Okay, all right, let's do it.
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Which streaming service is music to your ears?
We're comparing two of the biggest names to see which one comes out on top.
This is Apple Music versus Spotify.
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If you're listening on mobile, both services work on Android and iOs.
Spotify has a free ad-supported tier, but for most albums and playlists, you'll have to listen on shuffle.
You only get six skips per hour and no access to the radio stations.
Apple Music only offers streaming for Beats One radio for free, or you can listen to songs in your iTunes library.
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But it costs ten dollars a month, five dollars for students or fifteen dollars for family plans including the US.
And if your a paid subscriber, both let you save and listen to songs offline.
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Each streaming service has a big catalog, though Apple Music has forty-five million songs versus Spotify's thirty five million.
You don't always have to listen through the app.
The Spotify web interface let you stream for a browser, while Apple music has web widget.
While it's not technically a full player, you can still stream for a browser from tool.applemusic.com.
You can stream audio from both services through a bluetooth speaker.
Spotify can act you use a Spotify app to cast and control playback uncompatible devices that are on the same WiFi network.
And you can also use your voice to control Spotify on the Amazon Echo or Google Home.
So lets start with smart speaker if your someone like me when I was doing a lot of testing with Apple Music, who has a Chrome Cast enabled device and in my case its an old speaker with Chrome Cast audio.
Try to cost to it from Apple Music, I'm out of luck.
But if you have a home pod then you probably will want Apple Music because you can control with Siri and I think for a lot people is important because if you have an iphone and you're in a car for example, being able to summon music hands free is a pretty big deal in a car.
The other advantage of apple music Is an Apple watch if you do have an Apple watch and you go for run it's great to be able to stream music directly from the watch and not have to take a phone.
Can I just say Spotify had this amazing feature called running and it used to actually detect the tempo at which you were running and then choose songs at a particular BPM that would match that.
They got rid of it I don't know why it was such a cool feature Apple music like pick this feature up use it.
Run with it.
Why not?
Literally, run with it.
Literally run with it.
One of the big advantages with Apple Music is the integration with the iCloud music library, so you can store 100,000 of your own songs And having accessible in the cloud to any device signed in with your Apple ID.
So, that's your PC, a MAC or even the iPhone.
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Spotify streams in aug vobous format.
If you're listening on the desktop or your phone, and you can choose the bit right?
Up to 320 kilobyte per second Apple Music streams at 256 kilobits per second, AAC files.
Both services try to expose you to new music you haven't heard of before, based on music you already like.
And both ask you for some of your favorite genres and artists when you first open an account and have playlists that update based on your listening habits.
Another way you can discover new music is through radio stations.
Alright Lexi, so I know that your music selection is a very big part of your identity so which one of these two services is best able to match your personality or get it right.
So the clear winner really for me is Spotify it just seems to get me on a level that's Way deeper than apple music.
So Spotify has discover weekly, and release radar.
I really like how the discover weekly playlist surfaces a lot of stuff like what I already listen to.
But it's just artists that I've never heard before.
I actually genuinely enjoy it.
I mean there are just a few weeks that's it's kind of totally off, but I'd say nine times out of ten It's really spot-on, and I've found a lot of great music from it.
Take me, for example.
I don't necessarily build my whole identity around my music selection.
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I'm so sporadic about my music choices that I like being able to just search for my own stuff and just kinda have similar songs play after that.
But Neither one really gets it right for me because I'm all over the place.
I have my classical music, and then I have my Disney music, and then I have my broadway music, and then I wanna listen to pop, and then I wanna listen to jazz, and there's a lot of Spanish stuff too in there, and it's so sporatic that it really doesn't matter, both are able to surface what I want to hear.
And neither one is really able to keep up with my Crazy music selection.
Right, and that's a really good point you bring up about non-English speaking music.
If you're listening to a lot of Latin music, I'm really intrigued.
Which service do you think is better for finding new stuff?
I think Apple Music has a great selection of the classics.
I can usually find the most of the songs that I wanna listen to, If I want to listen to more obscure up and coming stuff from south of the border, then I think Spotify's a little bit better at featuring these less known artists.
As for radio, Apple radio also has the option of listening to Beats 1 radio.
Do you listen to Beats 1 at all?
No, I don't.
Why?
I'm not a radio person, I guess.
A I don't spend a lot of time in the car and I feel like the only time when I did listen to radio was because it was available in the car.
I really want to love beats one radio and it's all about finding that radio personality that you really gel with right.
You want to find someone that has.
Want to gel with him I see.
You want to find someone that has the
Same taste as you that's gonna make you listen to music that is outside of your comfort zone as well.
I haven't really found that with the beats one DJs.
But maybe I just haven't listened to it enough.
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You can also follow your favorite artists in both Apps to keep up to date with posts and their latest releases.
So, these services have a lot of social sharing features.
Do you use them at all?
So, I don't necessarily share my own music selection because as we've discussed, it's mostly embarassing.
So I rather not be judge by a music [UNKNOWN] like yourself I kind of keep my owns selections on private but I do sometimes peeking to see what my friends and [UNKNOWN] are listening to just because I know I probably not gonna discover that music on my own so it's kind of nice to see what they're checking out back home.
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Apple music is the obvious choice if you have a range of Apple devices, while Spotify is your best choice across a range of platforms and if you don't want to pay for music.
And they're not the only players in the music game.
Amazon Music, Tidal, and YouTube Music are just some of the other names out there.
All right, moment of truth, what would you pick: Spotify or Apple Music?
This one's pretty clear cut for me, it is Spotify.
it just gets me like it understands what music I like, it gives me good playlists and surfaces songs that I probably wouldn't find otherwise.
But what about you?
I think I would go with the free version of Spotify.
I mean, Apple Music doesn't offer a free version.
But if I really had to pay Maybe I would pay for Apple Music because of the ability to stream on the Apple Watch Series 3 and use it on a run without having to take my phone, and the ability to be able to summon Siri as well.
But we asked you guys the same question on Twitter and Instagram Stories And actually most of you preferred Spotify but maybe that's not the case for you.
Maybe it's totally the reverse.
Let us know in the comments below and of course let us know what you would like us to compare next.
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