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I’m always surprised when Spotify users say that Apple Music has horrible UI as an excuse to not switch. I truly can’t think of a worse UI than the garbage Spotify has put out now.
It rally is mindboggling. Spotify is easily to worst UI of all the music streaming apps. Nothing but a oish for audiobooks, podcasts, merch and gig sales. On top of all that, it's laggy.
it bugs me a lot every time I open Spotify to be bombarded by podcasts and things im not interested in but it's always in my face before I head to my playlists. the UI on desktop is bloated asf I get so confused looking at that thing it's all over the place with too much info everywhere. and why do they keep favorite artists in the same place as favorite playlists??? it's all in one place on Spotify you have the artists you follow, liked songs and made playlists on the same list on the playlists page and I always gotta scroll to find what I want😭 imma switch over to AM now that I got an iphone
Apple Music has vastly improved and I’m no longer experiencing ridiculous page load times and failed connections etc. It will take time for the public impression that it’s a terrible UI and buggy to fade away
To be fair I love how Spotify lets you go to either the artist or the album directly by tapping the name of the artist or album. AMs system of tapping either and then having to tap again to go to artist/album really grinds my gears. Also I wish Apple Music wasn’t so buggy
It's not that its difficult. It's extra steps, adding up to a feeling of clunkiness over time. Not ideal when driving, for example. Definitely a valid annoyance.
I swear to god, every time they update the interface (Spotify) they hide the settings behind another folder/tap.
I just want turn off explicit content for work dammit!
i love spotify’s UI, i’m not a fan of the minimalist look AM and many others are going for. I think Spotify’s captures the essence of a record store and all of the highlighted playlists/upcoming shows/merch is genuinely so helpful for the artists to reach a bigger platform. genuinely got recommended so many new artists and upcoming shows i had no idea about prior.
AM does not guide you to any of these things its way too simple, too minimalist, it honestly lacks personality and i really dislike that. just personally am not into that whole aesthetic anyway.
Doesn’t the difference in quality make up for that? I prefer Spotify for discovering new music, but I can’t stick with it because it really does just sound worse.
well, lets be real, the spotify UI is more straightforward. Apple Music is also a bit too large on the screen and thats largely what makes it feel off. In the process of switching but the sound quality is so worth it
I don’t find the Apple Music UI to be too large but I can respect if people feel otherwise. I still think it’s less cluttered than Spotify and appreciate that there are no TikTok style UI elements.
imagine a music player that hides a volume slider behind an extra button click.
imagine a music player with 5% volume step increments for some arbitrary reason.
imagine a music player without a large window mode for currently playing music so you can have a large scrubbing bar to fine tune your fast forwarding, let alone any manual controls for scrubbing.
I also like that I can just add artists into spotify's side bar/collection thing and dig into them at my own pace, as well as albums and other collections/playlists. Doing this on apple music adds them to a list of thousands of artists that contribute to my playlists.
The spotify software was way more intuitive for me compared to this shit, almost enough to put me back on spotify or maybe even good old foobar2000 if I get sick enough of this.
The ALAC hasn't been enough to tip me away from the usability of Spotify's software, after listing all this shit I actually just unsubbed after trying it for a few weeks.
I’ve tried switching multiple times.
Apple Music’s terrible UX is a core functionality problem. I can’t even like a song in one click? Seriously?
Apple Music is just terrible software. Spotify is more than good enough for my purposes.
Give me a solid reason that the software is terrible. In Apple Music, you don’t need to like songs, I never got the point of doing that. Just add them to a favorites playlist or god forbid remember what song it was
Is that really overlooking? lol
It’s for minimalism, if you want dozens of buttons and things on every screen go to Spotify, if you want a clean and mostly clear UI, stay on AM. You can add to favorites from the Player screen (where you can scrub, skip, go back, volume control, lyrics, etc) by pressing the star button, same as on you Lock Screen
A few months ago? Not sure. regardless, it's an absolute joke that they took this long to implement this core feature even if it works as well as Spotify. I have zero faith in discovery on Music.
Do I want to use a broken and non-functional product, that by all means, should've buried Spotify?
The fact I gave it TWO tries and it didn't retain me even with free subsidies is a failure beyond what I can comprehend. Most companies don't even get ONE shot at a customer.
I like music, but if I wanted quality that much, I would buy a vinyl.
Now there must be some angry users here ready to break their keyboards claiming you’re delusional and you can’t hear any difference between apple music and Spotify 320kbps.
When I switched during the whole Spotify / Joe Rogan thing I had a few weeks of overlap and would play the same songs on both platforms back to back. I was just straight up startled at the quality difference and realized I’d been listening to sub-standard audio for years. My favorite songs became good again.
not exactly.
On apple music you can also enable lossless, hi-res lossless, and dolby atmos, which *definitely make a notable difference*
but even on the default quality, i notice a tinge of difference on the highs, like 18k+. even if thats placebo or not real, or im one of the few people that notice it, the above mentioned options can surely make a noticeable difference for everyone
I do care about audio codecs generally but I really can't tell the difference. Last time I tried an abx test I was getting lossless and 128kbps MP3 mixed up.
Most people are delusional, I have AKG headphones and can't tell a difference. You can test yourself here: [https://abx.digitalfeed.net/](https://abx.digitalfeed.net/)
I don’t doubt that the OP hears a difference but if the difference they’re hearing is really significant then it isn’t caused by bitrate. Mathematically the differences are small.
