Both music streaming services boast a catalog of more than 100 million songs. The days of music only being released on one specific platform are largely behind us, so you should expect to find the music you want to listen to on both platforms. Apple Music has a New Music Mix by artists the algorithms think you will like. This playlist updates every Friday. Both services also provide curated playlists for specific genres such as Pop Hits, and playlists for specific artists with a selection of their most popular music. Apple Music offers its entire catalog in AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) by default. However, you can opt to turn on lossless audio, which uses Apple’s own Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). The entire catalog is available in 16-bit/44.1kHz (which Apple calls Lossless Audio) with some music in 24-bit/192kHz (Hi-Res Lossless Audio). Streaming lossless audio uses a lot more data, however. It’s something to bear in mind if you’re on a limited data plan. In addition, for both Hi-Res Lossless Audio and Ultra HD audio, you’ll need specialist equipment to be able to play the music at the highest resolutions. Both services also have some music in spatial audio. This is a 3D mix of the music; rather than stereo placement where parts of the mix can be shifted left or right, spatial audio places them in a 3D layout so that you can feel as if you can hear the drummer playing just to your left as the vocalist sings right in front of you.
An Apple Music subscription includes the Apple Music Classical app, focused solely on classical music. It provides an effective way of finding and listening to your favorite classical works.
There’s also Apple Music Sing, a feature that allows you to turn down or completely remove the vocals from compatible songs, to create your own karaoke tracks. Apple Music Replay creates a playlist and stats from your listening habits for the entire year. It’s similar to the popular Spotify Wrapped feature.
Free Plans
Apple Music doesn’t offer any free tiers; if you want to listen, you’ll need a paid subscription.
Individual Plans
Apple Music has a basic subscription of $10.99/£10.99 per month for the Apple Music Individual subscription. You get all the features of Apple Music, including access to the full catalog, as well as additional features such as Apple Music Classical and Apple Music Sing. There are also curated playlists called All-Access playlists. They allow you to play any song, play the playlist in order, and have unlimited skips. You can also download these playlists for offline listening. On voice devices such as an Echo Dot, these playlists are only available in shuffle mode and have the same limit of six skips.
Family Plans
Both services offer family plans that allow you to share your subscription with up to six different people. Each account gets its own full access with separate libraries, and you can play music on up to six devices simultaneously.
Student Plans
Alternative Plans
Of course, there are other options available too. You might decide that there are good reasons to prefer TIDAL, or you’d like to take advantage of making collaborative playlists on Spotify. If you’re switching services, the good news is that there are ways to transfer playlists from one streaming service to another. Comment Name * Email *
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