However, you'll be hard-pressed to find any mainstream artists that aren't available on both services. Apple Music still isn't available through Google Assistant's music service tie-in, and until it is, Spotify still has the edge on both device limits and cross-device playback. If you also enjoy audiobooks, be sure to check out the best Audible deals for this month. Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, with our advice sections giving you step-by-step information on how to get even more from your music and movies. Sign up to receive daily breaking news, reviews, opinion, analysis, deals and more from the world of tech. Still, the lure of a paid-for service clearly works when it comes to securing artists, at least for a period of time. Spotify has promised a similar HiFi option, but we're still waiting to hear when it will come out. Apple Music doesn’t offer a free entry-level subscription. Additionally, syncing issues when using Apple Music and iCloud can result in some frustration for listeners who are used to managing the music on their devices. Spotify and Apple Music offer nearly identical subscription packages. Julia Warnstaedt. . Spotify is easier to use than Apple Music, though Apple Music has a friendly interface. His writing has appeared in publications such as CNN.com, PC World, InfoWord, and many others. If you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission. Spotify, meanwhile, is cheaper on its standard Individual plan and ties in podcasts and audiobooks as well as music. Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy. It bundles Spotify Premium, Hulu (ad-supported), and Showtime for $5 per month, which is way better than just getting Apple Music for $5 per month. Apple Vision Pro Features a Brand New Chipset and Dedicated Operating System, Apple’s Vision Pro Headset Is Official, and It Makes Some Big Promises, Apple Refreshes Mac Pro and Mac Studio Line With New M2 Ultra Chip, iOS 17 Brings Tons of Quality of Life Improvements to Your iPhone, Catalog Size: Apple Has a Larger Music Catalog. And Apple Music is doubling down on the visual side with original programs such as Carpool Karaoke: The Series (a more extended version of James Corden's celeb singing skit on The Late, Late Show) and Planet of the Apps (a Dragon's Den-esque show for app and software developers). I would rather pay another fiver each month and get CD quality from Tidal. The iOS and Android apps for Spotify can be a bit tricky to navigate at times, but feature sections like ‘Your Library’ which is where you can access saved songs, albums and playlists. Apple Music still boasts a more attractive and comprehensive radio offering, however. The two streaming services are also available to play on supported TVs (although Apple Music is not as extensive), cars, game consoles (including the PS5 and Xbox Series X) and smartwatches, as well as natively on Sonos speakers. For everyone else it's $9.99 / £9.99 / AU$11.99 for an individual or $14.99 / £14.99 / AU$17.99 for a family subscription for up to six people. Spotify supports music, podcasts and has expanded to offer audiobooks. Each app is easy to navigate, with a sidebar available on the desktop, and tabs running along the bottom of the screen on mobile. Any music you have — 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. You can also use Spotify to get alerts about the latest concerts in your area from your favorite artists, so you'll never miss a show. You pay absolutely nothing, however, you’ll be met with adverts every approximately three songs, have six skips per hour, and the audio quality is worse than Spotify Premium. Spotify has the better user experience for now. You can access a catalogue of over 100 million songs along with these podcasts and audiobooks with a free account or Spotify Premium. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct. That’s where the Daily Mix, which consists of five genre-specific playlists, comes in. And that’s growing – in April 2019, Spotify founder Daniel Ek told investors that 40,000 songs were being added to Spotify's streaming platform every day. If you listen on Spotify's web player or via Chromecast, it streams in AAC at 128kbps for free users, or 256kbps for Premium. Instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Spotify is straightforward to use, has an enormous subscriber community, and delivers an excellent user experience. A newer addition to Apple Music is Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio support. An individual subscription to Spotify Premium is priced at $9.99 / £9.99 / €9.99 a month, or $4.99/£5.99/€4.99 a month if you’re a student. Apple Music also doesn't count any purchased songs added to your library through iTunes Match towards that 100,000 song limit, which is a great advantage for listeners who still buy music that doesn't end up in streaming catalogs (like me). Both services are leaders in the crowded music-streaming arena. If you're strapped, Spotify offers a free tier, allowing you to enjoy some tunes, albeit with a few limitations, while Apple Music is only available as a paid service. Spotify also offers a Duo plan for couples, which is cheaper if only two of you are signing up. You can also bag one month of free listening on the Duo, Student and Family packages. She themes phones and pokes YouTube Music with a stick. According to Spotify, it caches some audio for when you lose signal and uses less of your data allowance, seventy-five per cent less. Everything is tested by our dedicated team of in-house reviewers in our custom-built test rooms in London, Reading and Bath. In contrast, the Spotify Family Plan, which offers simultaneous listening for up to five users, is priced at $15.99 / £16.99 / AU$17.99 after a recent price hike. Another feature that