The eternal battle of music streaming services: Which one is better, Apple Music or Spotify? While, as an Apple user, I prefer the company’s own music streaming service, I’m still familiar with Spotify and envy some of its exclusive features.
But before we get into them, here’s why I chose Apple Music: I love the Spatial Audio feature, the new live lyrics function, and how I can easily ask Siri to play a song on my iPhone, iPad, Mac, or HomePod at any time. I also prefer listening to the songs I’m familiar with rather than getting bombarded with new recommendations. Finally, I personally think it’s best to have a Music app and a Podcasts app instead of everything combined.
That said, there are a few Spotify features I wish Apple Music had that would definitely improve my listening experience and how I enjoy the app and connect to my friends and family members.
Live Activity of what people are listening to: I love how the Spotify Mac app shows what my friends listen to in real-time. It gives me the opportunity to discover what they’re into and makes me want to chat with them about a song, album, or artist. Apple Music offers a tab showing what people have listened to, but not a specific song, just the album the person might have listened to in the past day. Unfortunately, I can’t tell if they’re listening to that song at that moment—missed opportunity.
Blend Mix: Spotify relies a lot on AI and its algorithm to decide what you should listen to. While it has many personalized playlists, my favorite is the Blend Mix, in which you can combine your music taste with a friend or loved one. With this feature, you can have a special playlist that both people will cherish – and you don’t even have to select song by song.
Collaborative playlists: Come on, Apple Music! Just give me some interactive playlists. Spotify lets you create a playlist that other people can contribute to. Whether you’re throwing a party or you just want to add songs together, Spotify just nails it, while Apple Music… doesn’t.
Private listening: While it’s nice to know what people are listening to, sometimes you just want to spend some time with your guilty pleasure playlist – or if you’re a dad, you might have to listen to those kid songs over and over. To make sure they don’t impact your algorithm or your Replay playlist, Apple should offer a toggle where you can say, “from now on, these songs won’t count,” and then be able to disable it later.
These are some of the features I wish Apple Music had that could improve my listening experience. You can share your favorite music streaming service or ideas with me on Twitter by e-mail.
