Apple Music vs. Spotify Buyer's Guide

[dynAdZ]

I switched to Spotify due to:
- Superior interface on desktop
- Broader library of music, with both more independent artists and some game soundtracks missing from Apple.
- Apple had no localized playlists. For instance all christmass music playlists were filled with US songs. Spotify has one made specifically for my country additionally to more international ones.
- Spotify music discovery actually suggests good stuff
- Ability to control music playback on mac using spotify on phone
What I miss
- Lossless quality
- Desktop Spotify has no AirPlay support, sucks with homepods

I can recommend Airfoil from Rogue Amoba. It enables you to send Spotify from your Mac to a set or individual HomePods in your house. Very convenient.

 

[txscott]

Apple One works out better for me. I use the 2TB iCloud subscription for unlimited cameras on HomeKit Secure video and I want Apple TV and a music app. iCloud 2TB + Spotify Family + Apple TV = $36.85/month. Apple One =$37.95/month, news, fitness, arcade comes with that. The wife uses fitness and plays arcade.

I can use airplay to send music to my multi room Denon stereo system. Control volume and track on the system on my watch, even from the pool. Works in the car, on all my devices.

Apple Music works well for me and I don't have to give my data to Spotify.

 

[TheNewLou]

It's not for everyone, but for those comfortable with Linux: with free Jellyfin and a $15 Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, you can rip your own CDs and vinyl (and DVDs & Blu-rays) and have your legally purchased media at your fingertips on your home network and across the internet

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The volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached.

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There's a native iPhone/iPad/Apple TV app for movies, and a native iPhone app for music

Never any ads. No semi-annual price increases. Nothing coming out of your bank account every month, except for any new media you want.

 

[jc.exposito]

If you live in other country different than USA... Apple Music is just missing all your local hits. I can't find popular local songs, or all the oldies they played in our clubs. But I have no problem playing creedence clearwater revival complete collection.
Also, the feature to remotely handle the playlist from other device is years ahead of Apple Music UX: it doesn't just exists. They have tried in Car Play without any success, I haven't be able to handle the music playing in the car from another device, it doesn't work.

 

[BMox81]

Surprised that Spotify has as many positive comments as it does in this thread tbh!

 

[Sundaypapers123]

Apple Music > Spotify

All you have to do is listen.

The sound on Apple Music is VASTLY superior to Spotify.

 

[tomtad]

I am trying Apple Music again on their free trial and it is astonishing how terrible it is. There’s small hiccups in the audio playback quite often (as in every third song), hard to find anything to listen to unless I search for every song myself and manually add it to a playlist, lacking the big library of original live sessions that Spotify has, no direct to device streaming like Spotify Connect.

Honestly it feels like a beta and many many years behind Spotify as a music streaming service, I won’t continue paying for it after the free trial and delete the app and use Spotify again instead.

Apple’s services really feel like a compromise these days, Music is the same as Maps, sure it technically does what it says it will but it does it substantially worse than the competition did it 10 years ago.

I think a lot of it comes down to focus. Spotify just produces Spotify, that is it's sole focus and all it ever works on.

Apple on the other hand has a thousand other things and Apple Music falls down the priority list it seems. I also think Apple;s highly centralised management doesn't help things. You can just imagine all Cook and the other execs talk about now is Vision Pro while other products languish with lack of attention.

 

[one more]

Bottom line is that Spotify for me is an inferior solution designed for people that do not care to own their music and are happy to loose everything if they suddenly stop paying the subscription.

This is in case you own your tracks and albums. However, if you stream only, cancelling your subscription will have worse consequences with Apple Music, which will wipe everything clean. If you cancel your Spotify subscription, it will still keep your playlists.

 

[bpp85]

Surprised that Spotify has as many positive comments as it does in this thread tbh!

Spotify is one of the apps that even us apple fanboys prefer 😁

 

[Elagabalus]

I used Spotify but switched to Apple Music when it first came out. Personally I like it and it works well for me both with finding new stuff to listen to and the audio quality of it. Occasionally I bump into songs or albums I can’t find but then I usually buy the cd instead.

 

[stumpapi]

Apple Music and Spotify overwhelmingly dominate the music streaming space, but the two services offer surprisingly different experiences despite their competitive pricing, so which is best?

The key point here isn't the music but rather the app itself. Both have essentially the same catalog and offer many of the same features for searching, favorites, playlists, etc. However, I find the apps to be very different experiences.

I accept there are personal opinions, but my experience with Apple Music has been a total disappointment in every aspect of using it. I have been on my sixth free trial of Apple Music over the past few years, and as with each previous trial, I ended up canceling it within the first week because of the issues, interface, and features.

