those who are using Airtel's cellular service as well. For other users the premium plan begins at ₹60 per month. The app offers a huge variety of music collections across different Indian languages.

5) Apple Music

This Apple offering is available in over 100 countries and allows users to stream music and videos. Originally the service was only limited to music but later on it also began streaming videos.

The app boasts of having over 50 million song listings. The paid subscription starts at ₹49 per month. The app can now be accessed on both Android and iOS devices. They also have a family plan which you can share with others.

6) Resso

New to the market, ByteDance's music streaming app Resso calls itself the world's first social music streaming app with features like vibes, comments and lyric quotes.

Resso can be downloaded on both Android and iOS platforms. It is available for free but users can get the paid version at ₹99 per month on Android and ₹119 on iOS.

The paid version of Resso comes with features like offline downloads, unlimited skips and high-quality audio.