Gadgetory

okay all right let's do it which streaming service is music to your ears we're comparing two of the biggest names to see which one comes out on top this is Apple music versus Spotify if you're listening on mobile both services work on Android and iOS Spotify has a free ad-supported tier but for most albums and playlists you have to listen on shuffle you only get six skips per hour and no access to the radio stations Apple music only offers streaming four beats 1 radio for free or you can listen to songs in your iTunes library both cost ten dollars a month five dollars for students or $15 for family plans in the US and if your paid subscriber both let you save and listen to songs offline each streaming service has a big catalog though Apple music has 45 million songs versus Spotify 35 million you don't always have to listen through the app the Spotify web interface lets you stream from a browser while Apple music has a web widget while it's not technically a full player you can still strain from a browser from tools Apple music com you can stream audio from both services to a Bluetooth speaker spot if I connect lets you use the Spotify app to cast and control playback on compatible devices that are on the same Wi-Fi network and you can also use your voice to control Spotify on the Amazon echo or Google home so let's start with smart speaker you feel someone like me when I was doing a lot of testing with Apple music who has a chromecast enabled device in my case it's an old speaker with chromecast Audio try to costume it from Apple music I'm out of luck but if you have a home pod then you probably will want Apple music because you can control with Siri and I think for a lot of people series important because if you're have an iPhone and you're in a car for example the being able to summon music hands-free it's a pretty big deal in a car the other advantage of Apple music is an Apple watch if you do have an Apple watch and you go for a run it's great to be able to stream music directly from the watch and not have to take a phone can I just say spot if I had this amazing feature called running and it used to actually detect the tempo at which you were running and then she's songs at a particular BPM that would match that they got rid of it I don't know why it was such a cool feature Apple music like pick this feature up use it run with it why not you know really run literally run with it one of the big advantages with Apple music is the integration with the iCloud music library so you can store a hundred thousand of your own songs and have them accessible in the cloud to any device that's signed in with your Apple ID so that's the UPC a Mac or even the iPhone Spotify streams in OGG Vorbis format if you're listening on the desktop or your phone and you can choose the bitrate up to 320 kilobit per second Apple music streams as 256 kilobits per second AAC files both services try to expose you to new music you haven't heard of before based on music you already like and both ask you for some of your favorite genres and artists when you first open an account and have playlists that update based on your listening habits another way you can discover new music is through radio stations all right Lexi so I know that your music selection is a very big part of your identity so which one of these two services is best able to match your personality or get it right so the clear winner really for me is Spotify it just seems to get me on a level that's way deeper than Apple music so Spotify has discover weekly it has release radar I really like how to discover weekly playlist surfaces a lot of stuff that's very similar to what I already listened to you but it's just oddest that I've never heard before and I actually genuinely enjoy it I mean there's a few weeks when it's kind of turning off but I'd say nine times out of ten it's really spot-on and I found a lot of great music from it do you take me for example I don't necessarily build my whole identity it's election time so sporadic about my music choices that I like being able to just search for my own stuff and and just kind of have similar songs play after that but neither one really gets it right for me because I'm all over the place I have my classical music and then I have my Disney music and then I have my Broadway music and then I want to listen to pop and then I want to listen to jazz and and there's a lot of Spanish stuff too in there and it's so sporadic that it really doesn't matter both are able to kind of surface what I want to hear and neither one is really able to keep up with my crazy music selection right and that's a really good point you bring up about non-english-speaking music so if you're listening to a lot of Latin you think I'm really intrigued like which service do you think is better for kind of finding new stuff I think Apple music has a great selection of the classics okay there's I can usually find most of the songs that I want to listen to if I want to listen to more obscure up-and-coming stuff from south of the border then I think Spotify is a little bit better at featuring these less known artists as for radio Apple music has the option of also listening to beats 1 radio do you listen to beats one at all no I do I got a radio person I guess I don't spend a lot of time in the car and I feel like the only times what I did listen to radio was because it was available in the car I really want to love beats 1 radio and it's all about finding that like radio personality that you really gel with right you find someone that has the same taste as you that's gonna make you listen to music that is outside of your comfort zone as well I haven't really found that with the beats one DJ's but I maybe I maybe I just haven't listened to it enough you can also follow your favorite artists in both apps to keep up to date with posts and their latest releases so these services have a lot of social sharing features do you use them at all so I don't necessarily share my own music selection because as we've discussed it's mostly embarrassing so I'd rather die to be judged by music connoisseurs like yourself I kind of keep my own selections on private but I do sometimes peek in to see what my friends and else out are listening to just because I know I'm probably not gonna discover that music on my own so it's kind of nice to see what they're what they're checking out back home Apple music is the obvious choice if you have a range of Apple devices while Spotify is your best choice across a range of platforms and if you don't want to pay for music and they're not the only players in the music game Amazon music title and YouTube music are just some of the other names out there all right moment of truth what would you pick Spotify or Apple music this one's pretty clear-cut for me it is Spotify it just gets me like it understands what music I like it gives me good playlists and surfaces songs that I probably wouldn't find otherwise but what about years I think I would go with the freeway and music doesn't offer a free version but if I really had to pay maybe I would pay for Apple music because of the ability to stream on the Apple watch Series 3 and use it on a run without having to take my phone and the ability to be able to summon Siri as well but we asked you guys the same question on Twitter and Instagram stories and actually most of you preferred Spotify but maybe that's not the case for you maybe it's totally the reverse let us know in the comments below and of course let us know what you would like us to compare next of where they run up where they stay all day in the Sun wanderin free wish I could be part of your world Hey