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With Apple Music at 20M Users, Spotify Hits 50M Paying Subscriber Milestone
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It's really different strokes for different folks. Just as I think 2700 tracks is a tiny music library and you think it is large enough, surely you can understand that for others spending $10/Mo is a very small amount for what they are getting.
No, a higher bitrate is not the end of the story the codec used for compressing the music and even the equalizer used are too. Spotify uses OGG Vorbis (equilivent or slightly worse than MP3) with a choice between 96kbps, 160kbps, and 320kbps however the sound is the most compress of them all (specially because of their normalized sound feature turned on by default), Apple Music is m4a (aac) at 256k and uses the ios equalizer which is enough to offer a superior sound compared to an mp3 IMO.
Apple Music streams songs at the same quality as iTunes downloads
http://mashable.com/2015/06/30/apple-music-sound-quality/#OGEVKH3zFaq2
Main problem with Apple is the buggy user interface specially if you are on Windows, regarding that feature, user interface, which can make it almost unusuable for many users, Spotify is far superior IMO.
But i'm not gonna try to convince you that will be pretty tiring, you need to try them all first and choose your favorite.
About Spotify implementing a Hi-Fi option, those are good news but i really doubt it would be implemented world wide soon but that would mean that we will see Apple and Google music offering the same quality in the future too.
What am i using right now? Well last month i gave a try to Apple music in order to see if they have fixed their bugs but no, they are all still there + new ones for free, main problem right now is they are not listening their customers.
iTunes 12.3.3 fonts size are now way too BIG!
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7501342?tstart=0
Right now i'm using Spotify for 1 month in order to see what's new which is nothing so next month i'll be back to Google Music, which is mp3's quality but in my very personal opinion less compressed sound and a little better sound compared to Spotify but inferior compared to Apple Music also i get Red Tube (no adds on youtube) + Play Music (being able to upload 50,000 personal songs for free and streaming them).
Being fair there's no perfect stream service currently out there, all have different pros and cons and at the end of the day each user decides for himself.
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I'm on a third world country and i have Red Tube, ha take that!
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yes but they don't lack sleep because of that believe me....
Once again, incorrect. Spotify has had the normalized volume feature turned OFF by default for quite a while now. You need to brush up on your knowledge of Spotify IMO. By the way, I don't care if Apple Music uses the iOS equalizer since Spotify offers an equalizer on iOS as well, so that's not new.
Nope. Tests for about 2 decades has put it ahead of MP3 and AAC, though it is behind LE-AAC at low bitrates. Apple does not use LE-AAC however.
Furthermore, at a compression ratio of ~1/4 - you don't lose much data regardless of codec; keeping in mind that lossless compression techniques are around 2/4 to 3/4.
Codec matters mainly at lower bitrates - where compression ratios are much higher.
LOL - Just shows the sheep who want to pay for something when they get nothing in return in a tangible form. Fools.
That's all a very shortsighted view. Things come and go. Smartphones and Netflix won't be much of a thing in 30 years time either. Music has been with us for a very long time and people have shown they value it. Right now we're going through a delivery issue, not a monetary one. If the internet died tomorrow, believe me, physical sales would rebound overnight. People and music are as old as man itself.
I have Amazon through Prime, I have Spotify through Vodafone, but I only use Apple Music. I find it much better, easier to integrate with car audio systems as well such that the phone doesn't have to be touched as it appears as just an iPod.
Glad to see Apple getting spanked. Their apps for Apple Music are horrendous, especially on Windows and Android. iTunes on my Mac is a piece of junk as well. Meanwhile Spotify works brilliantly on every device I use it on, including streaming while playing games on PS4. Apple can't touch that.
The biggest driver for me sticking to apple (I use iTunes Match instead of Music) is that I can plug my phone into my idrive interface and it picks up my songs and plays them via playlists. As I understand my car would not recognize another app vs builtin music service via iTunes.
I resent that comment. Have you ever rented a car? An apartment? A movie? Netflix? Hulu? Well, how foolish.
A streaming music service works great for me. I couldn't possibly fit my entire collection on my phone. Ripping and managing music is a time consuming pain. I also couldn't possibly afford to buy all the albums I listen to streaming.
Did I mentioned streaming competition from my original posts? No! I just mentioned Spotify wants a free ride to provide through Apple's services. But since you mentioned competition I'm sure they're worried when Apple Music was released. That's why they cried because Apple Music has advantage over not paying 30%, but they own the service to begin with. Whatever it is competition is always good and I found Apple Music suits best for my family needs. If you like Spotify a lot just stay in there, nobody convinces you to leave. You feel like you're in defensive mode all the time. Makes me wonder if you work for the company or have an interest for the company.
Incorrect, i just resubbed 3 weeks ago and installed the app on my devices, phone and PC all had the normalized volume feature turned ON. I had to make some research about improving the Spotify sound and i found advices about DISABLING that feature in order to obtain a less compress sound because the one Spotify uses by default is just cra#$#.
I don't need to brush anything, Spotify was my first streaming service before any Apple Music or Google Play Music even exist, they were pioneers i applaud that.
I DO care about the equalizer, the Spotify one is more or less (still inferior than the iOS one IMO) but at least includes one, Google Play Music doesn't even have one.
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So you are pretty much saying that a Spotify Premium streamed song has more quality than the same song bought on Apple Store as an iTunes plus file?... I totally disagree but everybody is entitled to have their personal opinion though...
BTW guys although i use a streaming music service i still buy physical cd's for the music that matters to me, if i want the best sound i'm gonna play the CD and no i don't give a cent about vinyl but that's a different story...
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Well, for me, the normalized volume feature is turned off by default. I must've turned it off at some point and it's kept my setting across fresh reinstalls of the Spotify applications. Although, the normalized volume feature is meant to keep the volume at the same level across all songs, it's not meant to (as far as I know) reduce sound quality.
And, that is exactly what they are saying. I've personally gotten better sound quality out of Spotify's versions of songs than I have with Apple Music, and I have a trial with Apple Music until early April, at which point it expires. I've been testing both, and Spotify reigns supreme in terms of quality. I don't know what your devices are doing but Spotify has superior quality in all the tests I've done. And sure, you can still buy CD's, no one stops you from doing that. You give artists more money to make better music. No harm in doing that.
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Yours is an opinion. Mine a fact.
Uh, yes. The M4A format was chosen after all for its DRM capability. Apple has since thrown out the DRM, but stuck with the audio codec. Because of the diminutive differences between codecs at high bitrates - they've never felt bothered to switch. Especially since competitors still tend to either use MP3, or the same M4A format.
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Did I mentioned streaming competition from my original posts? No! I just mentioned Spotify wants a free ride to provide through Apple's services. But since you mentioned competition I'm sure they're worried when Apple Music was released. That's why they cried because Apple Music has advantage over not paying 30%, but they own the service to begin with. Whatever it is competition is always good and I found Apple Music suits best for my family needs. If you like Spotify a lot just stay in there, nobody convinces you to leave. You feel like you're in defensive mode all the time. Makes me wonder if you work for the company or have an interest for the company.
I have zero interest in the company or your serendipitous version of history...sorry
Here's an interesting post from Alan Cross, a music historian whom I personally respect and enjoy his stories.
I'm not saying he's the evangelist or anything, but this is an interesting view on music subscriptions and particularly, Spotify's situation:
http://ajournalofmusicalthings.com/spotify-50-million-users-isnt-making-money/
I'm not saying he's the evangelist or anything, but this is an interesting view on music subscriptions and particularly, Spotify's situation:
http://ajournalofmusicalthings.com/spotify-50-million-users-isnt-making-money/