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I recently subscribed to Apple Music, and it was my impression that the sound quality is better than Spotify. Is that actually true, or am I just kidding myself? I am a bit disappointed in Apple Music - the way it suggests new music for you to listen to seems much less sophisticated than Spotify. Think I'll swap back ...
No.
If you like music you should not subscribe to either one.
Parasitic bastards.
There's a rabbit hole you can go down between 432hz & 440hz but I'm sure that both Spotify & Apple Music use 440HZ and there's no option for 432hz 🤷♂️
One will be louder than the other. Put them at the same volume level relative to each other and try again.
Apple Music is being upgraded to lossless
For the true audiophile, Apple Music also offers Hi-Resolution Lossless all the way up to 24 bit at 192 kHz
https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/
Just listening to Deezer lossless. Sounds pretty good.
Standard Apple and Spotify are both very similar. Apple uses 256kbps aac, Spotify uses 320kbps mp3. AAC is a better codec, so in practice I found them to be very close. And if you’re listening on little headphones then you won’t notice any difference at all. They’re both fine for casual listening, even through small speakers. I was only switching between the two due to compatibility with other things (Apple didn’t work with chromecast for a long time). Spotify just works really well with everything.
I’m expecting his-res/FLAC alternatives from both. That’s where the fun really starts.
Anyway - pick your favourite and you’ll be fine 🙂
f you like music you should not subscribe to either one.
Why? of all the companies out there its apple and Spotify that have been the ones that have made the efforts to create a framework where music can be made as available to people as possible whilst ensuring royalties get to the artists directly from a time where illegal sharing was rife.Might not be as good as the heady days of proper bands producing their own music and boy, has the quality of music over the last 30 years suffered for it, but at least artists are getting the royalties. For example, Ed Sheeran seems to be having an extremely lucrative career for all his griping about giving away his music for free on whatever platform "just to get it out there", which was in reality an extremely successful marketing ploy.
boy, has the quality of music over the last 30 years suffered for it,
Not really. Plenty of great music out there.
It is true that streaming services can end up paying peanuts to artists. But on the other hand, I rarely used to listen to music at all and I was buying about 5 CDs a year. Now, thanks to streaming services, I listen about 3 hours a day.
Well done Molgrips, I've just headbutted my phone. Jesus wept.
If you like music you should not subscribe to either one.
Parasitic bastards
I think you need to be looking at the record labels rather than the steaming services. See if you can find the graph that shows what % the labels pass on to the creators.
OP. Unless you purposely listened to Spotify in some sort of <256kbps setup you are kidding yourself.
as for hi-res audio 🤣🤣🤣
CD set the standard way back in the day. 256kbps AAC and 320kbps mp3 are indistinguishable from CD. Anything more is just audiophile BS.
just pick the service that has most of the music you like on it. And remember that record companies were cheating artists long before Napster came along, let alone Spotify and Apple Music.
the way it suggests new music for you to listen to seems much less sophisticated than Spotify.
Sorry, but relying on a bloody machine algorithm to suggest new music is just laughable! All that will do is suggest more of what you already like, instead of more of what you’ve never heard before. If you want to discover new music, listen to 6Music and use Shazam, and buy a magazine like Uncut, and play the free CD and read the reviews, then check out the download on Apple Music, which is what I’ve been doing recently. My phone has gone from around 135Gb of music to 352.56Gb of music downloaded. And I’m constantly finding more. It’s just like buying a couple of CD’s from Amazon, then getting endless emails with ‘if you like that you’ll like this’ suggestions, and every one is either something you’ve already got, or something you would never ever listen to.
Use your own ears, ignore the machine.
This is well worth a read through, it explains why Lossless isn’t a game-changer with headphones except under certain circumstances, and a few other things as well.
CountZero
Full MemberSorry, but relying on a bloody machine algorithm to suggest new music is just laughable!
I disagree, you can use the algorithms to go down some pretty deep rabbit holes. I find loads of new stuff just going on a wander though bands and styles and getting it to suggest more. Algorithms are just tools, if you use them right you can get great results.
Red Sheeran? hahahaha
Maybe just acquire the recordings and send a gift to the artists directly or buy a t shirt and BB cap, let the leeches starve or actually go and create something if they want to get dollaz.
Labels have never played fair and streaming services are worse.
That’s good to know Apple is going lossless, you can just about tell the difference on my Naim system
Apple/Spotify just work for a family and offer vfm. However I had always wanted to swap to Tidal purely for the Naim system. No need to now, or if I have apple on the phone and send it to the Naim will it still be lossless ?
As a family we had always used Spotify but they effectively forced us to move to Apple music once we started using Alexa to play music - why? because we have more than one. Spotify is tied to the Amazon account and as the Alexa's are on the same account they all then ran off the same Spotify account so different music in different rooms didn't work. Spotify use separate accounts in family sharing whereas Apple is more sensible and restricts access based on concurrent streams.
The only way to get around this is to create separate accounts for each Alexa and then have accounts for all of the people in the house. But then doing that screws up all the playlists etc in Spotify and it was way less hassle to make the switch to Apple than it was to faff about with Amazon and Spotify accounts.
The Spotify UI is better though, I miss that and the recommendations.
Regarding the ongoing issue of £0.0033 of each stream going to the artist, and Spotify having never made a profit until this year, why have a few of the big artists not got together and bought out one of the big players or set up their own 'open' marketplace? I pay £170 a year for a Spotify Duo account and was always reluctant to buy CD's after being reeled in by the odd single and then realising the rest of the album was crap, but the money I spend on music has never been higher, and I'm much more aware in terms of identifying artists and tracks that I was in the old days of radio and buying CDs on the highstreet.
If the labels and streaming services are so nasty and skimming off the bulk of the revenue, you'd think there is enough personal wealth in this industry to create an artist owned streaming service that is predominantly owned by some of the bigger players. Fair streaming rates to artists and a commitment to showcase up and coming music from the smaller fish, and an option for artists to buy into the business, ability for subscribers to buy merch and special edition Vinyl etc or a top up artist specific subscription to get early access to releases and physical CD's etc.
I'm not particularly loyal to Spotify, but I only ever tried one other service in anger (google music) but definitely won't be buying physical music in the future, or wanting to manage a 60gb music library on a laptop and maintaining a portion of that on a smartphone. It would be nice to know that my cash is getting to the artist.
Spotify has quality settings...you need to click very high quality as playback in settings.
The Spotify ‘discover weekly’ is simply amazing and is a key reason for me to pay the premium subscription. That and download ability. I’ve found obscure music I would never have come across and then gone to see the band and even bought a t shirt!
Ive discovered loads of music via Spotify that I never would have using traditional means. I used to have enough time and spare money buy NME, go to gigs all the time and rummage through record stores and go home to play it on my hifi.
I think Spotify premium is great, cant say I have much sympathy for established artist’s not tetting enough cash, the money around in the pre download days was ludicrous. Newer artists have never had money but definitely can get easier exposure.
I use Spotify for convenience - in the car, playlists, group sessions at house parties etc
If I want to listen to something in higher quality, I'll go onto Tidal
Well both are going CD quality or higher in the short term future so that’s a draw.
Spotify has the better app and suggests better music in my view.
So the decider is how do you want to use it?
Headphones would be a draw.
However if you want to implement on a hifi Spotify has far better integration as it has Spotify Connect whereas Apple you would need a PC or some form of Sonos.
Amazon music unlimited pay artists the most fwiw
But its still fractions of a penny!
If you're really bothered only apple & amazon are offering HD, and dolby atmos, though you'll need the right smart speakers to get the best of that