Apple Music vs Spotify

insider9

Well-known member
I've decided to give Apple Music a go. It's my wife preferred streaming service. I've previously tried Deezer which I didn't get a long with due to app UI and I'm a Spotify subscriber.

I was surprised it offered me a 3 month trial which is excellent. If it all woks out it could save me £30 in Spotify fees if I was to suspend/stop my membership.

Having spent about an hour last night comparing two services against one another and flac I have some interesting findings. I played both on my main system from a pc.

At first I thought Apple Music sounds better but noticed that as a
default it's set louder than Spotify. Having matched volume levels I've noticed another difference.

Apple Music to my ears sounds brighter. That is against both Spotify and flac. I obviously haven't compared a lot of material during an hour so it may not be true to broader material but tracks I compared were. I even compared a podcast and it also was the case. Depending on your setup this could be a good or a bad thing.

The other difference for me is the way I use Spotify.

Spotify connect allows me to control playback from pc with my android phone. I haven't yet found the same function with Apple Music. There are apps that let iTunes control but there isn't full Apple Music functionality which puts me of a bit.

Anyone knows of a way to do it?
 

insider9

Well-known member
Thank you Mark. I'll look into that.

I have what's called Retune on Android. It can use local iTunes library and even control currently playlist but lacks browsing function for Apple Music :(
 

lpv

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from what I've searched ( jazz, electronic, new indie/ electronic artists) apple music library is richer.. apparently AAC codec is better then Spotify's Ogg Vorbis.. I agree, apple music sounds bit more detailed.. Remote app is free and perfectly control iTunes library as well as apple music.
 

muljao

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I don't think I'd change simply because I have the family spotify and all the gang would need to change if I moved it around. I do half expect (hope) that they will all have a lossless option in the future.

I find Spotify sound quality very good most of the time. There are a few albums that don't sound as good as others and I definetely think very dense music (Nirvana -Nevermind for example) is not as good as it should be, but imo for 15 euro a month for 6 people with 9999 songs available offline it is heaven on earth.

Keep us informed how your apple experience goes (I think apple products are great, but I don't like their regimental software, and I'm not clever enough to bypass it)
 

ID.

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Funnily enough, I thought Spotify sounded a bit brighter and more detailed, and I preferred the Spotify interface, although Apple Music interface recently got much better.

The deciding factor for me was that Apple Music has a better range of music here.

I use Apple products so the remote App works well for me when I want to stream my own music or Apple Music from my computer
 
I've tried both apple music and Spotify..I prefer the interface of Spotify and can't tell much of a difference in Sq although apple does have a few artists that Spotify doesn't but I'm sure it will work the other way around also.I do prefer Spotify connect as opposed to apple music.I can use my mobile as a remote and still have the stream hard wired to my Amazon fire tv box (and also use my mobile for other duties)where as Apple airplay is wireless streaming from tablet or phone when using the apple TV...screen mirroring between mobile device and the atv without the ability to play music on the fly.I do prefer a hard wired connection myself.And that's basically why I stuck with Spotify and ditched apple music.As I already have a half decent dac and didn't really want to purchase a dedicated streamer, I found it quite difficult to find a device that would stream apple music to my dac,keeping with a hard wired connection and able to use a mobile device as a remote control without the need to spend a small fortune.Spotify on the other hand has a couple of ways to achieve said goal,amazon fire tv box (1st gen),Google chromecast audio and even a playstation4 are all compatible with Spotify connect and there's probably more.Apple on the other hand has zilch.
 

Brokenflame

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Has anyone had reliability issues with Spotify? Things like, playlist missing when you login, the same song playing three time in a hour when using the radio, etc?

It's an issue to consider when using streaming services, if the app is unreliable or a pain to use the it really doesn't matter how good the sound quality is.
 

insider9

Well-known member
Brokenflame said:
Has anyone had reliability issues with Spotify? Things like, playlist missing when you login, the same song playing three time in a hour when using the radio, etc?

It's an issue to consider when using streaming services, if the app is unreliable or a pain to use the it really doesn't matter how good the sound quality is.

I've not had any issues you describe with Spotify. When listening to radio yes the tracks do repeat after a while. It's more of a long playlist than a radio really.

Spotify to me sounds similar to flac. Apple Music has extra brigtness which is across frequency range (may be to do with compression) hence it makes low level detail easier to spot but overall compared to flac I prefer Spotify.

I agree that Spotify app is easier to use than Apple Music. I have tried Deezer in the past and the app for me was simply unusable.

I have noticed differences in catalogues which makes me want to keep both. Not a particular problem since I'm on a free trial of Apple Music.
 

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