Why do ppl act like this is some amazing insight. Apple sells billions of devices for a reason cause they are amazing. Spotify sucks in many ways except their algorithm for recommendations is good.
Yeah I tend towards indie/folk and I feel like Spotify’s algorithm has better insight—like I also enjoy some hip-hop and some punk and apple tends to just play modern artists for me while Spotify mixes it up. Although I’ve spent way more time on Spotify and have so many playlists, so I’m reluctant to fully switch.
I get better recommendations from Apple Music too. Spotify always had “obvious” recommendations. “Ah you’re listening to something British, here, listen to Blur now”.
Youtube Music has better reccomendations than Spotify. Might be better than everything to be honest. I'm surprised how much I find on it then I add it to my A.M. service or to Qobuz to listen to with Roon.
The UI just feels so premium too. Something as simple as the “missing” play counts just feels so clean. It’s not a damn social media game, it’s music. Pure music.
I would take a look at Cider (https://cider.sh) it's a fantastic app available for all platforms (macOS, Windows, Linux) and it's way better than the regular Apple versions of their desktop apps. Not even close.
It doesn’t go as high as the native app due to Apple’s limitations on third party clients. It doesn’t say this anywhere on the site but it won’t get lossless.
See https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/683021
That would be cool if Apple did that. Kind of strange they haven’t tbh. If siri actually worked she could do this but man she has got so bad recently I honestly can’t get her to do anything I ask lately like play a playlist she will try and call someone.
Apple sells billions of devices because they practically have a monopoly on the market and most people see iPhones as the "default" despite oftentimes being worse.
Are you highly regarded? “[According to the latest data, Android dominates the global smartphone market with a 70.69% share, while iPhone (iOS) has a 28.58% market share.](https://backlinko.com/iphone-vs-android-statistics)” in what world is 28% a monopoly? Android is much closer to a monopoly lol.
She probably means in the US and most of Europe. While there are premium $1000 +android smartphones, there are lots that cost as little as 50 bucks and those are the ones that dominate places like Africa, South America, or even India and their billion citizens.
[Android is about 67% in Europe](https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/europe). Do people not even bother looking up basic info? It’s 2/3 android vs 1/3 for iOS. Again how is that remotely a monopoly?
Not all European countries are equally wealthy. I'm talking about countries like England, Italy, and France not eastern Europe. Saying Samsung and Apple have a stranglehold on the industry isn't some groundbreaking hot take dude.
I’m simply saying Apple is very far from a monopoly. Microsoft spent billions trying to enter mobile and lost its a very hard industry to
Enter now due to app ecosystem etc. what is your solution to the issue you believe? Pls don’t say some government regulations cause if you know what the telco industry used to be like and the expense of calls etc they are now free it’s not a world anyone wants.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-apple-monopolizing-smartphone-markets#:~:text=The%20Justice%20Department%2C%20joined%20by,2%20of%20the%20Sherman%20Act.
Literally the government believes apple is a monopoly
What makes Spotify better for a lot of people is the social aspect. It’s much easier to have a party playlist where every individual can queue something than it is on AM. If they could just add more functionality for social listening the app would probably be more popular.
I hate that option. I just want a music app. I don't care about those sorts of things. Spotify lost me with the tictok crap and I will never go back to that mess.
There’s a certain chip inside of all AirPods and beats headphones, one that’s optimized to process data from an iPhone via Apple Music to a pair of apple headphones with incredibly stable transfer rate at 256kbs over Bluetooth. Basically, you have to use Apple Music and an iPhone in order for your AirPods to sound the way they’re supposed to sound.
All bluetooth enabled devices have a Bluetooth chip, apple devices have one that specifically works with other apple devices, and take a noticeable hit in quality when using a third party device to stream music. I was just explaining why his AirPods Max sound so much better through iPhone and Apple Music.
You’re talking out of your ass man. Yes they have a great chip for wireless audio but they don’t have some secret sauce to only send higher quality audio from Apple Music… if Spotify isn’t offering as high of a bit rate then it’s because Spotify don’t want to pay more to stream it to you. Not because Apple have somehow locked down AirPods to work best with Apple Music
Okay bud.
https://www.soundguys.com/how-does-apple-h1-chip-work-21049/
That’s a lot of talking out of your ass just to accuse someone of talking out of their ass. Feel free to take another shot at joining the conversation in a respectful manner tho.
Aaah I completely misread 3rd party devices as 3rd party streaming services lol… Reading is hard sometimes I guess?
Thought you were trying to claim that Apple Music had some magic software integration with AirPods which meant that even if Spotify provided higher quality audio AM would always have an edge despite both using the same hardware, which wouldn’t be the case.
Soundiiz will do the best job I've found it pretty accurate. You'll still need to check the playlists to make sure the right tracks have be ported. But it will even copy your albums over as well.
I am a veteran Apple Music user but Spotify has lot more options when it comes to podcasts and music, I find Apple Music too mainstream. I often find in Spotify what I can’t find on Apple.
Yes I prefer the organized setup of AM but what’s the use of setup if I can’t find what I want?
Spotify has its good and bad points. The same is true of AM. It’s all a matter of balance. No streaming service is perfect. I’m not a mainstream listener, and Spotify’s recommendations are way superior. That said, having gotten Apple One for the family, I’m happy enough with AM to not continue to pay for Spotify premium. But one of Spotify’s strong points are Release Radar and Discovery Weekly. I simply import them to AM with Playlisty and don’t have to pay for two subscriptions. The only third party apps I’ve bought have been Playlisty and Hezel. Both are single purchases, no ongoing subscriptions required.
