Where to listen to guided meditation

The short version

• The most choice: YouTube.
• Already in your music app: Spotify.
• Simple free downloads, with transcripts: Apple Podcasts.
• Built for meditation, with no ads: a meditation app or site.

Platform	Ads	Downloads
YouTube (free)	YouTube’s ads, plus any sponsor read in the video	Need a paid plan in the US, UK, Canada and Australia
YouTube Premium	No YouTube ads, but a sponsor read in the video stays	Yes
Spotify (free or Premium)	Podcasts may carry Spotify ads and creator sponsorships	Most podcasts free, some shows need Premium. Music needs Premium
Apple Podcasts	Whatever the creator includes	Yes, free
A meditation app or site	Depends on the provider	Depends

YouTube

YouTube has a huge range of guided meditation, much of it free, from large channels to small teachers.

From YouTube’s own help pages:

• Ads. Free YouTube shows ads. Premium removes YouTube’s own ads, but not a sponsorship the creator reads as part of the video.
• What plays next. Autoplay starts a related video when one ends. You can switch it off in the player.
• Screen off and downloads. Playing with the screen off and downloading both need a paid plan in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia. Premium includes them, and in some countries so does the cheaper Premium Lite.
• Words. Many videos have automatic captions, which YouTube says can contain mistakes, and a transcript you can open. Creators can add chapters.

Spotify

Spotify has guided meditation as podcasts, and meditation music as playlists.

• Ads on podcasts. Spotify’s help page says listeners on both Free and Premium “may receive both Spotify ads and creator sponsorships” on audio podcasts. Premium removes ads from music.
• Downloads. Most podcast episodes download for free, though some shows need Premium. Downloading music needs Premium.
• What plays next. After a playlist ends, Autoplay may keep playing similar music.
• Words. Some shows have transcripts, and some have chapters.

Apple Podcasts

• Ads come from the creators, not from Apple. Some shows insert ads automatically. Some offer an ad-free version to paying subscribers.
• Downloads. Episodes download for free, automatically by default for shows you follow.
• Words. Apple makes automatic transcripts in 11 languages, and recent versions add automatic chapters to longer English episodes.
• What plays next. Your own queue, which you control.

A meditation app or site

Meditation apps and sites are built for this one job. They usually handle the details: offline listening, a timer, and nothing autoplaying afterwards. Each makes its own choices about ads, accounts and data. See our guides to free apps and sites and paid subscriptions.

Where to hear ours

• On our site: every meditation as we made it, with its music. No ads and nothing to sign up for, a sleep timer, offline saving, and the full transcript beside the player.
• As a podcast: the main feed is on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Most of its episodes leave out the music, keeping the voice, natural sounds such as rain, and binaural beats where a meditation has them. A second feed has every meditation with its music, for apps that let you follow a show by its address.
• On YouTube: our channel is just starting, with a few meditations set to slowly moving paintings.

A few habits that help, anywhere

• Test it with the screen off, in the afternoon, before you rely on it at night.
• Download before bed. It avoids buffering, and lets you turn on flight mode.
• Turn off Autoplay on YouTube or Spotify, if the next thing would wake you.
• Set a sleep timer in whatever app you use.
• Read the transcript first if you’re not sure a meditation is for you.

Try it tonight

Choose where you’ll listen, and test one meditation with the screen off this afternoon. If you’d like to try ours, Coming Back is a good first listen.