The battle between the two giant music streaming services is here! We are talking about Apple Music Vs Spotify! Both of these music streaming platforms are famous and engaging in their way. They offer users excellent music experience and features. Are you confused about which one to choose?
In that case, let’s have a showdown! Both Apple Music and Spotify have been popular because of the service they offer to its user. Both of them have advanced features that set them apart and make them superior to each other. The real challenge is to determine the best one.
To help you in making a better decision, we will analyze factors such as pricing, sound quality, revenue, and additional aspects of these giant music streaming platforms. Let’s talk about Spotify Vs Apple Music.
Apple Music Vs Spotify: A Detailed Comparision
There is only a little difference between both Apple Music and Spotify. Here’s the breakdown!
1. Pricing
In the case of Apple Music Vs Spotify price, Apple Music is kind of more expensive. Spotify offers a free ad-supported version to its users along with a premium subscription with no ad interruptions. On the other hand, Apple Music doesn’t offer a free version.
With the premium version, both of the music streaming platforms offer a lot of advanced features. Having no free plan for Apple Music acts as a drawback for a lot of users. With Spotify’s free version there are few held backs but at least listening to music is completely free of cost.
But if you take a premium plan, you can skip unlimited tracks, download songs and listen to them in offline mode, and more. With a free Spotify plan, users can only skip a maximum of 6 songs in 1 hour, can’t skip advertisements, are not able to download songs and more restrictions. Apple Music subscription is as follows:
- Individual: $10.99 per month
- Family Plan: $16.99 per month
- Student: $5.99 per month
- Voice: $4.99 per month
With standard Apple Music plan users can listen to tracks without any ad interruption, access to the entire Apple Music library and exclusive content, and offline listening. Apple Music Family plan provides access to all of the exclusive premium features to up to six people with a personal account for each member. Apple Music also offers a student plan with a great discount for students.
Let’s take a look at Spotify’s premium plan:
- Individual: $9.99 per month
- Duo: $12.99 per month
- Family Plan: $15.99 per month
- Student: $4.99 per month
Unlike Apple Music, Spotify even offers a duo plan for two people with all of the exclusive features. Although there’s a free version of this music streaming platform, the premium plan offers a lot of great and convenient features. With Spotify’s family plan, users can make up to six accounts with a Spotify Kids access feature.
Students get a great Spotify student discount with Hulu (ad-supported) plan. The price of Apple Music has increased. Before Spotify and Apple Music both had a little identical pricing. But Apple Music then increased the standard plan price by $1 and the family plan by $2. When asked about the sudden increase in pricing, Apple Music said it was “due to an increase in licensing costs.”
Then added, “In turn, artists and songwriters will earn more for the streaming of their music. We also continue to add innovative features that make Apple Music the world’s best listening experience.” In the case of reasonable pricing, Spotify wins this category.
2. Free Trial
Before committing to a premium plan, we all prefer a little something like a test drive. In the case of music streaming services, we need a free trial to understand and weigh the benefits of a premium plan by its exclusive features. You can take advantage of both Apple Music Vs Spotify free trial if you’re a new user.
Both Apple Music and Spotify will give you access to the entire library and exclusive features in a free trial. Apple Music provides a 3-month free trial before opting for a premium plan to continue listening to music. You need a premium plan at any cost if you want to use Apple Music, as the music streaming service doesn’t offer a free trial.
Spotify lets you freely take advantage of its premium services for a month. But there are other free trials with terms and conditions. Spotify offered a 3-month free trial before if the payment is made through Paypal. In the past, Spotify also came up with a 6-month free trial.
In terms of the free trial, Apple Music is generous. But if you want to listen to music for free then Spotify is the best option. Plus, Spotify offers a free trial experience on any premium plan including Duo and Family. On the other hand, Apple Music’s free trial is limited to the standard/individual plan.
