Hmmmm. The YouTube Music iOS App is by far the worst among the Music Apps. it's a mess. I I have the service but I actually added Apple Music because of the App
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Spotify Increasing Subscription Prices in the US Again
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Spotify is a EU based Company and USD lost about 15% to EUR last year. Apple raised constantly the prices in EUR when the EUR got weaker in the past. Don’t complain my fellow Americans.
I kind of get fed up with this being raised. Artist compensation is between Spotify and the artist. I pay Spotify what they ask, it ends there. Up to the artists to fight their corner for what they consider fair compensation. Alternatively, don’t allow their music on the platform and only use those who do compensate what they want.
Back when I was playing Magic: The Gathering, I quickly realised that it was far cheaper to simply purchase the cards I wanted Ala carte, then spend money on booster packs, praying you would net that key card you need for your deck.
I switched to YouTube Music (I dropped Apple One as part of a subscription purge at the end of 2024) since I was already paying for Premium. I kinda realised that I am largely listening to the same few playlists over and over again. I am recently back on Apple Music as I have 3 free months from purchasing the AirPods Pro 3 (which I returned as they didn't feel comfortable). I did not appreciate having to rebuild my playlists from scratch, let me tell you that but otherwise, I feel that the music app is just better in every way. 😛
Youtube Music is not a good app by any means. It lacks a lot of the bells and whistles of what makes Apple Music so nice for iOS users (such as shortcuts integration and superior third party app support). I also suspect that I would better off in the long run if I were to buy the tracks I listen to here and now, then continue to pay a monthly fee to access the same few songs that I am not even listening to all that much these days anyways.
Spotify has the problem of having to be an all-in-one app, also cramming podcasts and audiobooks onto consumers who may not necessarily want or need them. I suppose the good thing about Apple is that by owning and controlling the entire ecosystem, they can ship their hardware with all the essential apps (eg: music, podcast, books, TV app), and don't have to worry about convincing users to download another app. So each app is free to be its own thing.
I will never use the Spotify app, so my options are either the Youtube service (cheaper) or Apple Music (where all my subscription money goes to Apple). Honestly not sure what to do when my music sub expires in March but either way, Spotify is dead to me. 😈
I switched to YouTube Music (I dropped Apple One as part of a subscription purge at the end of 2024) since I was already paying for Premium. I kinda realised that I am largely listening to the same few playlists over and over again. I am recently back on Apple Music as I have 3 free months from purchasing the AirPods Pro 3 (which I returned as they didn't feel comfortable). I did not appreciate having to rebuild my playlists from scratch, let me tell you that but otherwise, I feel that the music app is just better in every way. 😛
Youtube Music is not a good app by any means. It lacks a lot of the bells and whistles of what makes Apple Music so nice for iOS users (such as shortcuts integration and superior third party app support). I also suspect that I would better off in the long run if I were to buy the tracks I listen to here and now, then continue to pay a monthly fee to access the same few songs that I am not even listening to all that much these days anyways.
Spotify has the problem of having to be an all-in-one app, also cramming podcasts and audiobooks onto consumers who may not necessarily want or need them. I suppose the good thing about Apple is that by owning and controlling the entire ecosystem, they can ship their hardware with all the essential apps (eg: music, podcast, books, TV app), and don't have to worry about convincing users to download another app. So each app is free to be its own thing.
I will never use the Spotify app, so my options are either the Youtube service (cheaper) or Apple Music (where all my subscription money goes to Apple). Honestly not sure what to do when my music sub expires in March but either way, Spotify is dead to me. 😈
I would love to know Apple’s yearly average subscriber figure for A tv.
I can’t believe that they’re not massively wasting their money on this (even though I like several of their shows).
I suspect the only reason that they’re continuing with it is to push people up to getting Apple one.
the icloud storage is probably the only thing in the entire bundle that’s (very) profitable for them with everything else being a loss leader.
After having read through that long post, I'm left scratching my head what you have against Spotify? Did you forget to tell us?
I’m starting to think this is the way to go just like how DVDs and Blu-Ray sales are coming back. Greedy subscription companies are taking it too far and are going to bring back the Napster users as well.
Buying CDs may exceed the cost of a sub, but you OWN the CDs and can continue to play them after you pay.
I think the point is all these companies switching to a subscription model then creeping up the price. It all adds up at the end of the month.l and I think people are just getting tired of subscriptions.
To play devil’s advocate, at least with music subs you get almost all music for one low price. You couldn’t do that with tv/ movie subscriptions. Most of us have to play for multiple subs to watch all our favourite shows. I think musicians are getting hosed.
EVERYTHING is creeping up in price. My local utilities are constantly raising prices. Water, electric, gas, insurance, taxes, food, medical...you name it, it's going up. Constantly. But let's crucify music services for asking for an extra buck.
I probably did.
