Spotify and Apple Music are two of the most important streaming services available today. Both have extensive song catalogs and are helpful when you want to discover new music. The major difference between the two is, on Spotify, you can follow artists, while on apple music, you no longer can. Spotify followers help artists get noticed by the app’s algorithm and feature more frequently on playlists.
Comparing purchase prices, Spotify and Apple Music have the exact cost per month ($10), the same discount for students ($5), a similar family plan for six people that apple music offers for $15. In contrast, Spotify offers it for $16 and the same free trial period (3 months). Spotify has an ad-supported free tier you can use, which is its trump card.
Which app’s features are more convenient in 2021?
Browser Playback
Apple Music used to require the user to install iTunes, but this is no longer an issue. Both the services let you listen in a browser and function similarly to the app version.
Music Library
Apple Music boasts over 75 million songs, with Spotify not too far behind at around 70 million. Spotify’s library, however, includes 2.6M podcasts.
Apple Music secures more exclusive deals with artists, which means songs appear on its service before all others. A significant advantage of Apple Music is you can combine pieces you already own with the app’s streaming catalog.
Followers
You can follow friends and view their playlists on both apps, but you need to have friends in your contacts or on Facebook to follow them on Apple Music. Spotify followers are utilized in its algorithm by featuring the artist in more playlists.
Music Sharing
Both apps offer the option to link songs into social media stories or message them directly to friends. As mentioned previously, following friends and viewing their playlists is also possible on both apps. The edge here goes to Spotify as it offers collaborative playlists on which two or more users can add songs to listen together to. The desktop version of Spotify also allows you to view the songs your friends are listening to in real-time (if they have not disabled the option).
Recommendations
Apple Music has a Listen Now tab full of song recommendations based on your listening habits and the option to create Stations, making a playlist of similar songs and genres.
Spotify has the Station feature too, but its Discover Weekly playlist is much more popular. It generates new music for you to listen to based on your previous listening patterns. This is unique for each user according to their taste in music, and their Spotify followed list.
On the whole, both Spotify and Apple Music are two of the best streaming services available. However, Spotify has the advantage that it is available for free & is better in helping you discover music that fits your preferences, which is helpful for both artists & listeners. Apple Music has a more extensive library, but this seems to be a temporary problem with Spotify’s tremendous growth rate.