Apple Music vs. Spotify: Which Music Streaming Service Should You Choose in 2024?

1，The 2 music streaming services——Apple Music and Spotify

The two largest so far music streaming are Spotify and Apple Music. Since 2008, Spotify has been at the forefront of streaming media.

Spotify has paved the way for the current music streaming market, and although there is no sign of slowing down-as of the fourth quarter of 2020, the company has up to 345 million users worldwide-but Apple Music is not inferior.

Apple’s Music is known for its high-profile exclusive music, powerful music library, well-curated broadcasts, and seamless integration with iOS 14 and earlier versions of iOS. This meaty concoction helped Apple reach impressive growth in listeners, with over 72 million premium subscribers, vaulting it atop Spotify at one point in the U.S.

Despite this, Spotify is still the global champion. As a music lover, choosing between Spotify and Apple Music is no easy task. For a variety of reasons, both music streaming portals are worth the monthly subscription fee. Here, we compare the two giants and see which one is most worth your money.

2，Apple Music vs. Spotify: Value

Both apps’ pricing structure is virtually the same. Spotify, however, does have some additional offerings. Here’s how they compare and differ:

2.1, Apple Music: Pricing

2.2, Spotify: Pricing

The pricing for each Spotify and Apple Music is very similar identical, with one big difference: the former offers a free starting tier. However, Spotify's free option will interrupt your listening with recorded ads, as well as ads within the app, while paying for the Premium tier will get rid of both.

An individual ‌Apple Music‌ subscription costs $9.99 per month in the United States, with slight price variations in other countries and territories. Likewise, an individual Spotify subscription or "Premium" plan costs $9.99 per month, with some regional variations.

Note that signing up the Apple Music annual plan is a bit of an arcane process: you first need to sign up to a monthly plan, then switch to annual billing in the app or through your Apple device's account settings.

New users with an applicable student email can get a discounted monthly subscription of just $4.99. Both add a bit more for that bargain, with Spotify offering students the ad-supported Hulu access with Showtime into the mix, while Apple will hook the studious up with Apple TV+. If you’re a student, Spotify may appeal more to you with its inclusion of non-music streaming perks like Showtime and Hulu. However, if you’re already invested in the Apple ecosystem, then Apple Music—or even the Apple One bundle—may be worth considering.（Apple has announced that later this year, its music streaming platform will also be available as part of Apple One: the company’s collection of services that gives you access to Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage. ）

Both services offer family plans for $14.99 or $15.99 per month, respectively. Up to six people can access the services using a personal account for each family member, with the exception that ‌Apple Music‌ members can also share iTunes purchases in addition to catalog content. ‌Apple Music‌ does, however, require all family members to use the same credit card for App Store purchases.

Spotify also offers a $12.99 Premium Duo package, aimed at 2-person couples. It includes the Duo Mix playlist, an automatically produced set of tunes based on the users' listening habits.

Winner: Draw

3, Apple Music vs. Spotify: Free Plan or Free Trial

In addition to its paid plan, Spotify also offers a free ad-supported service that allows users to shuffle-play songs, although premium features remain off limits.

Staying true to its “music for everyone” ethos, it is one of the few to offer a free (ad-supported) subscription tier alongside its Premium service.

Spotify allows free users unlimited listening to as many as 750 tracks across 15 top playlists every month (including Discover Weekly), equating to about 40 hours of music playback.

If you don’t have the extra cash to splash on streaming, then Spotify should probably be your go-to service. The majority of Spotify’s users listen for free, and they can still play songs on-demand as long as they are willing to put up with ads (unskippable on the app, but can be muted on the web app) – with some extra limitations for mobile devices — and the sole reason it takes home the crown for having the most competitive subscription fees.

The majority of Spotify’s 100 million active users settle for the free tier but, as the 140 million who now subscribe to the paid-for Premium service can vouch for, there’s plenty of reason to shell out: 320kbps streams, offline listening, Spotify Connect support, search and skip tracks on mobile devices, and no adverts.

