Spotify Connect is the big difference here. I can change the music or podcast from my iPhone while I'm listening on my headset (while playing games on PS5). I couldn't do this on Apple Music. Also, Spotify doesn't delete my playlists if I decide to cancel for a month or two. Answer from ZombieSlapper23 on reddit.com
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/iphone › spotify or apple music?
Spotify or Apple Music? : r/iphone
June 11, 2025 - What does Spotify have that Apple Doesn’t? Continue this thread Continue this thread ... For me, it’s this plus the higher quality playback and streaming and download for the music which actually makes a difference for me on my higher end headphones
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/music › apple music vs spotify
r/Music on Reddit: Apple Music vs Spotify
March 3, 2024 -

Which one is better in your opinion? I’m in the Apple ecosystem, iPhone 15 pro max, AirPods Max, Mac , Apple TV, etc.

But I feel like the algorithm on Spotify is better, but I can’t stand the UI

Also, Spotify is cheaper for two people. But which one do you guys have?

Which has better audio quality in your opinion

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/applemusic › monthly apple music vs. spotify – megathread
r/AppleMusic on Reddit: Monthly Apple Music vs. Spotify – MEGATHREAD
August 1, 2025 -

Hello r/AppleMusic!

Due to the many posts asking about comparisons between Apple Music and Spotify (and other services) we are consolidating them into a single mega-thread. Per the rules, all discussion on this topic should be kept to this thread and any other posts will be removed.

Here are some ideas on what to discuss:

  • Platform support (iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, web players, smart TVs, etc.)

  • Audio quality & formats (Lossless, Hi-Res, Dolby Atmos, Spotify’s current vs. promised HiFi)

  • Offline downloads (Limits, reliability, playback without internet, device syncing)

  • User interface & design (Navigation, layout, customization, dark mode, now playing screen)

  • Playlists & curation (Official playlists, editorial content, genre depth, taste-matching)

  • Algorithmic recommendations (Discover Weekly vs. Listen Now / Favorites Mix, accuracy)

  • Library management (Adding your own music, editing metadata, iCloud Music Library vs. Local Files)

  • Crossfade, gapless playback, and playback customization (Who actually supports what and how well)

  • Social & stats features (Spotify Wrapped, Blend, following friends vs. Apple Music Replay & SharePlay)

  • Pricing & plans (Individual, Student, Family, Bundle with Apple One, Duo on Spotify, regional pricing)

  • Third-party integration (Smart speakers, Android Auto, CarPlay, Discord rich presence, etc.)

  • Exclusive content or artist bonuses (Spatial Audio, early releases, live lyrics, music videos)

- Mod Team

Top answer
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For me, Apple Music (via the Classical app/web client) is the superior service in the classical music space even compared to niche competitors like Presto, IDAGIO, etc. There’s no comparison to Spotify, which is not at all built for classical music metadata. IDAGIO has some fun features like the ability to compare different versions of the same piece on the fly and also seems to have way more liner note PDFs available, though AM seems to be improving in that area. But the UX on both IDAGIO and Presto suck compared to AM. Not to mention that IDAGIO is more expensive if you want FLAC quality playback.
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I’ve been a Spotify Premium user since 2008 so I’m pretty biased. But I’ve tried Apple Music several times and I do like it but there’s a few things that’s keeping me in the Spotify camp: Private Session - I love this one. If my kids wants to listen to something I just turn this on right away. Advanced search - for an example label search (label:”label”) User playlists - yes, AM has it but when searching on Spotify you get hundreds or thousands of playlists Artists playlists - sometimes an artist has made a playlist with songs that inspired them on their latest album for an example. Love this! Events - even though many events are missing (the only reason I keep Facebook), it’s a good way to find out about some of them Spotify Connect - this is a feature hard to beat. API - the way you can connect so many apps and sites and make your hunt for music easier is ridiculously good Preview - I’m an avid album listener and I hate to stop in the middle of my listening to check out an artist, album or song I just read about. Using the preview lets me preview a song and then let me jump back to the song I was listening to before. Artist info - there’s so much more information on artist pages on Spotify comparing with AM. Even smaller bands have a bio there, on AM most of the artists I listen to don’t have any information at all Monthly listeners - on Spotify you can see how many monthly listeners and followers each artist has. As someone like me that likes to hunt for underground metal it’s pretty fun finding the bands that has 0-50 listeners
Find elsewhere
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/applemusic › apple music v. spotify audio quality
r/AppleMusic on Reddit: Apple Music v. Spotify Audio Quality
December 23, 2024 -

I've seen plenty of posts on here and other subs discussing the same subject.