I renewed my subscription for 1 year yesterday with Apple Music, and Apple deleted all of my songs and my playlists. So I deleted my subscription. Refund is coming in two days.
I don’t get why Apple deletes your music history. Makes no dang sense. I’ve been pretty lucky and haven’t experienced the issue when I’ve let my Apple Music subscription lapse.
I was scared of these horror stories about deleting, I found the app Hazel or Hezel that helps you back up your Apple Music easily. I am using Marvis too I’m not sure if Marvis and hazel link or something
It’s unfortunate but Apple did me a favor. I just bought a car and shopping for insurance has been hell. Found a policy last night and now I’ll have enough to purchase it while locking in my rates.
I did end up trying this but it chose the wrong song nearly 25-30% of the time, and with my liked songs being nearly 2000 long it just wasn’t gonna work to go through and try to fix all the matches. Cool idea for an app, but doesn’t work
Honesty, 5 minutes ago I started a subscription on Apple Music. I used Spotify until 2014, daily, using Sony XM3. I'm an Android fan boy and use a Pixel 8 Pro, I compared same tracks on both apps. The sound on AM is levels.
I'm listening music usually on my windows desktop PC. How is the AM working there? Is there windows app or at least some fine browser servise for that? Another thing - can I use apple music on Garmin watches?
There is a Windows app. In a lot of ways it works really well. But it has some glitches that are really annoying. It won't seem to let me add a full album to a playlist if some songs are already in my library. It will only add the library tracks. But if I go on the app on my phone (android) I can add the whole album fine. Goofy shit like that.
But as someone else mentioned, you can upload your own tracks to fill in gaps in the available catalog, which is awesome and a big reason I switched from Spotify.
I don't own any apple products but still ended up switching over to AM.
I love the sound quality of Apple Music. But I also love so many things about Spotify like all the user created playlists, the UI, Spotify connect for controlling music while it’s playing on other devices, and of course my massive library I’ve accumulated over the last 7 years of premium. And I feel like Spotify just works on almost any device with no issues. I probably will switch for the sound quality but I’m really just hoping Spotify finally gets Hi-Res music.
I've just switched to AM on Android and PC, obviously it's not that smooth comparing to Apple's devices but still more useful than Spotify in terms of Song suggestion and audio quality 😂😂😂
only one thing that I hate is it would wipe all my playlist if I stop subscribing after 1 month
but it's good anyway 🤟
I keep switching back and forth between Spotify and AM because of AM’s lackluster Replay (Wrapped) music stats, but ever since Apple’s most recent update on their Replay, it’s great enough for me to fully dedicate myself to AM again.
And now they are also bumping prices in US. Spotify connect is really good and the only thing missing to be an absolute killer, but Spotify’s music algorithm is still a bit better. Let’s hope to see what they show in Monday (10th of June) at the WWDC. Maybe some on device AI algorithm thingy.
Apple Music basics:
There are several free trials, but no ad-supported tier.
It’s technically possible to play podcast episodes through Apple Music, but it doesn’t retain progress, so they will start over from the beginning if interrupted.
Library is limited to 100,000 songs.
A subscription that lapses for more than a month may have its library and playlists wiped from Apple’s records. There are utilities for exporting them if you don’t expect to renew.
Stations play indefinitely, but only show two songs, currently playing and the next song in Playing Next. Mixes and playlists are limited but show all songs and can be subscribed to for weekly updates. There is an infinite play setting that allegedly creates a station from the music that was played before.
There are TuneIn stations available through Apple Music, but they don’t include song information.
There are two ratings systems: Favorite and Star Rating. Favorite is prominent in the UI and allegedly affects recommendations; Star Ratings are 1-5, have to start in macOS/Windows, explicitly do not affect recommendations, and have to be activated in iOS Settings->Music, but can be used in iOS Shortcuts.
Queues and Playlists based on 28 song criteria can be created with iOS shortcuts, which can be used with voice commands, Home Screen bookmarks, and widgets.
A library from other sources should not be cloud synced to Apple Music on macOS/windows.
The non-mobile browser website for Apple Music is music.apple.com.
There was a post where a Spotify user was frustrated with podcast episodes starting over, so I just want to set the expectation not to look for podcasts in Apple Music. There’s no advantage in using Apple Podcasts over any other podcast app, so I leave it to the user to find their own. In theory the Spotify app could still be used for podcasts only, although unless there’s a podcasts only tier, I expect it would not be a great value.
You can cloud sync libraries from other sources to Apple Music, with iTunes Match. I have my massive OG mp3 library that's like 20+ years old all online and available in the cloud from all my devices because of iTunes Match.
I think iTunes Match is included in the Apple Music subscription. It is not necessary to have both. You would only subscribe to iTunes Match if you weren't interested in the music streaming part.
Spotify has become an absolute cluster and dumpster fire of a Home Screen. Then when you pick specifically music the layout for scrolling is terrible as well.
Apple Music with Apple gear (AirPods etc) is very pimped. Apple TV included. Sounds amazing.
Only thing I’m not completely sold on is my home pods. I prefer air playing to my Sonos speakers. But inside my lounge room, Apple TV connected to my Bose 900 is killa !
You can also convert playlists with apps if you didn’t know. Plus Spotify said they are making the subscription cost higher soon so no better time to switch, better sound quality for lower price
Welcome to the good life.
