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Discussion Apple music or spotify ?

Which one should I choose ?

  • Apple music

    Votes: 17 53.1%

  • Spotify

    Votes: 15 46.9%
  • Total voters
    32
Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert

Insert clever pun here
Founder
I want to subscribe to a music streaming service, for me and my family.
Each one has basically the same family offer regarding cost and conditions (as I'm aware of).
It seems Apple has more content though.
I should add that I'm not in the Apple ecosystem (I'm Android).

So, famiboard, what's your opinion ? Maybe there are caveats I ignore, if that's the case, enlighten me !
 
I was going to say you should do Apple Music, because the Marvis Pro app adds so much awesome functionality to your music listening experience, but that's only on iOS, which you don't have, so...
 
I myself use Spotify.

What's the difference between the two, though?
 
0
I use Apple Music because I got three free months with my XR when I purchased it and then never bothered to switch back.
 
0
I probably would switch from Spotify to Apple Music because I’m just that deep into the Apple cult, but Spotify has one big thing going for it that Apple Music lacks: Last.fm support. I’ve been scrobbling my music since 2008. My last.fm account is very important to me! And Spotify offers automatic scrobbling, built right into the iOS app, while Apple Music doesn’t.
 
I have used Spotify for over ten years. I had a six month trial for Apple Music. Some observations:
  • The sound quality is noticably better on Apple Music (I use Airpods Pro, if you have more high-end equipment I imagine the difference will be even greater)
  • Only Apple Music has Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. It was missing a favourite band of mine completely despite all of their albums being on Spotify, but had a couple of albums from another favourite that are not on Spotify. I wouldn't say Apple Music had either more or less content than Spotify, it's just that the contents are different.
  • Spotify is trying to recommend me podcasts too, but I use a different app for them and this annoys me
  • Editing playlists on mobile is more convenient on Spotify
  • Spotify is better at recommending me new music to listen to. I believe this is partially related to the fact I live in a relatively small country, and Apple Music has trouble recommending me music from here. Spotify seems to have this figured out. If you live in the US or UK, this probably doesn't matter.
Also probably this:

Raccoon said:
like all of apple's stupid bullshit it's best on their hardware

I say go with agnostic choice
Click to expand...
 
0
Generally Spotify is going to be better unless you exclusively use Apple products (and even then I'd argue they're roughly equal)

Ideally though we wouldn't use either because they both treat artists very poorly (I say that as someone who use Spotify)
 
Tidal supposedly pays artists a bit better and I switched to it. That and because Spotify funds a controversial podcaster there and some artists pulled their tracks from the service in protest

But try double checking if there's some OST or some kinda obscure artist you like in a service first

I think most people I follow like sharing their Spotify retrospectives at the end of the year, mind. It's called "Spotify Wrapped" if you're curious. Not sure how it is on other services. Tidal shows a monthly rank and creates a monthly playlist with what you most listened to in the previous month, but it's my first year using it so not sure how the yearly retrospective will look like
 
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Tidal and Apple Music have the worst Playlist options ive ever dealt with

Tidal is even worse for the kind of music I listen to, I choose spotify as I find it the most straight forward to use.
 
0
I too switched to Tidal from Spotify because supposedly more money goes to artists. The only problem is that there is much less weeb music.
 
0
I use Spotify myself. Works just about everywhere, has a huge catalog, and it’s shockingly easy to find new music I really enjoy.
 
0
I use Apple Music despite not owning any Apple products. The deal breaker for me was Apple having a feature that I used to enjoy on Google Play when it was around - the ability to upload your own music files and for these to be integrated into your library across all devices.

As this is a gaming forum, game soundtracks are one of many niche types of music that might not be covered well by a streaming library. Difference here is that if you have access to them elsewhere you can plug them into your personal library as if they were.
 
I'm a stingy DIY sort with a huge music library, so when Google Play Music shut down (and their ability to upload your library), I didn't want to switch to a streaming service. Instead I put together a Plex server in my home, moved my music library to that, and I haven't looked back since. I have access to my entire library wherever I am, and Plex has a beautiful music player app (Plexamp) as well as support for many devices (Roku etc.).

The nice bonus too is that I'm not tied into monthly fees. I bought a lifetime Plex membership for $80, so the only recurring costs are the electricity to keep the server running. I also don't have to make a bullshit compromise between cost and quality of the music. It's awesome.

The only downside I'm seeing is that fewer and fewer artists make their music available for digital purchase easily. That baffles me considering that streaming services like Spotify pay them fractions of pennies for each stream, whereas I'll happily pay $15 for an album here and there. Still, Bandcamp and 7digital have mostly kept me covered on that front.
 
Despite being an Apple Music user for the past year+, I think Spotify is the better overall product - their algorithmic recommendations are so, so good for discovery. However Apple Music has some killer features that I use frequently, namely the ability to upload your own music files if they are not on streaming and it also has "mixes" - artists and DJs can upload mixes to Apple Music and it will correctly tag and split songs so you're listening to an actual mix and not just a playlist of unconnected songs.

