The Thai music industry earlier this year welcomed Spotify, the famous international music-streaming service. Joining the likes of Deezer, Joox and Apple Music, Thai listeners are now spoiled for choice when it comes to their preferred platform. To help you choose the best service for your musical tastes, Life has compiled a list of available music-streaming platforms, with a run down of prices and features.
Apple Music
Price: 129 baht/month; 69 baht for students; 199 baht for families (six people) Available on: All devices that support iTunes
One of the first streaming services to gain mainstream recognition, Apple Music leverages iTunes' extensive library of songs to provide over 30 million songs from around the world for its subscribers. The songs available range from the most well-known tracks to the obscure, making Apple Music a versatile service perfect for all kinds of musical tastes.
The service also provides podcasts and the Beats radio function for those who want a change of pace for the music, with new users getting a free three-month subscription. Apple also regularly makes deals with famous artists to release new songs or music videos on their platform first (or even exclusively).
However, unlike many other services, Apple Music is only usable with a subscription. Once the three-month free period is over, you will either have to pay to continue using any other function other than Beats radio.
Spotify
Price: 129 baht/month; 199 baht for families (six people) Available on: All PC, Mac and smart devices; PlayStation consoles
With a user-base second only to YouTube, Spotify is considered the most popular music-streaming platform in the world. It has an extensive library comparable to Apple Music, and is most known for its varied playlists and social media features that allow users to see each other's playlists. Furthermore, the service is famous for utilising an algorithm to determine each individual user's tastes, automatically compiling a playlist based on previously listened to songs. Podcasts also are available.
It's also accessible for free. Simply create a new account, and you can start listening to your favourite songs without paying a single baht, albeit with several restrictions. Free users will only be allowed to skip over tracks in a playlist a certain amount of times every hour, and will not have access to the service's higher sound-quality and offline playback features. They will also have to listen to advertisements in between songs. New users are given a one-month free premium subscription.
Another feature unique to Spotify is its collaboration with Sony's PlayStation consoles. Users can download the Spotify app on their PlayStation 4 devices and play songs from the service over their video games as well.
Joox
Price: 69 baht/week; 129 baht/month; 349 baht/ three months; 639 baht/six months; 1,099 baht/year Available on: Smart devices and PCs (through www.Sanook.com)
With about 3.5 million songs in its library, Joox doesn't have the variety offered by Apple Music or Spotify. While the service does have a healthy selection of popular Thai and international songs, it doesn't have the most varied selection of less-than-well-known artists. However, compared to the other services, Joox has the distinction of offering the most localised content for Thai users as well. Those who enjoy listening to local radio stations or luk thung songs will find a lot to like in Joox.
Joox is also almost entirely accessible for free. While some "VIP" songs may only be accessed by subscribers, free users can gain access to these songs by sharing their music on social media, meaning everything on the app is free, as long as you're willing to jump through some extra steps.
Furthermore, Joox's collaboration with famous Thai website sanook.com allows the service to release a steady stream of special localised content, like live sessions with Thai artists (both in real life and online) or exclusive online articles and interviews. Long-term users who sign up for the three, six or 12-month subscriptions can also enjoy cheaper prices compared to others, which have no options for discounted long-term subscriptions.
Deezer
Price: 129 baht/month; 199 baht for families (six people) Available On: Smart devices and PCs
While perhaps not as internationally recognised as Spotify, Deezer provides very similar features to its competitor, and has been in available in Thailand since 2012. It can be used for free as well, though only if you listen to mixes and songs recommended by the service's "Flow" feature, which compiles playlists based on your past songs (similar to Spotify).
New users can enjoy the premium service for free for 30-days. However, if you use dtac as your mobile carrier, you may be eligible to use Deezer's premium service for free, as the platform has been partners with the mobile carrier since it first became available.
