In reference to an earlier comment- AT&T offers Spotify Premium to some wireless customers in the USA. I have it and do not use it as I do not want to rent music from Apple or anyone else. I do pay an annual fee for iTunes Match which seems messed up with the new version of Mac OS.
I did try Spotify a while back and their sound quality is superior to the low bit rate streaming Apple uses.
In reference to discovery, Apple Music is probably as bad as iTunes has become. Despite having my entire library of digital music on iTunes Match, the landing page is full of stuff I have no interest in and genres I would never buy if my life depended upon it.
Good for Spotify, I don't want every product or service to come from Apple, believe it or not there are companies do things better than Apple.
Except in two key areas which is paramount for me. Privacy and security. Do I trust Spotify to keep my info away from nefarious people? Absolutely not.
Apple has earned my trust and will continue to have my business. I listen to Apple Music every day and have been quite happy with it. The changes made to AM on MacOS is welcome and getting better.
Apple Music has a free trial period, but no free tier. So the closest comparison should be Spotify Premium vs Apple Music.
It is, if you read the article. 113 million is their premium tier. Free subscribers are 248 million!
Monthly total active subscribers is 248M... Not 113M premium and 248M Free.. that would put them at 361M total users? At least that is how I read it..
Spotify
reports total monthly active users (MAUs) grew to 248 million during
quarter three, a 30% year-over-year jump. More importantly, the
company's premium tier numbers were up 31% on the year to hit 113
million paying subscribers.
While I haven't tried Spotify, Apple Music leaves a lot to be desired. Apple Music does very little to facilitate music discovery in the genres I like. For example, If I click on the browse section I'm greeted with Pop and R&B music. Most of my music interest is in Alternative, Singer/Song writer, Classical and Jazz. In order to get to these genres I've got to go to the browse tab, go to the bottom of the screen, and find "Genres". This process is extremely cumbersome as it blends in with reset of the UI elements.
Even the "For You" section isn't good at displaying new artists, tracks or playlists I may like. Sure it does personalize a bit, but I've found other than using "Recently Played" I never use anything else on the screen.
Maybe I'm overly critical, but for a company that knows every iTunes song I've purchased, all the songs I've uploaded through iTunes Match and all the songs I listen to daily, I find discovery/personlization in Apple Music to be completely underwhelming if not non-existent.
I am not sure how long you have been using AM? Do you use it regularly? As you use it more the recommendations for tracks and playlists def get better. Much better than in the past. I listen to a lot of alternative and heavy music with a bit of house and older hip hop. It does a nice job of recommending and showing new stuff if any from artists I listen to. It certainly isn't great, but it has gotten better with more daily use and updates.
davgreg said: I did try Spotify a while back and their sound quality is superior to the low bit rate streaming Apple uses.
Seriously? Did you actually compare the two or do you think the 320k Ogg Vorbis Spotify streams have superior sound quality to Apple's 240k AAC just because they have a higher bit rate? Not all codecs are equal and AAC is a more modern, superior codec to the free Ogg Vorbis one. Spotify sounds compressed and clipped whereas Apple Music, especially when played though AAC-capable speakers or headphones, knocks it out of the park. It may not be as good as Tidal lossless or High Resolution, but then it's not $20 a month either.
While I haven't tried Spotify, Apple Music leaves a lot to be desired. Apple Music does very little to facilitate music discovery in the genres I like. For example, If I click on the browse section I'm greeted with Pop and R&B music. Most of my music interest is in Alternative, Singer/Song writer, Classical and Jazz. In order to get to these genres I've got to go to the browse tab, go to the bottom of the screen, and find "Genres". This process is extremely cumbersome as it blends in with reset of the UI elements.
Even the "For You" section isn't good at displaying new artists, tracks or playlists I may like. Sure it does personalize a bit, but I've found other than using "Recently Played" I never use anything else on the screen.
Maybe I'm overly critical, but for a company that knows every iTunes song I've purchased, all the songs I've uploaded through iTunes Match and all the songs I listen to daily, I find discovery/personalization in Apple Music to be completely underwhelming if not non-existent.
Niallivm said: Spotify sounds compressed and clipped whereas Apple Music, especially when played though AAC-capable speakers or headphones, knocks it out of the park.
I think a lot of this has to do with the "Mastered for iTunes" program more than the codec itself. Apple has standards for the audio quality of the music on their platform.
Apple Music needs to improve. ESPECIALLY Beats Radio. We need Beats Country/Classical/Rock etc. I really hoped Apple acquired iHeartMedia instead of just investing money into them(for whatever reason).
P.S. Apple Music for Mac is really gonna help and gain switchers. IF Apple were to offer a services bundle, Spotify would tank.
Good for Spotify, I don't want every product or service to come from Apple, believe it or not there are companies do things better than Apple.
I’ll add that I don’t mind Apple not being the leader in sales for every single category they compete in, like the Mac for example. I just want them to build or make nice things. It can only serve to motivate Apple to improve the service.