Most people on this sub are of course in favor of Apple Music and the opinion they have is that there's a distinguishable improvement in quality over Spotify (lossless not in mind because most people don't have the hardware to utilize it on a regular basis), but many people on other subs say that they're not able to hear a difference when Spotify's audio quality is set to "very high" and "audio normalization" is disabled. My guess is that most people who have noticed a difference in the audio quality were using Spotify set to "Automatic" (changes depending on network speed) or even "Normal" because that's the default (also the highest quality available to free accounts).

Those of you who have used Spotify Premium set to "very high" audio quality and "audio normalization" disabled, have you actually noticed a much greater audio quality difference with Apple Music when not utilizing lossless audio?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/applemusic › switched to apple music after 10 years with spotify premium, here are my thoughts so far
r/AppleMusic on Reddit: Switched to Apple Music after 10 years with Spotify Premium, here are my thoughts so far
July 2, 2025 -

I switched to Apple Music last month after being a loyal Spotify Premium subscriber for nearly a decade since I was getting tired of waiting for Spotify to release their hi-fi tier.

The good:

  • Sound quality: Apple Music's native support for lossless audio and Dolby Atmos makes a big difference. Using my AirPods Pro 2, Dolby Atmos tracks sound noticeably more immersive and spacious. Overall music sounds much clearer than it was on Spotify.

  • Curated playlists: I never liked the curated playlists on Spotify but with Apple Music I've actually found myself coming back to a few of their editorial playlists.

  • Pricing: I was already paying separately for Apple Arcade, iCloud+ and Apple TV+, so I decided to upgrade to Apple One. I save a bit compared to before so no complaints here.

  • UI: I really enjoy the lyrics screen and the built in karaoke mode.

The not so good:

  • No Spotify connect equivalent: This is where Apple Music really falls short. I always took this feature for granted and didn't realise how not having it would make things quite inconvenient sometimes.

  • Lack of social features: I miss being able to create Blend playlists with friends, those were updated daily and I could discover what my friends were listening to daily. I also can't connect Apple Music to Discord so it's harder to share what I'm listening to with others.

For now I'm pretty happy with the switch and will probably stick around with Apple Music for a while.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/applemusic › which streaming service should i pick? apple music vs spotify (the ultimate thread?)
r/AppleMusic on Reddit: Which streaming service should I pick? Apple Music vs Spotify (The ultimate thread?)
January 3, 2023 -

Spotify has a fast and intuitive mobile app and a Windows app. Apple Music has a very good mobile app, but no native Windows app. However, there is an app called Cider, and it uses Apple Music Kit to provide you with a desktop app that tries to do what a native Apple Music app on Windows would do. But, in the native mobile app for Apple Music, albums that have transitions between each song seamlessly and gaplessly blend into each other. Cider, on the other hand, doesn't have this feature. There is a weird awkward pause between music playing, and it doesn't sound as good. Spotify has this feature nailed on both the Windows app and the Mobile app. I should also add if I accidentally leave Spotify running on my computer at home, with 1 account I can easily change which device the music is streaming from and change it to my phone. If you leave Cider running, Apple Music will not stream music to your iPhone until you physically turn off Cider on your computer.

What makes this such a difficult decision is I love the human curated playlists of Apple Music and I like the mobile app, even though Spotify's is a little bit more snappy and high speed compared to Apple Music. I also do not know which service offers the best music discovery, the best algorithm for playing similar songs, the best algorithm to make you personal playlists, as I see mixed answers of both platforms saying "AM has such a better algorithm" and "Spotify is miles ahead of AM."

What do you think I should pick?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/applemusic › apple music vs spotify
r/AppleMusic on Reddit: Apple Music vs Spotify
August 23, 2023 -

I've been a religious free plan Spotify user for a long time now, but I'm considering getting a paid subscription to either Spotify or Apple Music. I'll be getting the iPhone 15P in a couple of days and I was wondering whether one of them was better than the other?

A few things I have questions about -

  1. Is it easy to export your Spotify playlist to Apple Music?

  2. Does having Apple Music actually have an edge over Spotify especially for an iPhone in terms of sounds quality etc.?

  3. Is the Apple Music library as extensive as Spotify?

Any Cons/Prod I should be aware of for both platforms? I greatly appreciate it, thank you!

