With the recent pricing increase from Spotify and its numerous baffling UI changes, I looked for an alternative after using it for 2 straight years. My philosophy on the software I use is that I have no reason to switch unless they give me a reason to (either the software I'm with and/or the software I'm looking into switching to). I have an iPhone, iPad, a Mac, and AirPod Pros, which set me up pretty perfectly to try out Apple Music (titled "AM" for the rest of this post). To be clear, I still steal from the Spotify family plan from my parents, so I wasn't paying for Spotify before, but I'm paying for Apple Music now (and if I can convince them to switch I'll hop on their AM family plan if they get it).

So I used SongShift to transfer my 24 playlists, and after using AM for just a week, here's my thoughts:

Pros:

• UI: I was sick and tired of Spotify CONSTANTLY changing things for the worse. AM's UI is sleek, fast, and easy to use. It's very pretty, especially the lyrics. (later sections below will overlap with this section)

• Shuffle: This one's big for me. I long believed Spotify's shuffle didn't work properly. My suspicions were confirmed when I tried AM; the shuffle WORKS. Every. Single. Time. I had a song play from a playlist that I hadn't heard since I added it ONE YEAR AGO. No idea how that even happens.

  • Spotify's shuffle is more of a "mix." It just repeats what you usually play in that playlist. I'm assuming it does this on purpose, but I'm not sure.

• Quality: I have good ears I guess? I can notice the difference, especially Lossless when I use my headphones and an aux cable on my Mac. The sound is more "full" and more detailed. To hear a big difference, in Les Gordon's Flirting With June, the percussion instruments are more detailed and sharp. It's just better on AM. Spotify's promised Lossless isn't coming anytime soon, they're not even a profitable company.

• Your Library: On Spotify, I have 24 playlists, in order, and look, I'm lazy, and I don't like scrolling (also in the future I will have much more than 24 playlists). On AM I put everything in folders. Easier to find, easier to manage, easier to see. Also, I can have more than 10k songs (the limit on Spotify). Few reach his number, but you never know. (also why have a limit in the first place?)

• I'm not on social media: Spotify feels like a social media app to me. It's playful, it's fun, it's colourful, it's loud. AM isn't all that. It has colour and vibrancy, but it doesn't shove random shit down my throat when I open it. It doesn't feel like I'm using AM, but just the app that has my music. I like that. It's calming.

Cons:

• The Desktop App: This thing is just fine. It's okay. Badly laid out, slow, and outdated. But the app works and isn't glitchy, it just needs a refresh BADLY. Hoping for something better with WWDC 2024.

• Queuing: Not sure how they got this wrong but here we are. You slide the song button to the right and it shows these two buttons:

• Purple - "Playing Next": It means exactly what it says. It'll play that song next. So if I queue a song before I queue Modern Girl above, it'll play Modern Girl first even though I queue'd it after. So, the queue function is backwards. wtf?

• Orange - "Playing Last": This puts this at the end of a queue, so it would work IF I DID ALREADY HAVE A PLAYLIST ON QUEUE. So this just puts it at the end of like 80 songs that are already in the queue. Useless to me.

• Continuity: The way Spotify effortlessly syncs between devices is magical. Apple (with all their ecosystems and money and engineers) said nah that's not important. It's easier to switch between devices by a mile on Spotify and AM is way behind in this regard.

Neutral (so far):

• The Algorithm: Spotify does an overall better job of showing me new music. It knows what I want, when I want it; it's very powerful. However, I've only been using AM for a week. Its "New Music Mix" is just as good as Spotify's "Discover Weekly," at least for now. Being recommended new music that I actually like is very important to me. Only time will tell I guess.

• Stations: This is the best way of finding new music on AM. However, it's a bit strange. Instead of showing you all the songs on that station like Spotify does (almost in a playlist fashion), AM only shows you what song will play next. Not sure if I like this approach, however, there is the added benefit that unlimited music will play from that station, as opposed to a limited number on Spotify. I played just the station made for me for a whole day without playing anything else and aside from skipping a few songs that were really terrible it was pretty good!

The Bottom Line: I'll be testing AM for the next month or two, and we'll see how it fairs. If Spotify is even remotely better I'll switch back. However, I'm at odds with Spotify as a company overall. They killed their Car Thing and scammed their buyers, they don't pay their artists as well as other platforms, and they recently posted an article about how good they are to the environment! It was utter greenwashing.

They are yet to be a profitable company, which worries me. At a ~60B dollar valuation, they could potentially get bought out by a very large player (enter: Apple). Idk, I'm not an expert. I'm not saying Apple is better with all of their scammy tactics too, but these are all things to keep in mind. Whatever happens, I'll just choose which app allows me to enjoy music in the easiest way possible.

Thanks for reading my Ted Talk and have a great rest of your day :)