Apple music vs Spotify

Oct 3, 2020 2 min read
Apple music vs Spotify

Motivation

I keep going back and forth between these two, they both have advantages and disadvantages and that's what we'll be taking a look at so we can have a clear understanding of how the two operate. Let's begin.

Spotify

Pros:

  1. Free
  2. No matter if you stop paying, you will always have your music list there.
  3. Automatic radio after your playlist ends.
  4. You can reorder playlists however you'd like and even upload your own cover photo :)
  5. Sync across devices. Example: I can start playing on my phone, but left it in the kitchen, and now I'm in the living room with my pc, I can open spotify and control it from here.
  6. Free Hulu with your subscription.

Cons:

  1. After trying apple's design in my opinion the Spotify one is ugly, before it didn't bother me. Personal preference.

Apple music

Pros:

  1. Design. Yes, the design is elegant and very easy to use.
  2. Lyrics. When you are listening to a song, you can sing along with the lyrics in sync which is very nice.

Cons:

  1. If you stop paying, your playlists disappear along with the songs, so you can't even see what you had before to transfer your songs... this is a big one.
  2. No extra content. Other competitors offer Hulu and other services with your subscription, apple doesn't.
  3. No radio after playlist ends. Alright so when you finish a playlist on Spotify, the music keeps on going based on recommendations matched with your playlist and not with a single song. In order to do this in Apple Music, you have to select a song and click on Radio which is not what I want.
  4. Grooming. If I want to reorder a playlist up and down I can't because apple forces users to sort by name, recently played, etc.

Some points to consider:

Spotify Apple Music
Price $9.99 a month ($4.99 for students) $9.99 a month ($4.99 for students)
Family plan Yes, up to 6 people ($14.99) Yes, up to 6 people ($14.99)
Free tier Yes, ad-supported No, only Beats1 radio
Free trial 3 months 3 months
Stream quality Up to 320kbps Ogg Vorbis, or AAC (see section below) 256kbps AAC
Music library 50 million songs 60 million songs


After all the above we have a clear winner in my opinion, and that is Spotify. I really hope they improve their design and stop spamming cards on the app, besides from that, comparing the two is like comparing a Toyota Corola vs a Mercedes.

Conclusion:

The best Music Streaming Service is Spotify.

With all that being said, both are excellent services, what I wish for Spotify is better design and for Apple, more customization.

Who do you think is the winner? Let me know by leaving a comment below

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