Apple Music vs Spotify – Choosing the Ultimate Music Streaming Service

Music streaming platforms have become a central part of many people’s daily routines, providing access to a huge collection of songs and podcasts with just a few taps or clicks. But with so many options available, how do you choose the best one for you? This blog post will look at the similarities and differences between two of the most well-known music streaming services – Apple Music and Spotify. We will look at their features, prices, content, quality, and more to help you decide which one suits your needs and preferences better.

Apple Music vs Spotify: Features

Both Apple Music and Spotify offer a range of features that enhance your listening experience and help you discover new music. Here are some of the main features of each service:

Personalized playlists

Both services create personalized playlists based on your listening history, preferences, and mood. Apple Music has the For You tab, which offers playlists like Favorites Mix, New Music Mix, Chill Mix, and Friends Mix. Spotify has the Made For You section, which includes playlists like Discover Weekly, Release Radar, Daily Mixes, and On Repeat. Both services also offer curated playlists by genre, mood, activity, and more.

Radio stations

Both services offer radio stations that play music based on a genre, artist, or song. Apple Music has Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits, and Apple Music Country, which are live broadcast radio stations hosted by DJs and celebrities. Apple Music also has Apple Music Radio, which are algorithm-generated stations based on your preferences. Spotify has Spotify Radio, which is also an algorithm-generated station based on your preferences.

Social features

Both services allow you to follow your friends and see what they are listening to. Apple Music has the Listen Now tab, which shows your friends’ activity and playlists. Spotify has the Friend Activity sidebar, which shows your friends’ activity and playlists. Both services also let you share your music and playlists with others via social media, messaging apps, or email.

Offline listening

Both services let you download music and podcasts for offline listening. Apple Music provides the ability to store up to 100,000 songs on your device, while Spotify offers a download limit of 10,000 songs per device, with a maximum of five devices total.

Lyrics

Both services let you view the lyrics of the songs you are listening to. Apple Music has Live Lyrics, which syncs the lyrics with the music and lets you scroll, jump, or search within the lyrics. Spotify has Genius Lyrics, which shows the lyrics and some trivia or annotations about the song or artist.

Extras

Both services have some extra features that make them stand out from each other. Apple Music has Spatial Audio, which delivers immersive and multidimensional sound with Dolby Atmos. Apple Music also has Lossless Audio, which preserves every bit of the original audio file for the highest quality possible. Spotify has Podcasts and Audiobooks, which are integrated into the service and offer a wide range of content to listen to. Spotify also has Spotify Connect, which lets you control your music playback on various devices, such as speakers, TVs, game consoles, and smartwatches.

Apple Music vs Spotify: Price

Both Apple Music and Spotify have similar pricing plans, with one major difference: Spotify has a free plan, while Apple Music does not. Here are the pricing plans for each service:

Free plan

Spotify offers a free plan that lets you listen to music and podcasts with ads and some limitations, such as shuffle play, lower audio quality, and no offline listening. Apple Music does not have a free plan, but it offers a free trial for three months for new subscribers.

Individual plan

Both services offer an individual plan that costs $10.99 per month and lets you listen to music and podcasts without ads, with unlimited skips, high audio quality, and offline listening. Apple Music also offers a Voice Plan that costs $5.99 per month and lets you access the entire music catalog using Siri.

Student plan

Both services offer a student plan that costs $5.99 per month and lets you enjoy the same benefits as the individual plan, with the addition of some extras. Apple Music offers Apple TV+ for free, which is a video streaming service with original shows and movies. Spotify offers Hulu and SHOWTIME for free, which are video streaming services with various content.

Duo plan

Both services offer a duo plan that costs $14.99 per month and lets you share the subscription with one other person who lives with you. You can enjoy the same benefits as the individual plan, with the addition of some extras. Apple Music offers a Family Sharing feature, which lets you share your music, playlists, and purchases with up to six family members. Spotify offers a Duo Mix playlist, which is a personalized playlist based on your and your partner’s music tastes.

Family plan

Both services offer a family plan that costs $16.99 per month and lets you share the subscription with up to six family members who live with you. You can enjoy the same benefits as the individual plan, with the addition of some extras. Apple Music offers a Family Sharing feature that lets you share your music, playlists, and purchases with your family members. Spotify offers a Family Mix playlist, which is a personalized playlist based on your and your family’s music tastes.

Apple Music vs Spotify: Content

Both Apple Music and Spotify have a huge content library, with over 100 million songs and over 80 million songs, respectively. They also have a variety of genres, artists, albums, and playlists to choose from. However, there are some differences in the content that each service offers.

Music catalog

Both services have most of the popular and mainstream music that you would expect to find, as well as some exclusive and original content. However, there may be some differences in the availability and timing of some music, depending on the deals and agreements that each service has with the labels and artists. For example, some albums or songs may be released earlier or exclusively on one service and not the other, or some albums or songs may be removed or added to one service and not the other. These differences are usually temporary and not very significant, but they may affect your listening experience if you are looking for a specific song or album that is not available on your preferred service.

Podcasts and audiobooks

Spotify has a clear advantage over Apple Music when it comes to podcasts and audiobooks, as it has integrated them into its service and offers a wide range of content to listen to. You can find podcasts and audiobooks on various topics, such as news, comedy, sports, education, entertainment, and more. You can also listen to exclusive and original podcasts and audiobooks that are only available on Spotify, such as The Joe Rogan Experience, The Michelle Obama Podcast, The Harry Potter Series, and more. Apple Music, on the other hand, does not have podcasts and audiobooks as part of its service, and you have to use separate apps, such as Apple Podcasts and Apple Books, to access them. This may be inconvenient and less seamless for some users who want to have everything in one place.