Music lacks in so many ways. I ran Tidal and Music parallel for 3 full months with identical artist and album titles based on a physical collection of 2,000+ albums of mine, both services were lacking some in artist/album titles available but tried to get the libraries as close as possible. The suggested music that Tidal presented in comparison to Music was night and day and aligned with my personal preferences more so. I do not have any desire for the types of genres that Tidal is known to focus and promote by the way. One of the first things I do on Friday morning is to go to AllMusic and check all the new releases for the week, Music is dismal in their suggestions for new releases, Tidal did a very good job regarding their suggestions but both services miss the mark in what was actually released for the week. Playlist generated by either service is so so for me, I prefer to do a deep dive doing my own research and usually put play list together from scratch. I know I am much different in how I approach consuming music having spent 10+ years in the record business in the '70's and '80's working for WEA (Warner, Electra and Atlantic) doing sales and promotion. Unfortunately, I quit Tidal due to cost as well as having HomePods in our home. Spotify has never appealed to me, first and foremost the lack of adequate compensation for the artist/rights holder is wrong and their demands of Apple doesn't square with me either.
For a company who has always espoused that music is in their DNA, Music still has a long way to go?
davgreg said: I did try Spotify a while back and their sound quality is superior to the low bit rate streaming Apple uses.
Seriously? Did you actually compare the two or do you think the 320k Ogg Vorbis Spotify streams have superior sound quality to Apple's 240k AAC just because they have a higher bit rate? Not all codecs are equal and AAC is a more modern, superior codec to the free Ogg Vorbis one. Spotify sounds compressed and clipped whereas Apple Music, especially when played though AAC-capable speakers or headphones, knocks it out of the park. It may not be as good as Tidal lossless or High Resolution, but then it's not $20 a month either.
Seriously? Have you ever compared 320 Ogg Vorbis Spotify to Apple's 240k AAC on a system capable of even minute reference? It's night and day. You don't have to spend a lot of money to get into very basic hifi capabilities. Try it - and you will immediately understand and hear the difference.
davgreg said: I did try Spotify a while back and their sound quality is superior to the low bit rate streaming Apple uses.
Seriously? Did you actually compare the two or do you think the 320k Ogg Vorbis Spotify streams have superior sound quality to Apple's 240k AAC just because they have a higher bit rate? Not all codecs are equal and AAC is a more modern, superior codec to the free Ogg Vorbis one. Spotify sounds compressed and clipped whereas Apple Music, especially when played though AAC-capable speakers or headphones, knocks it out of the park. It may not be as good as Tidal lossless or High Resolution, but then it's not $20 a month either.
Seriously? Have you ever compared 320 Ogg Vorbis Spotify to Apple's 240k AAC on a system capable of even minute reference? It's night and day. You don't have to spend a lot of money to get into very basic hifi capabilities. Try it - and you will immediately understand and hear the difference.
I have tried it and was disappointed with Spotify, especially for the jazz, classical and film scores I favor. My reference system is Bowers & Wilkins headphones through a Meridian Explorer DAC from my MacBook Pro. (I've also tested on my Arcam hifi with B&W speakers but that's hardly used in our house these days.) I was a Spotify customer originally and still listen to many Spotify playlists (Houdini is a great app for migrating them to Apple Music) but for the music I listen to Spotify's compression it too noticeable. PS Spotify still has serious cache issues on iOS devices, which is why I originally moved to Apple Music.
I started with Apple Music because Spotify was not available anyway when Apple Music had launched.
Now, even though Spotify is available I am not really interested considering their shenanigans. Apple Music does a lot for me and, coupled with iTunes Match, has almost all the music I need.
Comments
I did try Spotify a while back and their sound quality is superior to the low bit rate streaming Apple uses.
In reference to discovery, Apple Music is probably as bad as iTunes has become. Despite having my entire library of digital music on iTunes Match, the landing page is full of stuff I have no interest in and genres I would never buy if my life depended upon it.
Apple has earned my trust and will continue to have my business. I listen to Apple Music every day and have been quite happy with it. The changes made to AM on MacOS is welcome and getting better.
Seriously? Did you actually compare the two or do you think the 320k Ogg Vorbis Spotify streams have superior sound quality to Apple's 240k AAC just because they have a higher bit rate?
Not all codecs are equal and AAC is a more modern, superior codec to the free Ogg Vorbis one. Spotify sounds compressed and clipped whereas Apple Music, especially when played though AAC-capable speakers or headphones, knocks it out of the park. It may not be as good as Tidal lossless or High Resolution, but then it's not $20 a month either.
Apple Music needs to improve. ESPECIALLY Beats Radio. We need Beats Country/Classical/Rock etc. I really hoped Apple acquired iHeartMedia instead of just investing money into them(for whatever reason).
P.S. Apple Music for Mac is really gonna help and gain switchers.
IF Apple were to offer a services bundle, Spotify would tank.
It's night and day. You don't have to spend a lot of money to get into very basic hifi capabilities.
Try it - and you will immediately understand and hear the difference.
I was a Spotify customer originally and still listen to many Spotify playlists (Houdini is a great app for migrating them to Apple Music) but for the music I listen to Spotify's compression it too noticeable.
PS Spotify still has serious cache issues on iOS devices, which is why I originally moved to Apple Music.
I started with Apple Music because Spotify was not available anyway when Apple Music had launched.
Now, even though Spotify is available I am not really interested considering their shenanigans. Apple Music does a lot for me and, coupled with iTunes Match, has almost all the music I need.
Apple Music has been around for 4 years.
After 4 years, Spotify had 15 million users.
After 4 years, Apple Music had 113 million users.