Let me start this off by saying that I have always been a Spotify girl at heart. I’ve had a premium Spotify account since the 7th grade, a year before the pandemic if that gives you a better timeline for this. Even now as I am writing this, I am listening to music on Spotify. However, I am a sucker for a free trial. On Monday September 28th, I began the 3 month free trial of Apple Music. Today is Wednesday September 30th, so now I will be discussing my first impressions and drawing comparisons between the apps. Keep in mind the title of this article as you read though…
Price
Starting off pretty strong in favor of Apple Music, it is cheaper than a premium Spotify subscription. An Apple Music Subscription goes for $11.99 while Spotify is $12.99. That one dollar makes all of the difference in my mind–especially in 2026. I’m sure that most people understand where I’m coming from with the pricing issue. They both offer a student discount which coincidentally also has a one dollar difference. Spotify is listed as $6.99 after 1 month free use and Apple Music is only $5.99 after 1 month free use. Each student discounted subscription also comes with some goodies. Apple Music’s comes with free access to Apple TV streaming, while Spotify’s comes with access to base subscription Hulu which unfortunately does still come with commercials.
Performance
Apple Music may beat Spotify in the Price section but… oh, Apple Music also beats Spotify in sound quality… awkward. You would think for more money you’d get better sound quality but Apple Music just sounds more crispy and clean compared to Spotify. This is not to say that Spotify is bad quality in the slightest. On the bright side, it will always be better than Musi, ifykyk.
Spotify does come out on top in other categories though! Spotify is incredibly user friendly in it’s display and search features. It even does app-made playlists and mixes astoundingly better than Apple Music. A huge thing for me is that I like to listen to music straight from my Liked Songs playlist on Spotify because making separate playlists makes me anxious and annoyed. The Liked Songs has a built in feature which allows you to listen to sort and play your playlist based on things like mood, genre, and vibe of the songs. This is incredibly convenient because I can go from the “calm” tab when studying to the “fast” tab when I’m at the gym without any problems. Apple Music has a similar feature, but it is so lackluster compared to Spotify’s model. Apple music has pre-made mixes but they are not typically based off of your own data and liked songs like on Spotify.
Also, a personal gripe that I would like to bring up against Apple Music is their music transferring process. I was overjoyed when I realized I could easily transfer all 3,000 of my Liked Songs and dozens of mixes and playlists. I was very sad, however, when Apple Music told me it could not find ALL of the songs I transferred. There were at least 10 songs that it wanted me to replace or just sacrifice altogether.
ALSO, another huge issue I have with Apple Music is that because it is an Apple app that comes with the iPhone, it works on the same storage system that the phone does. Unfortunately, I have been very close to running out of storage on my 2 year old iPhone 16e for quite a while. When I transferred songs into Apple Music, it began giving me more pop ups about my storage being full. It says that it cannot write files or something to that affect when I try to play music on there now. What I can tell you is that Spotify has never taken an issue with my cluttered phone…
Apple Music does not offer podcasts within the app, by the way. There is an entirely separate apple app for this feature which could easily be built in like it is on Spotify. Just saying.
ETHICS and sustainability?
Most people do not think of how ethical or sustainable it is to stream music through large companies on a daily basis. I think of this because I think of everything because I am everyone and everything and so are you.
Anyway, streaming music through large corporations who do not have the best interest of artists, consumers, and the environment in mind is not very great and/or productive in the grand scheme of things. Streaming music is not usually brought up when talking about things that are bad for the environment, but it is true. Streaming music over and over again causes repeated carbon emissions. Some, like me, may also take issue with the fact that these large companies donate large sums of money to certain groups/countries that some, me, do not support. Consumers, like me, also may not agree with the airing of certain promotions and commercials that Spotify AND Apple allow on their platforms: for example, ICE recruitment ads.
The secret third thing
The mysterious third option that I speak of is simply investing in physical media and downloading music yourself–legally or illegally–which is a conversation for another time…
Recently, I have been noticing a resurgence in the use of mp3 players like the famous iPod. I used to have a hot pink one when I was little and I ONLY played Single Ladies by Beyonce from it on repeat.
This is a great alternative which can help you cut down on your carbon footprint. Depending on the brand of mp3 player you choose to buy, it will also solve the issue with supporting large corporations that do not stand for what you stand for. Remember that if you stand for nothing, you fall for everything.
I may even try this myself and write a follow up on this article, just to make sure all of my bases have been covered.
my decision
Although I am still going to continue my investigation into the Apple Music platform during this 3 month free trial, I have decided that Spotify is ultimately better for what I want out of a music streaming platform. I am not exactly going to stay loyal to Spotify in the long run, however, for the reasons stated above.
I hope this was very insightful and helpful, yay!