Apple Music vs. Spotify: Which is the best music app?

With Spotify Wrapped 2023 and Apple Music Replay 2023 both launching their annual digest of stats based on your listening habits this week (as of November, 30), including your most streamed songs and artists, you may be wondering which is the best music streaming service. 

Whether your considering switching, or just want to know how your service of choice stacks up, then this face-off between Spotify and Apple Music — Spotify's closest rival — will help you make up your mind as the Tom's Guide team compares both services to find out which delivers the best overall experience for music fans.

Latest Apple Music and Spotify news

Spotify Wrapped 2023 is live, but there have been some problems for users getting access to the annual roundup of listening habits. Several other of the best music streaming services have their own roundups showcasing your listening tastes over the past year, and Apple Music's Replay 2023 campaign arrived with subscribers earlier this week. But as the world’s most popular streaming service, Spotify has the more sophisticated campaign.

Earlier this year, Apple Music discontinued its cheapest Apple Music plan. Apple Music Voice Plan launched in 2021 and allowed subscribers to access the entire Apple Music catalog for just $5 a month using Siri. But as spotted by MacMagazine, the Voice Plan tier has disappeared from the Apple Music compare plans webpage, with subscriber options now running to Student ($5.99 p/m), Individual ($10.99 p/m), and Family ($16.99p/m) plans. Apple hasn't mentioned why it decided to discontinue its Voice Plan tier, and ongoing subscriptions will most likely be canceled before renewal.

Despite announcing plans for a Spotify HiFi tier in 2021, there's still no official comment on when it will finally arrive, although we've recently heard rumors that it could be factored into a new Spotify 'Supremium' tier.

In the meantime, Spotify has been focussing on its interface with a home screen redesign, DJ feature that uses AI and a new daylist playlist feature  to further enhance the personalized feel of the music streaming service's user experience.

Meanwhile, Apple Music may have raised its prices last year, but continues to offer lossless streaming and spatial audio support as standard. It has also launched a dedicated Apple Music Classical app with 5 million classical music tracks in lossless and hi-res audio free to existing Apple Music subscribers.   

Here's how to try out Apple Music for up to six months for free. Plus, compare the differences between Spotify Free vs. Premium and Apple Music vs. Spotify in our face-offs, and learn how to transfer your Spotify playlist to another music streaming service. 

If you're interested in potentially switching music services, check out our 5 reasons to switch from Spotify to Apple Music guide. 

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Price

The pricing for Spotify and Apple Music is very similar, with one big difference: the former offers a free starting tier. However, Spotify's free option will interrupt your listening with recorded ads, as well as ads within the app, while paying for the Premium tier will get rid of both. Check out our Spotify Free vs. Premium comparison for the full rundown of differences.

As of July 24 2023, a Spotify Premium subscription has increased from $9.99 to $10.99 per month. This is the first time the price of a Premium subscription has risen for U.S. subscribers in 12 years. Premium Duo (aimed at 2-person households) will now cost $14.99/month, while Premium Family will cost $16.99/month, and Premium Student is is now $5.99 per month. There's no official Spotify Premium annual subscription, but you can get around this with a $99 gift card for a 1 year Spotify subscription at Amazon.    

Note that signing up the Apple Music annual plan is a bit of an arcane process: you first need to sign up to a monthly plan, then switch to annual billing in the app or through your Apple device's account settings. You can find full instructions for this on the Apple support site.

Apple increased its prices in 2022, and has commented that the new pricing structure is due to an "increase in licensing costs, and in turn, artists and songwriters will earn more for the streaming of their music. We also continue to add innovative features that make Apple Music the world’s best listening experience." 

Apple Music vs. Spotify: At a glance

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Music library

Apple Music and Spotify both feature massive libraries, but Apple claims the advantage with "over 100 million" songs to Spotify's "over 80 million." The latter also includes around 2.6 million podcast titles, whereas there's an entirely separate Apple Podcasts service; Apple Music therefore definitely has more pure music tracks in total.

However, Apple Music has also moved away from its initial focus on exclusive (or timed-exclusive) album launches, with then-Apple executive Jimmy Iovine admitting in 2017 that "The labels don’t seem to like it." Likewise, Spotify's exclusive content is mainly limited to podcasts, so there's immense overlap between the two services on music content.

Technically this is a win for Apple on sheer numbers, but unless you’ve got particularly eclectic tastes, you’re extremely likely to find the artists you want on either platform.

Winner: Apple Music

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Sound quality

Previously, standard-quality Apple Music tracks were 256kbps AAC files, the same format as tracks purchased from iTunes. Last year Apple Music updated its entire catalogue, which is now encoded using ALAC in resolutions ranging from 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD-quality) up to 24-bit/192kHz (hi-res audio quality). 

Spotify streams songs at three different rates (96kbps, 160kbps and 320kbps) all in the Ogg Vorbis format, though the highest caliber is limited to paid Premium subscribers. This could change when Spotify's delayed HiFi tier launches, though when it comes to resolution and bit rate right now, Apple Music's library of lossless content has Spotify beat. 

That's not to say that headphones and speakers don't make a difference at standard resolution, but remember that current Bluetooth tech simply doesn't have the bandwidth for high-resolution audio.  

As with experience the audio quality benefits of any lossless audio content without compromise, Spotify HiFi will likely require a pair of wired headphones  such as one of our best audiophile headphones to hear the benefit, though Spotify notes that Spotify Connect-enabled speakers will support it. 

Check out our pick of the best headphones, best Bluetooth speakers, best soundbars, and best computer speakers to make sure you’re getting the best sound quality experience.

