Teens Love iPhone and Apple Watch, But Not Apple Music and Apple TV+

[The_Gream]

1: most teenagers won’t be buying their next phone, there parents will.

2: Apple TV tends to have better quality and more mature offerings over all (unless you are a small child) then shows tailored for teenagers.

3: Most teenagers I have been around in the last 10 years have been undisciplined little crap heads (there have been exceptions). I understand why blue and green bubbles could be seen as an issue, but we had bullying when I was in school and no smartphones. Humans will always have a pecking order. The “everyone is a winner” adults will try to always point fingers and blame someone/something else than their lack of parenting.

 

[joshwithachance]

To be fair... hardly anybody likes Apple Music or TV+.

 

[Unami]

Spotify is just better where it counts (music library, algorithm, search). I'd guess, most of the 30% that use Apple music get it via Apple One subscription from their parents.

AppleTV+ is nice for what it is (although too expensive outside apple one). But it's not as big as the others - and there's even less there for teenagers - if anything at all.

 

[cateye]

where did i do that?

Exhibit A:

spotify is slowly killing themselves by raising prices while moving more previously free features behind their paid tier.

You make the assumption that the only reason why teens use Spotify is because it has a free tier, and if both cost money, then people will choose Apple Music because... reasons. Meaning, there has to be some easy-to-explain reason other than preference, other than it being better, that people would choose Spotify over Apple Music.

Or, you know, maybe some quantity of people prefer Spotify and find it more worth their time and money than Apple Music. They are very different services, I don't know why this should be a surprise.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Makes sense. If you grew up with streaming music, Spotify is where it’s been for some time. I don’t use it, but that’s because I have a massive music collection I’ve curated myself over the years. Most of what I listen to isn’t on streaming services. Most of the artists and their albums are. But I have tons of live music and stuff I’ve ripped from awards shows that will probably ever air again. Apple Music’s ability to integrate their streaming service with one’s one personal media library is unmatched, in my book, even if not perfect.

When I started digitizing music, I was ripping concert DVD and VHS audio, ripping all my CDs to lossless - I would even find DVDs with 5.1 mixes or PCM audio to make lossless concert rips or instrumentals or vocal tracks of music for which there otherwise weren’t any. So yeah, big library of all sorts of unreleased music, and the ability to use smart playlists, track ratings and playcounts is too valuable to switch to a glorified streaming only service.

 

[iObama]

spotify is slowly killing themselves by raising prices while moving more previously free features behind their paid tier. i see more moving over to apple music in the future.

A great example of why Apple's getting so much heat in the EU.

Apple can afford to have Apple Music lose money, whereas it's Spotify's core business. If Spotify isn't able to compete on price, they'll be dead in the water. Then, we can watch our Apple Music subscription cost rise as there won't be meaningful competition.

In addition, Spotify's has App Store costs and restrictions to deal with that Apple just doesn't.

I'm an Apple Music subscriber, but the whole situation kinda sucks.

(bring on the angry reactions, but you know it's true lol)

 

[iObama]

Makes sense. If you grew up with streaming music, Spotify is where it’s been for some time. I don’t use it, but that’s because I have a massive music collection I’ve curated myself over the years. Most of what I listen to isn’t on streaming services. Most of the artists and their albums are. But I have tons of live music and stuff I’ve ripped from awards shows that will probably ever air again. Apple Music’s ability to integrate their streaming service with one’s one personal media library is unmatched, in my book, even if not perfect.

Yep, same here. Having a library is the main draw for me on AM. Just wish we could dip into our iCloud storage in order to store lossless files.

 

[JosephAW]

Nothing about Apple Arcade

 

[sw1tcher]

Is there anything actually, uh, you know... good that's exclusive to Apple TV? Ted Lasso is probably the only thing I can think of.

I've really enjoyed these shows

• Ted Lasso
• Slow Horses
• Masters of the Air
• Silo
• Severance
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
• Black Bird
• H/jack

 

[dustin_]

Exhibit A:



You make the churlish assumption that the only reason why teens use Spotify is because it has a free tier, and if both cost money, then people will choose Apple Music because... reasons. Just because, I guess? Because Apple?

Maybe people like Spotify better? Hot take, I know.

i’m sorry but you are putting words in my mouth. i never said teens only use spotify because it’s free. i said spotify is raising prices & moving previously free features behind their paid tier. i expect this combination of things to bump some folks over to apple music.

you’re getting upset over an imaginary grievance, my friend.