My interest is finding and adding to playlists music that matches searches for whatever I am interested in, my mood, to listen to while doing a task or a particular genre of interest. When I search in Apple Music, I get limited results that are always about the same, and regardless of what I use in the search box, it includes music I have no interest in. I could never figure out how Rap, Hip Hop, or Explicit content would return in a search for Celtic Relaxation Music for Sleep. But it has. Apple Music doesn't seem to understand what instrumental means, as many results still have lyrics. It also doesn't understand the context. If I ask for recommendations to listen to fall asleep, I often get these loud beats or techno music that are not conducive to relaxing.

With Spotify, the results from my search are spot on (pun intended). Usually, they are so well-matched that I end up adding them to my library or creating a playlist and downloading them. With Apple Music, the results are few; with Spotify, there is a long list to scroll through. Spotify has outstanding music discovery, searching, recommendations, etc.

The Apple Music Interface is as bad as possible, especially on the smaller iPhone screen. Even on the Mac, it reminds me of the MSDOS apps I used to run long ago. One look at the Apple Music Library reminds me of using a DOS database.

I find the Spotify interface more attractive, intuitive, and easily navigated and managed. Also, managing my playlists and songs is easy and intuitive for online or offline listening. It only takes a moment to edit or organize on Spotify.

I find the biggest headache for me is the Apple Music Library. Even after days, many songs remain in the status column as waiting, ineligible, or as an error. No help is offered to fix or explain why they are listed that way or the problem. None of this hassle is possible on Spotify.

Spotify Connect makes connecting to any speaker easy, either through streaming or a voice assistant like Sonos can be set up with. Siri often does not understand when I ask to play music, or can't find the music, or plays the same song after each request. I have had better luck asking Siri to use Spotify than Apple Music. Sometimes, Apple Music won't even recognize my HomePods on my local network, which often requires rebooting my phone and HomePods to fix. Perhaps it is not Apple Music but one of the many issues with HomeKit, but it is annoying.

I will admit that I prefer the Apple Watch Apple Music app over the Spotify App and find the Spatial Audio a nice feature.

I have provided feedback to Apple many times, but I have seen little change, and my frustrations remain. For now, I will stay with Spotify and, perhaps, another day, try another free trial of Apple Music again.

 

[tmanto02]

Spotify is better, but I still use Apple Music as it’s part of the Apple Obe subscription bundle and can’t justify paying for a seperate streaming service

 

[gadgetgirl85]

I want to be able to use Apple music on my google device - will it ever happen? Unlikely

 

[ofarlig]

Is it possible you are having network issues. 4 me, AM works fine with Wired and Wireless CarPlay, on my ATV, iPad, and iPhone.
Are you having any other issues?

Nope, no network issues, Spotify works great but AM gets audio hiccups regularly.

 

[Yoms]

conventional library management, the ability to merge their own music library with the streaming service,

Actually, this part was a horrible experience to me. Apple Music completely messed with my own music library (CD ripped with XLD). Some of my files/songs went missing or were no longer playable in my region although I bought the CD.

I would always advise to split your own files (mp3, FLAC, ALAC, etc.) and the Music subscription in two different apps.

 

[LeeW]

And the most important point not mentioned: Spotify pays artists unfairly and very little. So Spotify - a big nope, never, no way!

Artists can fight their own battles. And even more, they don't need to put their music on Spotify.

 

[Seuck]

There is a game-changer difference, in my opinion.
You obviously will not pay forever and what happens once you stop paying is completely different in the two platforms.
On Apple Music you loose everything, the whole library and playlists of music you added or marked as favourite.
No matter if you have been paying for just some months or for years, you keep nothing.
On Spotify you keep everything in your library, switching automatically to the free tier with adds.
Apple Music offers three months of grace period to re-subscribe and keep your library. After that your data will be wiped out.

 

[macford]

I feel like this is going to become an iOS/Android thing going forward. Both are absolutely fine and it really comes down to which one you're most comfortable with. There will be some features better on Apple Music and some on Android and it's unlikely than any will be a killer feature that will cause people to switch. They'll just continue to roll along together for a long time.

 

[atomic.flip]

Clearly this would be the best place for an unbiased review. LOL. But I agree I prefer Apple Music by miles.

 

[ryanhunt]

I was a long time Spotify subscriber, having subscribed long before Apple Music existed but I switched to Apple Music for two key reasons and I'll never switch back:

1. A lack of 2-Factor Auth in Spotify, which led my account to be hacked and taken over, whilst this is now solved (they have 2-Factor auth now), the way Spotify handled it was abhorrent. I had my account email/password changed without my knowledge, had all my recent plays/likes removed and when I contacted Spotify support they restored my likes/plays in a different order and offered me only one month free individual subscription when I was on the family plan.