lifts Apple Music a step above Spotify is that it offers Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio. It’s a feature Apple Music shares with Spotify, but it’s vital if you want to keep users signing up to the paid version. The Browse (or ‘home’) page throws up context-based playlists, constantly updated UK and global charts, and new releases for your attention, as well as content sorted by genre and based on tracks you’ve previously listened to. A monthly subscription to a music streaming service is the easiest way to consume music. Spotify Connect enables an even wider breadth of support on wireless speakers and music systems, though you can connect to devices with AirPlay 2 on Apple Music, but the same can be said of Spotify too. There's Taylor Swift vs Kanye. Apple Music claims over 60m tracks in its back catalogue, while Spotify's figure is 50m songs. The Spotify and Apple Music packages essentially offer the same things: ad-free, skippable listening, but you’ll probably have noticed the popular Individual plan is £1 extra on Apple Music. The Library is where all your music lives. That’s despite mounting competition from Apple Music and Jay-Z-owned Tidal. It's an internet radio station backed by Apple, so it's as slick as you might imagine, with the likes of former Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe and more on its roster. The two streaming services are essentially neck and neck with one another in many of the features offered by each platform, and it can make it hard for a user to choose. For both services, this seems the next logical barrier to push. Both offer a free one-month trial period. So, if you’d already mentally planned to not spend a single penny, head over to Spotify. That wasn’t always the case, though. Apple Music vs Spotify: which UK music streaming service should you get. Of course, if you have a Premium sub, you can download songs over Wi-Fi anyway. Spotify has more indie content, but Apple has leveraged the power iTunes amassed as the first and most-used digital music store of the 2000s, and it shows. 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Overall, Spotify is currently winning the UI war. YouTube Music vs. Spotify: Which Music Service Is Best for You? Apple Music, which launched in 2015 in comparison to Spotify’s 2006 debut, is Spotify’s closest competition. Spotify is undertaking a "strategic realignment" of its podcast division, laying off about 200 staffers. But the best place to discover new music is in the Made For You section of Spotify or the Listen Now section of Apple Music. Its Discover Weekly and Release Radar features provide personalized playlists based on your listening habits. All of the biggest podcasters are there—many of them exclusively on Spotify—making it easy to keep all your audio entertainment in one place. RT @MinusThreePod: New Minus 3 with @Dameshek, @KevinHench & @ThatEddieMurphy out now! Along with price and music selection, consider the ease of use and overall experience of a service when making your choice. Spotify Wrapped is a huge part of the music experience: it’s an annual round-up of your top artists, songs and genres, as well as how many minutes you’ve spent enjoying listening to music and what new things you’ve discovered. Apple Music offers a similar experience with its annual Replay feature, which includes similar stats and a personalised playlist to help lessen the FOMO when Wrapped drops each December. Connect might seem like something designed for the bigger bands, but it's open to any artist, offering a service not too dissimilar to what MySpace was back in its heyday. However, its fiddly mobile design remains at odds with its impressive library and exclusive content. Pick of the Month: Amazon, Goldmund, Yamaha and KEF earn perfect scores, Cheap OLED TVs may be on the horizon - here's why, The best home entertainment buying advice, Issues delivered straight to your door or device. There’s also a subscription tier for friends, partners, or family members who live at the same address. Spotify definitely comes out on top in most categories, but if you have a lot of local files in your library or want to listen in Dolby Atmos or Lossless audio quality, Apple Music is still the better option for you. Free trials are limiting, especially to those looking to experience the service long-term. NY 10036. The free service is good yet awkward enough to get users coughing up for Premium paid accounts. Research released in January determined that Spotify was the biggest globally, with a 31% share in 2021, albeit down from 33% in 2020. Spotify Wrapped has just dropped and, if you’re anything like us, you’re probably wondering how on earth you spent over 49,000 minutes listening to music, and why you listened to the same one song 181 times (Ari Lennox - Whipped Cream, for those of you wondering). You can also find a New Releases section in the Listen Now tab, along with various suggestions based on artists or albums you listen to. Apple Music also offers Apple Music 1 (formerly known as Beats 1), the vanguard for a broader push towards original broadcasting on the service. at Apple. It’s a business model that might seem wild on paper, but it’s the ideal way to increase your user base. It's also worth noting that for many countries, Apple Music is your only option if Spotify hasn't made it there yet, but both are far more widely available than the rest of the streaming services on the market. Both services are on par for students and families when it comes to cost in the UK, however. Apple Music may have arrived late to the party, but it did so with a huge fanfare. However, this has yet to launch as of spring 2023. It’s understandable from a business point of view – especially with so many exclusives serving as a golden carrot for