Classical music

Apple Music has a clear advantage over Spotify when it comes to classical music, as it has launched a dedicated app called Apple Music Classical that offers over 5 million classical music tracks in lossless and hi-res audio. You can access the app for free if you are an Apple Music subscriber, and you can enjoy a curated and comprehensive collection of classical music with features such as Composer Pages, Essential Albums, Work Pages, Mood Playlists, and more. Spotify, on the other hand, does not have a dedicated app for classical music, and you have to rely on its regular app and search function to find classical music. This may be less satisfying and more challenging for some users who want to have a better and deeper experience with classical music.

Apple Music vs Spotify: Quality

Both Apple Music and Spotify offer high-quality audio streaming, with the option to adjust the quality based on your preference and data usage. However, there are some differences in the quality that each service offers.

Audio formats

Both services use different audio formats to encode and compress their music. Apple Music uses AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), which is a lossy format that reduces the file size while preserving most of the original sound quality. Spotify uses OGG Vorbis, which is another lossy format that also reduces the file size while preserving most of the original sound quality. However, some audiophiles may argue that AAC is slightly better than OGG Vorbis in terms of sound quality, as it has a higher bitrate and a more efficient compression algorithm. However, this difference is not very noticeable for most listeners, and it may depend on other factors, such as your device, headphones, and network connection.

Audio quality

Both services offer different levels of audio quality that you can choose from, depending on your preference and data usage. Apple Music offers four levels of audio quality: High Efficiency (HE-AAC 256 kbps), High Quality (AAC 256 kbps), Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/48 kHz), and Hi-Res Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/192 kHz). Spotify offers five levels of audio quality: Low (OGG Vorbis 24 kbps), Normal (OGG Vorbis 96 kbps), High (OGG Vorbis 160 kbps), and Very High (OGG Vorbis 320 kbps).

Spatial audio

Apple Music has a clear advantage over Spotify when it comes to spatial audio, as it offers Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, which delivers immersive and multidimensional sound that makes you feel like you are in the middle of the music. You can access this feature for free if you are an Apple Music subscriber, and you can enjoy thousands of songs that have been specially mixed and mastered for spatial audio. You can also see a Dolby Atmos badge on the songs and albums that support this feature. Spotify, on the other hand, does not have spatial audio as part of its service, and you have to rely on external devices, such as headphones or speakers, that support this feature. However, Spotify has announced that it will launch a HiFi tier later this year, which will offer lossless audio and possibly spatial audio as well.

Summary of the main differences between Apple Music and Spotify

Who has a better UI: Apple Music or Spotify?

The design of a music streaming app, including its user interface and user experience, is vital to how well the users are able to use the service and how much they enjoy it. It is up to the individual to decide which of the two streaming services, Apple Music or Spotify, works best for them. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of user interface and user experience. However, it seems that Spotify has a slight edge over Apple Music in terms of UI and UX.

Here are some of the reasons why:

• Spotify has a cleaner and better-organized user interface, design, and layout. It prioritizes personalization by prominently featuring recently played songs, artists, and suggestions tailored to the user’s preferences. The user interface of Apple Music is well-designed; however, there are a lot of tabs on the screen, which can be overwhelming.
• Spotify presents a visually appealing dark interface that is gentler on the eyes compared to Apple Music’s white interface. Additionally, Spotify’s music player is more user-friendly, consolidating skip, play, shuffle, and repeat buttons within the same interface. In contrast, Apple Music’s player features smaller buttons, necessitating more swiping and tapping to access controls.
• Spotify excels in its discovery feature and page, offering an array of personalized playlists such as Discover Weekly, Release Radar, Daily Mixes, and On Repeat, along with curated playlists based on genre, mood, activity, and other factors. While Apple Music also provides personalized playlists like Favorites Mix, New Music Mix, Chill Mix, and Friends Mix, as well as curated playlists by genre, mood, and activity, they fall short in terms of accuracy and diversity compared to Spotify’s offerings.
• Spotify includes podcasts and audiobooks as part of its service, giving users access to a wide variety of content. In contrast, Apple Music lacks integration for podcasts and audiobooks, requiring users to use separate applications like Apple Podcasts and Apple Books to access such content. This can be less convenient and seamless for users who prefer having all their audio content in a single location.

Who has more users: Apple Music or Spotify?

Spotify has more users than Apple Music globally. As of June 30th, 2023, Spotify had 551 million monthly users, including 220 million premium subscribers. In comparison, Apple Music had 88 million global users as of June 2022 and 32.6 million users in the U.S. as of February 2023. Therefore, Spotify still has a significant lead over Apple Music in terms of user numbers.

Conclusion

As you can see, both Apple Music and Spotify have their pros and cons, and the best music streaming service for you may depend on your personal preferences, needs, and budget. Ultimately, the best way to find out which service is better for you is to try them out yourself and see which one you like more. You can try out each service without any cost using their free trial before deciding if you want to sign up for a plan. You can also switch between the services anytime, as you can easily transfer your music and playlists using third-party apps, such as SongShift or TuneMyMusic.

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