Since you asked, the number one reason is not going to earn me any internet points, and that's that they are one of the companies actively pushing the EU to regulate Apple in the form of the DMA. So I have no reason to support them or even have their app on my device. A decision which is made easier by there being alternatives readily available, and not really caring about accessing Joe Rogan podcasts in general.
But even before that, I wasn't a fan of how the parent company just felt very slow to support new iOS features overall (I think for the longest time, we never got an Apple TV app or even basic shortcuts support, and they are just flat out refusing to support the vision pro as some kind of protest?). Their CEO made a lot of noise about how they couldn't do this or that due to Apple-imposed limitations, but remains very quiet about the things they could have done, but didn't.
Apple Music, for all its flaws, simply felt like the better iOS "citizen". It just felt more "right" for apple users, and I swear it sounds better on my AirPods (compared to YouTube music at least, haven't gone back to Spotify in like a decade). Like is Apple doing something to optimise their music streaming service for people with iPhones and AirPods? I always suspected it, but could never really prove it.
And the last, well, is admittedly more "pro-apple" than it is "anti-spotify", which is that all other things equal, I will opt for the option which strengthens Apple's position in the market, or weaken that of their competitor. In this case, opting for apple music means one more paying customer for Apple, and one less for Spotify.
Does that make me weird or a terrible person? Maybe, but that's also the beauty of the free market, where it's the consumer who decides. Not a vote per person, but a vote per dollar.
Apple Music has lossless which is such a huge sound quality increase . You might not notice so much if you’re using certain Bluetooth audio devices or crappy speakers. Aside from that I prefer Spotify as the Apple Music algorithm is not very good nor is the app IMO.
True, plus I actually don’t like the video / music amalgamation - I’d prefer the keep them separate. That being said, YouTube really missed a huge opportunity when they stopped tv/ movie streaming as well. I’d pay YouTube for music/ private content/ shows and movies for one sub fee.
Maybe Apple should offer a YouTube type upload service. YouTube doesn’t have any competition that I know of.
Thanks. I'm way more basic. I've no soapbox to stand on when it comes to choosing which service to use. I have both Spotify and Apple Music. I SOOOOO want to switch to Apple Music and just have one subscription, but I can't. I just can't stand the AM app. It's terrible (compared to Spotify). I have my large CD collection from 80's, 90's and 2000's matched in my Apple library and Spotify can't do that. So that's why I keep Apple Music. But Spotify app is superior in suggesting new playlists/artists/songs, while AM keeps suggesting music genres I don't even listen to. And personally, I like the Spotify app design better.
Late last year I got a free 4 month Spotify offer so I created a new account and moved all my playlists to the new account. When it expires in March, I'll buy a $99 annual Spotify card and apply it back to my original account and keep going for $8/mo on that.
Spotify has lossless also now. But I don't have a acoustically perfect audio room with tens of thousands of dollars of equipment and platinum cables where I could tell a difference. And I definitely can't tell the difference in my car, or on my patio (the two places I listen the most). I would guess most people listen while out and about, so with ambient noise, lossless is useless. Lastly, my ears are old and can't hear the difference anymore. But I agree that AM is not very good nor is the app.
Spotify is much better at new music and discovery. I’ve been made aware of different songs and artists while using Spotify that I typically wouldn’t have listened to otherwise.
But at these prices, I’m not sure it’s going to be worth it much longer.
That's why I have specific bluray drives with specific firmware for specific purposeI’m starting to think this is the way to go just like how DVDs and Blu-Ray sales are coming back. Greedy subscription companies are taking it too far and are going to bring back the Napster users as well.
I'm so glad I've never stopped building my own curated local music library.
By "local music library" do you mean CD's? If so, do the price of CD's never increase? (rhetorical question, of course they do). If you had to estimate, how much money have you spent on your local music library?
Sometimes I get songs from CDs, but usually bandcamp or qobuz. I've definitely bought a ton of used CDs for ripping over the years, and have been blessed with quite a back catalog to grab from at a shared family house with ZILLIONS of CDs.
No clue what I've spent, but it really doesn't matter to me as streaming can't match what I like out of my library.
I'm VERY particular about when songs enter my life and how that interacts with what's going on and where my life is at.
I keep my music library hard coded with file acquisition dates (in the comments field) so that the sort order functions a bit like a musical "journal" of my life. It's magical. It's not just "I remember this song from X time period", but also all the other songs I was discovering around the same time period on adjacent days and weeks.
The most important part is that I have the HQ files in my possession, forever. I listen to music all the time, and especially in various daily exercise usages, and I just would never want the hassle of tracks not being how I want them, where I want them and when I want them.
For instance, last night I was using my OpenSwim Pro, which requires the use of local media (as you're underwater).
Streaming only folks are in a pickle trying to do that.
I do still do some discovery and random listening on YT Music, as that's included with my YT premium sub. I also still love radio (gasp!) haha!
I found hundreds of discs and vinyls in flee markets alone for pennies.