In any event, Apple currently supports higher-resolution streaming and Spotify doesn't. In the absence of any other big differences in Spotify's favor, we have to give this one to Apple.

Winner: Apple Music

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Cloud locker

Apple Music's biggest special feature is the iCloud Music Library, accessed through iTunes, which allows collectors to access their libraries of tracks in AAC 256kbps wherever they go when signed in with the same Apple ID. While the service's original rollout was hampered by collection-distorting bugs, it's currently a useful feature that helps the service stand out from the pack.

Spotify allows you to listen to your own MP3s within the app itself, check out our how to upload music to Spotify.

Winner: Apple Music

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Browser playback

Thankfully, Apple no longer requires users to install iTunes to access Apple Music, and currently lets you listen in a browser just as Spotify does. Both browser versions let you browse their respective libraries, access your playlists and play “Made for you” content, just like their app counterparts.

Winner: Draw

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Availability

Both services have worked on widening their availability in recent years. In addition to the expected devices like phones, tablets, PCs and Macs, Spotify content can be played via your games consoles. That goes for the most recent PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, as well as older consoles like the Xbox One series and the PS4. Early in 2021 Spotify also launched the Car Thing, but this has now been withdrawn from the market. 

Apple Music has its own automotive solution in Apple CarPlay, and also claims an impressive breadth of supportive devices, from the Apple HomePod and HomePod mini to the Apple TV 4K and Apple Watch. Support for third-party components now includes Sonos, Xbox (Series X, S and One), PS5, and Roku, and extends to Android mobile users. If you're a Windows user though, you will need to download iTunes to get access to its extensive library of content.

Spotify also works on smartwatches ranging from Fitbit and Garmin models to more fashion-minded Samsung and Google Wear OS wearables. It’s getting better in this regard too, as Spotify is getting offline listening on Wear OS devices as well as the Apple Watch. 

Either way you’re spoiled for choice, through thanks to its bonus games console support, Spotify edges this one. You could perhaps also call it a negative that Apple Music lossless content cannot be experienced in full resolution through wireless headphones or speakers due to the bandwidth limitations of Bluetooth connectivity, including its own AirPods models. Although, this could soon change.  

Winner: Spotify

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Playlists and curated content

When it comes to user-curated playlists, Apple and Spotify are essentially on parity. Both will present you with personalized playlists, like Spotify’s Daily Mix lists and Apple Music’s Get Up! And Chill mixes. Both services will also recommend songs and artists you haven’t listened to yet, but might like based on your listening preferences.

The Apple Music 1 (previously known as Beats 1) radio station also serves as a potential source of new music, though since it functions like a traditional radio station — fronted by veteran DJs like Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden — its content is curated for the Apple Music subscriber base as a whole. Spotify’s version of “radio” is essentially just playlists, curated for certain genres, topics and tastes.

Winner: Draw

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Social media

One of Spotify's clearest wins is its wealth of social sharing features. You can easily share Spotify content as Instagram and Facebook stories, post album art on Snapchat (which then links friends and followers to the song) or create links and scannable, QR-like Spotify Codes to share music and playlists on any messaging platform.

Apple Music lets you share playlists with other registered users over AirDrop, or create content links to post wherever you want, but its social media integration is more basic than Spotify’s. If you’re not overly keen with sharing your listening habits with the world, this is unlikely to be an issue.

Winner: Spotify 

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Design

Ever since Apple Music’s big redesign for iOS 10, it's design is close to Spotify in a lot of respects. Both employ large images in an almost tile-like UI, with a navigation bar the bottom of the screen for quick access to your music library or the respective search function.

Honestly, the main difference here is purely aesthetic. Apple Music favors a light, bright and white look with high-contrast text, while Spotify has long stuck to its darker black/grey color scheme with flashes of neon green.

Winner: Draw

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Value

If you don’t want to pay for streaming music and you’re OK with ads, Apple’s insistence on not having a free plan will keep you using Spotify. New users can try Apple Music for free for up to 6 months, which is more generous than Spotify Premium’s 1-month free trial, but after that you’ll need to subscribe.

For those who are willing to pay, the playing field looks fairly balanced. Apple Music is $10.99 and you do get access to lossless and spatial audio content. Spotify Premium is now also $10.99 a month for individual accounts. Both services offer a discounted monthly subscription for students.

Keep in mind that Apple Music simply offers more than Spotify Premium does with lossless audio and spatial audio support for the same price. 

If Spotify HiFi was folded into the existing Spotify Premium tier, rather than launching as a separate tiered service, that would keep things somewhat even. But that hasn't happened yet, and even if it does, Apple Music will still have the spatial audio advantage.

The fact that Spotify has a free option makes this particular clash a tie, but if you have the cash for a premium subscription, Apple Music looks like the better deal right now.

Winner: Draw

Apple Music vs Spotify: Which is the better music app?

We first ran an Apple Music vs. Spotify comparison a few years ago, and Spotify comfortably won, on the back of its curated content, value for money and wealth of supported hardware.

Credit to Apple Music, then, for not just closing the gap but surpassing Spotify overall. It’s still behind on social features, and lacks native support for games consoles, but changing its approach from consumer-unfriendly exclusives to more thoughtfully curated content streams has paid off. It’s also wisely gained a browser version and remains the better choice for those who like to hoard their music files.

Really, though, it's lossless and spatial audio that make the difference. Not only does this make Apple Music the better choice for listeners who want the best sound quality possible, but given it's no more expensive than a Spotify Premium subscription, it's also better on value for those willing to pay.

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Scorecard

More from Tom's Guide

• The best music streaming services available right now
• 5 reasons to ditch Spotify for Apple Music
• Spotify HiFi looks like it's coming in a new Spotify 'Supremium' tier