Spotify has long been the champ of music streaming, but Apple Music is hot on its heels. Who's winning the battle between these two music streaming services?
As a music enthusiast, it’s no easy feat to choose between Spotify and Apple Music. Spotify currently has over 515 million users and 210 million Premium subscribers worldwide. Spotify offers a free tier option as well as a popular music-sharing experience. Apple Music was once the leader in all things digital music, but is currently behind Spotify with more than 98 million users worldwide.
Section winner: Apple Music Apple Music Audio quality We also need to discuss the audio quality that comes with streaming songs on both services. For Spotify, the free version of the software streams at AAC 128Kbps via the web player. Download the Spotify app for desktop, mobile, or tablet and it will adjust streaming quality based on your connection, anywhere from 24Kbps to 160Kbps.
Discover Weekly, in particular, deserves high praise in the streaming world. Added to your feed every Monday morning, the feature delivers a two-hour playlist of personalized music recommendations based on your listening habits, as well as the habits of those who listen to similar artists. Apple Music’s Apple Music 1 function, which offers live radio 24 hours a day, also plays a major role when it comes to music discovery. It’s refreshing to see Apple move beyond sophisticated algorithms for a human approach to facilitating true music discovery.
There’s also assisted playlist creation for a more personalized option than full radio mode. Say, for example, you wanted to create a playlist to accompany you on your morning workouts. Using assisted playlisting, Spotify will use the title you’ve given the playlist and pull from suggestions based on your past listening history, as well as recommendations based on songs others have added to their own similar playlists.
Section winner: Apple Music Apple Music Podcasts Although Apple Music and Spotify are primarily music apps, podcasts have a natural home on audio platforms. Spotify has been the fastest-growing podcast destination since launching the feature in 2015. In fact, Spotify currently boasts the most podcasts of any service, offering 5 million as of 2022's fourth quarter.
Right now, new subscribers get Apple Music free for one month. Apple Music also offers a Family plan for $17 with access for up to six people. Spotify also has a Duo plan for $13 for a couple subscribing together and a Family plan for $16 that offers up to six accounts along with Spotify Kids and parental controls.
Tapping on the Listen Now tab now brings up several different personalized options. The Top Picks and the daily themed playlists provide even more ways to discover new tunes, while the Browse tab gives you an avenue to explore popular music, videos, and Apple exclusives. The Radio tab gives users access to hundreds of Apple-curated music stations, broken up by genre, artist, and host.
On mobile, all your bidding is done within three tabs — Home, Search, and Your Library. Each section features its own set of straightforward subcategories, which gives users easy access to the service’s many features. The search window actively populates the results field, much like Google’s search engine, often providing exactly what you’re looking for after typing just a few characters. Spotify also has middling support for voice activation through devices like the Amazon Echo or Google Home.
Section winner: Spotify Music Spotify Music Social features Spotify’s social functions allow subscribers to follow friends and see what they listen to and who they follow. It also gives users the ability to share or recommend playlists, along with the ability to publish their listening history to Facebook, which then allows their Facebook friends to like or comment on the activity.
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