potential users – but it's possible that not having any form of long-term free-to-use version has ultimately worked against Apple’s desire to increase its overall user base. Both Spotify and Apple Music are compatible with a range of devices. Perhaps Apple's advantage over Spotify here is that while both services offer playlists that comprise songs based on your listening habits, Apple also has the Apple Music 1 radio station, which features human DJs at the decks. Apple Music doesn’t have a free tier, although there is a three-month free trial and you don’t need to be a member to listen to Apple Music 1 radio (formerly Beats 1) – one of the service’s most celebrated features. Sub-sections for New Music and Curated Playlists are clearly labelled within the Browse section. But which of the two is the best music streaming service? Here’s how it works. -PGA Tour merges with LIV Golf -How would Nikola Jokic play vs other all-time centers? Plans and Pricing You'll find three basic plans on each service: Individual, Family, and Student, with comparable prices. Apple Music's student plan went up by $1 per month, so it's now $5.99 (£5.99 / AU$5.99), as opposed to. Apple Music’s Mac, PC and laptop version is superior to the one you’ll find on your phone or tablet. Spotify has a free entry-level subscription. Plus, take a look at our deep-dive into 'What is Amazon Music Unlimited?' While it may currently have around half the number of paying subscribers as Spotify (68m by the end of 2019, according to German statistics portal, Statista), the fact that it has reached that in just over five years is impressive. Browse our new catalogue to inspire you with homeware, gardening tools, books and more! However, the service has a growing list of exclusive podcasts. Do you want to download as many tracks as you want to your smartphone to listen to them when away from home? It also lets you upload to the cloud with iCloud Music Library, so you can stream or download local files from anywhere in the world like you would stream anything else. One specifically is its recommendations. The same research determined that Apple Music was second . But if you want more than just music for your money, Apple's . Both services cost $9.99 a month for individuals, $14.99 a month for families of up to six users, and . There’s no free version of Apple Music, but those looking to save a bit of cash can subscribe to the Voice plan for $4.99 / £4.99 / €4.99 a month to access the service through the Siri voice assistant only. Select Apple Music > Continue > Connect > OK. Spotify announces employee layoffs amid organizational restructuring, Spotify update brings support for the Android 13 media player, The best Verizon deals, plans, and everything you need to know: M06 2023. Plus, for a unique device to listen to music on, take a look at the best DAB radio. --- Send in… In contrast, Apple Music integrates local files with the rest of your library. The Search section in Spotify and the Browse section in Apple Music let you look for popular music by selecting a genre or mood that you like. Learn more. Although up-to-date user numbers aren’t often revealed, Spotify certainly appears to have an advantage with a larger user base – it has around 354 million users globally last time we checked. Plus, this being an Apple product, its interface is easy to navigate both on a Mac/PC and in more portable forms such as a smartphone or tablet, and you can download tracks to take them with you when you’re away from a Wi-Fi connection. to streaming; playing songs in real-time from a library in the ether. Unlike Spotify’s algorithmic radio, which curates songs around a particular artist, Apple Music can shout much louder about its live 24/7 global ‘youth-orientated’ station, Apple Music 1. Since the acquisition of podcasting production specialist Gimlet Media in 2019, over 700,000 podcasts have been made available to stream and download on Spotify, including a raft of Spotify exclusives. This is bound to appeal to those who have already heavily bought into the ecosystem. Curated playlists are almost always the first thing you see when you load any version of the app, with the service seemingly designing playlists for nearly every musical sub-genre. Want the ability to skip songs as and when you want on your tablet/smartphone? If you’re swapping from Spotify to Apple Music, you’ll be pleased to know Apple Music offers Apple Music Replay which is essentially the same thing as Spotify Wrapped. But Spotify is undoubtedly the choice for those who value discovering and sharing music, and the clear winner for those wanting an affordable option. Both streaming services let you view the lyrics to a song as you listen to it, but Apple Music features lyrics for much more of its library. 1. Streaming has in some ways provided a huge boost to the music industry, offsetting the decline in sales of physical formats and reshaping the way music is packaged, distributed and consumed. However, by far the most talked about Spotify feature is Wrapped – the app’s end-of-year breakdown of your listening habits from the past year. But, for most people, the choice comes down to these two contenders. So if you’re into French skiffle or Brazilian electro-pop and struggle to find obscure artists, there’s a great chance Apple Music will have you covered. Spotify allows for six accounts under its Family Premium plan, Frank Ocean's Blond was a timed exclusive on Apple Music, Apple Music's launch interface was visually heavy and clunky to use, acquisition of podcasting production specialist Gimlet Media, Sonos Arc Dolby Atmos soundbar drops back to its lowest price ever, 5 crucial mistakes to avoid when setting up your Dolby Atmos soundbar, These are the four-star products I use every single day, What Hi-Fi? However, there’s