3. Sound Quality
For all the audiophiles out there, we understand that sound quality is highly essential. With better sound quality, users can listen to every single beat. The is a major difference between Apple Music Vs Spotify sound quality. Spotify offers a maximum of 320kbps that’s identified as Very High.
You need a premium plan Spotify to listen to music at a better quality of 320 Kbps. Users can even opt for other audio streaming quality to save data.
- 24 Kbps – Low
- 96 Kbps – Normal
- 160 Kbps – High
Apple Music is a step ahead in the case of audio streaming quality. The music streaming service supports up to 24-bit/192kHz. Along with that, it also offers 16-bit/44.1kHz, 24-bit/48kHz, and 256kbps to save data. For audiophiles, Apple Music is a jackpot.
Users of Apple Music can also stream tracks by using Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos for a better listening experience. Apple Music wins this category because of the excellent audio streaming quality it offers to the users.
4. Lossless
There’s always a comparison between lossless Apple Music Vs Spotify. Lossless Apple Music is quite popular among audiophiles. Apple Music’s Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless audio is around 24-bit/192kHz. That’s extremely high. Spotify has always been talking about launching lossless audio called Spotify HiFi.
The new Spotify HiFi is expected to be included in one of the premium plans. The official release date of Spotify HiFi is still kept under wraps. Spotify announced the release of HiFi in 2021 by stating ‘beginning later this year’. Since then, users have been waiting for its launch. Spotify HiFi is already ready for a year to make it to the market.
The employees of Spotify have access to this lossless audio. The holdback is due to a particular reason. The release date of Spotify HiFi was delayed because of Apple’s lossless music streaming service. Apple didn’t take any additional charge from users while offering lossless music streaming.
Being a major competitor of Apple Music, Spotify postponed the release and is likely waiting for a ‘unique’ way to launch this feature into the market. When Spotify HiFi will release, Apple Music will have challenging competition in the case of lossless audio. Till then, Apple Music wins this category!
5. Content Library
Apple Music Vs Spotify content library is vast and exclusive. Both the music streaming platform offers an extensive collection of tracks to its users. Apple Music offers over 60-100 million songs to users. It is also known for exclusive deals with artists Taylor Swift and Drake for early release of content. On the other hand, Spotify offers around 82 million songs with 60,000 tracks being added every day.
Unlike Apple Music, Spotify also has a large and exclusive podcast collection. There are a lot of exclusive podcasts available too. Though you can’t listen to podcasts at Apple Music, you can catch it up on a different app called Apple Podcasts. Spotify and Apple Music also have curated playlists and radio stations that help in discovering new music from new artists.
6. Users
In the case of Apple Music Vs Spotify users, both music streaming platforms have listeners from all over the world. Spotify has over 515 million users with 210 million Premium subscribers worldwide. Apple Music is kind of behind in terms of users with 98 million worldwide.
This is mainly due to Spotify’s free tier option. Apple Music is behind Spotify in terms of users! It’s reported that Apple Music accounts for around 15% worldwide music streaming market and Spotify accounts for more than 31%.
FAQs:
1. Is It Worth Switching From Apple Music To Spotify?
It depends upon you! If you’re an audiophile that prefers better audio quality then switching from Apple Music to Spotify will be worth it for you. On the other hand, if you want a free listening experience then Spotify is the best pick!
2. Can You Listen To Apple Music Offline?
Yes, you can listen to Apple Music in offline mode by downloading it. Apple Music offers offline listening to premium users.
3. What Is Apple Music Vs Spotify Revenue?
If you’re an artist trying to make a living through music then Apple Music is the ideal platform. Spotify’s artists’ revenue depends upon ‘streamshare’. It’s estimated to be around $0.0033. Apple Music’s average pay per stream is around $0.007 and $0.01.
Conclusion
In the end, the decision between Apple Music and Spotify comes down to personal preference. Whatever music streaming service you pick, you will have the best time possible listening to the music. If you have any more questions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Don’t forget to let us know your pick: Spotify or Apple Music.
