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Apple products and services tend to launch later than everyone else and for a good reason.
When they choose to release a product, they’ve made sure it’s the most thoughtfully designed it can be at the time. Then, they’ll continuously improve it.
It’s no different with Apple Music, which was released significantly later than Pandora and Spotify. Let’s go over some of the known streaming platforms and why Apple Music’s features can make it easier for music lovers to switch.
Current Streaming Platforms
Spotify
Spotify tailors playlists for its users based on moods and activities. The system typically blends songs from your playlists and new songs, so you’ll hear plenty of music you wouldn’t usually.
The service is also strengthening its podcast network too, notably signing Michelle Obama and Joe Rogan exclusively. Overall, Spotify offers 2.2 million podcasts.
Pandora
Pandora Radio was one of the first “freemium models” where users can listen for free with ads or pay $10 a month for uninterrupted streaming. It launched six years before Spotify and used algorithms to create personalized radio stations based on the listener’s likes/dislikes.
Amazon Music
If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you might not know this, but you have a free music streaming service at your disposal. Prime members get access to the free version of Amazon Music, which includes a mix of roughly 2 million popular songs and classics.
The paid service, Amazon Music Unlimited, comes with close to 60 million songs and is available to anyone, unlike the free version, which is exclusive to Prime subscribers. Still, the service is best suited for existing Amazon members, as the discount makes it one of the cheapest major streamers available.
YouTube Music
YouTube has long been a leader in music videos, and the separate YouTube Music service is no different.
The YouTube-Google team-up goal is to create a personalized experience for each listener with recommended playlists to change based on your habits, location, and time of day. Since COVID-19, YouTube Music has exploded in popularity.
Apple Music Features
1. Over 100 Million Tracks, Exclusive Content, and 30,000 Playlists Are Ad-Free
Apple Music has the most number of tracks than any other service. (e.g., Spotify has over 80 million). With that amount of ad-free songs, you’ll easily find music from artists you already love and new artists to jam to.
Plus, Apple Music makes exclusive deals with artists like Taylor Swift and Drake for early content releases.
2. Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos & Lossless Audio
This is kind of like being in a movie theater but for your ears. Apple Music now offers high-resolution streaming at no extra cost. Those that have experienced it describe it as being “surrounded by music, rather than just hearing it from the left and right ear.”
For audiophiles, the options are 24-bit/48kHz and 24-bit/192kHz. While not every song is available in Dolby Atmos, you can still listen to 20 million songs in Lossless Audio, which is the way artists create music in the studio. The rest of the catalog will be converted by the end of the year.
Apple also launched a classical music streaming service available to existing Apple Music subscribers that has over 5 million classical tracks in Lossless and hi-res audio!
3. Song Discovery is Human Curated
The “Listen Now” tab plays your favorites as well as personalized song recommendations based on your albums, playlists, moods, and general listening habits. Discover something new here!
Three live radio stations are hosted by artists that play today’s hits, classics, and country. Artist hosts have varied from Ciara, Snoop Dogg, Shania Twain, J Balvin, Lady Gaga, and more!
Apple Music is the only streaming service to offer human-curated music versus artificial intelligence to recommend songs.
4. Search by Lyrics and Go Karaoke
Sometimes you just remember a song by its chorus lines, not the song title or artist. You can easily search by lyrics to find that song!
Apple Music also has a beautiful full-screen display of lyrics while the song is playing to make it seem like your own personal karaoke screen. You’re even able to scroll through lyrics and tap on a specific line in the song to skip to your favorite parts.
5. Priced Similarly But Better Service
While Apple Music and other streaming services are priced similarly per month, there are some standouts.
For instance, the Apple Music family plan, compared to the Spotify family plan, is $1 cheaper and, most importantly, doesn’t require all six members to live at the same address. Spotify’s family plan requires everyone to be under the same roof.
| Streaming Service | Free Version | Basic Plan | Premium Plan | Family Plan | Student Plan | Military Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Music | Yes | Free Radio | $10.99 | $15.99 | $5.99 | N/A |
| Spotify | Yes | Free with ads | $10.99 | $16.99 | $5.99 | N/A |
| Pandora | Yes | $4.99 | $9.99 | $14.99 | $4.99 | $7.99 |
| Amazon Music | Prime Members | N/A | $8.99 for Prime Members $10.99 for everyone else | N/A | $5.99 | N/A |
| YouTube Music | Yes | Free with ads | $10.99 | $16.99 | $5.49 | N/A |
And with Apple Music rolling out high-resolution streaming at no extra cost for its members, that alone bumps the service ahead of everyone else, along with the exclusive content and offline listening.
You just have to try it to experience the difference. Get a free 3-month trial to check it out and get $5 cash back from The Smart Wallet just for doing so!