Apple Music doesn’t have a free plan, 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. Free three-month trial converts to a paid membership unless the user cancels before the trial period is over.

Considering Apple grants every prospective subscriber three months of Apple Music for free, the service may be sweeping away more of Spotify’s audience.

While Apple Music’s trial period is limited to an individual account, Spotify gives you a free month regardless of the plan you choose. That including Duo and Family plans, meaning that multiple people can try Premium for free under the same subscription.

Winner: Spotify

4, Apple Music vs. Spotify: Music library

Apple Music and Spotify both feature massive libraries, but Apple claims the advantage with "over 75 million" songs to Spotify's "over 70 million."

Spotify first took its dominant position on the strength of its impressive 70 million-plus song catalog. Couple this with the fact that it adds more than 60,000 new songs each day. The Swedish streaming service also brings all the latest releases, exclusive live sessions, and various new singles right to its New Releases tab each Friday, as well as the Release Radar playlist.

Apple’s service, on the other hand, touts more than 75 million songs, which is superior to Spotify’s current figures (although Spotify has been steadily catching up) and also outdoes newer contenders like Amazon Prime Music and Jay-Z’s Tidal. Moreover, the difference is that Apple Music often gives listeners access to exclusive perks and original content such as special video content, largely because it doesn’t offer a free tier.

Winner: Apple Music

5, Apple Music vs. Spotify: Offline Listening

Apple Music‌ users can download a maximum of 100,000 songs to their library, and using Apple's iCloud Music Library feature these can be synced across devices signed into the same Apple ID. Spotify Premium members can download up to 10,000 songs on each of up to 5 different devices, but this number doesn't include saved playlists.That limit has since been removed, allowing users to “like” an unlimited amount of songs.

In addition, Spotify subscribers have access to audiobooks and podcasts, and the company is known to be investing heavily in its podcasts offering, so users can expect a lot more content in this department soon.

Winner: Spotify

6, Apple Music vs. Spotify: Audio Quality

We also need to discuss the audio quality that comes with streaming songs on both services.
Starting in June 2024, ‌‌Apple Music‌‌ will support Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio, two features that are being provided to ‌‌Apple Music‌‌ subscribers at no additional cost. Both of these features will significantly improve the ‌‌Apple Music‌‌ listening experience.

Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos will provide an immersive, multi-dimensional audio experience that allows artists to mix music in a way that makes it sound like the notes are coming from all around you.
Apple is upgrading its entire music catalog to Lossless Audio with the ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) that preserves the details in the original audio file. ‌‌Apple Music‌‌ subscribers will be able to hear songs exactly as the artists recorded them in the studio.

If you're not interested in lossless audio tiers, ‌Apple Music‌ streams 256kbps AAC files, while Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis format and lets you choose the bitrate depending on how you're listening. On mobile you can elect to stream in Low (24 kbit/s), Normal (96 kbit/s), High (160 kbit/s) or Very High (320 kbit/s) quality.

Spotify in February announced plans to introduce a new "HiFi" premium tier sometime in 2024.
Apart from audiophiles, most listeners probably won't notice much difference between the highest-quality Spotify and ‌Apple Music‌ streams of the same song. In other words, for audiophiles, Apple has by far the better options.

Winner: Apple Music

7, Apple Music vs. Spotify: Music Sharing

Both services allow you to follow friends who are also subscribers and share playlists with them that you've personally created.

One of Spotify's clearest wins is its wealth of social sharing features. You can easily share Spotify content as Instargram and Facebook stories, post album art on Snapchat 9which then links friends and followers to the song) or create links and scannable, QR-like Spotify Codes to share music and playlists on any messaging platform.

Apple Music lets you share playlists with other registered users over AirDrop, or create content links to post wherever you want, but its social media integration is much more basic than Spotify’s.

