Gadgetory

hello again ladies and gentlemen i'm joe hindi from android authority comm apple music was released in 2015 and everybody wants to know which ones are the best Apple music Spotify or Google Play Music all access in this video we're gonna find out okay folks this comparison is going to go down in five rounds we're going to take a look at the basic content to see what you get from each service then we'll talk about design playlists and curation extra features and then the best bang for your buck once that's all done we'll decide a winner let's get started the first and arguably most important thing that we're going to take a look at is content after all you'll be forking out ten dollars per month for each of these services and it's good to know what you'll be paying for upfront please note that all three services are equally good at providing the latest popular music and most of the popular music from the last six decades or so Google Play Music all access was first launched in 2013 following Google i/o and currently boasts 35 million songs on top of that users can upload 50,000 of their own songs to google play music which will then be added to their library for streaming any music you purchase on google play music will also be added to your collection you'll also get untold amounts of content from YouTube as well because YouTube bread is also included in the price of play music a single account cost $9.99 and a family account that supports up to six accounts is 14.99 you can use play music for free but you're limited to playlists and music you've either uploaded or purchased from the service Spotify was first launched back in 2008 and currently advertises more than 30 million songs in their catalogue they also support video content as well as podcasts Spotify can also read your locally stored music but you'll have to sync it through your device through Spotify as desktop application first a single account costs $9.99 Spotify is in the works for revamping their family plans but for now a family plan is $9.99 for the first person and then $4.99 for each additional person Spotify also supports a 50% discount for students you can use the service for free and you'll get most of the features as long as you don't mind some advertisements Apple music began life as beats music but was officially launched in its current form in 2015 and their catalog includes over 30 million songs on top of that users can upload up to 100,000 of their own songs to iCloud to be streamed back to them in a very similar fashion as google play music any music you have purchased in itunes is also available for immediate streaming a single account costs $9.99 and family plans cost $14.99 which supports up to six people currently Apple music has no free version and is the only one of the three to not have this overall content is a really straightforward endeavor all three services have more songs than you'll ever listen to so it's not like you can really lose this category that said Google Play Music wins because it does include YouTube bread which adds music and video content to an extent that the competition can't possibly hope to match in second place comes Spotify thanks to its podcasts and video content with Apple music coming in third because it really just has music of course all of the content in the world matters little if you don't actually enjoy using the application we took a look at all three services to see what it was actually like to use the applications please note that all of the design testing was done with full paid accounts for all three services Google Play Music uses material design which means you're in for a bright colourful and generally enjoyable music browsing experience when you open the slide-out menu you'll be greeted with the listen now top charts new releases my library brow stations and then the settings options each page does pretty much what the title says it does and you'll always understand where you're going and what you're doing inside of the app on all pages you'll find a chromecast button and a search button in the upper right-hand corner the applications biggest weakness is how it's organized in my library browse and other parts of the app there are a ton of tabs that you have to swipe through in order to see everything in this instance it could be argued that Google Play Music is a little too flashy at times when a simpler more streamlined approach would have made things faster and easier when you play music the music player is constantly accessible either in the notification drop-down or as a truncated box at the bottom of any given page the player itself is pretty standard with prominently featured album arts along with a thumbs up and thumbs down buttons and the standard controls the bottom Spotify uses a lot of the same basic principles as google play music for the majority of your navigation is going to take place by opening the left slide-out menu and then picking your category however Spotify takes a much less flamboyant approach and does a better job at getting you where you need to go it also employs material design but seems to do so in more measured doses the application opens to your library page which in my humble opinion is the correct place to open a music app from there you can use the slide-out menu to go to search browse radio and then back to your library if you need to much like google play music the title of each category more or less explains what each one does the only bad part about Spotify is that it does cramp a lot of content into a little space you'll find podcasts video content and curated playlists in the Browse section which makes the radio section seem oddly redundant the music player is almost identical to google play music but with the buttons in slightly different places despite what you may have heard the application experience on