Spotify or Apple Music?

Let's settle the debate.

I’ve been a devout Apple Music listener for years, but after a year or so of using Spotify, I found myself back on Apple Music, while Spotify has all the music and podcasts I need there, it’s what my friends use and I couldn’t possibly deal with the FOMO (fear of missing out) of not having a fancy Spotify Wrapped with my top artists to post on my social feeds at the end of every year. But then I listened to one of my favorite albums in Apple Music’s Spatial Audio, that dropped during my Apple Music hiatus, and for a short few minutes, my world changed. Bringing me right back. So lets talk about both platforms, their advantages and disadvantages.

Apple Music:

Even if you’re not part of the AirPods/Beats Audio army, Apple Music has a big advantage over Spotify: lossless and high-resolution audio. Lossless audio essentially avoids a lot of the data loss that happens when songs are compressed from their original source, giving you CD-quality sound from a digital file. Certain Apple Music albums even offer Hi-Res Lossless, which is an even richer audio resolution that gets you that much closer to studio quality. On top of all this, select records are available as Apple Digital Masters, which Apple says deliver the “highest possible quality audio.”

This all means that Apple Music should sound better than Spotify for many listeners, though your mileage may vary. You’ll need to wear wired headphones to reap the benefits of lossless audio, and even then, you’ll need a pretty discerning ear to notice the differences. That said, even when listening primarily on wireless earbuds while using an iPhone, I found that most songs sounded louder and brighter on Apple Music compared to Spotify.

Apple Music also housed the music of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills and others who famously vacated their recordings from Spotify over misinformation regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Those three are some of my absolute favorite artists, of course I am going to follow them.

Spotify:

Now, don’t get me wrong, it is beautiful to have both music and podcasts in one place. But I don’t listen to enough podcasts to need them both in the same platform. Spotify also has a much cleaner and user friendly interface. Music discovery is also a valued added benefit of Spotify. The platform creates daily playlists and you can have “enhanced playlists” where Spotify will add songs it thinks you will like to playlists you have already created. Which is a nice benefit. Spotify’s interface also makes it easier to access friends you follow on the platform and can create shared playlists between each other - Apple Music just rolled out shared playlists but they seem to be a bit clunky in their infancy.

One big personal advantage for Spotify for me is the “liked songs” playlist. Spotify makes it easy to like a song and they all find themselves in one catch all spot. Being a fan of the Grateful Dead, the countless live archival recordings on the platform (same recordings are on Apple Music) made it easy to identify my favorite versions of Dead songs.

Spotify also markets itself to students at a reduced cost for Spotify Premium. Which is where, I am sure, a majority of it’s followers come from.

In Conclusion

I polled my followers on Instagram, and was 100% not surprised at my finding:

A majority of my followers use Spotify over Apple Music with a staggering amount of folks using something else, like Amazon Music or Tidal. Music plays a big role in my life, and I am constantly consuming the medium. Both platforms cost the same, so when it boils down to it - are you more interested in higher quality audio or podcasts.

I am sticking with quality over quantity, each and every time. If you are an audiophile like me, make the switch from Spotify to Apple Music. Even if you don’t have high end listening equipment, the difference is noticeable.