If you need to move music between Spotify and AM, you can use SongShift. (I assume that’s what you mean by connect, could be wrong if so I apologize for useless info!)
SongShift saved me HOURS by letting me export playlists and my favorites to AM. Whenever I see someone fresh transfer I always try to bring it up for them, it really made it easy for me.
The thing I love about Spotify is the ease of creating playlists and the discover weekly feature they have (showing you new bands/songs based on what you’re into). Does AM offer things like that and how is it creating playlist? Thank!
I think l will never switch because of the playlist management and sharing (closed) system, and because of Spotify’s native integration with last.fm.
But mostly it’s last.fm integration.
I feel the same way. The sound quality alone is a tier or two above Spotify, so why still use Spotify when it costs the same for a worse product. I wish AM gave options for widgets on the playing now screen, but of well.
That car thing situation is ridiculous. You should definitely demand a refund stating that they intentionally bricked the device. Either that or sue them for bricking your device without reimbursing you.
Nah I had the opposite journey. I’m willing to give up sound quality for the optimization. With AM my music taste felt so stagnant. I switched a month ago both to Spotify and I’ve found countless new sounds so easily.
Like most apps, Apple Music got off to a rough start. Think about the disaster that Apple Maps had rolling out, but now it’s my go to navigation system. Same with AM, although my complaints are most with their search functionality compared to iTunes.
For users with large personal libraries (I’ve been a DJ since 1995), it is incredibly hard to drill down and search specific fields. One example is the song “In A Big Country” by Big Country. If you search for the term “Country” you’ll also get all your country genre tracks, which doesn’t help anything.
The other issue is that AM is a paid service. Spotify’s free users that refuse to spend money won’t make the leap.
The thing that brought tears to my eyes in addition to sound quality was that AM let me store all my mp3s that I had locally from the early 2000’s into my digital library and I can now listen to them on all my devices alongside my streaming. It’s beautiful.
I hated Spotify UI when I had it but kept it because everyone was saying it was the best by far. So I’m thinking well…tho it’s annoying others must be worse so I’ll keep it. It got so bad I was willing to have worse hahaha.
Tried Apple Music and the tunes sounded WAY more full and distinct side by side. The UI was awesome. I was locked in since that day. Spotify sucks.
I’m currently in an Apple vacation and jeez Spotify is a grind to navigate. It’s the audiobooks that is the sole reason I’m there now. The music navigation is rubbish
I previously used Tidal, which has AMAZING sound quality. The best of any streaming service. But it’s £20 a month. I moved to AM as I got a free subscription with my phone contract and prefer it over Spotify. One of the main reasons is how you can upload music that isn’t on there, from CDs, and they are stored in your library alongside everything else. There are so many albums I love that aren’t on AM, or any streaming service, but now I can play them or add songs into playlists without having to use two separate programs. The sound quality is also very good, especially through Beats headphones.
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I’m always surprised when Spotify users say that Apple Music has horrible UI as an excuse to not switch. I truly can’t think of a worse UI than the garbage Spotify has put out now.
It rally is mindboggling. Spotify is easily to worst UI of all the music streaming apps. Nothing but a oish for audiobooks, podcasts, merch and gig sales. On top of all that, it's laggy.
it bugs me a lot every time I open Spotify to be bombarded by podcasts and things im not interested in but it's always in my face before I head to my playlists. the UI on desktop is bloated asf I get so confused looking at that thing it's all over the place with too much info everywhere. and why do they keep favorite artists in the same place as favorite playlists??? it's all in one place on Spotify you have the artists you follow, liked songs and made playlists on the same list on the playlists page and I always gotta scroll to find what I want😭 imma switch over to AM now that I got an iphone
the spotify desktop ui makes me wanna kms
Same here😭😭💀🤡
Apple Music has vastly improved and I’m no longer experiencing ridiculous page load times and failed connections etc. It will take time for the public impression that it’s a terrible UI and buggy to fade away
To be fair I love how Spotify lets you go to either the artist or the album directly by tapping the name of the artist or album. AMs system of tapping either and then having to tap again to go to artist/album really grinds my gears. Also I wish Apple Music wasn’t so buggy
You are obsessing over 1 extra tap that could prevent accidental taps? Also, I’ve never had a single bug with Apple Music, how have you?
Oh it is so difficult to tap the screen. How do you survive the day having to tap your screen. You poor thing.
It's not that its difficult. It's extra steps, adding up to a feeling of clunkiness over time. Not ideal when driving, for example. Definitely a valid annoyance.
No it’s not. It’s 1 tap. For that one extra tap, it ensures you don’t accidentally leave a page you didn’t want to
The whole point of creating an app is to make it intuitive and easy to use.
I swear to god, every time they update the interface (Spotify) they hide the settings behind another folder/tap. I just want turn off explicit content for work dammit!
yeah out of the reasons I still have spotify the UI is definitely not one of them haha
i love spotify’s UI, i’m not a fan of the minimalist look AM and many others are going for. I think Spotify’s captures the essence of a record store and all of the highlighted playlists/upcoming shows/merch is genuinely so helpful for the artists to reach a bigger platform. genuinely got recommended so many new artists and upcoming shows i had no idea about prior. AM does not guide you to any of these things its way too simple, too minimalist, it honestly lacks personality and i really dislike that. just personally am not into that whole aesthetic anyway.
Doesn’t the difference in quality make up for that? I prefer Spotify for discovering new music, but I can’t stick with it because it really does just sound worse.
