I love music. I listen to it when I drive, when I shower, when I do my laundry and in so many other instances. Being such an avid music listener, I recently decided to look into purchasing a music streaming service. If you know me at all, you know that I am super indecisive. Of course, this led me to research a lot into which service is better. If I was going to spend my money, I wanted to get the best deal. After researching, I made my choice of Apple Music and started to write the first draft of this article. I then decided to take a trial of both Spotify and Apple Music to better understand each platform’s features and characteristics. What may surprise you is that my first choice is not what I ended up choosing in the end. Let’s find out why.

The Facts

When it comes to similarities and differences, I was surprised that the elements of Spotify and Apple Music are extremely similar. Both Apple Music and Spotify cost $10 a month, which I consider reasonable since I listen to music so much. They also both make personalized playlists for each listener along with playlists for different themes and moods that everyone can access. One difference is that Apple Music has different radio shows while Spotify has podcasts. For me, this didn’t matter much since I want to listen to music, not people talking on a radio or podcast. Don’t get me wrong, I love radios and podcasts, but my car comes with a radio and every apple iPhone has a free podcast app. When it comes to the social aspect, many people say they like Spotify since it allows you to friend people, but I found that Apple Music has the same feature. The only difference in this category is that Spotify has a new feature where you can collaborate with friends on a playlist.

So what else? One of the biggest facts that I haven’t discussed is how much music each platform has. Apple Music has “60 million songs” while Spotify has “50 million” songs (1). This fact doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I think otherwise. Upon first glance, 50 and 60 aren’t very different, but when you think about it, that seemingly small gap is really 10 million songs. Since I started this whole search in order to listen to music, it made sense to pick the platform with the most music. Since on paper, everything seemed the same except for how much music was offered on each, I originally picked Apple Music.

The Experience

I was so relieved to have finally made my decision. I clicked on my free trial and got my subscription started. The app then had me pick some of my favorite artists and genres to get a better idea of my taste. It made me three playlists that it updated once a week: new music, chill music, and upbeat country music. It figured out that I liked country pretty quickly and gave me popular country songs which were nice but not super specific to my taste. I also enjoyed that it had playlists of popular country music from each decade and playlists of hits from each artist I liked. I had listened to Apple Music for about a month when I started to write my article about my choice between Apple Music and Spotify.

To better explain my decision in this article, I decided to do a trial of Spotify along with my Apple Music subscription so that I could better understand each platform. When I got Spotify, it asked me my favorite artists and favorite genres just like Apple Music. But within a few days of having Spotify, it quickly catered to my interests and gave me the exact music that I like. For every genre that I listened to, it gave me a daily mix that was consistently updated. They also made playlists for new releases, discovering music I might like, and a wellness/pick-me-up mix. The more time that went on, the faster Spotify surpassed Apple Music in personalization, even though I had Apple Music for a month before I got Spotify. I also thought that since Spotify had such an abundance of playlists, it would be too overwhelming. Surprisingly I actually enjoyed the wealth of playlists since I could always find music to fit my exact mood. It also showed me new playlists every day for each mood so that I never had to listen to the same playlist multiple times. 

My Ultimate Decision

Though on paper, Apple Music seemed better, after experiencing the difference in quality between Apple Music and Spotify, I determined that Spotify is the better app. Both services are good, but Spotify is much more accurate and specific when it comes to playlists. Apple Music is general but gives just as much access to music as Spotify. On the other hand, Spotify is more accurate and personal. If you are wondering which service is better for you, I’ve learned that facts aren’t enough; be sure to try the apps to get the full experience before you start paying for music. 

Source

Bizzaco, Michael, and Quentyn Kennemer. “Apple Music vs. Spotify.” Digital Trends, Digital Trends, 27 Aug. 2020, www.digitaltrends.com/music/apple-music-vs-spotify/.