Today we are going to compare Apple Music vs Spotify, both of them have their own advantages and disadvantages over each other. So let’s dig into every detail. If you’re unsure whether to go with Apple Music or Spotify’s paid service, it’s your lucky day. Because we are going to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of both digital music streaming services in this article, allowing you to save money while still making an educated choice.
Apple Music vs Spotify
Instead of purchasing a CD, you may listen to your favorite music for as little as $4.99 per month by subscribing to a streaming service. Streaming services don’t just provide access to millions of artists’ song catalogs; they also give you a tailored and curated musical experience. Have you ever had trouble changing CDs because your mood changed? With streaming services, there are mood-specific playlists that may be played right away. Let’s start our Apple Music vs Spotify comparison.
Apple Music
Let’s start our Apple Music vs Spotify comparison with Apple’s service. Apple Music is the primary music and video streaming service for iPhone and Mac users. But Android users can also download Apple Music using the Google Play Store app.
It is a popular music streaming service that’s particularly well-known for its expert-made playlists and free radio station. Apple, on the other hand, relies on specialists to construct its playlists instead of relying solely on machine recommendations.
Listeners may create their own stations by browsing the extensive music libraries available on the streaming service beyond official radio channels. If you want to discover new tunes, Apple Music’s radio station is the place to go. You can save broadcasts for later listening on the move without stopping your radio enjoyment. Do you want to learn how to activate and use Spatial Audio and Lossless Sound in Apple Music on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac? If your answer is yes, then we have all the necessary information in our guide.
People frequently think of Apple Music as a music streaming service, but it has expanded into video streaming and original programming. Its large selection of exclusive program series includes Vital Signs, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and Planet of the Apps, to name a few.
Apple Music has a reputation for providing exclusive music to its customers. After signing a deal with Frank Ocean, they acquired the rights to distribute his album Endless. They almost got Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, to release his eleventh studio album Donda 2 for about $100 million. Because both parties were unable to reach an agreement, the arrangement broke down.
If you want the exclusives, Apple Music is dedicated to providing its users with a distinct user experience, and they’ll go as far as spending hundreds of millions to do so.
Apple Music library
Apple Music allows you to have up to 90 million ad-free tracks. Users of Apple Music’s premium version (unlike free users) can listen to music and download it for offline listening. It’s understandable if people are concerned about the size of their music libraries, but it’s worth asking about Apple Music library restrictions.
On Apple Music, users are limited to 100,000 songs in their music libraries. However, you should keep in mind that your phone’s memory is also a factor. Every 100 tracks saved on your music library uses 1GB space on your phone.
Let’s assume you have a 64GB iPhone and only 6,400 songs. According to that reasoning, 6,400 songs would cover 64GB storage. In order to fully utilize your 100,000 song limit on Apple Music, you’ll need at least 1TB free space. That’s certainly overkilling for most individuals.
Apple Music pricing
To access Apple Music’s radio station services, you don’t need to have an Apple Music membership. However, to enjoy premium features such as access to its 90 million songs and videos, spatial audio, HiFi lossless audio, sync with Apple devices or services, playlisting, custom radio channels, and more, you will need to subscribe to Apple Music.
As a new user, you may join Apple Music for free and obtain a 3-month trial as long as you sign up for Apple Music only. The costs available at Apple Music are listed below:
- College students may get the service $4.99 a month through ID verification
- For individuals, the cost is $9.99 per month.
- For a family of six, it costs $14.99 per month.
You have the option of paying monthly or purchasing a one-year subscription. Apple Music does not require your approval to continue your monthly payment; as a result, you must cancel it if you no longer want to utilize the streaming service.
For individuals interested in obtaining free or reduced goods, looking for discounted iTunes gift cards is a great option. Since then, trying to find discount iTunes cards has been a difficult task. You can buy an Apple Music subscription by going to this link.
An Apple One bundle is another option for cutting your Apple Music subscription costs. An Apple One bundle combines three Apple services into a single level: Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and iCloud music library. Instead of purchasing the three services separately, you will save $6 each month by picking the Apple One bundle instead of buying each one individually.
Getting a group of friends or coworkers interested in joining your family plan is the most popular hack among teenagers. Every member may save $44.95 on each purchase as a result of this method.
Exclusives
Apple Music is committed to providing a different music experience for its customers. They’ve previously secured the rights to host unique album releases from artists such as Drake, Frank Ocean, Future, Taylor Swift, and Britney Spears.
Apple Music is one of the best choices for high-quality lossless music, 3D surround sound, and Dolby Atmos if you are an audiophile who wants to be immersed in your music. This function puts you into a “musical trance” and recreates the near-studio atmosphere that the real creators experienced while making the track.
Apple Music performers formerly had the option of connecting with their fans through Apple Music Connect, which has now been discontinued. It’s possible that Apple discontinued the feature because there weren’t many users.
User experience
Users may filter the types of songs displayed on their listen now tab through Apple Music software. You can help the Apple Music algorithm understand your music taste by interacting with the system by liking, disliking, or adding tracks to your music library.
