Welcome to the 2019 music subscription showdown: The Rally in the Valley. Today, Silicon Valley takes on Silicon Scandinavia to face off and declare which paid music streaming service should win a spot in your life and on your Mac.
Having a music streaming subscription allows you to access a library of songs on-demand via any of your devices without having to make individual purchases. This means more choice for less money. So, without further ado, let’s meet the competitors who will be fighting it out.
What's Spotify vs What's iHeartRadio Spotify. Spotify is a streaming music giant which dates its origin back in October 2008. Literally, Spotify is the creator of the music streaming market. It is one of the world's biggest player in the music streaming market today, with over 200 million subscribers across the globe. While almost everyone is stuck at home due to coronavirus, music can be a great company. It can calm you down, boost your mood up, or keep you on track to stay productive. So we analyzed the top 4 music streaming apps in the Philippines, namely Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and YouTube Music, to help you decide which one you should get. What are you looking for in a mainstream music app? It sounds like you want something different than the usual suspects like Spotify. Apple Music, Google Play Music, and YouTubeMusic are some mainstream apps that are pretty good, each with their o.
Apple Music vs Spotify Takedown
First contender needs no introduction, it’s Spotify! With nearly 100 million paid subscribers, this Swedish streaming service has dominated the music scene since 2008. Its signature features include a discovery algorithm that easily crushes any competitor and free service that allows advertisers to capitalize on revenue.
The opponent comes all the way from San Francisco. This Silicon Valley giant has already gained a combined total of 50 million users on paid and trial subscriptions. It’s Apple Music! What is Apple Music? Why, it’s the music solution made from the same DNA as Apple devices.
Launched in 2015, Apple Music has risen up the leaderboard with feature releases such as notifications when your favorite artists publish new music and marriage to Siri voice commands, so all you have to do is ask Siri to play what you want to hear.
Below, these heavyweights will face each other based on their pricing, sound quality, music selection, device support, social sharing, and music discovery.
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Pricing for Apple Music vs Spotify
Weighing in at an equal cost of $9.99 a month for premium users, it’s hard to discern one subscription service from the other. The Apple Music family plan matches Spotify’s offering at $14.99 for up to six users. And just as Spotify for students costs $4.99, Apple Music for students is also $4.99.
So who is offering the better deal? This is a battle that will be fought in the details.
Apple Music offers a generous helping of free entertainment in the form of a three-month trial. Moving into the offence, if you download Spotify Premium you will receive a 30-day free trial. In addition to this, a premium Spotify download will score you a Google Home Mini as a sign-up bonus (limited time offer).
It’s impossible not to mention that Spotify offers a free subscription. However, due to the ads, the inability to skip tracks, and the below-par streaming quality, you should avoid acknowledging the existence of the free service if you do decide to download Spotify. As Spotify’s free service is really a disservice, the real fight is between Spotify Premium vs Apple Music.
Round winner: Tie. With two services offering a free trial, you might as well take advantage and try out what both Spotify and Apple Music offer before you buy.
Sound quality for Spotify vs Apple Music
In the second round, the services meet toe-to-toe in sound quality when listening through the Apple Music or Spotify web player. If you want the technical details, neither Spotify or Apple Music streams AAC files at a higher speed than 256 kbps (kilobits per second).
That doesn't mean bad quality at all. Another way to look at this is, if you’re listening through headphones or any sound system of acceptable quality, and sound waves travel into your ears the same way as every other human on the planet, you’re going to have a good time. So on mobile you can choose either Apple Music or Spotify to do the job.
But if you download Spotify to your desktop, it will use an Ogg Vorbis format and let you choose what bitrate to stream in, allowing for a maximum of up to 320 kbps.
Besides, any hardcore audiophile should know about Boom 3D, the system-wide audio enhancer and equalizer for Mac. Its innovative surround sound technology lets you turn even the most basic speakers into a quality listening experience.
Round winner: Spotify pips Apple to the post after another nail-biting, ear-vibrating round of Spotify Premium vs Apple Music.
Music selection on Apple Music vs Spotify
If this was a numbers game, the bookies favorite would be Apple Music. The scale tips in Apple Music’s favor with a catalogue of 50 million songs, which easily surpasses Spotify’s 40 million. Both subscription services offer early access to certain albums, but Apple Music gets one more point as it sometimes offers exclusive music videos.
Apple has taken steps to secure more exclusives than the competition. Some Apple Music reviews suspect that’s because it doesn’t offer a free tier, so artists are more inclined to champion Apple Music over Spotify. iCloud Music Library is also a brilliant feature to have on hand for when a record isn’t available to stream but is to purchase. So, if you’re asking yourself: is Apple Music worth it, the music selection is where you get the most bang for your buck.
Round winner: Hands down, Apple Music. With the additional ethical bonus that somewhere, deep down, you believe that your money is being sent to support the struggling artists.
