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Spotify currently is better than Apple Music. It has a more mature catalogue, they have ironed out all of their bugs and the app is easier to use. Apple Music still has issues and the catalogue is missing small name artists that are on Spotify.
 
1. Can't speak on the transfer from Mac to iOS, perhaps someone who uses Apple Music can chime in, but I would assume it's possible because everything is done through iCloud and that feature works with watching movies on your Mac and being able to pick up or resume at the same point on an iOS device.

2. No but because Spotify is software vs. Apple's ecosystem which is a combination of hardware and software. That's like sitting in front of your Mac with your iPhone/iPod beside you but you want your Mac to control your iPhone/iPod for playback, why not use your Mac or your iPhone/iPod for playback? Why would you want one to control the other? Again, Software vs. Hardware.

3. You don't need to group Apple TV's/AirPort Expresses, you just play and send music to all devices to play simultaneously.

Just so we're clear, I'm not in favour of Apple Music over Spotify or vice versa. I'm just speaking on the capabilities of Apple's software with regards to playback. I do not use any streaming services.
because devices are connected to different speakers
 
Airplay to different speakers? Cast to different devices as well? It's all based on what devices you have. It has nothing to do with Spotify.
spotify connect is about passing over playback to other devices seemlessly (e.g. iphone to mac), whilst retaining control on your current device, and being able to then resume playback on your current device if you wish. apple can't do this with their suite of hardware and software music solutions. it would fit right under continuity if they did though.

and the fact that apple doesn't support chrome cast isn't just a thing you can shrug off as if it's not an option.
 
let me know when apple music can do this
Spotify FTW! The reason I use it is exactly this....because I can stream it to whatever the heck I want. I have chromecasts, I have PS4's and PC and mobile devices. Apple, don't tell me how to stream or what to stream to, I like the itunes catalog, open up your streaming and I'll give you a chance. I don't own all apple devices, nor do I want to. I used to have the ipad, iphone and macbook, got tired of the pad and macbook so I dumped those and got a surface. Still love my iphone though.
 
Spotify currently is better than Apple Music. It has a more mature catalogue, they have ironed out all of their bugs and the app is easier to use. Apple Music still has issues and the catalogue is missing small name artists that are on Spotify.

It depends what you look for. If you are into mainstream then Apple Music tends to be better because the artists seem to prefer it (exclusives etc....).
 
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It was a problem when Apple Music first launched and seemed to be worse for people with large carefully curated music libraries.

Apple Music / iCloud Music Library has made a right old mess of my iTunes library :(
Jim Dalrymple: Apple Music is a nightmare and I'm done with it

Thanks for the share. I guess I hadn't encountered that. Though, have copies of iTunes libraries saved locally, as well as my music files. Typically I copy my iTunes media database, then synchronize an active version with iCloud.

It is a practice i have had since iTunes 3.0 (I believe) completely jacked my library, Since then, I make copies before I do any upgrades or, before using a new service offering that messes with the library.
 



Spotify has announced that it now has over 40 million paying subscribers as of this month, meaning that it has added some 10 million subscribers since March. Spotify remains the most popular streaming music service worldwide, and its new subscriber growth continues to outpace its biggest rival, Apple Music.

Spotify-Apple-Music-logos.jpg

Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek hinted about the milestone in a tweet earlier today:

Apple Music has been growing at a pace of about 2 million new subscribers every two months: 11 million in February, 13 million in April, 15 million in June, and 17 million in early September. Spotify's figures, meanwhile, show it grew at a pace of over 3 million new subscribers every two months between March and September.

Earlier this year, Spotify vice president Jonathan Forster said Apple Music is "raising the profile of streaming," which has helped, not hurt, its business.Spotify may benefit from Apple, but its relationship with the iPhone maker is not perfect. The two companies were recently embroiled in a major dispute after Apple rejected a version of the Spotify app that replaced the option to purchase a subscription via in-app purchase with an external sign-up function.

At the time, Spotify accused Apple of using the App Store approval process as a "weapon to harm competitors," to which Apple responded that Spotify is "publicly resorting to rumors and half-truths" about the App Store and "asking for exemptions to the rules we apply to all developers."

Spotify has remained competitive by matching Apple Music's $14.99 family plan in June and introducing new features such as Release Radar.

Article Link: Spotify Reaches Over 40 Million Paying Subscribers, Continues to Outpace Apple Music
Spotify is a lance. There is no Apple Music (there's iTunes and a "Music" app.) iTunes is a swiss army knife and "Music" is bloatware too. 'Sorry for the people who do not realize Spotify.
 
