Is it time to change your music app?

Call me a Spotify fan all you want, but I’ve been using Spotify Free for the past three years. As soon as I got my debit card, the first thing I ever did was sign up for a Spotify Premium free trial, and not to lie, I loved it till I realized there are other music streaming services too that offer a free trial. Guess what? I signed up for all of them and used them side-by-side for well over a month and that’s exactly what we’ll be talking about today! Disclaimer: It’s going to be a long read. But before we jump in,

What makes up for a good streaming service?

• High-quality audio
• Good and diverse audio library
• User-friendly UI
• Good listening experience and cross-platform support
• Competitive Pricing

Audio Quality

On paper, YouTube Music and Apple Music have a bitrate of 256 kbps AAC while Spotify has an audio output of 320 kbps Ogg-Vorbis (AAC and Ogg-Vorbis are called codecs, which are used to compress and transmit data). While it does sound like Spotify has higher audio quality, listening to all the apps at high quality makes it clear that the audio output on Apple Music and YouTube Music is much better compared to Spotify (probably because 256 AAC > 320 Ogg-Vorbis). But Apple Music really put the nail in the coffin when they introduced Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio and Lossless / Hi-Res lossless audio streaming (CD Quality audio without any compressions, as it was recorded) for NO EXTRA fee. Paired with the right headphones that support high-res audio, Apple Music will provide you the best audio quality hands down.

*Audio quality is slightly reduced on the web versions of the respective platforms.

Audio Library

YouTube Music beats Apple Music and Spotify without breaking a sweat as YT Music has both a licensed song library and a wide collection of songs uploaded on YouTube. Any music content uploaded to YouTube can also be found on YouTube Music. Since uploading content to YT is easy, you can find a lot of remixes like lo-fi, reverb, and slowed edits which can’t be found on Spotify or Apple Music. There’s a high probability that any music that you can’t find on Spotify or Apple Music, you’ll find it on YT Music.

App UI

Well, this is where things get subjective. Spotify and YT Music have similar UI interfaces while Apple Music has a completely different interface. All three apps are easy to navigate and all the apps have their own advantages. YT Music and Apple Music allow you to view previously played songs and edit the upcoming queue right in the “now playing” screen. YT Music overall has the best "now playing" screen compared to the other two and has also implemented time-synced (live lyrics) lately. But Apple’s implementation of the lyrics is by far the best in class.

Home screen:

Apple Music

Spotify

YT Music

Album art:

Apple Music

Spotify

YT Music

Now Playing:

Apple Music

Spotify

YT Music

Lyrics:

Apple Music

Spotify

YT Music

My personal experience

Spotify:

• Spotify doesn’t really focus on audio quality. It focuses more on the social aspect of streaming. It shows you what your friends are listening to, and allows you to share playlists and follow your friends on the platform too. Features like Spotify Blend and Group sessions take the social aspect to the next level.
• Spotify also has invested a lot in podcasts and audiobooks (not available in India).
• Spotify has a really good (if not the best, you’ll see why) algorithm in the game. The song recommendations, daily mixes, release radar, and discover weekly are really personalized to your listening habits.
• Spotify had announced way back in 2021 that they’d provide a high-fidelity audio streaming service called Spotify Hi-Fi but it is yet to be seen.

Apple Music

• Apple Music focuses heavily on audio quality. The inclusion of Dolby Atmos, Lossless and High-res lossless audio quality for no extra cost makes it compelling. But if you’re someone who listens to a lot of music, the music recommendation system is not great. It gets the job done, but it doesn’t come close to Spotify or YT Music.
• Apple Music works best with the Apple Eco-system. While Dolby Atmos works on all Atmos-supported devices, Spatial audio works only on Apple Audio devices like the AirPods Pro 2nd gen and Airpods Max.
• It also comes with radio features with Apple Original radio shows hosted by DJs.
• It has the most good-looking UI of the three.
• It just has 4 personalized mixes which aren’t that great.

YouTube Music

• The algorithm for YT Music is borrowed from the algorithm of YouTube, which is just too good. You can play a song from the “Quick Picks” section and just keep enjoying your curated queue without having to worry about skipping any tracks. You can self-curate your queue according to discoverability (familiar music or discover something new). Setting it to “familiar” will make it play songs you’ve already listened to and “discover” will play songs that are new to you.
• Not just the queue, you can curate your entire home screen based on what you’re doing, and create a custom radio by choosing your favorite artists, genres, and the familiarity of the songs.
• A really well-laid-out playing screen with easy-to-access controls. It also has a ‘related’ tab which shows playlists, and more songs based on the currently playing songs.
• Podcasts have newly arrived on the platform.
• You’re just a switch away from playing the music video of the song.
• Provides the most no. of personalized mixes (depends on how much you use the app. The more you use it, the more mixes it makes under categories like “Relax”, “Focus”, “Energize”, “Commute” and “Workout” with 4 mixes/categories. Not to mention you get 7 regular mixes, a Supermix, a Replay Mix, a Discover Mix and a New Release Mix)

Cross-platform support

Spotify has apps on almost every known digital platform whereas YouTube Music adheres to Google’s “No Desktop App” policy. Apple Music can be accessed using the iTunes store on Mac and PC but Apple is reportedly working on a standalone app for Apple Music.

Pricing

This is where everything gets interesting. Spotify has a free version which is supported by ads and you can’t download music or have group sessions. The same goes for YT Music. Apple Music is the only one that DOESN’T have a free version. You will have to pay to use it (Do note there is a free trial available for all first-time premium users on all these apps).

• Spotify Premium is quite flexible with just Rs. 7/day but the monthly individual plan starts at Rs. 119/month making it the most expensive in this list. They however do have a DUO plan for Rs. 149/month for 2 premium accounts (users need to live together). The family plan starts from Rs. 179/month and up to 6 accounts can use it. They also have a student plan for Rs. 59/month.
• Apple Music's individual plan starts from Rs. 99/month and the family plan costs 149/month for up to 6 people (~Rs. 25/month per person). But this is where Apple Music and YT Music (more on this later) stand out from the pack, they can be bundled with other services you may love. For Rs. 195/month (Rs. 365/month for a family plan of up to 5 people - ~Rs. 73/month per person), you can get the Apple One bundle which includes 50 GB of iCloud+ cloud storage (similar to Google Drive), Apple tv+, Apple Music and Apple Arcade, which is a really good deal for someone who lives in the Apple Ecosystem. Apple Music also has a student plan starting at Rs. 49/month, which is the lowest among the three.
• YT Music Premium also starts from Rs. 99/month, the family plan starts from Rs. 149/month for up to 6 accounts (~Rs. 25/month per person) and their student plan costs Rs. 59/month. But the YouTube Premium bundle (formerly known as YouTube Red) includes both YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium (which removes all the ads from YouTube, lets you download videos, and allows you to play videos in the queue like you do on the YouTube web version and play videos in the background or Picture-in-Picture mode) which makes it more value for money. The YT Premium bundle individual starts at Rs. 129/month and the family plan starts at Rs. 189/month for up to 6 accounts (~Rs. 32/month per person) which is absolutely amazing, given the value you get from this bundle.

And there you have it! You have everything you need to know about these music apps and their subscriptions and I hope this will let you decide which music app suits your need the most!

Update: I’ve been using the YT Premium Family plan with 5 more people and I love it. It is the best Rs. 32 I spend every month on a product and I have no regrets. Just saying 😉

Until next time 👋🏻