Here we can see, “spotify vs apple music”
What is Spotify?
Spotify may be a digital music, podcast, and video service that provides you access to many songs and other content from creators everywhere on the planet.
Basic functions like playing music are free, but you’ll also prefer to upgrade to Spotify Premium.
Whether you’ve got Premium or not, you can:
- Get recommendations that support your taste
- Build collections of music and podcasts
- And more!
Spotify is out there across various devices, including computers, phones, tablets, speakers, TVs, and cars, and you’ll easily transition from one to a different with Spotify Connect.
What is Apple Music?
Apple Music launched in 2015, following Apple’s acquisition of Beats Electronics in 2014 that included the now-discontinued Beats Music subscription service.
The Apple Music service not only allows you to stream on-demand any track from the iTunes catalogue but also access all of your music in one place on all of your devices, whether purchased from iTunes, copied from a CD, or downloaded from online.
The streaming service also offers up recommendations tailored to your interests, internet radio (in the shape of the Apple Music 1 (formerly Beats 1) station, among others), the power to save lots of music to your device for offline listening, expert-curated playlists, integration with the Siri assistant on iOS devices and features like Lyrics view.
Apple Music vs. Spotify: Music library
Apple Music and Spotify both feature massive libraries, but Apple claims the advantage with “over 75 million” songs to Spotify’s “over 70 million.” The latter also includes around 2.6 million podcast titles, whereas there’s a completely separate Apple Podcasts service; Apple Music, therefore, definitely has more pure music tracks in total.
However, Apple Music has also moved far away from its initial specialization in exclusive (or timed-exclusive) album launches, with then-Apple executive Jimmy Iovine admitting in 2017 that “The labels don’t seem to love it.” Likewise, Spotify’s exclusive content is especially limited to podcasts, so there’s immense overlap between the 2 services on music content.
Technically this is often a win for Apple on sheer numbers. Still, unless you’ve got particularly eclectic tastes, you extremely wish to seek out the artists you would like on either platform.
Apple Music vs. Spotify: Music quality
Standard-quality Apple Music tracks, are 256 kbps AAC files, equivalent to tracks purchased from iTunes. Spotify streams songs at three rates (~96 kbps, ~160 kbps and ~320 kbps) beat the Ogg Vorbis format, though the very best calibre is restricted to paid Premium subscribers.
This will change once Spotify HiFi eventually launches, though when it involves resolution and bit rate, Apple Music’s “lossless” feature has Spotify beat. There are a few options for streaming higher-resolution music, starting from “CD-quality” 16-bit/44.1kHz up to 24-bit/192kHz. The latter is true Hi-Res Audio, so you’d need an honest pair of wired headphones to appreciate it completely.
That’s not to say that headphones and speakers don’t make a difference at standard resolution. and that is very true when not all headphones support Apple Music’s lossless option, as Apple’s wireless AirPods, even the AirPods Max, won’t. Remember that current Bluetooth tech doesn’t have the bandwidth for Hi-Res Audio,
Spotify HiFi will likely require wired headphones for the simplest benefit, though Spotify notes that Spotify Connect-enabled speakers will support it. Inspect our picks of the simplest headphones, best Bluetooth speakers and best computer speakers to ensure you’re getting the simplest experience.
In any event, Apple currently supports higher-resolution streaming, and Spotify doesn’t. So within the absence of the other big differences in Spotify’s favour, we’ve to offer this one to Apple.
Apple Music vs. Spotify: Cloud locker
Apple Music’s biggest special feature is the iCloud Music Library, which allows MP3 collectors to access their libraries of rare tracks wherever they are going. While collection-distorting bugs hampered the service’s original rollout, it’s currently a useful feature that helps the service stand out from the pack.
Spotify is meant to permit you to concentrate to your MP3s within the app itself, but this has never worked that smoothly and allows you to upload tracks.
Apple Music vs. Spotify: Browser playback
Thankfully, Apple does not demand you to put in iTunes and currently allows you to listen during a browser even as Spotify does. Both browser versions allow you to browse their respective libraries, access your playlists and play “Made for you” content, a bit like their app counterparts.
