When it comes to subscribers, the undisputed king of on-demand streaming music is Spotify. The Swedish-born service helped pioneer the current market, and has tens of millions more paid users than the competition, not to mention millions more free users. But Apple Music, known for its high-level exclusive releases and full integration into Apple’s popular iOS system, is the hottest service on Spotify’s heels. Apple’s streaming service has shown impressive growth in listenership since its inception, garnering about half the number of Spotify’s paying users since it went live in June of 2015 — nine years behind Spotify.
It’s hardly surprising that Apple Music is so successful. Not only is it backed by one of the biggest brands in the world, it also gives users access to the entire iTunes library, a swath of curated playlists, and a 24-hour radio station helmed by BBC-alum Zane Lowe. Even the required subscription fee of $10 per month is no great barrier for entry, as Apple Music offers a three-month free trial and a discounted family plan.
Given that these two are the biggest streaming services on the market, we thought it important to take stock of how the two compare back to back. Follow us below to see if Apple has what it takes to steal Spotify’s crown, and find out which service is best for you.
Music library
Spotify first gained its dominant position on the strength of its impressive 30 million-plus song catalog. Couple this with the fact that it adds over 20,000 new songs each day, and the service offers more music than your ears even know what to do with. While several holes do exist in its library — Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift, Tool — Spotify’s catalog is extremely deep, and set the gold standard. Moreover, the Swedish streaming service brings all the latest record releases, exclusive live sessions, and various new singles right to its New Releases tab each Friday, providing a great way to hear the latest from established artists, and rising stars alike.
However, Apple’s service touts around 40 million songs, which is superior to Spotify’s “more than 30 million” figure (though we’re not sure by how much), and also outdoes newer contenders like Amazon’s paid streaming service and Jay Z’s Tidal. Moreover, Apple has taken steps to secure more exclusives than the competition, Taylor Swift’s oeuvre being a prime example. Spotify isn’t too happy with artists signing exclusivity deals with Apple, either. Reportedly, Spotify has a history of altering search rankings for artists who release their music through Apple first.
There’s another area where Apple Music has the leg up on its competition: Integration of the iTunes library. Any music you’ve got — whether previously purchased via the iTunes Store, ripped from a physical CD, or uploaded to iTunes Match — will appear in your Apple Music library, giving you the option to freely browse your own music alongside Apple’s standard catalog. Spotify offers a similar function, relegating your local music files to a separate tab, but you can’t access your local music via broad searches like you can with Apple Music.
Winner: Apple Music
Music discovery
With so many songs at the ready, Spotify’s library can seem daunting for those who want to find new music, but the company provides a lot of useful tools for finding new songs to suit your individual taste.
Playlists like Release Radar, New Music Friday, and Monday’s personalized Discover Weekly provide fantastic opportunities for subscribers to latch on to new music. The program’s deep well of 32 base genres to choose from — and another 20 to 30 selectable playlists — makes new music ripe for the picking, and other personalized playlists like Daily Mixes are constantly being added to the mix.
Discover Weekly in particular deserves high praise in the streaming world. Added to your feed every Monday morning, the feature delivers a two-hour playlist of personalized music recommendations based on your listening habits, as well as the habits of those who listen to similar artists. Playlists are often chock-full of music you haven’t heard before, as well as deep cuts from some of your favorite artists, thus broadening your listening repertoire with a collection of songs right up your alley. Listen to a lot of Black Keys? Your weekly playlist might include The Arcs, a side project of Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach. Fan of Dawes or Neil Young? Expect to find the likes of Laurel Canyon prodigy Jonathan Wilson on your playlist. The feature is not always on point, but it’s often pretty impressive.
Furthermore, Spotify gives you the chance to create, share, and follow playlists of any kind — including those shared by friends — with a simple click, along with expertly curated playlists for any mood or genre you’re into to keep things fresh.
As for Apple Music, upon creating an account users will be prompted to select some of their favorite artists so the service can get a sense of their tastes. The interface for this is a digital ball pit, in which each ball represents an artist, with users tapping particular balls to indicate artists they like or love. You can also always head back via the Account tab — accessible by tapping the icon in the top right corner of “For You” — to re-select your favorite genres and artists. While it is a visually striking way to dictate music preferences (the pink on a white background is pure Apple-chic), the style stomps on the utility a bit. On mobile devices in particular, the balls quickly clog up the screen, sluggishly bouncing off each other and making it a pain to select more artists.
Thankfully, once the process is complete, Apple Music does a great job curating playlists to appeal to your preferences. Playlists might be based on style (mellow, jazzy hip hop), a particular artist, or even a particular activity like driving. Apple claims the playlists are curated by a “team of experts.” This cabal of tastemakers — whoever it comprises — does a good job creating varied playlists that are at once familiar yet fresh, like a mixtape you might get from a friend.
The level of individual curation is impressive, with one DT staffer quick to highlight a Behind the Boards playlist he received that encompasses music from audio engineers who have helped create some of the best music of their time from the studio control room. Spotify also offers “expertly-curated” playlists, but Apple Music’s playlist selections come from individual DJs on the Apple payroll.
Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio function also plays a major role when it comes to music discovery. It’s refreshing to see Apple move beyond sophisticated algorithms for a human approach to facilitating true music discovery, but Spotify has its own magic at work, and its personalized playlists are only growing.
The bottom line is, Spotify’s hands-off playlists, especially its fantastic Discover Weekly, give it the edge here. Until Apple Music can compete with this algorithm-based approach, we’ll give Spotify the win.
Winner: Spotify