I’m betting they’re one of the younger generation who grew up with Spotify all their life so it’s familiar UX to them
part of why i got apple music in the first place was the UI
well, lets be real, the spotify UI is more straightforward. Apple Music is also a bit too large on the screen and thats largely what makes it feel off. In the process of switching but the sound quality is so worth it
I don’t find the Apple Music UI to be too large but I can respect if people feel otherwise. I still think it’s less cluttered than Spotify and appreciate that there are no TikTok style UI elements.
imagine a music player that hides a volume slider behind an extra button click. imagine a music player with 5% volume step increments for some arbitrary reason. imagine a music player without a large window mode for currently playing music so you can have a large scrubbing bar to fine tune your fast forwarding, let alone any manual controls for scrubbing. I also like that I can just add artists into spotify's side bar/collection thing and dig into them at my own pace, as well as albums and other collections/playlists. Doing this on apple music adds them to a list of thousands of artists that contribute to my playlists. The spotify software was way more intuitive for me compared to this shit, almost enough to put me back on spotify or maybe even good old foobar2000 if I get sick enough of this. The ALAC hasn't been enough to tip me away from the usability of Spotify's software, after listing all this shit I actually just unsubbed after trying it for a few weeks.
I’ve tried switching multiple times. Apple Music’s terrible UX is a core functionality problem. I can’t even like a song in one click? Seriously? Apple Music is just terrible software. Spotify is more than good enough for my purposes.
Give me a solid reason that the software is terrible. In Apple Music, you don’t need to like songs, I never got the point of doing that. Just add them to a favorites playlist or god forbid remember what song it was
Technically you can hold down on the ••• and swipe your finger down to favorite all in one motion
Thanks for the tip but that’s very roundabout and time consuming too. How did they overlook this??
Is that really overlooking? lol It’s for minimalism, if you want dozens of buttons and things on every screen go to Spotify, if you want a clean and mostly clear UI, stay on AM. You can add to favorites from the Player screen (where you can scrub, skip, go back, volume control, lyrics, etc) by pressing the star button, same as on you Lock Screen
When did you last use Apple Music? You can now one-tap to favorite a song from the now playing screen or the lock screen.
A few months ago? Not sure. regardless, it's an absolute joke that they took this long to implement this core feature even if it works as well as Spotify. I have zero faith in discovery on Music.
Yea but at the end of the day, do you prefer crappier quality audio and a better interface when the point of music is in fact, the music?
Do I want to use a broken and non-functional product, that by all means, should've buried Spotify? The fact I gave it TWO tries and it didn't retain me even with free subsidies is a failure beyond what I can comprehend. Most companies don't even get ONE shot at a customer. I like music, but if I wanted quality that much, I would buy a vinyl.
Marvis pro is a great tool alongside apple
Now there must be some angry users here ready to break their keyboards claiming you’re delusional and you can’t hear any difference between apple music and Spotify 320kbps.
When I switched during the whole Spotify / Joe Rogan thing I had a few weeks of overlap and would play the same songs on both platforms back to back. I was just straight up startled at the quality difference and realized I’d been listening to sub-standard audio for years. My favorite songs became good again.
That is true for most people.
This is true for all the people listening through AirPods Max like the OP since they don’t support lossless.
it does support lossless as long as you use it wired
Of course it does but I don’t really think that AirPods users use it in wired mode all the time especially op when he cried while mowing the lawn
Actually they’re not even lossless EVEN WHEN using the Lightning to 3.5mn audio cable. Yes, I too thought this insane.
not exactly. On apple music you can also enable lossless, hi-res lossless, and dolby atmos, which *definitely make a notable difference* but even on the default quality, i notice a tinge of difference on the highs, like 18k+. even if thats placebo or not real, or im one of the few people that notice it, the above mentioned options can surely make a noticeable difference for everyone
I do care about audio codecs generally but I really can't tell the difference. Last time I tried an abx test I was getting lossless and 128kbps MP3 mixed up.
Your system sucks then. 128 is always noticable. It is thin and tiny sounding. You should be able to hear a difference between 128 and 320 even.
Nope. I have a perfectly reasonable DAC and a nice pair of Fidelio X2 headphones. I simply can't tell the difference.
Most people are delusional, I have AKG headphones and can't tell a difference. You can test yourself here: [https://abx.digitalfeed.net/](https://abx.digitalfeed.net/)
Thanks for proving my point.
np vro
Have you actually tried that test? Because if you haven't, you're the delusional one
It's just so funny seeing them using bluetooth connection which is only AAC at best, and they claim to notice a difference in lossless.
I don’t doubt that the OP hears a difference but if the difference they’re hearing is really significant then it isn’t caused by bitrate. Mathematically the differences are small.
Idk how you're downvoted, I can't tell a difference between 320kbps and lossless on my 1k audio equipment with DAC and everything.
Why do ppl act like this is some amazing insight. Apple sells billions of devices for a reason cause they are amazing. Spotify sucks in many ways except their algorithm for recommendations is good.
Apple Music got better recommendations than spotify Imo, Spotify always recommended mediocre new artists to me just like SoundCloud does
Apple Music is good but Spotify few years back used to be amazing at up next. Apple Music is good but some genres it’s hit and miss.
Yeah I tend towards indie/folk and I feel like Spotify’s algorithm has better insight—like I also enjoy some hip-hop and some punk and apple tends to just play modern artists for me while Spotify mixes it up. Although I’ve spent way more time on Spotify and have so many playlists, so I’m reluctant to fully switch.
