Summary

A long-term Spotify user evaluates Apple Music through a free trial, comparing the two services across user interface, music range and quality, connectivity, and pricing, ultimately deciding to stick with Spotify for its superior recommendation algorithm, connectivity features, and pricing options that suit their family's needs.

Abstract

The author of the article has been a loyal Spotify subscriber for a decade but was intrigued by a free trial of Apple Music. The comparison focuses on five key areas: user interface, range and quality of music, connectivity with various devices, and pricing. While Apple Music offers a cleaner interface, higher audio quality with Lossless Audio and Dolby Atmos, and is competitively priced, the author finds Spotify's personalized recommendations more valuable. Spotify's superior connectivity with third-party devices, particularly through Spotify Connect, and its unique Duo account option make it a better fit for the author's current lifestyle and budget. Despite Apple Music's attractive features and the potential for future growth, the author concludes that the benefits of switching are not compelling enough to outweigh the convenience and cost-effectiveness of their existing Spotify subscription.

Opinions

The author appreciates Spotify's focus on music and prefers it over Apple Music's broader approach, which includes podcasts and white noise.
Apple Music's marketing of "Lossless Audio" and Dolby Atmos surround sound initially attracted the author, but the difference in audio quality was not significant enough to sway their preference.
Spotify's recommendation algorithm is highly praised for its personalization, despite the occasional desire to reset or refine it due to varied listening habits influenced by the author's family.
Apple Music's inability to match Spotify Connect's seamless integration with third-party devices, such as Sonos speakers, is a notable drawback for the author.
The author finds Spotify's Duo account to be the most economical and suitable option for their family, compared to Apple Music's pricing structure and bundled services with Apple One.
While acknowledging the potential benefits of Apple Music, especially for those more invested in the Apple ecosystem, the author concludes that the current advantages of Spotify justify their decision to remain a subscriber.

Considering the move away from Spotify to Apple Music

I’ve been a paid Spotify subscriber for around ten years now. However, last month I was sent through a free 3-month trial for Apple Music and was curious enough to give it a go.

This article is about the differences between Apple Music and Spotify and where I think my long-term future lies.

Why was I tempted to move?

As a long-term subscriber to Spotify, you would be right to ask why I was even interested in switching to a different provider.

There were three main reasons:

Spotify has become pretty bloated recently as it makes a play to be a one-stop-shop for music, podcasts and white noise. I like the idea of having an app purely dedicated to music
Apple has done a good job of marketing its “Lossless Audio” — something that Spotify doesn’t have and doesn’t seem to be bringing to the table in the near future. I wanted to see if there was a marked difference in audio quality.
Similarly, Apple Music is now offering Dolby Atmos surround sound which is something that is not currently available with Spotify. I had my mind blown when I tried the Sony equivalent (360 Reality Audio) but unfortunately, it wasn’t widespread, so I wanted to see if Apple was able to offer something similar across a wide scale.

Here’s what I found out about the two platforms, split across five key areas:

User Interface

UI design is hugely subjective and, given how different these two apps look, this section is highly likely to divide opinions.

Spotify is much more populated and ‘busy’ with links to podcasts and playlists whereas the Apple app is much cleaner and more minimalistic.

The value is in the information that each UI provides. I found the Spotify interface on both mobile and desktop to be more personalised. While the interface was more cluttered, the content was much more based on what I had listened to before and my personal preferences.

With Apple, I felt that I was being pushed stuff that someone else wanted me to listen to whereas with Spotify, I felt the recommendations were much more valuable.

One thing I will say about Spotify, though, is that I wish there was some way to reset the recommendation algorithm (or at the very least chose to remove tracks from it). As a father of two young daughters, I’m finding my recommendations vary hugely from white noise and nursery songs to Disney and Broadway hits.

Having said that, I still discovered more music I liked out of Spotify’s recommended songs than I did Apple’s.