Apple Music vs. Spotify: Availability
Both services have worked on widening their availability in recent years. Additionally to the expected devices like phones, tablets, PCs and Macs, Spotify content are often played via your games consoles. That goes for the most recent PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, as older consoles like the Xbox One series and, therefore, the PS4. In 2021, Spotify also launched the Car Thing, a little touchscreen device you’ll install in any car to play music and podcasts.
Apple Music has its automotive solution in Apple CarPlay, though this must be built-in to the car itself; you can’t just add CarPlay to an unspecified clunker. Still, Apple Music also claims a powerful breadth of supportive devices, from the Apple HomePod and HomePod mini to the Apple TV 4K and Apple Watch.
Spotify also works on smartwatches from Fitbit and Garmin models to more fashion-minded Samsung and Google Wear OS wearables. It’s recuperating in this regard, too, as Spotify is also getting offline listening on Wear OS devices because of the Apple Watch.
Either way, you’re spoiled for choice because of its bonus games console support; Spotify edges this one. You’ll perhaps also call it a negative that Apple Music lossless won’t work with tons of headphones and speakers, though, which will eventually be true of Spotify HiFi also.
Apple Music vs. Spotify: Playlists and curated content
When it involves user-curated playlists, Apple and Spotify are essentially on parity. Both will present you with personalized playlists, like Spotify’s Daily Mix lists and Apple Music’s Get Up! And Chill mixes. Both services also will recommend songs and artists you haven’t listened to yet but might like to support your listening preferences.
The Apple Music 1 (previously referred to as Beats 1) station also is a possible source of the latest music, though since it functions sort of a traditional station — fronted by veteran DJs like Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden — its content is curated for the Apple Music subscriber base as an entire. Spotify’s version of “radio” is just playlists, curated surely genres, topics and tastes.
Apple Music vs. Spotify: Social media
One of Spotify’s clearest wins is its wealth of social sharing features. For example, you’ll easily share Spotify content as Instagram and Facebook stories, post album art on Snapchat (which then links friends and followers to the song) or create links and scannable, QR-like Spotify Codes to share music and playlists on any messaging platform.
Apple Music allows you to share playlists with other registered users over AirDrop or create content links to post wherever you would like. Still, its social media integration is far more basic than Spotify’s. So if you’re not overly keen on sharing your listening habits with the planet, which may not be a problem, but it’s all optional on both platforms.
Apple Music vs. Spotify: Design
Ever since Apple Music’s big redesign for iOS 10, its design is on the brink of Spotify in many respects. Both employ large images in an almost tile-like UI, with a navigation bar rock bottom of the screen for quick access to your music library or the respective search function.
Honestly, the most difference here is only aesthetic. Apple Music favours a lightweight, bright and white look with high-contrast text, while Spotify has long stuck to its darker black/grey colour scheme with flashes of neon green.
Apple Music vs. Spotify: Value
If you don’t want to buy streaming music and you’re comfortable with ads, Apple’s insistence on not having a free plan will keep you using Spotify. New users can try Apple Music for free of charge for 3 months, which is more generous than Spotify Premium’s 1-month free trial, but after that, you’ll get to subscribe.
For those that are willing to pay, the playing field looks balanced at a look. Apple Music and Spotify Premium are both $9.99 a month for individual accounts, and while Spotify’s Family plan is costlier, it’s only by one dollar per month. Both services also offer a $.99 monthly subscription for college kids.
However, keep in mind that Apple Music is now throwing in spatial audio and lossless audio for no extra charge. As such, it simply offers quite what Spotify Premium does for equivalent cash.
If Spotify HiFi was folded into the prevailing Spotify Premium tier, instead of launching as a separate tiered service, that might keep things somewhat even. But that hasn’t happened yet, and albeit it does, Apple Music will still have the spatial audio advantage.
The fact that Spotify features a free option keeps this particular clash a tie, but if if you’ll spare the cash for a premium subscription, Apple Music is that the better deal immediately.
