Apple Music After Years of Spotify

#music #applemusic

Leaving Spotify

I was once a diehard Spotify addict. I love music and Spotify is great for music. Earlier this year, however, my issues with Spotify built up to the point where I was eager to leave the service. I was largely eager to move on because of the service's support of a certain podcaster who was spreading misinformation but honestly I was annoyed at quite a few other things too. My home feed was cluttered with podcasts, making it harder than ever to find MUSIC. The hi-definition service Spotify promised never materialized. And I was really frustrated with Spotify's all-black interface that made the app almost unusable outdoors, a place where I frequently listen to music.

It was time to move on.

Why Apple Music?

I used Apple Music after it was released and for quite a few years after, mostly because it integrated so nicely with my large existing iTunes library. Even though I switched to Spotify, I faithfully revisited Apple Music with each major iOS update. When I decided to leave Spotify though, I tried out a couple of other services (Tidal and YouTube Music mostly), but they each lacked something I was looking for. So back to Apple Music I went, and I was pleasantly surprised with the experience.

One initial benefit was that I could get Apple Music as part of Apple One Premier, which ultimately resulted in a cost savings for our family. But there were other things I really liked about Apple Music compared to Spotify.

• Audio quality is noticeably better. I invested in a pair of hi-def wired headphones and a DAC and was blown away at the difference in sound. But even with just my AirPods, the quality is noticeably better, particularly with songs that have Dolby Atmos.
• Light mode is awesome. I love a good dark mode, but when I'm outdoors, light mode is so much easier to see.
• I find the whole Apple Music interface much easier to navigate. Spotify’s interface is cluttered, unintuitive, and uses small icons. Apple Music, however, uses larger icons that are more intuitively placed and easier to find. Even after years of using Spotify I struggled to navigate the app sometimes.

But I miss some things about Spotify

• Spotify Connect is the feature I miss the most. It works vastly better than AirPlay2 and on way more devices.
• Spotify handoff feature is also missed. There’s nothing like it on Apple Music and that’s a real shame.
• Music discovery is better on Spotify. It’s not just the algorithm but also the playlists people put together and share there. Playlist sharing is getting better on Apple Music but Spotify is still better all around for discovering new music.

How I make Apple Music better

• I've played around with a couple of third-party apps including Soor and Marvis in an attempt to make Apple Music even more robust. Marvis has a great "Meta data builder" that allows for the customization of the music interface with whatever metadata you like.
• Marvis is also helpful for music discovery. I am able to customize a variety of different playlists and genres on the home screen of the app and have that information automatically update.
• I will sometimes go to Spotify (my free account) and find playlists there that people have put together, "like" them, and then import into Apple Music using Playlisty. I tried out quite a few playlist importing apps and Playlisty worked the most consistently and was the easiest to use.

Resources

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Which is the Best App? (Tom's Guide)
Apple Music vs. Spotify: Which music streaming service is the best?
Compared: Apple Music vs Spotify in 2022