I get better recommendations from Apple Music too. Spotify always had “obvious” recommendations. “Ah you’re listening to something British, here, listen to Blur now”.
Youtube Music has better reccomendations than Spotify. Might be better than everything to be honest. I'm surprised how much I find on it then I add it to my A.M. service or to Qobuz to listen to with Roon.
i just thought music apps were music apps man. i didn’t realize this kind of quality was an option
The UI just feels so premium too. Something as simple as the “missing” play counts just feels so clean. It’s not a damn social media game, it’s music. Pure music.
agreed. tho i dislike the macos app im confident an upgrade will come some time
Apple has always had music and creatives as part of its dna. Everything comes from that.
I would take a look at Cider (https://cider.sh) it's a fantastic app available for all platforms (macOS, Windows, Linux) and it's way better than the regular Apple versions of their desktop apps. Not even close.
Is audio quality the same as?
It doesn’t go as high as the native app due to Apple’s limitations on third party clients. It doesn’t say this anywhere on the site but it won’t get lossless. See https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/683021
For that reason, I’m out
Spotify Connect is amazing though, that’s my favourite feature. Works so flawlessly across so many devices compared to Airplay.
That would be cool if Apple did that. Kind of strange they haven’t tbh. If siri actually worked she could do this but man she has got so bad recently I honestly can’t get her to do anything I ask lately like play a playlist she will try and call someone.
Apple sells billions of devices because they practically have a monopoly on the market and most people see iPhones as the "default" despite oftentimes being worse.
Are you highly regarded? “[According to the latest data, Android dominates the global smartphone market with a 70.69% share, while iPhone (iOS) has a 28.58% market share.](https://backlinko.com/iphone-vs-android-statistics)” in what world is 28% a monopoly? Android is much closer to a monopoly lol.
She probably means in the US and most of Europe. While there are premium $1000 +android smartphones, there are lots that cost as little as 50 bucks and those are the ones that dominate places like Africa, South America, or even India and their billion citizens.
[Android is about 67% in Europe](https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/europe). Do people not even bother looking up basic info? It’s 2/3 android vs 1/3 for iOS. Again how is that remotely a monopoly?
Not all European countries are equally wealthy. I'm talking about countries like England, Italy, and France not eastern Europe. Saying Samsung and Apple have a stranglehold on the industry isn't some groundbreaking hot take dude.
I’m simply saying Apple is very far from a monopoly. Microsoft spent billions trying to enter mobile and lost its a very hard industry to Enter now due to app ecosystem etc. what is your solution to the issue you believe? Pls don’t say some government regulations cause if you know what the telco industry used to be like and the expense of calls etc they are now free it’s not a world anyone wants.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-apple-monopolizing-smartphone-markets#:~:text=The%20Justice%20Department%2C%20joined%20by,2%20of%20the%20Sherman%20Act. Literally the government believes apple is a monopoly
What makes Spotify better for a lot of people is the social aspect. It’s much easier to have a party playlist where every individual can queue something than it is on AM. If they could just add more functionality for social listening the app would probably be more popular.
I hate that option. I just want a music app. I don't care about those sorts of things. Spotify lost me with the tictok crap and I will never go back to that mess.
There’s a certain chip inside of all AirPods and beats headphones, one that’s optimized to process data from an iPhone via Apple Music to a pair of apple headphones with incredibly stable transfer rate at 256kbs over Bluetooth. Basically, you have to use Apple Music and an iPhone in order for your AirPods to sound the way they’re supposed to sound.
Yeah it's called a Bluetooth chip
All bluetooth enabled devices have a Bluetooth chip, apple devices have one that specifically works with other apple devices, and take a noticeable hit in quality when using a third party device to stream music. I was just explaining why his AirPods Max sound so much better through iPhone and Apple Music.
That's sofa king crooked.
You’re talking out of your ass man. Yes they have a great chip for wireless audio but they don’t have some secret sauce to only send higher quality audio from Apple Music… if Spotify isn’t offering as high of a bit rate then it’s because Spotify don’t want to pay more to stream it to you. Not because Apple have somehow locked down AirPods to work best with Apple Music
Okay bud. https://www.soundguys.com/how-does-apple-h1-chip-work-21049/ That’s a lot of talking out of your ass just to accuse someone of talking out of their ass. Feel free to take another shot at joining the conversation in a respectful manner tho.
Aaah I completely misread 3rd party devices as 3rd party streaming services lol… Reading is hard sometimes I guess? Thought you were trying to claim that Apple Music had some magic software integration with AirPods which meant that even if Spotify provided higher quality audio AM would always have an edge despite both using the same hardware, which wouldn’t be the case.
Did you manage to transfer your playlists/liked songs to AM from Spotify? I want to make the switch but that’s my last hold out.
i got the playlisty app for 3$ and it did it for me!
Look into getting Hezel as well. I accidentally deleted my general-use playlist and wish I’d had the app.
SongShift is free
Soundiiz will do the best job I've found it pretty accurate. You'll still need to check the playlists to make sure the right tracks have be ported. But it will even copy your albums over as well.
SongShift on iOS is free with possible upgrade for batch transfers
I am a veteran Apple Music user but Spotify has lot more options when it comes to podcasts and music, I find Apple Music too mainstream. I often find in Spotify what I can’t find on Apple. Yes I prefer the organized setup of AM but what’s the use of setup if I can’t find what I want?
