Need Tunes: Spotify vs. Apple Music

Music is an essential part of every (or at least most) teenagers’ life, and finding a great place to easily stream ad-free music is a need. Other than QQ, which is only really used in China, the top two companies that provide music globally are Spotify and Apple Music. For some background information, Spotify is available for free (with ads) and premium ($9.99 USD or 66 RMB per month), and Apple Music is only available for 10 RMB per month (for one person)  or 15 RMB per month (for a family package with 6 iCloud accounts) if you use the China App Store – which might release famous music a little after it is officially released in the US, and might not have some more obscure artists found on Spotify – But, if you use the US App Store (which costs $10 – $15 per month) you can find all music like Spotify. Spotify Free has advertisements and a max of 6 song skips. On the other hand, Spotify Premium has no advertisements, unlimited skips and playlists can be downloaded so they can be listened to offline. Apple Music is also paid and has the same features as Spotify Premium, although, when first signing up for Apple Music, the first 3 months are free. Now, there are benefits and drawbacks to using both of these services, and so I interviewed some students in the high school to determine whether Spotify or Apple Music is better.

I will also preface this article by saying that I have used both Spotify and Apple Music, and currently use both for different purposes.

The fact that you can use Spotify for Free is a clear motivator for people to choose it over Apple Music. For example, Mulayne L claims that she uses Spotify simply because “it’s easier to use [and] free.” Katie B, who uses Spotify, also adds jokingly that “[she doesn’t] use premium because [she doesn’t] have that kind of money.” Spotify Premium is indeed somewhat expensive for what it is.

Although some people are ready to pay for premium normally, Spotify also has many offers and deals to make it more affordable. Sam J, a sophomore, recently bought Spotify “thanks to the three months for HKD $0.99 Christmas deal.” At the same time, he claims that “the incentive of [Apple Music] Premium for three months [for free] just isn’t enough for [him] to manually transfer all [his] Spotify songs to Apple Music.” This is actually a legitimate issue because when I switched from Spotify to Apple Music, it took me a LONG time to transfer the thousands of songs I’d saved and recreate playlists.

Besides the price, Katie also claims that “Spotify [is] a lot easier to use, and Apple Music is generally a bit more confusing.” Of course, this is an opinion, and even though I might agree to a certain extent, Elly A thinks differently.

Even though Elly, a senior, says that she only began using apple music simply because “[her] dad bought it,” she thinks that it’s “more convenient for [her] as [she’s] been using iTunes music [her] whole life.” She “[knows] how to get around and how to use it.” Also, she likes that “the R&B radio station allows [her] to find new music easily, excitingly, and enjoyably.”

Even though Elly thinks that Apple Music is easy to find music on, I, like Katie, would disagree. I also use Apple Music, and I still choose to use Spotify to find new music simply because it offers customized playlists like “Discover Weekly,” and “Release Radar.” I acknowledge that Apple Music has the “For You” section too, but it’s not the same. Obviously, I am a little (or a  lot) biased because I used to use Spotify for a solid 3 years before switching to Apple Music when I moved to China.

Similarly, Lisa M, a sophomore who has Spotify Premium, exclaims confidently “SPOTIFY FTW.” She thinks “Spotify is a great app and platform for finding new music and seeing what your friends [are listening] to too.” I agree with her on both levels. As I’ve previously mentioned, even though I currently have Apple Music, I still use Spotify to find new music because the number of already made playlists on Spotify that are regularly updated is amazing. On Apple Music, they have much less created playlists, and they are not updated regularly. Spotify, on the other side, has personalized playlists as previously mentioned, but also has “New Music Friday,” and its “Browse” section is very thorough including “Charts,” “Genres & Moods,” “New Releases,” and “Discover.” Additionally, the ability to see what your friends are listening to in real time, and having access to their public playlists is another fun tool that might help with finding new music but also perhaps just makes Spotify more fun to use. Some of my friends and I actually have a Snapchat group solely dedicated to seeing what other people are listening to, and it’s called “Spotify meme pals.”

Nonetheless, Alice F, a senior, still uses Apple Music and has been using it for the past year. She says that she uses “Apple Music since it is more convenient for [her] since [she has] an iPhone.” She also adds that “[she] had many problems applying for Spotify whereas Apple Music was much easier. ” Alice is not alone in facing issues with Spotify working in China.

Firstly, Spotify does not actually exist in China and so when living in China, people usually sign up using Hong Kong or the US as their “country.” But if you are using Spotify for free, you can only use Spotify “overseas” for 14 days, and therefore, at least once every 2 weeks, you must use VPN to access your account. For some people, this means that they won’t get any ads because the app thinks they are using it overseas. And for some people, they still get ads. It is somewhat unclear why this still occur, but if you listen to Spotify using VPN normally, you will likely get ads from the country of VPN you are using. Additionally, it is often possible that even when logging in with VPN, Spotify might still not work and will claim that “your country does not match the one set in your profile.” On the other side, since Apple Music is connected to your iCloud account, and you pay for it always, it is unaffected by where you use it and does not ask you to log in.

Overall, it seems that there are positives and negatives to using both Spotify and Apple Music, and so the choice is left in your favor; unless of course, you use QQ!

For more information visit Spotify.com and Apple.com.