The buttons on the “now playing” bar can be used to fast-forward, back-forward, or skip a song that is currently playing. You may search for their stage names or song titles using the search bar to find more music from your favorite artists. When you click on an artist’s name in the search result, you will be taken to their artist page, where you may listen to their songs and learn more about them in the bio section.
The Apple Music app has five primary tabs on the front end, including “Listen Now,” “Library,” “Radio,” “Browse,” and “Search.” An Apple Music offer includes lossless and spatial audio (a format with high audio quality), shuffle mode, the ability to sync downloaded music from iTunes with Apple Music, and other Apple Music functions.
Listeners may examine their annual statistics by going to the “Listen Now” page and selecting a year. With this capability, you can view your most played songs, musicians, and records.
Spotify
Now let’s continue our Apple Music vs Spotify comparison with the Sweden-based service. Unlike Apple Music, which has video content, Spotify is an audio-only streaming service. Both Android and iPhone users can use the Spotify app. Spotify is available in over 184 countries, and it has a freemium subscription model that attracts more users than Apple Music. You can either pay for an ad-free music experience or accept the advertisements-filled music environment with little control.
Before the official release, premium users can listen to songs before they’re released, while free members are restricted. Premium users may not skip songs or access the newest music from top artists for around two weeks before release. You’ll need to pay for Spotify’s streaming service if you want to fully utilize it. Previously, it was impossible to use Siri commands to access your Spotify services, but that changed in 2019 as a result of several lawsuits and public accusations against Spotify. Do you want to learn how to make a collab playlist on Spotify, head in then!
Music lovers and artists have a lot of options when it comes to using Spotify. Spotify provides its users with a great deal of control over how their streaming services are used. Apple Music subscribers may download music through the iTunes app and sync it to their account, but Spotify listeners must stream songs frequently because there is no option to purchase audio downloads. Prior to 2013, Spotify offered the choice of purchasing portions; however, they were subsequently discontinued for unknown reasons.
Spotify playlist
The company’s best features are provided thanks to its sophisticated algorithm-driven recommendation system, known as BART, and its playlist creator community. Even though such tactics go against Spotify rules, there are third-party companies that provide playlist inclusion for a price on the Spotify playlisting community.
When it comes to music, the best algorithm is meant to address the cold start problem (which occurs when a new user has little data) as well as help customers discover new music fast. Apple Music’s algorithm isn’t as sophisticated as Spotify’s. Its ‘stations for Spotify’ service is nowhere near as popular as Apple Music radio stations. Outside of the United States, Spotify radio station service isn’t accessible.
The Spotify radio service will come to an end in May 2022, according to the company. The Swedish streaming firm said that people with “Stations by Spotify” accounts would be given a chance to move their stations over to Spotify.
Spotify music library
Despite having 8 million fewer tracks than Apple Music, Spotify makes up for it in podcasts. Since two years ago, Spotify has been expanding into the podcast industry. It spent $200 million to keep Joe Rogan’s podcast exclusively on its platform.
Spotify has a deal with the former president and first lady of the United States, Barack and Michelle Obama. Spotify has over 3 million active podcasts, 2.5 million more than Apple Music. Users on Spotify before 2020 could only add up to 10,000 songs to their music libraries. However, this limitation was removed, allowing you to add an infinite number of songs to your Spotify music library instead of Apple Music’s 100,000 restrictions. So when it comes to library limit, the winner of Apple Music vs Spotify is clearly, Spotify.
Many individuals would not care about this aspect, yet DJs, playlist creators, and music curators should be concerned since they browse for music more than the average person.
Spotify pricing
Spotify’s basic plan is similar to Apple Music’s. Like Apple Music, Spotify offers a free three-month trial. However, the free version has several restrictions and is periodically overwhelmed with advertisements. It’s common for coworkers and friends to share the same Spotify family plan, but Spotify is cracking down on it in order to guarantee that all six members of the plan use the same address.
You may completely get rid of advertising, store music for offline listening, and skip songs you don’t care for with a premium Spotify membership. The free plan does not have these fundamental features.
There are several pricing options on Spotify:
- Every month, $4.99 for students who have verified addresses and access to their school email. This package includes Hulu (ad-supported) membership, SHOWTIME access, and unrestricted ad-free music streaming services for the ShowTime plan. If you’re new to Spotify’s paid service, you’ll get a free one-month trial.
- The “Individual” plan costs $9.99 per month and has a three-month free trial.
- The “Duo” plan costs $12.99 per month for two accounts, and each account has its own library that can be synced with the user’s online music device or phone. The first three months are free for subscribers who haven’t bought a Spotify premium subscription before.
- The family plan costs $15.99 per month and allows up to 6 users. This program is unique in that it removes explicit lyrics and incorporates a separate app just for children.
You can go to this link, and join a Spotify plan.
Exclusives
Spotify is intended to alert you to new music. Its Bart algorithm is capable of meeting your music demands. If you just discovered an indie band on the Release Radar playlist (or Discover Weekly) and want to explore similar artists, go to their artist page. At the bottom of the screen, you’ll notice additional suggestions.
