If you are looking to pick a music streaming service, the first names that come to mind are Spotify and Apple Music. You must be wondering, which one is the better option? Needless to say, both these platforms are quite well-known and are always compared to each other. Whether you listen to music while traveling, cooking, working, exercising, or during your mandatory dance break, it is of utmost importance that you have the best experience, always.
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There are a lot of factors that need to be considered when it comes to picking one winner. We will try to cover a few of them here so that you have all the facts ready next time someone is arguing over which one is superior.
What is better between Apple Music and Spotify?
A music lover will always make sure they have all their priorities taken care of while selecting a music streaming platform, especially if they are planning on paying to access certain features, which is in some way, an investment. We will try to cover a few points you can compare and check to understand which one is better suited for you.
Sound Quality
While most users might not be concerned with the quality of the songs they listen to, Apple Music has a Lossless streaming option available for its users. Lossless means you can listen to high-resolution, uncompressed audio files. You can also select from a range of different audio qualities, for example, Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) at 16-bit/44.1kHz, 24-bit/48kHz, and 24-bit/192kHz and AAC at 256kb. It is important to understand that this feature can only be accessed using a wired connection and won’t work via Bluetooth. While Spotify’s highest quality setting is said to be 320kbps, this option is available for Premium users only. The clear winner, for this category is Apple Music.
Music Library
When it comes to availability of songs, both of these platforms claim to have over 100 million songs. If you are interested in just the music aspect and do not necessarily need any Podcast interfering with your jam session, you might once again have to choose Apple Music. It has an entirely separate app for Podcasts, whereas Spotify is home to more than 5 million Podcast titles and 350,000 Audiobooks. In this case, you can pick the winner according to your preference. If you want an ‘all-inclusive’ platform, you will have to go for Spotify and if you just want to focus on the music, you should pick Apple Music.
Recommendations
You might end up listening to the same songs over and over again if you are not recommended new ones, every once in a while. Apple Music offers playlists and the Radio Station feature. Both of these platforms offer recommendations, however, it is necessary to identify that Spotify does a better job, with 6 Daily Mix Playlists, Discover Weekly, and Release Radar, and also makes up playlists based on the genre of music you are listening to. Apart from this, below every playlist you can add more songs, that would help elevate your listening experience. Therefore for this category, Spotify makes a strong comeback with its stellar recommendation features.
Social Features
When it comes to the socials option, Apple Music, once again might have to take a back seat. It offers the basic feature of sharing music with friends and families via other social media apps. However, Spotify, offers Spotify Codes, Collaborative Playlists, being able to view what your friends are listening to, etc. If the social aspect is not one of the factors you are not too keen about, then your winner under this category might differ.
Price Range
Although Spotify is free for anyone to use, it comes with ads. With respect to Apple Music, it does come with a free trial, however, it is for a limited period, and you will have to have to start paying monthly to get access. Both of these platforms have Standard and Family plans that differ in prices and features. With regards to Spotify’s monthly subscription prices, the Premium Individual plan is $10.99, the Premium Duo plan is $14.99 the Premium Family plan that can be accessed by 6 accounts is $16.99, and the Premium Student plan costs $5.99. For Apple Music monthly subscriptions, you can get the Apple Voice plan for for $4.99, an Individual plan for $10.99, a Family plan for $16.99, and a Student plan for $5.99. You can say that Spotify here has an upper hand here, considering you can make use of the basic function of listening to music in spite of the fact that you will often be bombarded with interruptions.
All in all, the winner will depend on your preferences when it comes to choosing between Spotify and Apple Music.
We have covered everything you need to know about these two music streaming services and their varied features. You can also check out Best Song Finder Apps and our other Tech guides, right here on Gamer Tweak.