Winner: Spotify

8, Apple Music vs. Spotify: Music discovery

Thanks to music streaming services, you can discover new songs and artists. This is one of the main reasons why users decide to buy a full subscription, so it is very important that the algorithms display us the music that we may love. Fortunately, both apps offer various ways for users to discover new music. 

Comparatively, Spotify's Home screen is where the service's personalization is centered. Discover Weekly is added every Monday morning, and delivers a two-hour playlist of personalized music recommendations based on your listening habits, as well as the habits of other users who listen to similar artists. Meanwhile, Daily Mixes playlists feature tracks and artists in a certain genre that you've been listening to, plus a few additional recommendations, while Release Radar is a playlist of new releases recommended just for you.

While Spotify's Home screen also features new releases and "Made for Everyone" playlists categorized into genres and moods, ‌Apple Music‌'s non-personalized content lives in a separate Browse tab showcasing trending artists and playlists, top charts, and music videos. Browse is also home to a TV and films section that features Apple-made programming like "Carpool Karaoke" and artist documentaries.
‌Apple Music‌'s Radio tab features curated music stations tuned to your listening habits as well as Apple's Beats 1 radio station. Beats 1 offers live radio 24 hours a day, and also plays a big part in the platform's music discovery. The Radio tab also has an archive of its most popular radio shows and playlists from years past.

Apple Music’s music discovery features are somewhat limited and leave you looking for more. It also feels as though the app takes longer to calibrate to your tastes, and requires a lot of “Liking” and “Disliking” to train the algorithm. Despite that, it does get the job done – eventually. Spotify, however, catches on more quickly. And thanks to a combination algorithm, it does a better job at connecting you with music that you’re sure to love, and music you didn’t know you needed in your life.
Apple Music will give you a maximum of 8 suggestions, while Spotify offers as much as 20.

Winner: Spotify

9, Apple Music vs. Spotify: Availability

In recent years, both services have worked to expand their availability. In addition to the expected devices such as phones, tablets, PCs and Macs, Spotify content can be played via your games consoles. That goes for the most recent PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, as well as older consoles like the Xbox One series and the PS4. Early in 2024 Spotify also launched the Car Thing, a small touchscreen device you can install in any car to play music and podcasts from.

Apple Music has its own automative solution in Apple CarPlay, though this needs to be built-in to the car itself; you can’t just add CarPlay to any old clunker. Still, Apple Music also claims an impressive breadth of supportive devices, from the Apple HomePod and HomePod mini to the Apple TV 4K and Apple Watch.

Spotify also works on smartwatches ranging from Fitbit and Garmin models to more fashion-minded Samsung and Google Wear OS wearables. It’s getting better in this regard too, as Spotify is getting offline listening on Wear OS devices as well as the Apple Watch.

Either way you’re spoiled for choice, through thanks to its bonus games console support, Spotify edges this one.

Winner: Spotify

10，Apple Music vs. Spotify: Which is the best?

Both Apple Music and Spotify are relatively easy to use, priced similarly, and widely available - and they come with basic controls and plenty of options for finding songs and creating playlists. They even both offer the ability to play music when there's no service or Wi-Fi around.

Spotify comes with a free, ad-supported tier, which Apple Music does not, though Apple Music's Family Plan doesn't require all six users to live at the same address, which Spotify's family plan does.

Apple Music is also easier to add your own music to and it's a great service if you have Apple devices, while Spotify is available on almost every platform and has a number of discover, playlist and social features.
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.

But Spotify is undoubtedly the choice for those who value discovering and sharing music, and the clear winner for those wanting an affordable option.

So, while Apple Music features and continuous improvements make it a worthy opponent for Spotify in 2024. They are still a great alternative for iPhone and Mac users.

Apple Music is an undeniable threat with the definite potential to leapfrog Spotify in the future, the Swedish service remains the one to beat – for now at least.

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