Apple Music vs Spotify: Pricing
Spotify and Apple Music both offer pricing options like others. For example, a private Apple Music plan costs $9.99/month, the same as Spotify Premium’s $9.99/month rate. For alternative plans, find the tables below:
Apple Music: Pricing options
| PLAN | PRICE | FEATURES |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | $9.99/month | – Access to the Apple Music library and exclusive content – Offline listening – Ad-free streaming |
| Family | $14.99/month | – Access to the Apple Music library and exclusive content – Offline listening – Ad-free streaming – Access for up to six people – Personal accounts for each member |
| Student | $4.99/month | – Access to the Apple Music library and exclusive content – Offline listening – Ad-free streaming |
Spotify: Pricing options
| PLAN | PRICE | FEATURES |
|---|---|---|
| Free | – | – Free music and podcast streaming with ads – Skip songs up to 6 times per hour – Shuffle mode – Access to Daily Mix playlists – 30-day free trial for Premium |
| Individual (Premium) | $9.99/month | – 1 month free – Ad-free music/podcast streaming – Offline listening – On-demand playback |
| Duo (Premium) | $12.99/month | – 1 month free – Ad-free music/podcast streaming – Offline listening – On-demand playback – Up to 2 accounts – Duo Mix playlist |
| Family (Premium) | $14.99/month | – 1 month free – Ad-free music/podcast streaming – Offline listening – On-demand playback – Up to 6 accounts – Parental controls – Family Mix playlist – Spotify Kids access |
| Student (Premium) | $4.99/month | – 1 month free – Ad-free music/podcast streaming – Offline listening – On-demand playback – Hulu (ad-supported) plan – Showtime |
Apple Music vs Spotify: Which is the better music app?
We first ran an Apple Music vs. Spotify comparison a couple of years ago. Spotify comfortably won value for money and a wealth of supported hardware on the rear of its curated content.
Credit to Apple Music, then, for not just closing the gap but surpassing Spotify overall. It’s still behind on social features and lacks native support for games consoles, but changing its approach from consumer-unfriendly exclusives to more thoughtfully curated content streams has paid off. It’s also wisely gained a browser version and remains the higher choice for those that wish to hoard their music files.
Though, it’s lossless and spatial audio that makes the difference. Not only does this make Apple Music the higher choice for listeners who want the simplest sound quality possible, but given it’s no costlier than a Spotify Premium subscription, it is also better on value for those willing to pay.
Apple Music vs. Spotify: Scorecard
| Apple Music | Spotify | |
| Music Library | ✔ | |
| Music Quality | ✔ | |
| Cloud Locker | ✔ | |
| Browser Playback | ✔ | ✔ |
| Supported Hardware | ✔ | |
| Playlists | ✔ | ✔ |
| Social Integration | ✔ | |
| Design | ✔ | ✔ |
| Value | ✔ | ✔ |
| Total | 7 | 6 |
Conclusion
I hope you found this guide useful. If you’ve got any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to use the shape below.
User Questions:
- Should I switch from Spotify to Apple Music?
When it involves Apple Music’s performance compared to Spotify, there’s an undeniable compatibility difference when using it on my iPhone. Apple Music is quicker, Siri integrated, and in my personal opinion, provides better sound quality (even when my Spotify audio quality settings were at maximum).
- Why is free Spotify so bad?
One of the foremost common complaints about Spotify is that frequent and obnoxious ads plague users who have opted for a free account. The ad-supported free tier has several costs — lower royalties for artists, missing and unavailable albums, and in fact, ads that appear to interrupt users after every song.
- Is Spotify suing Apple?
Apple tax unfair to other streaming services, EU says in Spotify-triggered lawsuit. … The case started back in 2019 when Spotify accused Apple of anti-competitive practices. Apple charges app makers a 30 percent cut of revenue from in-app purchases like subscriptions in exchange for hosting them on the App Store.
- Spotify vs Apple Music – An Honest Comparison
Spotify vs Apple Music – An Honest Comparison from AppleMusic
- Do you prefer using Spotify or Apple Music?
LET’S DICUSS: Do you prefer using Spotify or Apple Music? from AppleMusic
