Spotify versus Apple Music – which is better?
The two most popular music streaming platforms to choose from are Spotify and Apple Music, and at first glance they seem to offer similar content. The question is – is Spotify better than Apple Music?
Which music streaming service is best for you is personal and depends on what you’re looking for from your streaming experience. When it comes to Apple Music versus Spotify, there’s a variety of factors to take into account before you choose a platform to subscribe to.
Things worth considering when you’re choosing a streaming subscription include the extra features on offer, the catalogue of songs available and, of course, the all-important price.
Is Spotify cheaper than Apple Music?
The cost of music streaming might be a deal breaker. Compared to Spotify, Apple Music is the same price. Both platforms are $9.99 a month, with varying options like Student and Family depending on what subscription you’re going for.
While Spotify has a free version with ads and limits on skips per hour, Apple Music has no free offering. Spotify Premium, Spotify’s paid subscription and equivalent of Apple Music offers unlimited streaming and skips, free of advertising, with offline listening. Those are all features offered by Apple Music, too.
Which music streaming service has the most songs?
As of 2021, Apple Music has 75 million songs – more songs to stream than Spotify, which currently has 70 million tracks available on both free and Premium.
In terms of song discovery, Spotify is generally considered to be excellent at recommending new artists and putting together playlists, with a fearsome algorithm that seems to read your mind.
But… the discovery features of Apple Music are also very good, with similar artists playing automatically after tracks and personalised playlists that introduce you to songs you never knew existed.
Extra goodies
Spotify tends to offer the best podcast selection, whilst Apple Music has exclusive radio stations if you enjoy the human connection of broadcasting.
If the quality of audio is a deciding factor for you as a listener, Apple Music offers HiFi streaming. This year it jumped the gun on Spotify’s HiFi streaming announcement by introducing lossless audio at no extra cost, as well as Spatial Audio – 360 degree surround sound, on compatible devices.
Saying that, the launch of Spotify HD must be just around the corner – we’ve seen rumours and back end activity over the last few months – but there’s no set release date yet, or news on whether the feature will be built in like Apple Music and Amazon Music HD or available on a pricier tier like Deezer.
Which should I choose?
Spotify’s free version is a great choice if you don’t mind adverts and are looking to save some cash. But if you’re an Apple user, Apple Music’s savvy integration with devices might nudge you towards its streaming service.
You’re probably still undecided, so I’d suggest signing up for a free trial of both Spotify and Apple Music, one after the other, and seeing which service you prefer. You might be more drawn to the aesthetic and user experience, or find that you get better song recommendations from one over the other. Apple Music currently has a three month trial and you can also try Spotify free for a month.
What about selling my music – is Spotify or Apple Music better for artists?
For artists looking to sell music online, it’s important to have your music on as many platforms as possible. Therefore, getting your tracks on both Spotify and Apple Music is a must.
Listeners are unlikely to subscribe to both, so you’ll target more listeners by spreading your releases over a lot of streaming services.
With RouteNote distribution, there’s no extra cost no matter how many platforms you choose to release your music. We cover over 90% of the digital market, in territories that span the world from Flo in South Korea to Kuack in Latin America. That’s true global reach for your music.
And by the way – it’s free to release your songs. No, really. There’s no confusing contracts, and no sneaky fees.