Apple music isn't all that different from the other two it also relies on a left slide-out menu where you'll be doing most of your navigation the application launches to the for you page where you'll find recommendations based on your listening habits you'll also have access to new radio connect playlists and my music sections straight from the left side menu these sections do exactly what their titles suggest there aren't many surprises with Apple music each section is well defined and everything is displayed well the only real complaint is the application relies heavily on your device's back button and some pages have on-screen back buttons while others do not this creates a disjointed and sloppy feeling in the application as your fingers will have to bounce frequently between your back button and the navigation buttons in the top left corner the music player is similar to the competition but again with buttons moved around slightly all three applications had surprisingly good showings in the design department and aside from some quirks here and there do everything pretty much the same way we gave Spotify the win here because the application seemed to strike that perfect balance where it looked good but was also quick and functional Google Play Music definitely had the best-looking interface but it consistently sacrificed speed and user experience just for the sake of being flashy Apple music looked good but the sloppy execution and antiquated feeling track down an otherwise pleasant experience all three services offer the ability to create playlists along with curated pre-made playlists for you to listen to this is a huge feature because it kind of dictates how we listen to music on the services and curated playlists are a huge draw thanks to the popularity of radio streaming sites such as iheartradio and Pandora as expected Google Play Music allows you to create your own playlists playlists creation is rather simple you find the songs you want and then add them to the playlists it's worth noting that since you get ad free YouTube and the ability to play YouTube audio with the screen off the playlist feature can also be used in YouTube with similar results you can share playlists by making them public if you want to back in 2014 Google purchased Songza in order to improve their curated playlists and it worked not only can you find the usual playlists based on genre but Google Play music also has playlists for various moods and activities we thought that was spectacular and all of the options offer up hundreds of playlists for various situations and emotions you can also start a playlist based on song genre or artists that you like Spotify follows a lot of the same lines as Google Play Music you can create your own playlists by surfing for songs and then adding them Spotify also has a strong social component where you can share and import playlists from other people Spotify will also maintain a starred playlist with the music you have favorited for easy access to stuff you know you're going to like the service also has a decent curated playlists selection they adhere to basic genre selection and each genre has a variety of playlists based in that genre Spotify is saving grace in the curation department comes in the form of their weekly Discovery playlists these are 30 random songs that you've never heard before that are compiled based on your musical tastes this feature has had rave reviews and it's an effective method of discovering new music without being overwhelmed to put it bluntly Apple music has the best self-made playlists out of the whole bunch when you add a song to a playlist on Apple music the service automatically adds that song to your library as well which is unique in this comparison that means you can build a library and playlist simultaneously which can save you a lot of time and effort in the long haul Apple music uses the genre system for curated playlists which has even fewer options than Spotify right now the service does have a 24/7 live radio station called beats one that is pretty enjoyable it has live music live radio hosts interviews and brings a certain human feel to an otherwise robotic experience the only bad part is that it tends to play popular music which may not interest those who don't like popular music this was another very close call Google played music wins again because it simply pounds the competition into submission with the vast amount of playlists that you can interact with on both the Play Music app and on YouTube Apple music came in second with the best user made playlists of all three of them and the beats 1 radio station offered a fun unique experience that neither competitor could successfully replicate Spotify weekly discovery playlist is utterly fantastic but aside from this single 30 song playlist Spotify doesn't really have anything that wasn't replicated by its competition and therefore comes in third most people will be picking up one of these three services in order to listen to music however that is not all that they can do each of these services offers unique features aside from just music streaming many features such as the ability to save music for offline listening are shared between all three services so we'll focus on the ones that make them different google play music has a strong game when it comes to additional features the one that is worth talking about most is of course YouTube bread YouTube bread gives you additional features in the YouTube music application offers add for YouTube videos on both computer and the application and then it also allows you to listen to YouTube videos with the screen off YouTube is of course the single biggest video streaming site on this entire planet this adds an insurmountable amount of video content that ranges from tech to sports funny videos music videos video podcasts and even