Tidal
Price: Standard -- 179 baht/month, 269 baht for families (six people); HiFi -- 358 baht/month, 537 baht for families (six people) Available on: Smart devices and PCs
With over 46 million songs and 190,000 videos available on their platform, Tidal is the perfect platform for those who want a more high-end music-streaming experience, offering high-quality, lossless music files to its subscribers. This means that the sound quality of the app is equivalent to that of a CD, a claim few other services can match.
Furthermore, the service employs an editorial team that regularly produces extra content like videos and interviews with some of the world's top stars, many of whom also hold shares in the service.
However, the service comes at a higher asking price compared to others, especially if you want access to the aforementioned lossless audio quality. You can use the 30-day free trial to see if the improved quality is worth the price increase.
Fungjai
Price: Free Available on: Smart devices and PCs
Not exactly a full-fledged streaming service like the others, Fungjai (translated to "listen to your heart" in Thai) has no subscription cost whatsoever. At the same time, the service only offers about 8,000 songs, all of which are from indie or otherwise even amateur musicians in Thailand. As such, it is the perfect service for those wanting to discover new Thai songs from fledgling artists. The service also curates its own online magazine, which focuses on the Thai indie music scene. It probably won't be your streaming service of choice, but if you have an interest in Thai indie music then it can be an interesting secondary.
Ever-Evolving Industry
Like the switch from cassettes to CDs, fake MP3s and even YouTube, the Thai music industry has faced many changes over the past decade. Not just for listeners, the shift in the dominant mediums used by listeners over the years has shaped how artists and labels have worked to appeal to audiences as well. With the continued growth in popularity of music streaming, boosted yet again with the arrival of Spotify, the Thai music industry may yet be facing another change.
"Even before streaming, the music industry already changed when everyone left illegal MP3s for free music on YouTube," said Suwatin Watthanawitukun, or Bom Potato, the former drummer of the famous Thai rock band. Suwatin is currently known for his work as a DJ on the online radio station Rock On Radio.
"Artists have had to adapt, relying more on visuals like music videos to attract their audience and making money off of product sponsorship and advertisements. But with streaming, I think the rise of playlists will also have a big effect on artists. Instead of listening to one album at a time, people are now listening to playlists, which means that the same 10 songs they are listening to belong to a variety of artists instead of just one, so artists need to work harder to make all their songs more memorable to listeners."
For Suwatin, the benefit to the listener is clear: artists must try harder to produce better individual songs, while the ease in discovering and enjoying new songs means there is much more variety. Listeners are also now able to pick and choose individual songs, instead of being forced into paying a big price for an album even though they may only enjoy a couple songs on it. But while artists may feel more pressure to work harder, Suwatin also believes that the flexibility and reach of streaming can help talented artists become recognised more easily, creating a more diverse music industry.
"Before streaming, you had to produce a demo and pitch it to a label. If they didn't like your work, it was pretty much it, there was no other way to showcase your work. With streaming, artists who are actually talented can become recognised practically overnight."
Creating a more diverse music industry doesn't just benefit artists and listeners, but also the streaming platforms themselves as well, according to Krittee Manoleehagul, CEO of Joox.
"One thing streaming platforms like Joox can contribute to the music industry is to be a channel through which all artists can present their work," says Krittee.
"We have teams of curators looking for these talented but overlooked artists on YouTube or social media to be featured on our platform all the time. Our Joox Spotlight feature is created for this purpose, to highlight up-and-coming artists and give them a space to become better known. We also create other content surrounding them, like articles and live videos, to help support them another way. We believe that the potential of this industry to grow is beyond just mainstream artists, that there are more kinds of music than pop and rock."
At the end of the day, the most important takeaway from streaming services is that they are actually helping the artists. While subscription fees contribute directly, the revenue streaming platforms receive from advertisements that play for free users can also contribute to the artists, who can continue to create more content for the streaming platforms and their users.
"We want to educate users that they are doing the right thing by listening to platforms like Joox, because they are listening to music legally, in a way that actually benefits the right people."
