By Danielle Stein
The debate between Spotify and Apple Music has been ongoing since both platforms emerged in the music streaming industry. As someone who has used both services, I believe they both have their selling points. With each app’s fanbase riding hard for their chosen service, let’s dive into the reasoning behind their preferred platform.
The biggest topic of debate for these two services is the discussion of their user interface. The interface is the overall visual presence of a platform. Spotify offers a more detailed interface with a bold dark color theme and Apple Music is praised for offering a seamless easy to navigate interface. That’s just all up to your personal preference though, Some may prefer the aesthetic of Spotify, and others may prefer the simple Apple Music look more.
Another large topic that comes up for debate is the platform’s music quality. While Spotify allows users to tweak and make customizations to their listening experience with features like equalizer and playback, Apple Music offers Loss-less Hi-Res and Dolby Atmos libraries. While Spotify has announced in the past that these services would soon be coming to the platform it has yet to happen.
Putting aside music quality and moving into music taste, Spotify has been well-praised for its curated music selections, offering new recommended music playlists curated specifically to each user’s taste. These playlists include “Discover Weekly”, and “New Music Friday”. This is a user experience Apple Music has not necessarily honed into yet as they tend to push out songs most users feel they are just attempting to promote rather than music that is specific to the user’s taste.
Both platforms feature a high number of various musical artists and you are more likely to find a smaller/ more underground artist on Spotify due to the way their algorithm tends to push new artists and music out. On the other hand, Apple Music frequently partners with artists to secure exclusive deals; meaning that their platform is catered to more big-name artists who will exclusively drop their new releases to the platform to give users an early listening experience. This can deter fans of artists who have signed a deal with Apple Music and want to be able to hear their favorite artists’ songs earlier.
Moving onto cost, Spotify offers a free, ad-supported tier alongside its premium subscription, making it accessible to users unwilling or unable to pay for a streaming service. Its premium subscription also tends to be slightly cheaper than Apple Music’s equivalent tier. Spotify also partners with certain subscription services like Hulu, where if you have a Hulu account already you can gain access to a free Spotify Subscription. However, Apple Music offers a family plan that allows up to six people to share a subscription at a discounted rate.
Now, onto my take! As someone who loves listening to music and discovering new songs and artists, I use Spotify and have not considered changing anytime soon. It’s just a matter of personal preference. If you were conflicted on which one to choose I’d do a trial of both and see which one you find yourself gravitating more towards. At the end of the day, both services offer an enjoyable listening experience and I don’t think it’s fair to say one’s really behind the other in terms of advancement.