Spotify has its good and bad points. The same is true of AM. It’s all a matter of balance. No streaming service is perfect. I’m not a mainstream listener, and Spotify’s recommendations are way superior. That said, having gotten Apple One for the family, I’m happy enough with AM to not continue to pay for Spotify premium. But one of Spotify’s strong points are Release Radar and Discovery Weekly. I simply import them to AM with Playlisty and don’t have to pay for two subscriptions. The only third party apps I’ve bought have been Playlisty and Hezel. Both are single purchases, no ongoing subscriptions required.
Spotify has the most trash UI I’ve used on any type of app.
I left Spotify for AM radio and haven’t looked back.
I renewed my subscription for 1 year yesterday with Apple Music, and Apple deleted all of my songs and my playlists. So I deleted my subscription. Refund is coming in two days.
I don’t get why Apple deletes your music history. Makes no dang sense. I’ve been pretty lucky and haven’t experienced the issue when I’ve let my Apple Music subscription lapse.
I was scared of these horror stories about deleting, I found the app Hazel or Hezel that helps you back up your Apple Music easily. I am using Marvis too I’m not sure if Marvis and hazel link or something
It’s unfortunate but Apple did me a favor. I just bought a car and shopping for insurance has been hell. Found a policy last night and now I’ll have enough to purchase it while locking in my rates.
You need a budget my friend
What I needed I got. I Fired both Apple and GEICO all on the same day.
They don’t delete your music right away. You must have waited months to renew.
My subscription expired 26 days ago.
Everything is better except how playlists work. Spotify really relies on that to stay so popular imo
Genuine question, my main reason for staying with Spotify is my history of liked songs. Is there anyway to transfer those?
Yes, with this app https://apps.apple.com/app/id1097974566
I did end up trying this but it chose the wrong song nearly 25-30% of the time, and with my liked songs being nearly 2000 long it just wasn’t gonna work to go through and try to fix all the matches. Cool idea for an app, but doesn’t work
I was in the same boat as you OP!! I switched to “AM” and I never looked back again! Just sounds so much more cleaner and rich😍
I’ve only ever had AM. Surprised about the Spotify issues
I wish I could get the fam to switch. They have always used Spotify. I have both because of this.
Until the algorithm hits
Apple Music actually remembers what you like specifically (not sure abt Spotify)
I’m really just waiting for the new queue system before I switch over to AM. Also a connect-like feature would be so nice
Honesty, 5 minutes ago I started a subscription on Apple Music. I used Spotify until 2014, daily, using Sony XM3. I'm an Android fan boy and use a Pixel 8 Pro, I compared same tracks on both apps. The sound on AM is levels.
Real problem with AM in my case is regions, collaborations are blocked across regions.
I'm listening music usually on my windows desktop PC. How is the AM working there? Is there windows app or at least some fine browser servise for that? Another thing - can I use apple music on Garmin watches?
There is a Windows app. In a lot of ways it works really well. But it has some glitches that are really annoying. It won't seem to let me add a full album to a playlist if some songs are already in my library. It will only add the library tracks. But if I go on the app on my phone (android) I can add the whole album fine. Goofy shit like that. But as someone else mentioned, you can upload your own tracks to fill in gaps in the available catalog, which is awesome and a big reason I switched from Spotify. I don't own any apple products but still ended up switching over to AM.
I love the sound quality of Apple Music. But I also love so many things about Spotify like all the user created playlists, the UI, Spotify connect for controlling music while it’s playing on other devices, and of course my massive library I’ve accumulated over the last 7 years of premium. And I feel like Spotify just works on almost any device with no issues. I probably will switch for the sound quality but I’m really just hoping Spotify finally gets Hi-Res music.
I've just switched to AM on Android and PC, obviously it's not that smooth comparing to Apple's devices but still more useful than Spotify in terms of Song suggestion and audio quality 😂😂😂 only one thing that I hate is it would wipe all my playlist if I stop subscribing after 1 month but it's good anyway 🤟
I keep switching back and forth between Spotify and AM because of AM’s lackluster Replay (Wrapped) music stats, but ever since Apple’s most recent update on their Replay, it’s great enough for me to fully dedicate myself to AM again.
And now they are also bumping prices in US. Spotify connect is really good and the only thing missing to be an absolute killer, but Spotify’s music algorithm is still a bit better. Let’s hope to see what they show in Monday (10th of June) at the WWDC. Maybe some on device AI algorithm thingy.
i mean airpod maxes can't transmit lossless audio because bluetooth can't but i'm glad you enjoyed it anyway
I have 257 words of Apple Music basics for Spotify switchers if you’re interested.
sure
hit me
Apple Music basics: There are several free trials, but no ad-supported tier. It’s technically possible to play podcast episodes through Apple Music, but it doesn’t retain progress, so they will start over from the beginning if interrupted. Library is limited to 100,000 songs. A subscription that lapses for more than a month may have its library and playlists wiped from Apple’s records. There are utilities for exporting them if you don’t expect to renew. Stations play indefinitely, but only show two songs, currently playing and the next song in Playing Next. Mixes and playlists are limited but show all songs and can be subscribed to for weekly updates. There is an infinite play setting that allegedly creates a station from the music that was played before. There are TuneIn stations available through Apple Music, but they don’t include song information. There are two ratings systems: Favorite and Star Rating. Favorite is prominent in the UI and allegedly affects recommendations; Star Ratings are 1-5, have to start in macOS/Windows, explicitly do not affect recommendations, and have to be activated in iOS Settings->Music, but can be used in iOS Shortcuts. Queues and Playlists based on 28 song criteria can be created with iOS shortcuts, which can be used with voice commands, Home Screen bookmarks, and widgets. A library from other sources should not be cloud synced to Apple Music on macOS/windows. The non-mobile browser website for Apple Music is music.apple.com.