 

[Born Again]

Apple Music is a mess.

Amazon music is better.

Love Spotify

 

[TheMountainLife]

spotify is slowly killing themselves by raising prices while moving more previously free features behind their paid tier. i see more moving over to apple music in the future.

I'm not going anywhere. I'm paying $10.99 a month for their music and Hulu bundle.

Last I changed music services was when Tidal, Apple Music and Deezer were truly competing for subscribers. Now its just too much of a hassle to move my favorite playlists, liked songs and curated artists I'm likely to enjoy. At least with Spotify I can easily download music offline. Apple Music its impossible to offline your entire library unless you create an entire playlist containing all your music.

 

[delsoul]

Apple lost me on their music when they kept forcing U2 albums on me 🤣

 

[antiprotest]

" causes "social stigma, exclusion, and blame [in teens]". Uhh, isn't that all of social media? Why don't we have the US DoJ doing something about that?

Also, that's not precisely a legal issue even if true. If the purpose is anti-trust, then this aspect in the complaint is there only for emotional manipulation.

 

[antiprotest]

Apple lost me on their music when they kept forcing U2 albums on me 🤣

And we will never forget.

 

[nt5672]

Apple services in general are terrible. More of Apple's (Cooks's) strategy to get keynote features for minimum cost. After being the king of usability, Apple forgot about it some 8 to 10 years ago in favor of being new and different.

More history of Ive's minimalism over functionality.

What we need is new and different (to satisfy the teenagers) but usable to make it a good experience.

 

[sw1tcher]

I think the blue bubble/green bubble thing is overblown. Sure, being a green bubble and having all the technical issues with poor compression, etc. is bad.

But the real stigma is that someone had all this money and chose to buy an Android phone. It's like you could have chosen to wear something cool like Converse shoes, but instead you chose to wear something unfashionable.

You're clearly not a teen.

The blue bubble vs green bubble thing is real for teens.

Converse? 🤣 From the same Piper Sandler teen survey:

• Nike remains the No. 1 favorite footwear brand, but mindshare decreased 190 bps Y/Y and 230 bps from fall 2023.
• New Balance gained the most footwear mindshare Y/Y, while Converse lost the most footwear mindshare Y/Y.

 

[iObama]

Does anyone actually love Apple Music? Or do we all just put up with it? After the Apple Podcasts app it's the slowest, buggiest app on my phone. And the experience only gets worse when I use it with a HomePod.

It's bundled with Apple One so I can't justify paying for Spotify, but I truly find it barely usable, and I've spent more hours troubleshooting it than I care to think about.

I love Apple Music. I didn't use to, and would often switch back and forth between it and Spotify, but I'd say it's been pretty killer the last 5 years or so. There are things about AM that bother me, but Spotify hasn't been for me ever since they started shoving podcasts into every corner of the app.

 

[cateye]

i’m sorry but you are putting words in my mouth. i never said teens only use spotify because it’s free. i said spotify is raising prices & moving previously free features behind their paid tier. i expect this combination of things to bump some folks over to apple music.

you’re getting upset over an imaginary grievance, my friend.

You're constructing a logical fallacy: That if they both cost money, if features on Spotify that were free become pay only, then some people will move to Apple Music. Why? Because Apple?

To be clear, no grievance against you or anything, just pushing back against the well-worn assumption that Apple automatically equals better, in any capacity. We should always demand more of Apple; they certainly take enough of our money.

 

[75Batt]

Spotify is just better where it counts (music library, algorithm, search). I'd guess, most of the 30% that use Apple music get it via Apple One subscription from their parents.

AppleTV+ is nice for what it is (although too expensive outside apple one). But it's not as big as the others - and there's even less there for teenagers - if anything at all.

You’d guess wrong. Apple Music had a tonne of subscribers before Apple One was even a thing.

I seem to find the opposite - can’t find any that on Spotify and comes up with all these z list versions of songs.

 

[dustin_]

You're constructing a logical fallacy: That if they both cost money, if features on Spotify that were free become pay only, then some people will move to Apple Music. Why? Because Apple?

no i’m not. i literally just saw a tiktok with thousands of comments complaining about spotify and their apparent lack of vision. if a feature such as shuffle goes behind a paid tier, and said paid tier is higher than the cost of apple music, there is a chance those previously free subscribers choose to try apple music instead.

i used spotify for years & couldn’t stand apple music. but with a recent apple music free trial i decided to move over & have stuck. it’s nice opening an app for music & not a million other things.

