In the world of music streaming, there are two apps that are constantly being brought up–Apple Music and Spotify.
Each offers extensive musical libraries, personalized recommendations for songs, and various other features. Despite their similarities, Spotify is often the preferred app. But is Spotify really better than Apple Music?
Design is important in any app, but especially with music. A good design does not confuse users.
“Not a lot of variety of fonts, a limited color palette that is related to each other, and is creative in a unique way… A bad design potentially could have too many colors, too many font sizes/styles,” art teacher Andrew Eckerle said.
When someone opens Spotify it shows their recently listened to playlists, mixes filled with songs they currently listen to and ones recommended by Spotify based on similarity, and radio stations specially curated for them based on what they like.
Apple Music has top picks, which is similar to the curated playlists Spotify has recently played, and then suggestions based on the person’s music taste.
The Kentucky Struts are a rock band from Cold Spring, Kentucky, and have been making music since 2005. Their music is up on music streaming platforms like Apple Music and Spotify.
“Apple Music updates my favorite playlists weekly and the layout on the homepage makes it easy to navigate and find new options,” said Brian Teismann, a member of the Kentucky Struts.
The design that is best for someone solely depends on their preference. However, Apple Music’s design is more sleek and easy to use making it the winner of this category.
Apple Music and Spotify do not produce the music, and that is where the artists and producers come in.
“A really common thing and it’s called distrokid or other distribution things. They put the audio file on there and it puts it on all the other platforms,” Noah Huber (12) said.
However, once the platforms receive these files, there are some differences.
“Apple Music cuts off the higher frequencies which ‘makes it less sparkly,’” Huber said.
The same file could sound different on both music platforms, with Spotify not cutting any frequencies. For this reason, Spotify wins this category.
A well-made plan gives the app revenue, but also attracts the user. Both Spotify and Apple Music have similar plans like family, personal, and student ones. Spotify does offer a free plan, but it offers fewer features and gives ads after every few songs, causing most users to pay extra for premium
“Generally it’s a good idea to consider all of the options and the plans before you buy anything or before you really make most decisions, particularly if it’s for business purposes or for yourself, you have all the options on the table,” accounting teacher Nathan Dilts said.
Spotify’s free plan could be good for someone who is trying to save money. However, if someone wasn’t particularly worried about saving money, buying the premium plan for Spotify would be a much better experience. Spotify wins this category because it offers a free plan and Apple Music does not.
Having social aspects in an app is important because it can create a sense of community and it acts as marketing.
Spotify and Apple Music both have the ability to create playlists, but Spotify has blends and jams. A blend is when a user sends a blend invite to someone via messages and when the recipient accepts, the AI of Spotify creates a playlist combining their music taste. Blends can have up to 10 people which creates many opportunities to find new music.
Spotify also has a jam session that allows users from different phones to listen to the same music at the same time.
Of course, Spotify also has the infamous Spotify wrapped that people look forward to all year.
“I think it’s a big thing because it’s a big talking point.” said Huber.
People love to show others what their most listened-to artist is and how many minutes they had listening to music.
”I see a lot of folks posting their Spotify wrapped on Instagram this time of year.” said Teismann.
If someone’s looking to be able to easily share playlists and make blends with friends, Spotify is the better choice.
If someone is already ingrained into a specific music app, they should probably stay with that due to the fact that the apps are so similar. However, if someone is just starting out, Spotify would be the favorable choice due to the design and social aspect of it. At the end of the day, it is the person who gets to decide what app to listen to music on.