How much newer is Apple Music....? I'm willing to bet Spotify didn't have 17 million paying subscribers after 18 months.

What does that matter? It was a completely different market place when Spotify came to market and it was only available in the U.K. - hardly comparable to Apple launching Apple Music in the late game in an established market. If anything 17 million in 18 months is underwhelming, they should be wiping the floor with their competitors.
 
Replace all the chrome devices with Apple TVs and airplay enabled stereos and speakers.

Yeah, it's more costly but with the exception of the Playstation I'm letting you know Apple Music can do that.
Apple TV = CRAP I'll take a chromecast any day of the week.
 
I still haven't used my free 3 month trial of Apple Music. Not because I dislike it, but I really don't listen to a lot of music. Podcasts are a different story but those are free. I've never used Spotify either and doubt I ever would. For the music I do want to listen to, I already have that on my phone and don't need streaming because, basically there's not that much out there I like these days.

Seems like every time I open the music app, it asks if I want to start the trial. If there's a way to disable that, I've yet to find it.
 
It's pretty hard for me to go back to iTunes/apple music. I've got several Spotify playlists I share with other band members for songs we cover, as well as a family premium plan which makes it really cheap for each family member. Apple continues to be behind the eight ball on the streaming side IMO. Years of a botched iTunes UI left me wanting, so made the switch, and because it's become a community thing for many, it's almost like asking people to leave Facebook for Google's social platform (whatever it's called?)
 
AM positives
-ability to add my own tracks/albums to the Apple Music cloud (lot's of mixtapes not on Spotify or AM)
-exclusives
-Beats1 interviews with artists, premieres actually make the service feel alive
-deep integration into all my Apple devices (Apple TV especially)

There is still work to be done with AM but the service is superb being only a young sophomore.
The benefit I see to Spotify is it is platform agnostic, but the lack of a cloud upload option throws it off the table for me.
If an artist pulls their content off AM, I can still buy it from iTunes, or rip a CD and it'll be in my cloud like nothing happened, Spotify it's not so simple.
Yes yes i know you can local sync but that reminds me of the days of itunes syncing ;)
 
Love Spotify Premium.

Tried Apple Music 3 month trial. I used it for like 3 days, it was terrible. Siri integration was nice I guess.

Spotify matches Apple's 14.99/month plan. So I upgraded and got 5 of my friends to join and pay me 30 bucks a year. So now I pay 2.50 a month. If I tried that on Apple Music I would have to give my friends my Apple ID/password so I don't want that. Spotify I add their email address for Premium and if I want I can take it away easily.

So there's no way I'm leaving Spotify now! No surprise why Spotify is outpacing Apple when it comes to adding paying users.
 
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But it lacks GCast...

Here's the thing.. Google Cast is just that, Google's version of Apple's Airplay. If memory serves, I can cast with any app on iOS that supports it. Natively, iOS does not support it. It only supports Airplay. The same goes for Android. Android can cast out of the box natively but does not support Airplay.

I have the P65 Vizio display that I can cast to. I also have their new soundbar system that also allows casting. I can do this from my Vizio tablet or from my iPhone via the Vizio Cast app.

I understand the logic and all that. However, on the same logic, a user that has Apple Music more than likely is also a heavy Apple person. They have all the hardware and then some.
 
because devices are connected to different speakers

You clearly have a specific scenario in mind but to me it's simple to a point where it doesn't make sense because we're talking about different companies with different goals and how to do things. Everything is bundled within Spotify because it's only software. Apple allows you to do pretty much the same thing but you just have to spend more (buy an AppleTV or AirPort Express). With that in mind, the idea of controlling one Apple device from one doesn't make sense because if you were invested in Apple's ecosystem, you'd have an AirPlay device and if you wanted playback, you'd pick one device and use it, you wouldn't use one device to control another device for playback.

The only situation, as it relates to you, is that you don't have any AirPlay device but you want to connect an Apple Product to a speaker/amp via auxiliary. In that scenario, Apple might fall short because you can control your Mac from an iOS device and not the other way around but at that point, you're just defeating the purpose.

So to answer your question, can Apple Music and Apple's ecosystem do what Spotify does? Yes. But can it do it at a lower cost, no.
 
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I have over 600 of my favorite CDs digitized. Weeks of material but more realistically...months. Besides Comcast CH 643 Soundscapes is a good way to be exposed to new artists and it is no additional charge once you have Comcast. If I hear something on Comcast music channel, I go to iTunes and buy the album (hardly ever just buy one song).
 
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