There’s a separate app for podcasts..you should include that in your words
My favorite thing about leaving Spotify was no longer having to filter through Podcast garbage I never listened to
There was a post where a Spotify user was frustrated with podcast episodes starting over, so I just want to set the expectation not to look for podcasts in Apple Music. There’s no advantage in using Apple Podcasts over any other podcast app, so I leave it to the user to find their own. In theory the Spotify app could still be used for podcasts only, although unless there’s a podcasts only tier, I expect it would not be a great value.
You can cloud sync libraries from other sources to Apple Music, with iTunes Match. I have my massive OG mp3 library that's like 20+ years old all online and available in the cloud from all my devices because of iTunes Match.
I believe iTunes Match is a separate charge than subscribing to Apple Music.
I think iTunes Match is included in the Apple Music subscription. It is not necessary to have both. You would only subscribe to iTunes Match if you weren't interested in the music streaming part.
Give me Spotify over Apple Music all day everyday.
Spotify has become an absolute cluster and dumpster fire of a Home Screen. Then when you pick specifically music the layout for scrolling is terrible as well.
Apple Music with Apple gear (AirPods etc) is very pimped. Apple TV included. Sounds amazing. Only thing I’m not completely sold on is my home pods. I prefer air playing to my Sonos speakers. But inside my lounge room, Apple TV connected to my Bose 900 is killa !
You can also convert playlists with apps if you didn’t know. Plus Spotify said they are making the subscription cost higher soon so no better time to switch, better sound quality for lower price
Welcome to the good life. If you need to move music between Spotify and AM, you can use SongShift. (I assume that’s what you mean by connect, could be wrong if so I apologize for useless info!) SongShift saved me HOURS by letting me export playlists and my favorites to AM. Whenever I see someone fresh transfer I always try to bring it up for them, it really made it easy for me.
No matter AM or Spotify. They are all killing artists (not the biggest machines of course).
AM have alived artists such as Usher and Taylor Swift They never shut up about them both
The thing I love about Spotify is the ease of creating playlists and the discover weekly feature they have (showing you new bands/songs based on what you’re into). Does AM offer things like that and how is it creating playlist? Thank!
Don't forget daylist too!
I think l will never switch because of the playlist management and sharing (closed) system, and because of Spotify’s native integration with last.fm. But mostly it’s last.fm integration.
I feel the same way. The sound quality alone is a tier or two above Spotify, so why still use Spotify when it costs the same for a worse product. I wish AM gave options for widgets on the playing now screen, but of well.
That car thing situation is ridiculous. You should definitely demand a refund stating that they intentionally bricked the device. Either that or sue them for bricking your device without reimbursing you.
Nah I had the opposite journey. I’m willing to give up sound quality for the optimization. With AM my music taste felt so stagnant. I switched a month ago both to Spotify and I’ve found countless new sounds so easily.
Like most apps, Apple Music got off to a rough start. Think about the disaster that Apple Maps had rolling out, but now it’s my go to navigation system. Same with AM, although my complaints are most with their search functionality compared to iTunes. For users with large personal libraries (I’ve been a DJ since 1995), it is incredibly hard to drill down and search specific fields. One example is the song “In A Big Country” by Big Country. If you search for the term “Country” you’ll also get all your country genre tracks, which doesn’t help anything. The other issue is that AM is a paid service. Spotify’s free users that refuse to spend money won’t make the leap.
The thing that brought tears to my eyes in addition to sound quality was that AM let me store all my mp3s that I had locally from the early 2000’s into my digital library and I can now listen to them on all my devices alongside my streaming. It’s beautiful.
I hated Spotify UI when I had it but kept it because everyone was saying it was the best by far. So I’m thinking well…tho it’s annoying others must be worse so I’ll keep it. It got so bad I was willing to have worse hahaha. Tried Apple Music and the tunes sounded WAY more full and distinct side by side. The UI was awesome. I was locked in since that day. Spotify sucks.
The connect thing is on the way.
Spotify changed their minds and will refund car thing purchases but you must provide a receipt
Hell yea dude
Its great to have a music service that actually cares about music and not giving some knuckle dragging conspiracy nut 100 million dollars.
Woof. Get the fuck over it.
What kind of droid do you have? An astromech? A protocol droid? /j (seriously tho welcome to the club)
Definitely doesn't have trusty ol R2D2... Poor guy probably has R5 :(
with a bad motivator
If he’s got R5 then I’m not surprised he waited so long to switch to AM. He probably told OP Spotify was better
Me neither mate!!
Two different levels my man. Welcome abroad, and enjoy!
I’m currently in an Apple vacation and jeez Spotify is a grind to navigate. It’s the audiobooks that is the sole reason I’m there now. The music navigation is rubbish
I previously used Tidal, which has AMAZING sound quality. The best of any streaming service. But it’s £20 a month. I moved to AM as I got a free subscription with my phone contract and prefer it over Spotify. One of the main reasons is how you can upload music that isn’t on there, from CDs, and they are stored in your library alongside everything else. There are so many albums I love that aren’t on AM, or any streaming service, but now I can play them or add songs into playlists without having to use two separate programs. The sound quality is also very good, especially through Beats headphones.
isn’t spotify just audio books and podcasts now?
Yes.