Apple Music vs. Spotify: Which Music Streaming Service is Right For You? Library Details and Pricing
We Compared the Best Music Streaming Services Right Now
Music streaming has taken over a large portion of the music industry. With the internet taking over almost everything, it was only a matter of time before tech companies took advantage of it. We now take a closer look as to which music streaming service is better—Apple Music or Spotify.
Design and Interface
Apple Music surprisingly offers a somewhat too extensive service that is quite cumbersome to navigate. Albeit sporting a calm white design with a clean overall interface, the plethora of content available could be quite overwhelming at first. The navigation buttons and panels somehow clutter up all the fresh interface elements. However, it is very easy to learn with habitual usage, and the options are very direct and easy to identify.
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Spotify then turns all its interface elements to green and black. Both the mobile and desktop versions offer a unified design language that users can easily navigate. While there are still some hard to navigate areas and music representation looks better on its Apple competitor, Spotify is able to give off an easier learning curve to a newbie user.
Music Library
Spotify has been around longer than Apple Music. With its time around, it has already muscled up its music library to more than 30 million. It also says that around 20,000 new music are uploaded every day, so there's definitely something for everyone. However, gaping holes are noticeably present, with huge artists such as Taylor Swift's and Garth Brooks' music collection particularly missing.
Apple Music is then said to be quickly catching up with Spotify's arsenal. Its own 30 million strong library includes almost all big names in the music industry. It also integrates well with your local iTunes library. While Spotify also features music import from the local library, Apple Music takes it further through broad searches.
Music Discovery and Curation
Adding songs to a playlist in Apple Music will automatically store the song to your library. This intuitive feature could not be found on other streaming services. However, the genre system utilized by Apple Music needs more refinement. The live radio station called Beats One makes up for it though, as the live music, hosts, and interviews, actually give the service a lot more depth.
Spotify also offers the creation and sharing of music playlists. Importing playlists from other people is also possible. The basic genres each contain a variety of playlists that are both diverse and streamlined. There is also a Discovery playlist that updates weekly with 30 random songs that the user has never listened to, making discovering new music a lot easier.
Price
Both services offer a monthly premium plan of $9.99. Spotify now also offers a monthly family plan of $14.99 for up to six users. It also offers a 50% discount for college student. Spotify, however, has a free, ad-supported version. Apple Music forces users to pay the monthly fee after the free three-month trial.