those goofy 5 second quote clips of that show that you like it's also worth mentioning the Google Play Music is the only application out of the three that can recognize your locally stored content so it also acts as your standalone music player Spotify biggest draw outside of music is the addition of podcasts and video content both have been integrated surprisingly well into the existing interface and we had no trouble interacting with the content at all the podcast and video content is a bit scarce with how new it is but we expect the library to grow over time for now you can find stuff like clips of Jimmy Fallon and epic rap battles of history along with podcasts such as The Nerdist and various podcasts by how stuff works the one feature that we haven't discussed for Apple music yet is the Kinect feature it gives your typical user the ability to follow various Apple profiles and artists and then engage with them you can choose who to follow and as you read status updates you can drop a heart if you like it and even comment if you want to with this you can get first dibs on new stuff from your favorite artists but otherwise it's essentially a more exclusive version of Twitter truth be told we didn't weigh the additional features category very heavily because these are primarily music streaming services which makes additional features icing on the cake rather than a focal point for value that said Google Play Music had the best extra features thanks to its inclusion of YouTube's bread which also adds so much content to the table Spotify has native video and podcast support which gave it a solid second-place finish but ultimately can't compete with YouTube Apple music came in third because it is brand-new and it doesn't really do much yet outside of streaming music finally we're going to discuss which service has the best bang for your buck the question we're trying to answer is whether or not you're getting what you pay for and how far your dollar is being stretched when you actually pay for these services Google Play Music does a great job of providing a lot of content for a reasonable price you get the 35 million songs cloud storage for up to 50,000 of your own songs hundreds of curated playlists and support across virtually every operating system with YouTube's bread you get an untold amount of additional music and content ad-free along with other features there isn't a service available that can boast that kind of content library for a scant ten bucks a month Spotify offers quite a bit as well you get the 30 million songs playlists podcasts and video content all ad-free you also get the weekly discovery playlists support across almost any operating system just like Google Play Music and one of the better designed music streaming apps the family plan is up to twice the price of play music or Apple music which really sucks but if you're a college student you can't beat that 50% off you would think that Apple music would suffer here but it actually doesn't do half bad you'll have 30 million songs along with a few curated playlists Apple music also gives you free cloud storage for up to 100,000 songs similar to Google Play music so you can bring your own library along with you you can also get the human touch with beats 1 and a dedicated social media service and connect to follow your favorite artists as much as my fellow Android fanboys don't want to hear this the service objectively isn't that bad this one was ridiculously close Google Play Music wins again because of YouTube's bread Spotify has the most amount of native content and doesn't rely on outside services for its video content which puts it in a solid second place Apple music almost matches Google Play Music feature for feature but it doesn't have the advantage of YouTube's bread to bolster its content offerings and gets a third-place finish this ended up being a much more difficult comparison than was originally envisioned all of these applications hit all of the most important points when it comes to design content and playlists with only minor differences and nitpicks between them they all have additional features that add value as well however at the end of the day Google Play Music has that proverbial streaming cheat code with YouTube red which sets it apart from the rest of the competition and gives it the overall win as the best music streaming service available right now Spotify gets second place overall because it is just that damn good I would say that Spotify may very well have won this if not for YouTube red adding so much extra content to the table and I want it noted that Spotify definitely has the best free option out of the three Apple music places third but it was a much stronger showing than I had originally anticipated when I began this comparison it really did well an apple should be proud that they hit so many positive notes on such an early release finally I want it noted for the record that if YouTube's bread and Google Play Music all access ever do decide to part ways we may have to do another video because Google Play Music may not be the champion anymore in the end it all inevitably boils down to personal taste we can be as objective as possible but as they say the best features are the ones that you actually use so many of our determinations may not be applicable to everybody and we're aware of that at the end of the day all three of these streaming services are pretty damn good and you really can't go wrong either way and that about does it for this video folks if you agree with our assessment give us the thumbs up and if not leave us a comment and tell us why you think so don't forget to check out the written version which is linked in the video description below and don't forget to subscribe to the Android Authority YouTube channel as always thanks for watching everybody and have a wonderful day