Although there are many other options, they are the two giants of the streaming music industry. Both are competing to be the service with the most subscribers and the most downloads in the world, but it is not clear which is better. in the struggle Apple Music vs. Spotify There are opinions for all tastes, for or against.
Nor do we dare to give a definitive answer to the frequently asked question of which of the two services is the best. However, what we can do is analyze them both and establish their main differences, their strengths and their weaknesses. Then, let each one choose what they prefer.
According to the portal statista.com, Spotify dominates this market with more than 30% of total subscribers worldwide. Behind them are Apple Music, Tencent and Amazon Music, all with a share close to 13-14%. However, in the "prestige" competition, the matchup comes down to Apple Music vs Spotify. Let's analyze each of the two great options in detail:
History
Spotify is the oldest streaming music app. The idea was born in 2006 by the hand of the Swedes Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzón, and became a reality in 2008 in five countries: Sweden, Finland, France, the United Kingdom and Spain.
For its part, Apple Music saw the light of day in 2015, although it was not exactly a newcomer, since it already had a long history of music behind it. iTunes, the company's popular media player, launched in the year 2001. It also played a prominent role in the birth of Apple Music Beats Music, a streaming music service that Apple bought for more than 3.000 million dollars to launch its project.
Audience
There is currently no doubt that Spotify is the world's number one streaming music service. in terms of user volume. As we said before, it holds close to 30% of the market and, according to figures provided by the company itself, it has 182 million subscribers plus 422 million monthly active users throughout the world.
It must also be said that this market share has been higher in the past (it reached 33% in 2015) and since then, Spotify has been giving up a bit of space to its competitors.
Apple does not regularly publish any information about its subscriber accounts., so all the figures that are handled are unofficial. According to experts, its market share would be around 13% and 15%.
However, the end users of both services care little about these statistical issues. Both Spotify and Apple Music have a solid base of loyal users who are not going to change their service, so both platforms have a more than assured future before them.
Contents
What users do pay attention to is the music catalog and the content offer of the platforms. It is at this point that it makes the most sense to raise the Apple Music vs. Spotify dichotomy.
Music
Spotify boasts of having more than 82 million music tracks. Meanwhile, Apple offers a more extensive catalog of 90 million songs to listen to. The differences in terms of quantity are not decisive for most users, since both catalogs more than cover the tastes and preferences of the general public.
It must be said that these differences can come from rarities or very specific content, such as very specific versions of a song or special recordings, something that only the most demanding musical connoisseurs take into account.
Podcasts
Spotify has a specific category for podcast with more than 4 million titles. It is difficult to know if Apple Music's offer in this segment is greater or less, since it does not make any differentiation in terms of content.
In any case, one thing is clear: the content exclusivity. A podcast that appears on Spotify will never be in the Apple Music catalog and vice versa.
Video and Radios
Apple Music pays much more attention to the video format, offering music videos, documentaries and other similar content. Spotify has only started working in this direction very recently and is still far behind its main competitor.
Also Apple Music works better in the “Radio” section, as evidenced by the level of excellence of some of its stations such as Apple Music 1 and Apple Music Hits, with real presenters and playlists
Sound quality
Assuming sound quality is good on both platforms, it's fair to point out certain differences when we stop to look at the bit rates. The Spotify application offers a transmission quality of 160 kbps for its free users and 320 kbps for those who subscribe to its Premium service.
For its part, the basic transmission of Apple Music is 256 kbps. In addition, it offers a call high definition audio option LosslessLossless, 24-bit/48kHZ and 24-bit/192kHz high-resolution. In other words: the sound quality provided by Apple Music in its most expensive option is clearly superior, although it is also true that to enjoy it we are going to need suitable hardware and greater bandwidth.
To counteract this handicap, Spotify announced the launch of a hi-fi service with similar features (Spotify Hi-Fi), but for the moment it has not arrived yet.
Plans and subscriptions
While Spotify offers the possibility of using its services in a limited but free way, Apple Music is limited to offering a trial version that can last up to several months. Of course, after the established period, you will have to subscribe to one of their plans to continue using the platform.
Enjoy Spotify or Apple Music for free It comes at a price: putting up with advertising that constantly interrupts playlists. There is also no possibility of playing a specific song on request, we can only listen to random playlists without the option to "skip" songs that do not interest us.
Spotify
In addition to the free version, Spotify offers four different Premium plans, with a trial month:
- Individual (€10,99 per month, maximum 1 account).
- duo (€14,99 per month, maximum 2 accounts).
- Family (€17,99 per month, maximum 6 accounts).
- Students (€5,99 per month, maximum 1 account). You must prove your university student status with a valid legal document.
Apple Music
Apple Music also offers four subscription plans:
- Voice (€4,99 per month, maximum 1 account).*
- Student (€5,99 per month, maximum 1 account).
- Individual (€10,99 per month, maximum 1 account).
- Family (€16,99 per month, maximum 6 accounts).
(*) It only works through the Siri assistant, hence the price reduction.