Spotify vs Apple

My opinion on both platforms.

Posted: 7/14/2024, 9:32:00 AM - Last Updated: 7/14/2024, 9:32:00 AM - Tags:

#music

#opinion

Music is in everyone's lives, however how we listen to it differs from person to person. Two popular options are Spotify and Apple Music, both coming with their on sets of pros and cons. Eventually I did come to prefer one over the other, however unfortunately this opinion might change.

Spotify

To start off, I have been using Spotify the longest, I started with it, then moved to Apple for a year, and then switched back.

Pros

1. More Portable: Both Spotify and Apple Music have web interfaces and apps that you can download on desktop. However on mobile, Spotify is available on both iOS and Android, while Apple Music is only available on iOS. This already makes me lean towards Spotify as a provider.
2. Spotify Wrapped: Though both platforms do have some form of this, Spotify's is much more popular and well known. One could argue one is better than the other but again more people seem to prefer Spotify's based on the fact millions of people choose to share their Wrapped on social media (whereas I see no Apple Replay).
3. Spotify API: Both platforms again have this feature, however Spotify's seems to be much more user friendly along with much more usage worldwide. I have not checked out how many features Apple's API has, but I have used Spotify's and it quite literally has everything I need.
4. Social Aspect: Much more people seem to use Spotify, and this just makes it much easier to share music with friends.
5. Party Mode: This feature only exists on Spotify and allows you to connect multiple devices to play music at the same time and adjust the queue at will, it's really nice especially when you want everyone to play some music.

Cons

1. UI: Spotify often makes new changes to their UI which in my opinion are a lot of times quite bad, I just personally feel more testing and feedback should be done before pushing out some of these updates.
2. Pricey Plan: Spotify is a bit more expensive than Apple Music at $11.99 a month for the premium plan, this is a bit more than Apple Music's $10.99 a month.

Apple

As mentioned before I have only used Apple Music once for a little over a year, in this time I did find some really nice features that I wish Spotify had but probably never will.

Pros

1. Speed: Apple music is a tad faster (in both the app and music control), I don't know what to chalk it down to but it just is, it is noticeable but not a deal breaker.
2. Music Playing Features: You can play music while the app is closed, not sure how useful this is for other people but it just means you can continue playing songs quickly without having to reopen the app.
3. Album Art in Queue: For some reason only Apple has album cover art when you're looking at the queue, I really wish Spotify had this.
4. Audio Quality: Apple just has better quality audio, it's noticeable but again not a deal breaker.

Cons

1. UI: I also feel that Apple's UI here is not the greatest and could definitely be improved.

Conclusion

In the end I do prefer Spotify over Apple Music, though both have their own sets of pros and cons. However, with the recent price changes and just overall lack of improvements over the past year I feel that I might switch back to Apple Music. In any case, I hope this guide helps you make a decision on which platform to use.