There has always been a massive debate about whether Spotify or Apple Music is the superior music-streaming platform. Loyal users of each service will argue that their preferred platform is significantly better than the other, but are they really that different from one another?

Pricing

One of the most important factors in choosing a music-streaming service is the cost. When purchasing a subscription, Spotify Premium costs $9.99 per month while Apple Music is $10.99, making it merely a dollar more expensive. However, unlike Apple Music, Spotify can be used for free. The only issues with the free version are that you are given a limited number of skips and have to deal with advertisements. Even so, both platforms offer free trials for new users. Apple Music generously offers a six-month free trial while Spotify only offers three months.

Music Discovery

The ability to easily discover new songs and playlists can make or break your decision in choosing a music-streaming platform. Spotify provides a variety of personalized playlists based on the music you listen to. “Discover Weekly” is a Spotify-created playlist that is added to your feed every Monday and delivers a two-hour playlist of music recommendations based on your listening habits. Spotify also gives you the opportunity to create, share and follow playlists with the click of a button. You can even create a collaborative playlist that you and your friends can edit and add to. Like Spotify, Apple Music provides a section that recommends music based on your listening history. It also allows you to share playlists with your friends, but it doesn’t give you the option to search for playlists created by other users.

Audio Quality

Good audio quality is a must-have for music enthusiasts. Spotify will adjust its audio quality based on your connection–anywhere from 24 kilobits per second (Kbps) to 160Kbps. However, if you upgrade to Premium, the quality gets boosted to Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) 256Kbps. Apple Music, on the other hand, is striving to provide free audio upgrades for all of its subscribers. Also, every song on the platform is available in lossless audio, which is a form of compression that preserves all of the original data.

Whether Spotify or Apple Music is the better choice is up to you to decide, as both are excellent streaming platforms. 

Let us know which you prefer!