Music is a prominent part of our everyday lives. People listen to certain music based on how they feel, the genre they like, religious music, and music that reflects their culture. Music provides an escape for many people and can be found on many different platforms, the two most prominent being Spotify and Apple Music. Spotify has 172 million premium subscribers as of 2021, while Apple Music has last recorded 78 million users as of 2021.

Both streaming services are extremely popular, but which is better?

Spotify was created in 2006 as one of the first streaming sites and has grown to be one of, if not the biggest music streaming app. Spotify is very popular as it has very user-friendly controls.

“I really enjoy Spotify more because it has more social and sharing capabilities than Apple music, such as Spotify Wrapped,” said junior Diego Enriquez.

Spotify is incredibly unique because it has features such as Spotify Wrapped, which shows the listeners what artists and albums they have listened to the most throughout the year. Spotify also has playlists that are made based off what the user may like, such as genre, era, and emotions or moods (Studying, sad, romantic, etc).

However, Spotify is limited with having a premium subscription.

“I used to use Spotify without a subscription, so it was very annoying having to deal with persistent ads and not controlling exactly what I can listen to,” Enriquez said.

Listeners that do not have the premium subscription are subject to hearing ads every 15 minutes, not being able to pick a certain song, as well as only being able to skip 6 songs every hour.

Apple Music launched in 2015 and has proven to be a fierce competitor for the title of best music streaming app. Apple Music has proven to have less ads and focus only on music.

“I enjoy Apple Music better because of autoplay, plus I have been using apple music for years now, so it’s hard to just switch to a new app that I’m not used to,” said senior Logan Randag.

Apple Music has a feature called Autoplay which queues songs like the one the user plays, which can be more accurate than the Spotify made playlists

Although you can listen to music on Spotify without the subscription, Apple Music only allows users without a subscription to listen to Beats1 radio. Apple Music offers up to over 75 million songs, while Spotify offers 70 million songs and 2.6 million podcasts. The utility of Spotify has made it popular amongst students.

“Overall, Spotify has more interactive features and it’s very user friendly, I also enjoy being able to listen to either music or a podcast at any time,” Enriquez said.

Apple Music’s limits have made it seem unappealing when compared to Spotify.

“Spotify is just way better because of the available media…You can listen to a music and almost any podcast you want which Apple Music lacks,” said junior Isaac Kuri.

A subscription for both platforms costs $9.99 and both offer family plans for up to 6 members.

“For ten dollars you are getting way more media for your money…It may be the same price as Apple, but the difference in the variety of media is insane,” Kuri said.

Although both platforms provide limitless music, the versatility, and the variety of media you can find on Spotify between podcasts and music, gives Spotify the edge over Apple Music.