As you’re reading this, you’re probably listening to or have just listened to music (or maybe a podcast, too). Which streaming service are you using? Is it Spotify, where you probably paid for Premium, but it was worth it for making you and your friends’ collaborative playlists? Or is it Apple Music, which was a lot cheaper, but you can’t use it on your PC? The Spotify vs. Apple Music debate seems to be endless, with each negative canceling out a positive and vice versa. So let’s settle this once and for all: which streaming platform is actually better?
Well, let’s look at it from the perspective of an average listener. With Apple Music, you have an easy-to-use setup, more songs, no ads and less money to pay…as long as you use Apple devices. If you’re an Android/PC user, you don’t even have the option of using Apple music. You also can’t collaborate on playlists, which is something a lot of listeners today have come to enjoy. In an age where it’s difficult to feel a sense of togetherness, people have come to appreciate the sense of community that comes from sharing music, no matter where you are.
This is where Spotify seems to take the upper hand, allowing listeners to collaborate on making playlists from wherever they are, as well as offering the “Friend Activity” feature, where users can see what their friends and family are currently listening to or most recently listened to. (Also: Spotify may have fewer songs total, but it has a much more diverse array of genres). The Premium version, which eliminates ads and offers the option of downloading music in addition to the previously listed Spotify perks, is worth the extra money for plenty of people, that is, the 165 million Premium subscribers as of earlier this year. Spotify can also be used on any kind of device, whether it’s an Apple or Android. This again brings that feeling of community to listeners. Unfortunately, it still costs more per year, even with student bundle plans (with Hulu, EPSN, etc).
From an artist’s perspective, things look a little different. Apple Music’s artist setup is hardly user-friendly, so it’s not nearly as easy to navigate for an artist as it is for a listener. Spotify’s artist setup is much more user-friendly, offering artists the ability to view what kinds of audiences they have. However, Apple Music makes up for their hard-to-navigate artist setup by paying their artists more, with only 136 song streams to a dollar, whereas Spotify waits until an artist’s song is streamed 229 times before paying them a dollar. While that may seem like a big difference, Spotify is a much bigger help to artists by allowing them to see what kinds of audiences they’re drawing in, as it helps artists plan out their next steps in terms of self-marketing and future projects.
After considering all of this, it seems like Spotify really is the better option. Once again, though, it could be argued that you do have to pay more to enjoy all of these benefits- but when you have the benefits of community listening, collaboration, artist support and the ability to use any kind of device, isn’t it worth the money? Everything in our society costs money, and it becomes a matter of whether or not we’ll get our money’s worth out of something. In this case, Spotify is absolutely worth it.