One of the most important decisions you will make in your lifetime: which music streaming service to use! Spotify and Apple Music are the two biggest music streaming services used by listeners today. Of course there are many other services such as Soundcloud, Tidal, Deezer, Google Play Music, Amazon Music, etc. but the biggest debate I usually hear about is whether to use Spotify vs Apple Music.
I am personally a Spotify user but I subscribed to Apple Music over the past two weeks to compare the two and see if I enjoy Apple Music more than my Spotify. Having always used Spotify, switching to Apple Music has been a bit weird, but I am enjoying it a lot.
Prices and Subscriptions:
Apple Music costs $10 a month. There are $5 student plans and $15 family plans as well. Spotify is exactly the same, if you choose to purchase the premium version. And that is what I like a lot about Spotify; it has a free, ad-supported tier which means you can still listen to music through Spotify without having to subscribe. However, the albums and playlists you listen to do not allow you to choose the song immediately but they instead play randomly on shuffle mode with a limit of 6 skips per hour. But because you can make your own playlists, you can just fill up your playlists with your best songs and it being on a random shuffle won’t matter!
Apple Music does not have any sort of free usages. The only thing free is streaming the Beats1 Radio or listening to songs from your iTunes library which have been previously purchased and downloaded onto your phone.
Spotify takes the win on this one.
Stream Quality:
The actual streaming quality when considering kilobits per second is exactly the same for both platforms. Both stream extremely well with WiFi and both have options for downloading the songs in the app for later listens without WiFi availability. This feature is great for long airplane rides or international traveling when WiFi is not readily available.
It’s a draw on this one!
Music Content:
Apple music has over 45 million songs vs Spotify’s 35 million. Apple Music has much more options when it comes to music availability and they tend to release more albums at earlier times than Spotify. Apple Music also offers certain music videos that cannot be found anywhere else. Spotify does offer something that Apple Music doesn’t though: podcasts.
But I’d have to say Apple is the winner here.
Navigation and Interface:
Spotify is black and green. Apple Music is white and pink. Aesthetically, I like the Apple Music look a little better but since I am a usual Spotify user, I am more used to the green and black. Both apps are super easy to navigate and learn how to use with main tabs for different categories such as radio, library, search, browse, etc.
Spotify has some animations for certain songs and it also features the Genius Lyrics system which Apple Music does not have. This system allows you to view song lyrics as well as extra information about the song and artist as you listen to the song. However, Apple Music has a feature that Spotify doesn’t that I really appreciated. It allows you to type in lyrics from a song that you don’t know the name of and it’ll find the song for you.
It’s another draw on this one.
Discovering New Music
Music streaming services play a key role in helping one find new, likeable music for their specific taste. Personally, I think Spotify has nailed my taste to a tea whereas Apple Music hasn’t yet. But that is most likely due to the fact that I’ve only been using Apple Music for a couple of weeks.
Spotify creates personal playlists for each individual based on algorithms from previously played music. These playlists include Discover Weekly and Release Radar. Apple Music has the same concept with New Music Mix. Personally, I see a lot more recommended music on Spotify that I would actually click on and listen to than on Apple Music.
So the winner has to be Spotify.
Social Media Aspect:
Both Apple Music and Spotify allow you to follow artists and keep up with their music, latest releases, and personal playlists. Both services allow you to follow your friends as well. However, Spotify, unlike Apple Music, allow you to see what your friends are listening to live in real-time if you are using the desktop app. This is probably the only reason I use Spotify over Apple Music on the regular. Being able to see what your friends are listening to is so fun and such an easy way to find new music. Nothing beats seeing your friend listening to some High School Music and sending them a photo to make fun of them! And even though artists are more active on Apple Music, I personally enjoy seeing what my friends are up to than my favorite artists so…
Spotify wins this one too.
FINAL WINNER: SPOTIFY!!
This is obviously a personal preference and when deciding which streaming service to use, you should do your research. But after experiencing both services, I am personally a bigger fan of Spotify after looking at the pros and cons of both.
Kaykay’s playlist of the week (made on Spotify of course):
kaykay's forté 