Spotify Vs Apple Music. Which one is better?

Spotify? Apple Music? I mean they are all music streaming platforms, right? So why would I really care about which one I use? Well, there are a couple of reasons for this, maybe you might not really care about them at first but once they are addressed maybe you might. Who knows?

1. Availability

I want to acknowledge that I had previously published this article stating that Apple music was on Apple devices only but after a great reader reached out to me pointing out that he has Apple Music on his Android I was left in amazement due to the fact that I previously thought Apple music was only available on Apple devices but in fact, it is available on all devices.

After carefully looking into this I can totally confirm that it is indeed available on Android devices too.

Who knows, maybe there are people out there who also thought or still think Apple music is only available on Apple devices. So it is a great point to take in

So this first point goes to both Spotify and Apple Music for availability on all devices

Spotify: 1 | Apple Music: 1

2. Pricing

Apple Music and Spotify are equally priced but there is an advantage that Spotify has over Apple music and this is their free plan which will allows you to listen to music and podcast with ads, limited song skips, shuffle mode, and access to a daily mix. One other advantage they have over Apple music is their Duo Plan which goes for 12.99 and allows the use of a Spotify account amongst two people something that Apple Music doesn't offer.

Spotify wins this one based on the two extra advantages you get with it

Spotify: 1 | Apple Music: 0

3. Design and Ease of Use

This part is very challenging to judge cause when it comes to design every one has their own eye taste(if that is even a word). But what I'm trying to say is that every single person has their own taste when it comes to how things look.

A perfect example of this is art galleries. In art galleries, you can find the weirdest looking paintings but of course, what is weird to you is a masterpiece to someone else and they are even willing to pay thousands for that painting, and at the end of the day you will just be sitting there wondering “Okay, what is going on here”.

I understand that it might be a bit different from things like app design as there are people who have the skills of studying and understanding a painting. I would really love to know how this works by the way cause it is just mind-blowing what people see in a very odd-looking painting.

Anyways back to Spotify and Apple Music...

So based on the fact that when it comes to design and ease of use it clearly depends on what the user thinks of the app and I as a single user can't really judge for the world but what I can do is give my personal opinion.

“I personally think Spotify is way better looking than Apple Music.”

Here are some shots below which at a glimpse don't look that different from each other but if you are a user of any of these apps then you do have an understanding of how good or bad the app you are using looks like.

It is better for this section to be a tie

Spotify: 1 | Apple Music: 1

4. Lyrics

Apple Music used to be way ahead of the game when it came to live lyrics but then on the 18th of November last year Spotify rolled out its lyrics feature globally. Before, Spotify had a tiny section at the bottom of the current playing song just explaining what the lyrics are about but not showing the actual live lyrics. But after the update, all you have to do is slide up once you are in the currently playing song view, and boom you’ve got your lyrics.

But here is the thing, Is it really as good as apple music’s lyrics feature?

All I can say is that at the moment Apple Music is still leading when it comes to the lyrics feature. It has a very good way of showing these lyrics that just feels way better than Spotify. I like the way upcoming and past lyrics get blurred. It gives the lyrics a good look.

The issue with Spotify lyrics at the moment is that I have had some instances where the lyrics had some sync issues to the songs I was playing. The lyrics might be so fast at times or so slow at times. I believe this might be due to the fact that it is still a new feature so various updates from time to time would definitely fix this but at the moment I will have to give this to Apple Music because of the smoothness and design of their lyrics feature.

But one thing to note is that the lyrics feature can also be something that is based on personal preference but I made this decision just because of the sync issues that most people have at times while using Spotify

Spotify: 0 | Apple Music: 1

5. Group Sessions

This is something that just made me love Spotify. It is absolutely amazing. Picture this, you invite your friend to a group session, and then once they join they can queue their songs and even change the currently playing song and that would affect what you hear as well in real-time.

So in the simplest terms, it is like live streaming music with friends. Something that Apple music only offers when you are on a facetime call with the person you want to listen to songs with by using their share play feature. I don't really know why they didn’t just make it an off-call experience as Spotify is doing but it is what it is I guess.

This is what Apple says on its official website about their share play experience:

With SharePlay and Apple Music, everyone can listen to music together on a FaceTime call. Add music to a shared queue to choose what plays next. Control playback together. And follow along to a song with time-synced lyrics.

This is what Apple offers in comparison to Spotify and this clearly shows that Spotify deserves this one for their amazing group sessions feature.

Spotify: 1 | Apple Music: 0

6. Exclusive Podcasts and Songs

This is something that a lot of people who listen to Joe Rogan and normally use apple podcasts for their podcast needs will understand. Joe Rogan who is a very famous figure with a very famous podcast signed an exclusivity deal that was worth around $100 to $200 million for a three and a half year period(These figures are not confirmed but they are based on multiple online sources) to only host his podcasts onto Spotify. For Spotify, this was a great move as this meant that anyone who would want to listen to Joe Rogan will have to sign up for Spotify instead.

This is just an example of one of the most famous exclusive podcasts. Apple on the other hand also have their own exclusive content, for example, they once paid Chance the Rapper a famous United states rapper $500,000 to exclusively have his album “coloring book” hosted on apple music only, for two weeks.

This doesn’t really count in determining if Spotify is better than Apple music or vice-versa but all we know is that they both have these exclusive deals. But from my personal perspective, I think Spotify has way more exclusive shows (I am currently following and listening to three Spotify exclusive podcasts) and offers a better experience by having music and podcasts integrated within one audio streaming platform.

Spotify: 1 | Apple Music: 0

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