Verdict: Spotify

Range of music

If we’re going purely by the numbers, then Spotify is able to offer its customers more music. However, in reality, unless you’re into fairly obscure tracks, you’re not going to notice the difference. Both services are going to be able to offer your favourite hits.

When transferring playlists, it was noticeable that Apple couldn’t find a dozen tracks that are part of my “Focus” playlist — instrumental tracks that tend to be a bit more obscure and are designed to be background music while I work.

Incidentally, if you’re looking at transferring playlists out of Spotify and into other providers, I can fully recommend the SongShift app(iOS only)

Verdict: Draw

Quality of music

Again, if we’re going purely by facts, then Apple wins out here. With its latest upgrade, Apple now offers 24-bit audio (that’s 192KHz) whereas Spotify’s offering taps out at a 44.1KHz bitrate.

Now I’ll admit that I’m not an audiophile, but I’d say that I couldn’t tell that big a difference between the two services as the numbers might suggest.

Apple seemed to have a slightly wider range and a deeper base on a couple of tracks and I found myself tapping my foot more vigorously listening to “Mr Jones” on Apple, so I’m happy to give Apple the point here.

Again, though, if I hadn’t been actively testing the two services directly, I wouldn’t have been unhappy with ether offering.

Verdict: Apple Music

Connectivity

I’m not all-in on the Apple ecosystem. While I use Macs/iPads for my work, I play my music over Sonos speakers or Sony headphones.

While it would be unfair to say that Apple Music had trouble connecting to non-Apple devices, Airplay couldn’t match up to Spotify Connect when it came to playing on third-party platforms.

Occasionally, I would find tracks in Apple Music pausing or dropping the connection totally when connected to a Sonos Era 100. Changing speakers through Apple Music was much more of a pain than it was with Spotify too.

The difference was less noticeable when connecting to a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones.

Verdict: Spotify

Pricing

Both services offer a freemium option as well as a range of similarly priced paid options which remove ads and provide limitless skips of songs you don’t want to listen to.

Spotify will charge £9.99/month for an individual account. Apple will ask for an extra buck and offers their service for £10.99/month although, it should be said that they offer “Voice” accounts (where the music can only be controlled by Siri) for £4.99/month.

Both services offer a student rate of £5.99/month and a family rate (personalised accounts for up to six people in your family) of £16.99/month.

Crucially for me, Spotify also offers a Duo account. With two young kids, the family option is not right for me, but the Duo sits between that and an Individual account and provides two premium accounts for my wife and me for £13.99/month.

If I was to replicate this setup in Apple Music, I’d be paying an extra £8/month for my wife and me to have separate accounts.

It’s worth pointing out that Apple bundles its Music offering into its Apple One product. I would be able to get up to five family members on to Apple Music for £22.95/month and also get TV, Arcade and iCloud+ included for the price.

I’d have to take a hit on the iCloud storage that the family currently has, though, and I’m not excited enough by Arcade and TV to believe I’d see value from paying almost £10/month more than I am at the moment.

Verdict (for me): Spotify

Summary — and where I’ll be for the medium term

If you’re looking to choose your first music provider, there is very little to separate Spotify and Apple Music.

Spotify offers more music (as well as podcasts) whereas Apple’s music is of a higher quality — although I’d argue both are negligible.

Therefore, it needs to come down to your personal situation and requirements.

What has settled it for me is Spotify’s pricing and connectivity. As mentioned above, Spotify’s Duo account is the right choice for where we are as a family at the moment.

It doesn’t make sense for me to go through the pain of transferring all of my playlists into another app, which is going to sound largely the same but charge me more each month.

Equally Spotify Connect is an amazing tool and is worth the subscription price alone. I can ‘throw’ music to speakers not just through Airplay but via Bluetooth, Chromecast and WiFi too. It just works so much better with my Sonos network.

So, for the moment, I’m staying with Spotify but will be keeping a close eye on how Apple Music continues to grow.

It has been great to see Apple giving it a big push and, when the kids are a bit older and the family subscription makes sense, perhaps it will be time to reevaluate the situation.

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