Kobe Onye · Follow
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I’m known as the person who subscribes to everything. Netflix? Got it. Hulu? Bundled with Disney+. Max? Only ad-free for me. And on and on. Music streaming, however, was one of my first subscriptions and is the one thing I think I’d always be subscribed to. I’ve bounced between Apple Music and Spotify for the past few years, finding a few things I prefer from each (and keeping my two main mood playlists up to date). However, I feel that it’s time to stick with one platform and one platform only. I’ll lay out what I like and dislike about each service, as well as which one I’m sticking to and what made that decision even easier.
Apple Music
I decided to give Apple Music another try after mostly using Spotify over the past year. Of course, when I moved back to it after over six months of being unsubscribed, I lost all of my playlists. Moving them back was a headache, and when I used a playlist moving service at least a few songs were moved incorrectly (and, in more than one case, were replaced with their non-explicit versions). After I got things settled though, here’s what I liked and disliked:
What I liked:
- The interface is less cluttered. As compared to Spotify’s home page on mobile, Apple Music’s main pages are more polished and not as busy. There also aren’t annoying pop-ups that are often just advertisem*nts for random artists.
- The sound quality is much better. Although it is subtle, it’s noticeable. Spotify has teased a higher sound quality tier for years, but as of the original publishing of this article it hasn’t been formally announced and is likely to cost more than regular premium.
- It has multiple radio stations and a larger array of playlists curated by real people. Spotify has changed more of their playlists to be customized to your music taste and the closest thing they have now to a radio station is the AI DJ feature.
- The shuffle is a more true shuffle. I found with Spotify that when I shuffled my multiple-day-long playlists, most of the songs I heard would be more recent additions to the playlist. In my opinion, their shuffle is heavily algorithm-led. Listening to nearly the same playlists on Apple Music brought back songs I hadn’t heard in months, if not years.
- There’s better lyric support as well as a built-in karaoke feature. Spotify relies on Musixmatch for their lyrics, and unless an artist signs up for an artist profile and is on top of adding their lyrics to the service then lyrics either don’t show up, take a longer time after the song’s original release to show up, or are incorrect. Apple’s lyrics feature is more reliable. Apple Music has also introduced a “Sing” feature where on select songs you can turn down the artist’s vocals and have a karaoke session anytime you want.
What I didn’t like:
- The recommendation algorithm isn’t as good as Spotify’s. Spotify has a very special way (read: a massive algorithm) of being able to recommend music through hundreds of automated playlists that Apple Music just isn’t so good at. Apple Music has fewer algorithmic playlists.
- The year in review features aren’t as good as Spotify’s. One big reason why Spotify Wrapped is such a massive event and is feverishly anticipated by subscribers is because Spotify integrates the feature tightly in their app and generally makes it a more visually and informationally compelling feature. Apple Music’s “Replay” feature has a playlist of your most played songs but points you to a website to access your stats.
- Sometimes Apple doesn’t play nice with non-Apple products. For example, I can’t cast from the Apple Music app to any of my Google Home products. I can ask my Nest Hub to play music on Apple Music, though.
Spotify
I feel like Spotify knows me better than I know myself. It was my introduction to music streaming when I was a teenager, and I’ve logged hundreds of thousands of listening minutes through it. Here’s what I’ve liked and disliked about it over the last few years:
What I liked:
- As mentioned above, it has a better recommendation platform.
- Spotify is more willing to experiment with new features/ideas. For example, there are a few random times when it’ll surprise you with a special feature that often results in the creation of a surprise playlist. You can also make playlists that blend a friend’s music taste with yours, and the everchanging “Daylist” feature introduced in September was a fun addition. Some features reward top listeners of artists with early access to concert tickets, exclusive merch discounts, or even a Discord-like chat with a top artist, which I did last fall with Verite.
- Spotify plays fair. You can cast music you’re listening to, it works much better cross-platform, and you can control music playing on other devices from any Spotify app or the web player.
What I didn’t like:
- The interface is very cluttered. Spotify wants to be the app you turn to for all your auditory needs, and it keeps getting bigger. However, the random popups (that often function as ads for artists) and the TikTok-like interface can become annoying.
- As mentioned earlier, the shuffle isn’t as good and lyrics are often hit or miss.
Now that I’ve listed the reasons, what streaming service did I go with? If you can’t already tell, I went with Apple Music. I love how the shuffle works, the improved sound quality, and how more playlists are curated by editors. On top of that, Apple’s subscription bundle called Apple One makes the decision even easier.
What’s Apple One?
Apple One is a bundle of subscriptions from Apple that can save you money if you use multiple services. Generally, the base bundle includes iCloud+ (iCloud storage that integrates with Apple products), Apple TV+ (According to John Oliver, “Where celebrities go to hide”), Apple Music, and Apple Arcade (special versions of popular games that are ad and in-app purchase free). If you subscribe to two or more of these subscriptions, you could save some money each month by bundling. To see more, on an iPhone or iPad go to Settings -> (your name) -> Subscriptions.
Did this article help you make a decision? Let me know in the comments.