Spotify is the only platform where you may listen to an up-to-date Joe Rogan podcast. Spotify is the finest option if you’re a podcast enthusiast since the streaming behemoth is interested in the field.
A good internet connection is required for streaming to work. Spotify has a low-data mode that uses less bandwidth and caches music if your phone loses signal, making it possible to play offline.
Some would say that streaming music quality is superior to CD quality. Music discovery via streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, however, will improve with advanced multimedia frameworks like Ogg Vorbis format, spatial audio, and lossless audio.
User experience
Spotify is the clear winner in terms of interactive user experience. Spotify has a pleasant user interface and an algorithm that seeks to recommend the best sort of music for each mood. With your data, the Spotify music streaming service and its algorithm will provide you with the greatest songs possible.
The information retrieved includes your music listening habits, the number of times you play music, past listening history, music preferences, songs saved to the Spotify library, and offline listening habits. While Spotify does not yet have a device ecosystem comparable to Apple Music’s, it is compatible with home pods, PCs, voice-activated automobile devices, and mobile phones.
Virtual assistant
Spotify developed its voice assistant, which is activated by shouting the phrase, “Hey Spotify,” in order to compete with Apple’s Siri. This virtual helper gives you access to a variety of features including establishing or removing personal playlists, starting or stopping songs on Discover Weekly, and establishing broadcast stations. In May 2019, Spotify made its debut in hardware production for the first time.
The Car Thing is the first device offered by Spotify. The Car Thing gives music, news, entertainment, podcasts, and talks for a cost above and beyond what you would receive through other means. You can use Spotify Connect to stream music from your speaker or music system instead of streaming it from your phone. In addition, you may play music from your Spotify desktop software if you leave your phone in your bedroom but are in your working area.
Conclusion
For people deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem (i.e., Siri, AirPlay, iCloud, iTunes library, Apple TV, Apple Car Play, HomePod, watch), Music is well-designed. Although Spotify may be accessed using Apple devices, for individuals looking to save money through the Apple One Bundle option, Apple Music is a better alternative.
The good news is that you can listen to Apple Music’s radio stations for free without signing up. Spotify, on the other hand, gives its services for free if you don’t mind seeing advertising and limited functionality.
Spotify is the place to go for podcast lovers, whereas Apple Music has yet to live up to the standard. However, if you want exclusive video content, Apple Music is your best bet.
However, if you compare the Best Apple Music Mixes with Spotify’s Best Playlists, you’ll notice that when it comes to music library size (which matters a lot), Apple Music has more music than Spotify. With 90 million songs, Apple Music beats Spotify by 3 million.
Apple Music restricts users to a maximum of 100,000 songs in their music library to maintain control. Spotify has no restrictions on the number of songs that may be kept.
If you’re a college student who enjoys Apple Music’s services while also getting Hull and Showtime for free, Spotify is the way to go. Spotify gives Hulu (ad-enabled), which includes Showtime, and music streaming through Spotify for $4.99.
Is iCloud Music Library free?
Apple Music costs $9.99 per month, which is not free, but it comes with your subscription to iCloud library for free. Apple Music provides a three-month free trial if you ask about a free trial. If you don’t mind listening to music curated by DJs, you can listen to Apple Music radio stations without charge. Do you know how to transfer music playlists between Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube on iPhone? If your answer is no, we got you covered!
Apple Music vs Spotify: Which one is better on Android?
Over a static CD or vinyl player, edge platforms like Spotify and Apple have an advantage. They’re not available anywhere, whether on a phone, desktop browser, automobile, or internet-connected television. The Web 2.0 internet is to thank for the rise of these over-the-top streaming services. They develop mobile apps and social media as an ideal ground for the streaming business.
The Spotify app is specially designed for both Android and iOS devices. However, this cannot be done on the Apple Music service. Even though Apple Music is available on Android devices, the software does not function the same way across platforms. You are unable to use voice control with the Apple Music app because you are an Android user. The most annoying aspect is that you can’t access music already stored on your phone through Apple Music.
If you use Android, you’ll be better off with the Spotify app than with Apple Music. You may build playlists, loop songs, and preserve them without strain using a Spotify membership. The finest option between Spotify and Apple Music varies from person to person. When comparing Apple Music vs. Spotify premium, consider your music tastes, smartphone, current subscriptions across technology ecosystems, etc. Both Apple Music and Spotify are fantastic in their own way.
Many users prefer Apple Music because of its sound quality, higher resolution of album covers, having the volume up and down on the screen, Dolby, and lossless audio alternatives. Spotify offers its users a manual equalizer feature, but Apple Music users can only choose one of the predefined alternatives in the settings. When the band or artist you follow on Spotify releases a new single, the top right bell notifies you. Apple Music publishes special lists for newly released songs, but these lists can include groups or artists who have reached a certain number of listens. This concludes our Apple Music vs Spotify comparison, both services have their own advantages, so consider your needs and choose wisely!
