Music Apps - Apple Music or Spotify?

Apple Music and Spotify are two of the hottest music streaming services today, and both sides have been constantly advancing in the competition, making it difficult for users to choose one over the other.

Spotify logo and Apple Music logo

In this article, I will conduct a comparative analysis of Apple Music and Spotify in terms of online playback sound quality, features, and pricing.

I use both of them, and I have paid for them. Because I don’t have too high requirements for sound quality, so it depends entirely on the mood.

Common

Both platforms have a clean UI design and UX design, both can search for music by lyrics, and both can display lyrics in full screen.

Apple Music

Apple Music uses Apple’s self-developed AAC or Lossless codec to ensure the highest online playback quality. Most people who don’t work professionally in music can’t tell the difference between AAC and Lossless.

We developed our own implementation of AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) that delivers audio that’s virtually indistinguishable from the original studio recording.

Moreover, the Bluetooth connection does not support Lossless. If you need Lossless sound quality, you can listen to music with Lossless sound quality through wired headphones.

AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, AirPods (3rd generation), and Beats wireless headphones use Apple AAC Bluetooth Codec to ensure excellent audio quality. However, Bluetooth connections aren’t lossless.

Spotify

In February 2021, Spotify announced that it would release Spotify HiFi in the future, Spotify’s self-developed Lossless sound quality. But two years later, Spotify still hasn’t released this technology.

Currently, Spotify’s highest sound quality is Very High (320 kbps), which supports AAC and OGG formats. The files downloaded by Spotify are all compressed files, so they save bandwidth and data. Whether it’s online or downloading, Spotify saves data.

Summary

If you want to choose the music app with the highest sound quality, it must be Apple Music. Spotify is good, but the sound quality is not up to Apple Music.

Music

The music on both platforms is complete, with over 100 million songs on Apple Music compared to 80 million on Spotify. If you are an Apple Music user in Chinese mainland, the amount of music on Apple Music will be much less, so it is recommended that you go to the United States. But Spotify has podcasts, which are not available in Apple Music. Although Apple has a dedicated Podcasts app, sometimes it is quite annoying to switch apps.

Summary

This time, Apple Music still wins, because the amount of music is really large. But if you love podcasts, you can also choose Spotify.

Features

Apple Music

  • Apple Music has added Dolby Atmos to Spatial Audio in order to provide users with a more immersive listening experience. Moreover, this feature supports both iOS and Android.

Apple Music x Dolby Atmos

  • Apple Music announced its addition to Apple Music Sing in December. This feature automatically silences the audio, processing the audio in real time, and allows the user to adjust the volume of the vocals.

Apple Music Sing

Spotify

  • Spotify provides users with many EQ (Equalizer) presets, and it also allows users to adjust the EQ themselves.

  • Spotify supports users to generate or create collaborative playlists, i.e., shared playlists.

Summary

Apple Music is characterized by creating a newer and more immersive listening experience for users. Spotify creates more sharing and customized experiences for users. This round, Spotify wins.

Pricing

Apple Music

Apple Music has 4 pricing plans, namely Voice ($4.99), Student ($5.99), Individual ($10.99), and Family ($16.99). The Individual plan supports all features, including Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, song downloads, an ad-free experience, and more. The Voice plan does not support Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, song downloads, and other devices besides Apple devices, among others. Buy a device like AirPods and get a 6-month Apple Music Individual plan.

Spotify

Spotify supports listening to music without paying, but there is a limit on the number of song cuts, limited sound quality, no downloads, and no ads removed. Spotify also has four plans, namely Individual ($9.99), Duo ($12.99), Family ($15.99), and Student ($4.99). The Duo plan supports two people to use it at the same time.

Summary

In general, Spotify is more suitable for most people, although the highest sound quality is not as good as Apple Music, downloading songs is also more data-saving, and most of the time you can’t hear the difference between Lossless and Lossy. Spotify’s EQ is also useful when DIY listening experience. Spotify’s shared playlist also makes everyone’s sharing more perfect. Moreover, Spotify is cheaper than Apple Music. If you are already using Apple Music, then of course you can continue to use Apple Music.

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