On the other hand, Spotify Wrapped is awesome and Apple's version is nowhere near as good. I use last.fm to track my plays which is also a bit of a pain with Apple Music, but at least it offers more insight than Apple Music itself offers for how I'm listening.
 
0
Neither. Spotify classifies EPs as albums and that irks me. Apple Music is slow as hell.

Deezer is the most decent thing I've found to my liking.
 
0
Now that I’ve tried both, I slightly prefer Spotify. I just prefer the whole user experience. There isn’t much between them though. YouTube probably has more music I want to listen to.
 
0
aus89 said:
Playlists are better on Spotify if that's a thing you enjoy doing, obv if you like to do the whole Spotify listening stats thing, Apple don't do that either... but they don't use your subscription fees and profiteer off the backs of artists (Apple pay double what Spotify does) to invest in AI powered weapons tech either so...
https://www.nme.com/en_au/news/musi...iel-eks-investment-in-ai-defence-tech-3108277
Click to expand...
Apple does the listening stats fyi.

Honestly if you’re on Android just get Spotify. If you’re in Apple land and in a country that offers it Apple One is the best deal going.
 
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WHOA missed this the day it happened but The Chronic is back on Apple Music

Celebrate with the best hip hop skit of all time

 
0
Spotify pays less to artists than Apple Music and they pay noted asshole Joe Rogan a shit-ton of money, so this isn’t a hard choice for me.

Also, Apple One is a great deal. Apple TV+ has some pretty amazing shows. Admittedly, the bundle discount isn’t very significant if you don’t use Apple devices and can’t take advantage of Apple Arcade or iCloud+, but if you can it’s a no-brainer.
 
Apple Music through Apple One is a way better deal. The only place Spotify works better is the user created playlists, I find them lacking on Apple Music. But for music albums and the actual quality, apple music beats spotify. Spotfiy still doesn't have a lossless option in 2023. This reminds me of Xbox not letting me Tweet more than 1 screenshot at a time.
 
Yamanoi said:
Apple Music through Apple One is a way better deal. The only place Spotify works better is the user created playlists, I find them lacking on Apple Music. But for music albums and the actual quality, apple music beats spotify. Spotfiy still doesn't have a lossless option in 2023. This reminds me of Xbox not letting me Tweet more than 1 screenshot at a time.
Click to expand...
TBF Spotify already reaches audio transparency for like 99.99999% of people. And it's not like most phones out there are driving say HD600s through which you might be able to tell the minute difference. The mastering matters more than whether or not something is lossless.

But yeah I'm with the person who mentioned downloading music.
 
0
Spotify has a way better UI and is more user-friendly than Apple Music. However, Apple Music let you put music you have on your phone in its playlists, which is neat. Also, if that's important to you, Apple Music pay the artists (way) better than Spotify, but so does Tidal, which is better to use imo. This is what artists get from each stream on each service :

Spotify : 0,003$ to 0,005$
Apple Music : 0,01$
Tidal : 0,013$

If I wasn't riding my parents' Spotify family account, I'd get Apple Music, but honestly you should just try each service and decide which one you prefer.
 
I went with Apple in the end.
The decisive factor was neil young, who isn't on spotify.

Thanks for your insights, everyone !
 
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I quite like Apple Music. I think the music curation is a little stronger on Spotify but ultimately the experience on Apple Music is just really solid on iOS and while neither are particularly ethical, Apple Music feels a little yes yucky.
 
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So, went down this rabbit hole myself recently. Apple Music offers lossless audio in the basic plan, while Spotify is stuck at 320kbps OGG Vorbis and has been teasing lossless audio for years without coming through. Discovery and selection seems to be a bit better on Spotify.

Currently I'm using Apple Music and the kid's on Spotify.

So:
  • If you listen wired and more focused, with good equipment, go for Apple Music.
    • A/B'ing Spotify and Apple Music, same track, on my overly expensive Focal Utopia, there's a lot more detail and depth through Apple Music. Spotify sounds slightly washy in comparison.
    • If you want proper lossless audio: iOS and macOS do it fine. Windows has a beta app that I can't recommend because it sounds wrong. Android, through USB-C, sounds great too.
  • If you're mainly looking for stuff to listen to while working out, doing the dishes etc., and want great recommendations: go for Spotify. Still sounds fine, and through Bluetooth you won't notice the difference.
Spotify is a much more mature app. Apple Music is clunky and unresponsive in comparison.

Apple Music pays a lot more per stream to artists compared to Spotify, but as an artist on both most of my income comes through the latter simply through volume.
 
0
I use Apple Music and much prefer it to Spotify. However, I’m on iOS. OP mentioned they have an Android, so I’m not sure how Apple Music on there.

I prefer Apple Music to Spotify for three reasons:
  1. Apple Music has higher quality audio for the same base price.
  2. I prefer the Apple Music UI over Spotify, I usually listen to whole albums and not playlists and I feel like it’s better for that.
  3. We use Apple Music, Apple TV+ and iCloud+ so it made more sense to get the Apple One bundle — we own a number of Apple products and are heavily invested into their ecosystem.
Spotify has better discovery and playlists, but if you don’t care about that either would be fine, Apple Music has better audio quality, if you’re into that.
 
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