I am currently back on a few weeks of complimentary Apple Music.
I have a few questions for those of you who use it:
What’s your favorite features of Apple Music?
Why do you prefer it over alternative streaming providers?
Is there anything Apple Music does particularly well (or exclusively)?
Is there anything that drives you up the wall with frustration when using it?
Lastly, a tech question: If I want to listen to my old playlists of previous iTunes purchases, how can I be sure to get the lossless versions streamed instead of the locally stored AAC files?
To me, it still looks a lot like iTunes in many places, and I am very much on the fence about moving back from Tidal.
Thanks for any insights and opinions you might have.
One big advantage (to me at least) is that it’s part of the Apple One bundle. So if you already subscribe to Apple TV+, iCloud, etc., then having Apple Music included as well is a pretty good value.
I agree with this. Also, I have the family plan, so five of us use it. That comes out about $7.50 per person to have Apple Music, 400 GB of iCloud storage, a backup of photos, News, Arcade, TV, etc. I think that’s a pretty good deal.
Compared to Spotify I use it because it has higher quality streaming and because it supports AirPlay 2. The latter being extremely important to me. I have never tried Tidal, and never really looked into it, so maybe I should?
I don’t love how Apple Music constantly wants show me music that I would never listen to, or what I assume are basically ads for new albums disguised as recommendations. I also find the Mac app a bit buggy, still.
I do quite like the playlists and radio stations it creates based on an artist I like. I almost never listen to full albums anymore unless it is something new. I listen to artist based stations 90% of the time now (and only ~3 of them).
It’s been a while since I did the following, but there was a point in time where I could find a track/album in Spotify, but could’t find it in Apple Music.
Regarding sound quality…honestly it depends, I don’t chase after lossless audio. I have studio monitors and I have my AirPods Pro, a few homepod minis around the house. It gets the job done.
Regarding the Apple Bundle…I only have iCloud, Music, Arcade, unless pricing changed I didn’t see a need to get the Bundle because I didn’t care for the other services.
Honestly I don’t think there’s really that much of a way to differentiate music streaming services. It’s clear the front pages and recommendations are the modern version of “Payola”.
Once my Tidal subscription lapses I might check out Pandora. In the past I’ve found that Pandora’s streaming kept me in the genre best.
Example playing a Latin Musica playlist in Pandora stuck to the traditional music. Apple would start off with the more traditional and then somehow morphed into playing Pit Bull and Reggaeton. I hope Pandora still has the same smarts.
It’s been awhile since I researched this, but a quick Google search says it’s still true: Not including the lossless options that AM has, just the regular, every day streaming quality is better on AM. And then AM has spatial audio as well, which I have mostly enjoyed. Spotify.
If you care about these things, Apple pays artist more than any of the other services last I heard as well.
Just to add to the mix, I now use YT Music exclusively. Initially because I pay for YT Premium and it is included, so a financial saving. They have recently added common features that were initially missing so for casual listening it’s fine for me. Good at the gym, as I can watch videos or just listen to the music.
Apple Music in Family bundle, easier for better half to put music on HomePod. However for proper music listening through hifi equipment, AM doesn’t play with Roon, so I also pay for Tidal.
I like the way my local music library syncs, but I don’t love how buggy Apple’s content matching is for their own music. Awful.
The real reason I still use it is because AM respects albums, and Spotify makes albums way harder to listen to. I hate that. I’m an albums person. It’s the only way I listen.
I tried Spotify before Apple Music was a thing and I largely had my own music in iTunes. I didn’t like Spotify in general. When Apple Music launched I gave it a go. It’s fine. I have never been one for “features” so it’s really not so different from having my own music in iTunes except my library is a lot bigger. When Apple One arrived, I figured it was within a few dollars of what I wanted plus I got some extras. As it turns out, I’ve used Arcade quite a bit, but if I was paying things separately it would probably be the first thing I’d ditch.
So yeah, Apple Music “just is”. It’s fine. I listen to music with it. The end.
Came here to say this. When I click “Artists” in Spotify, I don’t see a list of artists in my “library”. I see a list of artists I “follow” on Spotify which is empty because I don’t follow artists on Spotify. Also, if I click on Led Zeppelin, I want to see their albums laid out in chronological order, not a list of 9,000 songs with a little album icon beside each one.
That said, I did some teaching at a local college recently and still have my University email address as an alumni. This makes me eligible for a student/education discount, so I do subscribe to Spotify as well. While I don’t like it as a serious music/album-listening app, it’s playlists for mood etc are really good. I listen to Spotify while working most of the day when I just want a stream of ambient music, then toggle over to Apple Music on my drive to hockey when I need to listen to old Rage Against the Machine albums
Doing a quick summary, the main reasons listed for using Apple Music are
Convenience, works with all Apple devices
Works with locally stored music (iTunes Classic mode)
Cost - already included in One-subscription etc.
Support for spatial audio
Ease of use with HomePods and AirPlay2
All good reasons, for sure.
Interestingly, nobody mentioned “Credits”, which is really important to me. Here, Tidal does a great job, but it looks like Apple Music is now supporting it too. The album reviews are, as far as I can tell, also better on Tidal. (Of course, I’m looking at reviews from the previous century mostly )
As for lossless audio, for me this is basically only important for critical listening on quality gear. I am lucky enough to work from a home office most of the time, so I listen on good headphones daily. Streaming to the Sonos system is more for ambient background music, not to enjoy the finer details, IMO.
I will continue to explore the recommendations from Apple Music a bit more, hoping to be surprised with some new artists that I’ve either never heard or simply forgotten about.
For me it comes down to who pays musicians more for their work, and apparently both Apple Music and Tidal pay more than Spotify. I have a few friends who are professional, but not famous musicians and I feel that their ability to earn a living doing what they love is important.
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