Music is a vital outlet to college students. When you walk across campus, you will encounter student after student listening to music on their phone. There are many different sources students are able to stream or download music from, however, the big two right now are Spotify and Apple Music. Spotify has been around since 2008. Apple Music on the other hand, is relatively new, having only been in use for a little under two years. Both are great sources for streaming music but in order to determine which one is best for you, there are a few things that must be taken into consideration.
1. Price
The prices of both Apple Music and Spotify are exactly the same. They’re both $9.99 per month. Apple Music even offers the same student discount that Spotify does. Apple Music is currently offering a three-month trial for new users. After the trial period, you can cancel your subscription at any time. One downside to Apple Music is that it does not offer a free version. Spotify offers a free version which contains advertisements and some serious limitations. However, at least you are still able to listen to music via Spotify without paying for it.
2. Radio
Spotify offers a radio system similar to Pandora, in that it allows you to choose stations similar to specific genres or artists. The stations are fairly limited, however, in that the songs played match very closely to the artist’s radio. If you choose a Kendrick Lamar radio station, it may play mostly Kendrick Lamar songs instead of playing similar artists. Spotify does offer podcasts, while Apple Music does not. There are lots of fun discoveries to be made under the podcast section, including audiobooks, poetry readings, foreign language lessons, and more.
Apple Music has something called Beats 1 which is essentially live radio 24/7. It focuses on many different genres and broadcasts DJs from Los Angeles, New York, and London. These broadcasts provide music, interviews with artists, and updates on pop culture. It is a very interesting premise, but if your music taste doesn’t line up with Beats 1, then it could be a bust.
3. Music Discovery
Spotify has lots of great playlists geared towards the discovery of new music based on your personal preferences. It tracks the music that you have listened to and creates a new Discover Weekly playlist just for you every seven days. Spotify also has playlists such as New Music Friday and Release Radar to help you keep track of new music that is produced by artists you enjoy. When you finish listening to a playlist on Spotify, it will automatically play a song that Spotify thinks you will like. This is really helpful when trying to find new music.
Apple Music also recommends artists for you, but these recommendations are based on the preferences that you put in manually. Apple Music requires you to fill in what genres/artists you are fond of in order to recommend new music to you. Apple Music uses real people to find music for you, rather than algorithms, so it depends which avenue you consider the most successful in choosing music for a listener.
4. Social Interaction
Spotify allows you to recommend and share playlists with friends. You are also able to follow your friends and see what music they are currently listening to. You are able to post to social media through both Spotify and Apple Music.
Apple Music does not allow you to follow your friends as closely as Spotify. However, Apple Music offers a feature called Connect which allows fans to follow artists and to get exclusive access to special content. Because Apple makes deals with certain artists, Apple Music users are sometimes able to get special deals or early access to music and other new releases.
5. Extras
Spotify currently has a Running feature which recognizes the pace at which you are running and plays music that matches your workout. This is an extremely cool feature, although there are general workout playlists available as well.
Apple Music contains more artists than Spotify does by about 10 million. It has access to some artists that Spotify does not (such as Taylor Swift). If you’re really itching to listen to T-Swift’s “22” then Apple Music is your obvious choice.
Overall, the choice depends on what you want out of your listening experience. Both Apple Music and Spotify are great sources of music streaming.