Honorable mention: Maybe the underground is where you feed your audio cravings? Many unsigned artists are still uploading their tracks to video hosting platforms. Try Downie to download internet videos into MP3s. Find a video you want to download and drag and drop it into your Downie browser extension, so you can download videos from over 1,200 sites, including Facebook, Vimeo, and Instagram.
Supported devices for Spotify vs Apple Music
Blow for blow, from a hardware support perspective, you could argue Apple Music and Spotify are both excellent. Apple Music excels if you’re heavily invested in the Apple hardware setup. If you have an Apple TV, HomePod, and Apple Watch, then Apple Music has Spotify against the ropes.
As a countermeasure, Spotify aims to set up its own ecosystem using Google Home as its home-assistant delivery partner. Here’s where you can see the genius behind Spotify’s free Google Home gift. This strategy provides a turn-key solution for Spotify to match that of Apple’s immersive experience.
When it comes to other listening devices, if you use the Amazon Echo then Spotify holds its own with a seamless integration via Alexa. However, if you listen via Sonos, although you can use Spotify Connect inside the native Spotify app to take control, Sonos has a custom Apple Music interface, so the device and music can be controlled from one place.
If you’re yet to purchase a home solution, ask yourself, what feels more comfortable: saying Hey Siri, Hey Google, or Hey Alexa, and that will be a good indicator.
Round winner: If your life is Apple-connected, then Apple Music. However, as it’s more inclusive for other devices, Spotify emerges as the round winner.
Value of social sharing on Apple Music vs Spotify
Peppered with punchy social features, the clash of Apple Music vs Spotify heats up. Whether you choose to access Apple Music or download Spotify, you can try out music sharing with your friends by collaborating to make playlists.
Perhaps you want access to your favorite artists? Keep up to date with their latest releases and concert dates by following them in just one click on both platforms.
After close inspection, it seems that many popular musicians are more active in posting updates on Apple Music, and it's easier to find this content than it is on Spotify.
Both services also let you follow friends and, when on desktop, you can see what they are listening to in real time. While Apple’s social experience, known as Connect, is rumored to be shutting down, coming in hot and heavy, Spotify’s solid social media integration gives the service the upper hand. Integrate your Spotify account with Facebook and Twitter to access your friends' and followers' playlists and favorite songs.
Round winner: It’s hard to pick Spotify or Apple Music, are you a friend or a fan? Even though Apple creates a playlist for you based on what your friends are listening to, it’s not enough to topple Spotify, which some declare is the new social network.
Discover new music on Spotify vs Apple Music
Surely this is the deciding aspect in the Spotify Premium vs Apple Music confrontation. It’s the one we’ve all been waiting for. When all the songs have been counted and the devices have been integrated, it comes down to which service has better taste.
Spotify’s discovery algorithm is the reigning champion of all streaming, subscription, and recommendation services. So much so that Google has pinched it, Netflix hungers for it, and it looks like Apple Music is going to take a good job at it. Some avid fans of Spotify have been known to say that the Discover Weekly feature knows them better than their own family.
How do discovery algorithms work? When you first sign up for each service, both ask you for your favorite genres and artists to get a solid foundation of what you like to listen to. Once you start browsing, the services take into account your likes and dislikes to help fine-tune their recommendations.
Apple Music has a few personalized playlists that update weekly. The first is New Music Mix, there is also Chill Mix, which is similar to New Music Mix but more relaxing. Favorite Mix is a collection of songs you’ve favorited. Compare this with Spotify’s Browse tab that coalesces: Charts, New Releases, Mood Mixes, and endless Because You Listened To playlists.
Round winner: Spotify wins in terms of being a better discovery engine when comparing Spotify vs Apple Music.
Declare the music service winner
When the final bell rings, it’s up to you to decide which features make up the winning combination. Listeners should recognize that they have been spoiled for choice — technology’s amazing ability to discover something new to your taste is an art form. Still undecided? Check out a complete overview of pros and cons in the infographic below.
If the music discovery process delights you then why not look to other subscription services to browse what’s on offer?
Similarly to the music discovery, you can take a look at app discovery platforms like Setapp that will transform the way you work and play. Setapp is the leading app subscription service with a curated library of more than 150 best apps, including Boom 3D and Downie. The platform lets you download apps without having to pay individually for their full pro versions. Best of all, it’s available for a free 7-day trial and is a knock-out on all counts.
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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The music streaming war is at its peak. Every company wants a pie of this growing market trend. So far, Spotify is leading the race with the absolute majority. Biggies like Amazon, Apple, and Google with YouTube Music are catching up to the Swedish company’s lead. Of course, even we wondered which one to pick and that lead to this comparison of YouTube Music vs. Spotify for streaming music in our office.
Speaking of Google, their journey has been eventful in music streaming. The search giant first tried their luck with Google Play Music, made it available as default on all Android devices, and yet failed to get meaningful traction among the users.
