Get ready for the ultimate showdown of the world’s most famous music streaming platforms. It’s YouTube Music vs Spotify! With millions of users, endless libraries, and mind-blowing features, the question remains: Which music streaming service is better YouTube Music or Spotify?
Both of them are quite popular amongst the users. Spotify is indeed known as the king of music streaming platforms, but YouTube music is no less! YouTube Music is gaining attraction through its pricing and content. Both of them are amazing in their way.
Some people prefer Spotify while others prefer YouTube Music. One of them shines brighter compared to the other. Let’s analyze both of these music streaming platforms to determine which one is the perfect fit to ignite your listening experience.
What Is Spotify?
Spotify is the king of the music streaming world. Launched in 2008, Spotify quickly became a worldwide sensation. This music streaming platform offers access to a vast library of songs from various genres and artists. Spotify has become a go-to destination for music lovers.
The music streaming platform offers both free and premium subscription options. You can always find new music and artists on this music streaming platform. Adding to its allure is the fact that Spotify can be downloaded and used completely free of cost!
What Is YouTube Music?
If you’re unfamiliar with YouTube Music then let us explain. YouTube Music is a music streaming service introduced in 2015 that offers millions of songs, covers, and live performances by famous artists. YouTube Music is developed by Youtube under Google. Whether you’re looking for the latest hits or classical musicals, YouTube music has something for everyone.
This music streaming platform offers both free ad-supported versions and YouTube music premium versions to its users. Regardless of your choice, you will immerse yourself further into the enchanting world of music.
YouTube Music Vs Spotify: A Detailed Comparision
YouTube Music Vs Spotify, both have unique features being a strong competition in the music streaming world. Here’s a breakdown of the two!
1. Pricing
Both music streaming platform offers free ad-supported and premium-based version. With both YouTube Music and Spotify users can gain access to the entire content library for free. But there are few restrictions. If you are using the free version of YouTube Music you can skip the ads in 5 seconds, but in Spotify, you can’t skip ads.
The free version of YouTube Music allows users to skip songs unlimited times, unlike Spotify where you can only skip a maximum of 6 songs in 1 hour. YouTube Premium and Spotify’s premium versions will give you access to multiple amazing features.
With the premium version, you can download songs and listen to them in offline mode, free from ad interruptions, with high-quality audio streaming, and more. Now let’s get down to YouTube Music Vs Spotify price. YouTube music premium plan is as follows:
- Individual Premium – $9.9 per month
- Family Plan – $14.99 per month
- Student – $4.99 per month
- Annual Plan – $99 per year
Spotify’s premium plan follows:
- Individual Premium – $9.99 per month
- Duo – $12.99 per month
- Family Plan – $15.99 per month
- Student – $4.99 per month
As you can see, both of the music streaming platforms don’t have much difference in the case of pricing. If you’re planning to move up from the free tier and opt for a family plan, then YouTube music is cheaper compared to Spotify. If you take a yearly plan at YouTube Music then you will get it at a reasonable price of $99 per year.
With that, the monthly cost will be around $8.25. Spotify doesn’t offer a yearly plan but there are other perks. For instance, Spotify keeps coming up with reasonable offers. You can get a 30-day or a 3-month Spotify free trial. There are terms and conditions to avail of these free trials. Spotify also came up with a 6-month free trial at some point.
If you’re looking for an extended free trial before moving up to the premium tier then you can choose Spotify and take advantage of all the premium features. And if you’re planning to take a premium plan for multiple listeners then YouTube music is ideal. The winner of this category is YouTube Music due to the reasonable family and yearly plan it offers.
2. Sound Quality
Listening to better-quality audio is important to a lot of users. With better sound quality, users can listen to every beat peacefully. In the case of YouTube Music Vs Spotify sound quality, Spotify offers 320kbps for premium users. The music streaming platform believes that having high audio quality of music is essential.
The audio quality of Spotify differs. Spotify also offers multiple levels of audio quality that include: low [24Kbps], normal [96Kbps], and high [160Kbps]. On the other hand, YouTube music only offers 256kbps in case of audio quality.
Without a doubt, Spotify wins the category of better sound quality. The experience will depend upon your internet connection too. But in the case of YouTube music bitrate and Spotify, we have our winner already!
3. YouTube Music Vs Spotify HiFi
YouTube Music is a solid music streaming platform that offers 256kbps AAC and OPUS to its users. Spotify on the other hand will be much better after the launch of HiFi. There have been a lot of talks regarding Spotify HiFi. Spotify HiFi is a promising feature that will offer the best quality music to its listeners if they choose to upgrade their plans.
This feature will be exclusively available to premium users. The launch date is still kept under wraps. Spotify HiFi is ready to make it to the market a lot of employees gained access to this new lossless audio.
Spotify said, “Premium subscribers in select markets will be able to upgrade their sound quality to Spotify HiFi.” Well, Spotify HiFi will deliver music to users in CD quality with 16-bit depth and a 44.1kHz sampling rate. YouTube Music lacks a HiFi feature.
4. Content Library
Youtube Music and Spotify offer a bigger library of music from all over the world. If you love listening to podcasts, then Spotify offers a massive amount of exclusive Podcasts of different genres. YouTube Music announced the rolling of podcasts recently. You can find a bunch of amazing podcasts that are available for on-demand, offline and background listening.
Though YouTube Music’s library is more music-driven compared to Spotify. Around 60,000 tracks are added every day on Spotify! As of February 2022, Spotify boasts a library of over 82 million tracks, while YouTube Music, as of February 2021, offers approximately 70 million tracks at users’ fingertips.
If we talk about music discovery, then Spotify offers an impressive algorithm-based music discovery. YouTube Music also offers a mix of two discovery options such as Discover Mix and My Supermix. YouTube Music Vs Spotify content library is in the mind of many listeners. Both platforms offer exceptional music discovery with the help of an extensive content library.
FAQs:
1. Does YouTube Music Have More Songs Than Spotify?
According to reports, both of the music streaming platforms have an extensive amount of music available. YouTube music is more music-driven and has around more than 70 million tracks available. But you won’t find many podcasts compared to Spotify. Spotify offers more than 82 million tracks to its users. Both of the platforms keep adding up thousands of content every day.
2. Why Does YouTube Music Sound Better Than Spotify?
The actual listening experience fluctuates depending on your internet connection. Spotify offers 320kbps using AAC and YouTube music maxes at 256kbps. Spotify has better sound quality compared to YouTube music.
3. Which Pays More Spotify Or YouTube Music?
Spotify pays artists around $0.0033 while YouTube Music pays even less. YouTube music pay per stream is around $0.002 for the artists. Rather than paying artists per stream, Spotify determines its pricing based on streamshare, resulting in a unique approach to compensating musicians for their music.
Spotify also offers two types of royalties: Recording royalties and Composition royalties. The pay also depends upon the location of the listeners, and more!
Conclusion
No matter which music streaming platform you select, you will get an exceptional listening experience. YouTube Music is the ideal choice if you’re looking for an affordable premium subscription, while Spotify excels in sound quality and content. Which one do you think is better based on the comparisons? Feel free to drop your opinions in the comment section below. Stay tuned for more showdowns like these in the future!