 

[Fortimir]

Is there anything actually, uh, you know... good that's exclusive to Apple TV? Ted Lasso is probably the only thing I can think of.

Absolutely. Some real bangers: For All Mankind, Severance, The Morning Show, Silo, Masters of the Air... and then I also really like Dickinson, Little America, Trying, Schmigadoon!, Slow Horses, and The Afterparty.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Dear Macrumors compadres,

We aren't remotely a demographic breakdown for Apple products, or Spotify, Samsung, etc. We never have and never will be.

These surveys of 500 folks or a 1000 folks are useless. The days of surveys are coming to an end, especially in political circles.

One guarantee in most surveys is that whatever Mom and Dad buy or want for Streaming Services is what the kids watch and by the time teens are in their twenties AppleTV+ suddenly becomes more appealing.

If Disney+ is to survive it has to expand beyond Star Wars/ILM, Marvel, and Disney Animations/PIXAR flicks. Adult content, dramas, serials, etc., have to expand, and no people aren't that interested in bundling Hulu and then getting tiered.

Netflix is up to $25 and change now. Time to cut the cord for myself. I dropped Disney+ because very little interested me around their main staples. I cannot stomach most of the crap on Prime [with the exceptions like Wheel of Time, Reacher, some movies but most of their serials that show promise are cancelled after one season so I don't bother investing my time in them. Still just a shipping service for me.

MAX is soon to be on the way out as well. Why? Like Netflix, Prime and Disney+/Hulu everyone is just repeatedly adding the same film contents between the four of them every quarter and then Netflix shoves 90% of content with the worst audio dubbings and content to boot.

For every single solid series produced, you get nine duds.

As soon as Fiber is installed I'm cancelling DISH and will ad a basic package with the Fiber.

I've wasted enough time on rehashed themes for several life times.

AppleTV+ is one of the only places whose original adult content is nearly always guaranteed to run three or more seasons. And it's quality.

Spotify is utter garbage and has been from day one. Apple Music has some areas they push I cannot stomach but that's music. There is so much to explore I have zero interest leaving, especially with Apple One that gives me News, Music, Video, iCloud+, consistency between the entire ecosystem all for a great price value.

Vellum for my novel publishing, Logic Pro/Pro Tools for Music production, Affinity Suite and LibreOffice/iWorks for other lesser needs, along with Pixelmator Pro, TeXLive, a bazillion other developer tools, including Xcode I keep busy.

That and over 600 books and counting at home to immerse myself in to pass the hours.

For all the great published works out in the world, the streaming services, sans Apple (still with duds to boot) are just as bad as Hollywood for the past several decades. It finds a hit and rehashes it to death for the next decade.

Marvel and DC are on the outs and yet we keep getting worse and worse new serials from them of characters only hardcore comic nerds even know about.

Here's to more Marvel and DC disasters and the box office. Here's to less Mob Films, Cop/Hospital/Fire Dramas and above all else, less Reality TV crap.

 

[Supermallet]

I'm surprised at the level of vitriol being leveled at Apple Music. I use it daily and I've never found issue with it, and Apple has consistently added new features. I love that it plays Spatial Audio automatically. My only gripe with it is that is no UPNP support for streaming to devices that don't support Airplay, as airplay resamples the audio.

Many likely do not care about this but getting lossless streaming for $10/month is a huge deal for me. Spotify doesn't even offer lossless and the other services that do like Tidal and Qobuz cost more per month. I don't know if Amazon does lossless or not because I'm not ever going to subscribe to any Amazon service other than Prime, and I don't even like doing that.

 

[cateye]

no i’m not. i literally just saw a tiktok with thousands of comments complaining about spotify and their apparent lack of vision. if a feature such as shuffle goes behind a paid tier, and said paid tier is higher than the cost of apple music, there is a chance those previously free subscribers choose to try apple music instead.

i used spotify for years & couldn’t stand apple music. but with a recent apple music free trial i decided to move over & have stuck. it’s nice opening an app for music & not a million other things.

That's fair, and I better understand the point you were making. No hard feelings intended.