Table of contents
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AI-generated summary
App speed
I don’t know if you’ve ever opened both apps side by side, but Apple Music constantly shows that little spinning wheel — absolutely unacceptable for a company like Apple!
Spotify , on the other hand, is blazing fast. The interface, the search — it’s mind-blowing how quick it is. Same goes for playback: you barely click on a song and the audio is already there, no buffering whatsoever. I don’t know how they do it, but it’s genuinely impressive.
Winner: Spotify
Recommendations
Spotify’s recommendations feel better than Apple Music’s to me, but they’re more playlist-oriented. I like listening to albums — I rarely make playlists.
Either way, the recommendations are quick to kick in.
Apple Music on its side does albums justice — that’s what it highlights in recommendations.
I prefer how Apple Music presents similar artists.
Winner: tie
Playlists
Spotify makes building playlists incredibly fast and easy — it’s a real pleasure. My favourite feature is the track suggestion function within a playlist, which suggests songs based on what’s already in it. All you have to do is click “Add”, and there’s a “Refresh” button that cycles through new suggestions.
Hats off, Spotify!
With Apple Music, managing playlists is a nightmare. Try selecting multiple tracks in iTunes to add to a playlist — it’s mission impossible. I’m hoping iTunes will really improve under Catalina.
Winner: Spotify
Simultaneous playback
The inability to play simultaneously on Spotify is a real problem when you have kids. You can’t play different music at the same time in your office and in the living room for your children! I don’t understand such a limitation on the same IP address. I’m in the same house and I can’t use my account to play music for my own kids.
I should mention I’m on a family plan — in that case I’d need a dedicated computer with a separate account for each child to let them listen to music.
With Apple Music there’s no issue at all: just start the music in the living room on the HomePods, or send it from my phone to the HomePods, and I can keep listening to my own music in iTunes on my Mac.
Winner: Apple Music
Search
When looking for a particular style of music, I like using the search bar rather than getting lost in menus.
Before the iOS 13 update I believe searching by genre was impossible. Now it is, which is great — because on Spotify the search is not only lightning fast, it’s also highly effective.
Winner: Spotify for speed
Library management
More and more artists are embracing streaming, but you might still own unique CDs that aren’t available to stream.
Apple Music lets you find your hidden gems in streaming form, which is a big plus for the platform. You can store up to 100,000 tracks from your own library to have them available for listening anytime.
Unfortunately that’s not possible with Spotify ☹️
Winner: Apple Music
Conclusion
As you’ve probably guessed, Spotify wins this comparison hands down. And I haven’t even touched on the social aspect, which is well developed on Spotify. Just look at music recommendation sites — you almost always see playlists shared for Spotify, never for Apple Music.
Apple has room to catch up, but for now I think Spotify is the better recommendation for newcomers to music streaming.
By the way, Apple is opening its web service soon — it’s currently available here in beta.
The interface is very fast, the recommendations are excellent, and playlist building is brutally efficient.
Both services are still missing the ability to stream high-quality audio like Amazon and Qobuz offer.
Personally, I’m going to stick with Apple Music. I really enjoyed the Spotify experience, but the inability to stream music for both me and my daughter at the same time is a dealbreaker — especially since she’s too young for her own account.
Beyond that, I’m all-in on Apple hardware, so being able to play music on the HomePods is a real pleasure. And on the Spotify app, sending music to an AirPlay device requires extra steps, whereas on Apple Music it’s all very well integrated.