Afterward, Google ditched Play Music and announced YouTube Music, a brand-new music service with audio and video integration. To counter Spotify, Google is trying to leverage the YouTube platform for deep integration and aims to deliver better value for money combo.
In this post, we are comparing YouTube Music with Spotify. The comparison will cover their UI, discover menu, listening experience, price, features, and more. Let’s get started.
Cross-Platform Availability
Spotify is available on every platform. The app is accessible on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, web, Apple Watch, and Galaxy Watch. It also supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
Google has made YouTube Music available on iOS, Android, web, Windows, and macOS (via Progressive Web App).
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Read MoreUser Interface
YouTube Music uses a nice dark theme throughout the interface. You can navigate the major options from the bottom. The Settings menu and search rest at the top. The Library menu is nicely divided into downloads, liked songs, artists, and playlists. I like how the Player UI changes the color based on the music album.
Spotify has the best user interface among all other music streaming apps. It uses a gradient theme across the menus and sections. It almost gives you an effect of ambient lighting.
Unlike YouTube Music, the search menu is at the bottom, which is good for reaching it easily. Spotify also changes the player UI based on album color, but once again, the presentation and overall feel is better than YouTube Music.
Discover Songs
Discovering new music is as important as the listening experience. After all, these music streaming services offer millions of songs to the user, and one won’t want to spend much of their time finding new songs.
As for YouTube Music, the service asks for interested languages and artists for a personalized homepage. When you search for a song and start playing it, the app auto-queue similar suggestions for the user.
As expected, YouTube Music offers ready-to-go playlists for a workout, driving, happy mood, etc. My favorite function is Discover Mix, which put together a list of 50 songs and gets updated every Wednesday based on my listening habits and liked songs.
The concept is identical to Apple’s New Music Daily and Spotify’s New Music Friday.
Spotify also asks for languages and favorite artists for better recommendations. You can search for new songs by going into categories such as Rock, Dance, Chill, Jazz, and more.
When you create a playlist, Spotify suggests more songs based on the added tracks. And I have to say, they are usually spot on.
Spotify also creates a ‘Discover Weekly’ playlist that put together a list of new songs based on your listening history and liked songs. It doesn’t stop here. Spotify generates four daily mix playlists, which combines most listened songs as well as new ones.
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Read MoreListening Experience
As expected, both services offer high-quality 320kbps music streaming. YouTube Music offer stats for nerds option, which displays technical data for a song. You can enable the option by going into settings > playback & restriction > switching on stats for nerds menu.
As for Bluetooth streaming, it worked as expected with my Mi speaker and Funcl AI wireless earbuds. There was no delay or any weird behavior. My only issue was that YouTube Music couldn’t resume a song with a single tap gesture on my earphones' right earbud. It worked perfectly fine with Apple Music and Spotify. I would like to see lyrics support in the future update.
Spotify provides few functions to customize and improve the overall listening experience for the end-user. You can enable gapless playback to eliminate the delay between two songs.
It also comes with a built-in equalizer to make adjustments as per your music listening tastes.
Spotify provides audio normalization to balance out all the songs on a single scale. I usually don’t prefer that.
My favorite addition is behind the lyrics section. It is right under the listening UI and provides lyrics as well as cool trivia about the song.
Extra Features
YouTube Music has added video and lives performance section in the app. While listening to a song, one can quickly switch to video and play the clip from YouTube. I appreciate the integration but hate the behavior where my YouTube Music search history gets synced with the YouTube app.
YouTube Music supports Siri Shortcuts too. It’s available in the Settings menu. I have set it to play my Bollywood playlist when I speak, ‘Hey Siri, play some music.’
Spotify wants to be the hub of all audio streaming needs of a user. Last year, the company heavily invested in podcast products, and now it’s offering a solid podcast experience in the app. Just go to search, scroll down to podcast, and start following channels.
The app also comes with Facebook integration. You can connect it to your social account and follow your friends. Sadly, the service doesn’t offer Siri Shortcuts or iOS Widget support.
Price
Spotify offers three plans. Premium individual costs $10 per month. The Student plan is 50% off at $5 per month, and the Family plan starts at $30 per month, which lets you add five more members. The added functionalities include ad free experience, high music quality, and unlimited downloads. These prices are for the US region and may vary in different countries.
YouTube Music is a part of YouTube Premium, which costs $12 per month. The family plan is set at $18 per month. The plan offers ad-free YouTube experience, unlimited downloads, and background video playback.
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Level-Up Your Music Game
As you can see from the comparison above, both YouTube Music and Spotify have their pros and cons. YouTube Music shines with video integration and Siri Shortcuts. Spotify edges out rivals with more accurate song suggestions, podcast add-on, better UI, and lyrics integration.
Next up:Convinced about leaving Spotify for YouTube Music? Read the post below to learn how to move your playlist along with it.
Which Is Better Spotify App Or Spotify Music App Download
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Also See#spotify #YouTube MusicDid You Know
YouTube was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion.