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Spotify vs. Apple Music Review – 2022 Edition

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Re: Spotify vs. Apple Music Review – 2022 Edition

#3

Post by null_object »

peapicker wrote: post #2

Doesn’t mention if they went into Spotify’s Settings—>Audio Quality to set it to the non-default ’Very High’ (=320Kbps). The experience described makes me think no.

> Doesn’t mention if they went into Spotify’s Settings—>Audio Quality to set it to the non-default ’Very High’ (=320Kbps). The experience described makes me think no

The reviewer begins by giving a rundown of quite a range of equipment they use, their knowledge and enthusiasm about music technology, and how important sound quality is to their listening experience.

But you think they didn’t do the simplest and most obvious thing to maximize the sound quality on Spotify?

Re: Spotify vs. Apple Music Review – 2022 Edition

#4

Post by randomguy12 »

null_object wrote: post #3
peapicker wrote: post #2

Doesn’t mention if they went into Spotify’s Settings—>Audio Quality to set it to the non-default ’Very High’ (=320Kbps). The experience described makes me think no.

> Doesn’t mention if they went into Spotify’s Settings—>Audio Quality to set it to the non-default ’Very High’ (=320Kbps). The experience described makes me think no The reviewer begins by giving a rundown of quite a range of equipment they use, their knowledge and enthusiasm about music technology, and how important sound quality is to their listening experience. But you think they didn’t do the simplest and most ob…

It's worth asking, sometimes people miss the obvious

Re: Spotify vs. Apple Music Review – 2022 Edition

#6

Post by null_object »

randomguy12 wrote: post #4
null_object wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Doesn’t mention if they went into Spotify’s Settings—>Audio Quality to set it to the non-default ’Very High’ (=320Kbps). The experience described makes me think no The reviewer begins by giving a rundown of quite a range of equipment they use, their knowledge and enthusiasm about music technology, and how important sound quality is to their listening experience. But you think they didn’t do the simplest and most ob…

It's worth asking, sometimes people miss the obvious

> sometimes people miss the obvious

I agree. But one of my (many) bugbears with Spotify is the poor audio quality of their ‘best’ setting.

I haven’t tried Apple Music, but if Apple allowed access to their uncompressed stream through an API (currently only via AirPlay) to devices like my BlueSound Node then I would switch straight away.

Compared to CD, the best streaming quality from Spotify is pretty abysmal.

Re: Spotify vs. Apple Music Review – 2022 Edition

#7

Post by Hippocrates »

hedora wrote: post #5

Do Spotify and Apple Music have artist bio's and related bands / albums? Those (and the spotify-style mixes) are my favorite features of Tidal. I had mixed luck with Spotify years ago, and never looked back.

Apple Music does have this on most artist pages, except for more obscure ones.

Re: Spotify vs. Apple Music Review – 2022 Edition

#8

Post by user_named »

null_object wrote: post #6
randomguy12 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth asking, sometimes people miss the obvious

> sometimes people miss the obvious I agree. But one of my (many) bugbears with Spotify is the poor audio quality of their ‘best’ setting. I haven’t tried Apple Music, but if Apple allowed access to their uncompressed stream through an API (currently only via AirPlay) to devices like my BlueSound Node then I would switch straight away. Compared to CD, the best streaming quality from Spotify is pretty abysmal.

It's also highly questionable if anyone complaining about the audio quality would do that in an AB test. See gold plated cables etc.

Re: Spotify vs. Apple Music Review – 2022 Edition

#9

Post by Hippocrates »

I can attest to Apple Music recommendations having improved drastically. I’ve used it for probably 6 years now and only in the past 2 years have the personalized mixes become comparable to Spotify’s. One feature I think really deserves a lot of praise for discovery, is continuous play. The infinity icon will cause Apple Music to suggest a list of next songs based on your currently ending song, playlist or queue. This makes it easy to select one or a few songs, or a short playlist, and let it continue that vibe.

The live Apple Music stations are great when you find a diamond in the rough. They let you save and like songs from the live stream. It can be a little tough to find a radio show that jibes with your taste, but there are some excellent artists and DJs on there, and most of the live shows are playable on-demand.

Re: Spotify vs. Apple Music Review – 2022 Edition

#10

Post by techdragon »

Spotify -> Better discovery story, genre classification, and theme/mood/genre automatic playlists.

Apple Music -> Better integrated into my iPhone, iPad, etc, etc.

Is there really much beyond this? Other than some very niche/indie stuff or contract licensing oddities with an overseas market like mine (Australia) ... I don't see any difference in catalog. Can someone more familiar with the catalog dataset weigh in? I'd be interested to know if one of them actually has a more extensive collection.

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