a disparity in the user experience between the two. Apple Music's Now Playing layout is also far cleaner than Spotify's, and the extra space between the playback controls and the seek bar help avoid the accidental skips and seeks while trying to pause or rewind. They won’t be challenging YouTube just yet, but we’re keen to see how – and if –these develop. If you already use Spotify and are happy, Apple Music isn't good enough to contemplate a switch. Giving users limited access to the full experience of its service might seem like a better deal in the short term, but it suffers in the long term compared to the free/ad-filled version Spotify offers. Spotify recently bumped the trial period for students and individual Premium accounts to match Apple Music's three month trial, but if you're on a family plan, your trial is still only 30 days. But the biggest two by far are Spotify and Apple Music. That said, most people are better off with Spotify, thanks to its free tier, superior curated playlists, broader compatibility, and exhaustive artist information. Android Central is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Major artists are represented on both music services, including Taylor Swift, who feuded with Spotify for years but is back on the music service. Keep up with your local stations or check out Apple Music 1 to hear shows from the world's best radio presenters. Spotify even uses your musical preferences to suggest new podcasts you might like. We recommend you read our in-depth Spotify review and Apple Music review to be sure. Spotify also has a great podcast offering, which is worth trying or even using instead of your current favorite podcast app. Subscription Packages. The main sections in the app include ‘Listen Now’ for recently played music and recommendations, ‘Browse’, ‘Library’, ‘Search’ and a separate ‘Radio’ button. Spotify uses a special algorithm to recommend new music based on your listening . . Try 12 issues for £1 today - never miss an issue. It's also likely to be limited to wired speakers and headphones. Then it’s time for Premium. Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year. Apple Music, unsurprisingly, can be played on Apple devices like the Apple HomePod and HomePod Mini, Apple TV 4K, and Apple smartwatches. A new ‘Concert’ tab that flags up gigs based on your music tastes and location, as well as ones that are ‘popular near you’, is a nice addition for music-lovers too. The highest rate is exclusive to Spotify Premium subscribers. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Both Spotify and Apple Music offer similarly clean, simple and intuitive layouts. Spotify has come into conflict with artists over both the low royalties it pays acts and the very existence of its free tier. Apple Music is also available on Apple TV, Apple Watch, and in cars with CarPlay. Both services are available on Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS. I appreciate that the bottom tabs on Apple Music put Library on the left rather than the right since I tend to one-hand my phone in my left hand while holding drinks or bags, but the Home tab from Spotify is something that For You just doesn't replace well. They’re priced similarly, and have roughly the same-sized catalogue. Whether you’re downloading an album or playlist to your phone or starting a radio channel based on an artist, it’s a consistently intuitive experience. eine Provision vom Anbieter, z.B. Notably, Apple offers a $99 per-year Apple Music Individual Plan option, which brings the plan cost down to $8.25 per month if you're willing to pay for a year upfront. The latest hi-fi, home cinema and tech news, reviews, buying advice and deals, direct to your inbox. Spotify plans to launch Spotify HiFi to compete in this area, but it’s still not landed yet. There’s Taylor Swift vs Kanye West, Tupac vs Biggie, Eminem vs... everyone? Although the curated playlist selections appear similar across both services, popular opinion suggests that Spotify is far better at finding new music that you might actually like. Recent Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless format upgrades are good news for audiophiles. Hannah joined Trusted Reviews as a staff writer in 2019 after graduating with a degree in English from Royal Holloway, University of London. Netflix vs. Amazon Prime Video: What's the Difference? Spotify has a three-month free trial offer if you sign up with PayPal. Apple Music sounds slightly better and is probably the pick for those who value Apple Music 1 radio, enjoy having all their music in one place, and can’t live without certain big-name artists and their latest releases. With its integration with iTunes, the ability to browse and play tons of music videos adds a dimension Spotify simply doesn't offer. Next round is streaming quality. Apple Music's made some progress, but they're still not quite ready to dethrone Spotify. Popular albums even include a review or description at the top of the page, highlighting the best tracks. Scroll down to discover the differences between Apple Music and Spotify in terms of price, interface, audio quality, features and more…. Apple Music's plan lacks these restrictions, and Apple Music also has an annual billing option for individual plans that lets you save $20 a year. Scroll to the bottom of the artist page on Apple Music to read a brief biography, including where and when the band formed. Spotify vs. Apple Music: App Interface and Availability . That is, unless you own an Apple HomePod, which only works with Apple Music. Tidal, with its CD-quality and hi-res audio streaming tiers, has made ripping CDs a thing of the past, while Qobuz’s Sublime+ subscription offers hi-res downloads too. There are other areas where each service shines, or dims, when compared.