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/spotify › spotify vs apple music?
r/spotify on Reddit: Spotify vs Apple Music?
January 16, 2024 - I even use Spotify for podcasts even though I’d much rather use Apple Podcasts, but Apple can’t seem to stay consistent on making my content work the same on all devices. Spotify does. I don’t know why this is so hard for Apple to figure out. It’s embarrassingly bad and to be honest I don’t like having my podcasts and music all work on the same app.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/spotify › has anyone switched over or back from apple music?
r/spotify on Reddit: Has anyone switched over or back from Apple Music?
June 4, 2025 -

If so why?

Obviously if you’re in the Apple ecosystem it makes sense.

I recently bought the AirPods Max and got a 3 month trial for Apple Music and wanted to experience hearing Dolby atmos/spatial audio and although yeah you can tell it’s more clear than Spotify but my main issue was that the audio was lower compared to Spotify the bass which I tend to like in my music wasn’t that great on Apple Music.

My opinion is that Apple Music is for those who are deep into the Apple ecosystem and are absolutely wanting the best and clear audio in their music.

However, that alone isn’t that big of a reason to make the switch. Maybe it’s due to me being with Spotify for for like 12 years. I’ve used it on Apple, Android and Microsoft devices with no issues. The Spotify UI is just better at recommending new music from my favorite artists or upcoming artist within my musical tastes.

On Apple Music I felt lost. My playlist were all over the place compared to Spotify. Whereas Spotify felt more social with many playlists from users and its new AI DJ feature just makes it a better experience than just using a music app that feels soulless but hey at least the audio sounds a bit crisper lol

Top answer
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I want to love Apple Music so much because I pay for Apple one lol which I may cancel not sure yet. I used Apple Music off and on with Spotify for quite a while. Im back on Spotify because I have a better time with Spotifys playlist than I do with Apple Musics radio. Apple Music radio is actually atrocious. If I start a station from a country song there is no reason for 2pac to come on next. Which it does. Or Eminem. Or biggie. Lol I’m going to wait until iOS 19 to truly make a permanent switch but I like Spotify’s playlists. Unless you have equipment to take advantage of lossless, you’re probably not going to hear a difference. Dolby atmos is hit or miss. Not worth it for me. Yet. Also to comment on Apple Music audio being lower. It’s definitely not. I think you have “sound check” turned on it music settings.
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I actually did the opposite. I switched from Apple Music TO Spotify. Used Apple Music for a few years and I have actually used all main 3 music streaming services (Spotify, yt music and Apple Music) the reason I switched to Spotify is because Apple Music did not have a good algorithm in my case. There are only a few playlists that are made for you and they get updated weekly but have like 25 songs (unlike the many playlists on Spotify that are made for you automatically and have 50 songs each). Additionally Apple Music removes your whole library if you unsubscribe unlike Spotify that keeps your playlists, library, songs, albums saved in their freemium model until you come back. I also like that you can preview playlists and albums on Spotify (scrolling through short snippets of every song) which helps me get an idea of wether the album is interesting enough to give it a full listen or not. I feel like Apple Music’s algorithm needs more improvement and a way to preview albums and playlists. Edit: more context
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/truespotify › spotify vs apple music
r/truespotify on Reddit: Spotify vs Apple Music
October 9, 2024 -

Ok I’ve been a Spotify dick rider since 2014. I love Spotify, we’re long time homies. But my frontal lobe is fully developed, is it worth deep diving and cleaning up my Spotify account? Or do I take advantage of Apple Music to make a nice, clean, organized music experience? Thoughts? Feelings? Opinions?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/applemusic › spotify vs apple music late 2023
r/AppleMusic on Reddit: Spotify vs Apple Music late 2023
June 22, 2023 -

Since 2021 till now, I jump back and forth between both, and I finish up using Spotify at the end of the day.

But, I can hear and recognize the better Audio Quality and want to switch to Apple Music finally, but Spotify playback is way faster in my country in Europe and the play song time is 1-2 seconds slower than Spotify in my country at least.

I like Spotify Wrapped more than Apple Music Replay.

Since 2021, I have jumped back and forth between both and finished using Spotify at the end of the day. Spotify playback is way faster in my country in Europe and the play song time is 1-2 seconds slower than Spotify in my country at least.

Which one should I choose? Thanks.

Edit - 13.12.23: I’ve just finished up switching from Spotify to Apple Music. So therefore, instead of using Spotify for both music and podcasts, now Im using Apple Music (AM) for music and music videos, and Overcast app for podcasts.