Spotify vs. Apple Music: Which is Better?

In modern day it’s never been easier to listen to music, no matter where you are in the world your favorite tunes are within the click on a button. While music alternatives like Pandora, Tidal and Amazon Music are available, it is certainly clear there is a constant battle between Apple Music and Spotify. Spotify’s Premium service was ahead of the game for quite some time, but in recent years Apple Music has begun to catch up.

Which one should you use?

This is a tough question to answer, both services are $10 USD or $11.99 AUD per month for an individual plan, but the biggest differences between the two are in the margins, so that’s where we’ll look to determine who has the better value.

What you’ll get with both services

The content offered between the two services are remarkably similar, for $10 per month you get access to millions of on-demand tracks from artists big and small. You’ll never hear an ad again if you pay for Spotify Premium or Apple Music, and on top of that you can make your own playlists and even share them, both services also have radio and podcast features curated and run by officials.

Device Support

Apple Musics iCloud integration is one department that Spotify lags behind on, Turn on the iCloud music library and you can sync any music from Apple Music and iTunes to your Apple Devices. In other words you can also listen to apple exclusive content which you won’t find anywhere else.

Spotify on the other hand — takes the top on device support, Spotify can virtually run wherever you can get apps, from Android to iOS, smart speakers, smart TVs and even major gaming consoles. It’s hard to beat with that support.

Even though Apple doesn’t have the best device support, you can use Apple Music across almost all Apple products. Since Apple’s ecosystem is very strong and seamless, Apple Music may be a good option if you own a lot of Apple products.

Audio Quality

If you’re not an audiophile, it overall doesn’t really matter. Apple and Spotify use different audio formats meaning they have been edited and mastered differently. The only notable difference is Spotify’s audio is naturally more quiet, but this can be changed in settings. Aside from that the audio quality is mostly the same between both services.

So which should you get?

In the end it’s really up to you. If you have spent years building up a massive music collection on iTunes, there there will be a ton of value in having the ability to share and sync your music to your iCloud devices. If you want to go simple, and want to listen to your music across almost any device without having to worry about syncing, Spotify may be the better choice. It all boils down to preference and how you go about your music.

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Anton Bulzomi
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