It feels like just yesterday that illegal music downloads were going to destroy the music industry, until Steve Jobs showed us the way with the iPod and digital music sales. Today, music streaming is the most popular way to listen to your tunes, but it can be so hard to pick the right one, and once again I’m changing my service.
After about three years of switching from Apple Music to Spotify, I’m ready to go back. Partly because things have changed at Spotify, and things have changed at Apple Music. The negative response to the latest Spotify Wrapped, its weird overbearing recommendations, and creepy AI podcast experiment pushed me to try Apple Music again for a few days, and I think I’ll be staying with Apple. Here’s why:
1 Spotify Is Getting Too Messy
To be honest, being cluttered and busy was a problem that Spotify has always had, but I really think at this point it’s gone too far. I am absolutely bombarded with information when I open either the desktop or mobile app.
Apple Music has less stuff on screen, and I can navigate and operate the software much more quickly.
2 Too Many Gimmicks
Spotify has to be commended for trying new things often and for trying to keep interest alive, but to me, it feels like it has too many gimmicky features. The big one is the AI DJ, which I quite liked at first, but grew bored with quickly. Then there’s the daylist feature, song psychic, the video loop song canvas, and so on.
I’m sure that there are plenty of people who are delighted by all these fluffy toys, but for me, I want something minimal and easy on my eyes. I’m here to listen to music, and anything that distracts from this is a negative in my book.
3 There’s More Spatial Audio Content
When I last used Apple Music, spatial audio content, which creates a virtual soundstage using Dolby Atmos, mapping different instruments and sounds in the song to specific positions in 3D space around the listener. Music has to be mastered for this format, so not every song supports it.
In the meantime, I’ve started using a pair of AirPods Max, and the amount of spatial audio content has increased substantially. Since I like heavy metal and classical music, spatial audio is particularly interesting to me, because of how immersive it is. While it can be hit and miss, there are some songs where I strongly prefer the spatial audio version, and it really feels like a qualitatively new way to listen to music.
4 Still No Spotify Hi-Fi
Maybe, by the time you read this, Spotify’s high-resolution audio service will finally be here, but Spotify Hi-Fi has been promised and delayed several times, so if you want hi-res or lossless music, you need to look for an alternative.
Apple Music offers lossless versions of music at no additional cost, and while that doesn’t mean much to my Bluetooth AirPods Max, I do like to hook up my wired Sony headphones to my Mac or iPad from time to time and enjoy higher-quality audio.
5 All My Favorite Artists Are Now on Apple Music
The big reason I jumped to Spotify in the first place is that some of my favorite artists were not on Apple Music. Obviously, the different services don’t have exactly the same libraries, but artists like Rammstein were not on Apple Music the last time I used it, so I had to go where my favorite music is.
There are other little perks I enjoy about Apple Music as well, including easy access to high-quality music videos, which used to be what I used YouTube Music for, but that’s rife with poor-quality unofficial uploads. I also really enjoy being able to buy music permanently, and have my purchased music mixed up with the streaming stuff in one convenient place.
Apple Music feels closer to how it used to be buying and collecting CDs, and so perhaps it’s because that’s what I grew up with that I prefer it, but for now I’m going to err on the side of simplicity, and I don’t see myself going back to the green team anytime soon.
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