JOOX Music

Free-to-use music streaming app

JOOX Music is a freemium music streaming app from Tencent Mobility Limited. This multimedia platform not only lets you play your favorite tracks but also includes a number of social media features. Enjoy video chat rooms, short video sharing, and going to karaoke with your friends. Still, you can enjoy basic streaming capabilities such as recommended and trending songs and personalized playlists.

As a music streaming platform, JOOX Music doesn’t reinvent the genre, although its entirely free-to-use platform with a library of 40 million tracks is hard to pass by. Imagine an alternative to Spotify or TIDAL, with added features.

A promising regional streaming platform

Originally released in 2015, JOOX Music has already dominated the Asian markets—operating in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, and more—as well as certain parts of the world. While it only has about half the number of tracks you would find on Spotify, the fact that it doesn’t have a recurring subscription fee is a tempting offer in itself. Quality-wise, it streams songs with the standard bitrate. 

In terms of features, here is where JOOX one-ups its competitors. As mentioned, it has a lot of add-ons that users can also enjoy for absolutely free. Record your covers of popular songs and post them on your profile, or interact with your followers and even have a karaoke session—now available all in one app. Of course, some features are locked behind a paywall.

With a free account, there are ads after a couple of songs, and there are a limited number of song skips for a given period of time. Downloading songs for offline listening is also reserved for JOOX VIP subscribers, the same with high-fidelity streaming. Also, aside from the gap in the music library, Spotify also hosts other content like podcasts and audiobooks, which are virtually nonexistent in the Tencent alternative.

Combining streaming and socials

As a music service, JOOX Music makes up for its restrictions in the music streaming aspect by introducing a host of other features. Its smaller library of music is almost negligible for casual listeners, and the same can be said for those who tune in to podcasts. By focusing on combining socials and music, it offers a different experience, making it a good app for the limited regions it serves.