2. Family support, especially in terms of limited explicit content. Spotify has a Spotify Kids app, which is a good idea, but it's a completely walled garden and only has curated songs as chosen by Spotify and is often missing new/popular songs my kids actually wanted to listen to that are not explicit. Apple Music on the other hand, my kids have access to the complete catalog/library and I can easily limit the songs they listen to, including giving access to all to my older kids and none to my younger ones.

Spotify has FAR superior music discoverability, and better handling of public playlists, but I'm much happier as an Apple Music subscriber if only for those two points above.

 

[SFjohn]

I don’t rent music, but every few years I’ll sign up for a month of Spotify to discover new music to purchase from Apple. It’s Spotify because I can search for “Men Singing about Men”. Apple Music doesn’t support that specific search for music, so it’s useless to me. 🤷

 

[Abazigal]

I am currently trying Youtube Music out as I am on a bit of a subscription purge for the new year. It always bugged me that I was getting it free as part of my YouTube premium subscription, but never really used it. I also wish there was an option to filter out videos uploaded to YouTube. I just want the songs.

So far, I have also discontinued the following:

1) Netflix
2) Disney+ (my annual subscription will end in Feb, and I have no plans to renew)
3) Apple One (keeping iCloud)
4) Lockdown (wasn't getting much use out of its VPN service)

I did end up subscribing to Play though (linking it because the name doesn't make it the easiest to locate in the App Store; you have to specifically search for "play YouTube". Not trying to push the app, just linking it here for ease of access to anyone interested in knowing more about it for context.

Play 2.0 Adds YouTube Channel Support, Folders, and a New Premium Subscription

Marcos Tanaka’s Play has become the way I watch YouTube, which isn’t something I expected would happen as much as I’ve enjoyed the app since its launch early last year. The app, available on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV, started as a way to save YouTube links to watch later. That made Play

www.macstories.net

Let's see how long this lasts.

 

[Zoolevation]

I tried AM for one year, but switch back to Spotify last week, this is my pros and cons list:

Apple Music:
+ Dolby Atmos and High Res quality
+ Lyrics view
+ Homepod/Siri support
+ UI on iOS as well MacOS app looks clean and more intuitive than Spotify.
+ Edit the metadata of songs, makes your library looks cleaner.
+ Better payout for artist.

- Algorithmic playlists are very limited.
- Search is the biggest joke, it's faster to call my grandma and ask if she can walk to the local library and look for a specific book then search for a song in Apple Music.
- No similar feature like Spotify connect (I really don't understand why Apple can't do this)
- Airplay in the desktop is buggy, also the selection of audio output I find very confusing (in macOS)
- When listen to High Res, there is no DAC/hardware support directly in the app (Qubuz and Tidal has this)
- When listen to High Res, no auto change of sample rate in macOS + connected DAC, weird enough iOS does this right (This app solve this for macOS)
- Apple Music UI is great but the responsive is slow, Spotify is way faster with starting a track once clicked on it.
- no Last.fm support
- Limited social sharing features

Spotify:
+ Algorithmic playlists, Spotify nails this in every way.
+ Spotify Connect
+ Wider support with other apps
+ Great social sharing features
+ Smooth desktop and iOS app, very responsive.
+ Great search
+ Last.fm support

- No HiFi quality and Dolby Atmos
- UI is going downwards since last year, song overview is missing in the Library for example)
- Podcast also shown, less focus on music
- No Airplay 2 support (so no HomePod support)
- Smaller catalog (no Neil Young )
- No editing of Metadata

 

[JosephAW]

What’s really interesting is when one company removes an album that might be politically incorrect or questionable the other removes it as well so there’s no location to play the music unless you purchased it or downloaded it from another source.

 

[Nihilvor]

One of the main reasons I've not switched to Apple Music is the fact that, with Spotify, both me and my wife can sign into / share one account so only pay one subscription. You can't both listen at the same time but that hasn't ever been an issue. I use it for my commute... when I'm at work she uses it at home... we listen together.

Is this something you can do with Apple Music?

I use my wife's student account on my computer, so it's not an issue on Apple Music unless you have too many registered devices (I believe we have it on a phone and two computers).

I prefer Apple Music, but it's mostly because I like working from a central library of tracks that I pick out and put into playlists. I don't have much use for curation and find new music mostly from podcasts, reviews, or via the artists I already listen to.