Apple Music vs Spotify: Which one is the best?

Apple Music and Spotify are the two leading music streaming services in the world, with millions of subscribers and billions of songs in their catalogs. But which one is the biggest and winner in terms of features, quality, price and popularity? Let’s compare them and find out.

Features

Both Spotify and Apple Music offer a lot of features to enhance your listening experience, such as personalized playlists, offline downloads, social sharing, podcasts, radio stations and more. However, there are some differences that may appeal to different users.

1. Apple Music has a key advantage over Spotify in that you can combine the songs you already own with the Apple Music streaming catalog. This means you can access your entire music library in one place, without having to switch between apps or devices.
2. Apple Music also offers more exclusive content, such as music videos, broadcast radio, live shows and interviews with artists. You can also watch original shows and documentaries on Apple TV+ with your Apple Music subscription.
3. Apple Music supports Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, which creates a surround sound effect for compatible headphones and speakers. You can also stream high-resolution audio up to 24-bit/192kHz for free with your subscription

1. Spotify has a more diverse catalog of content, including not only music but also audiobooks, podcasts, comedy, news and more. You can also create collaborative playlists with your friends and discover new music with Spotify’s algorithmic recommendations.
2. Spotify has a free tier that lets you listen to music with ads and some limitations, such as shuffle play only and lower quality. You can also upgrade to Spotify Premium for ad-free listening, unlimited skips, offline downloads and better quality.
3. Spotify supports more platforms and devices than Apple Music, such as Windows, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox, smart TVs, smart speakers and more. You can also use Spotify Connect to control playback from any device on the same network.

Quality

Both Spotify and Apple Music offer high-quality streaming options for their subscribers, but they differ in their formats, bitrates and codecs.

Apple Music streams content at 256kbps using the AAC audio format, which is more efficient than most other lossy formats. It also streams high-resolution audio up to 24-bit/192kHz using the ALAC format for free with your subscription.

Spotify streams content at up to 320kbps using the Ogg Vorbis format, which is slightly less efficient
than AAC but still delivers good quality. It also plans to launch Spotify HiFi later this year, which will offer CD-quality audio using the FLAC format for an extra fee.

Price

Both Spotify and Apple Music have similar pricing plans for their individual and family subscriptions, but they differ in their student and duo plans.

Apple Music charges $9.99 per month for an individual plan, $14.99 per month for a family plan (up to six members), $4.99 per month for a student plan (with verification) and $99 per year for an annual plan (only available after signing up for a monthly plan).

Spotify charges $9.99 per month for an individual plan, $14.99 per month for a family plan (up to six members), $4.99 per month for a student plan (with verification) and $12.99 per month for a duo plan (for two people living together).

Popularity

Both Spotify and Apple Music have millions of subscribers around the world, but Spotify has a clear lead over Apple Music in terms of market share.

Spotify has over 400 million monthly active users and over 165 million paid subscribers as of August 2022. It is available in 178 countries and regions.

Apple Music has over 90 million paid subscribers as of June 2022. It is available in 167 countries and regions.

Conclusion

• Spotify and Apple Music are both excellent music streaming services that offer a lot of value for music lovers. However, depending on your preferences and needs, you may find one service more suitable than the other.
• Choose Apple Music if you want to integrate your own music library with the streaming catalog, access more exclusive content, enjoy spatial and high-resolution audio, and use Siri voice controls.
• Choose Spotify if you want to listen to music for free with ads, explore more diverse content, get better recommendations, and use more platforms and devices.

I hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions or feedback, please let me know.

Learn more for further reading:

1. cnet.com     2. soundguys.com    3. makeuseof.com    4. tomsguide.com    5. cnn.com

download Apple Music for Windows 11 here
download Apple Music for Android here

download Spotify for Windows here
download Spotify for Android here