Apple music vs Spotify??

[sand87ch]

Apple music UI better as it seems to have less clutter unlike spotify lately(This varies from person to person).
Apple music is a great buy for ios users like apple one if one uses apple tv and music.
Apple music has lossless which spotify doesn't.

However the one major thing that spotify nails or seems to nail is that recommendations are spot on and that the more one uses it the more it gives better recommendations.

So hifi vision members what are your thoughts on the two as of this date?

PS:- Am neither an Apple fan or a spotify hater.In fact i have used both.

 

[mbhangui]

I have both. Apple music is losless only if you connect an external dac to either an iphone or ipad through apple's proprietary cable known as CCK (camera connection kit). Apple TV is the worst possible method to hear music. It resamples everything to 48k. Even my macbook pro, macbook mini doesn't play lossless even though apple music app shows lossless logo. I have written about this issue in many of the posts and the internet is full of the mess that apple music is as of now.

spotify isn't lossless. But I prefer spotify because it has a better app. The music playback on the end device can be controlled from any device. Android, linux, iphone, ipad, windows. It works great with raspberry pi too.

The biggest reason I have stopped using apple music is because after carefully selecting the playlist and I start playing and quit the apple music, it totally looses the track that was being played. So in case I use apple music, I use last.fm to record what song was being played. Next day when I again open apple music, I go to last.fm to see the song that was being played yesterday. Itunes had the feature to start from the song which was being played after you quit. Don't know why this feature has gone.

 

[manek]

Apple music UI better as it seems to have less clutter unlike spotify lately(This varies from person to person).
Apple music is a great buy for ios users like apple one if one uses apple tv and music.
Apple music has lossless which spotify doesn't.

However the one major thing that spotify nails or seems to nail is that recommendations are spot on and that the more one uses it the more it gives better recommendations.

So hifi vision members what are your thoughts on the two as of this date?

PS:- Am neither an Apple fan or a spotify hater.In fact i have used both.

I will take apple music any day. Sounds much better. Has a great collection of my kind of music. More and more albums are being released in high rez and the difference between high-res(24/44 and above) and lossless(16/44) is quite palpable on the same album. Lot of labels now releasing high res stuff, especially releases from analogue masters and music recorded in the last decade.

Recommendations for me are quite good no complaints.

Have removed the spotify app from my device a month after apple music lossless and above was launched. Didnt have any use for it.

 

[MaSh]

After evaluating both extensively, chose apple music. The airplay connection is just so much more reliable and convenient.

MaSh

 

[sand87ch]

I have both. Apple music is losless only if you connect an external dac to either an iphone or ipad through apple's proprietary cable known as CCK (camera connection kit). Apple TV is the worst possible method to hear music. It resamples everything to 48k. Even my macbook pro, macbook mini doesn't play lossless even though apple music app shows lossless logo. I have written about this issue in many of the posts and the internet is full of the mess that apple music is as of now.

spotify isn't lossless. But I prefer spotify because it has a better app. The music playback on the end device can be controlled from any device. Android, linux, iphone, ipad, windows. It works great with raspberry pi too.

The biggest reason I have stopped using apple music is because after carefully selecting the playlist and I start playing and quit the apple music, it totally looses the track that was being played. So in case I use apple music, I use last.fm to record what song was being played. Next day when I again open apple music, I go to last.fm to see the song that was being played yesterday. Itunes had the feature to start from the song which was being played after you quit. Don't know why this feature has gone.

oh ok hadnt noticed that till now.will check next time but the reason i think spotify is gud is because of the recommendation.though i havent seen its full potential yet but still it would be great if the app vould lead me to the type if tracks i usually prefer,the ones i dont even know existed till then.

After evaluating both extensively, chose apple music. The airplay connection is just so much more reliable and convenient.

MaSh

well i havnt seen much issue with streaming spotify to my boss 2 over airplay since last few months.my earlier issues were sorted as soon as i swapped out my sandisk mmc for a wd mmc.
However the sound at the same volume setting seems a bit less over airplay for spotify than apple music

 

[slash1814]

Apple Music..whole day. Using it with Dragonfly and Bayers 880 pro.

 

[mbhangui]

well i havnt seen much issue with streaming spotify to my boss 2 over airplay since last few months.my earlier issues were sorted as soon as i swapped out my sandisk mmc for a wd mmc.
However the sound at the same volume setting seems a bit less over airplay for spotify than apple music

If you find a way let me know. I had posted this on this forum few months back. Till date not even one apple music user has replied if it is possible.

apple music - how to start where you left

I'm having tremendous difficulty in understanding how to use apple music having a long playlist. Suppose there are 50 songs in a playlist. I start playing the song. After sometimes it gets difficult to find in the playlist which song is playing. So what I do is click on the ... and click on 'go...

www.hifivision.com

 

[drkrack]

Apple music UI better as it seems to have less clutter unlike spotify lately(This varies from person to person).
Apple music is a great buy for ios users like apple one if one uses apple tv and music.
Apple music has lossless which spotify doesn't.

However the one major thing that spotify nails or seems to nail is that recommendations are spot on and that the more one uses it the more it gives better recommendations.

So hifi vision members what are your thoughts on the two as of this date?

PS:- Am neither an Apple fan or a spotify hater.In fact i have used both.

I Compared Apple Music with Spotify Recently Via Lumin U2 Mini ( Has Native support for Both) and preferred Apple Lossless, by a little margin. I felt the Spotify to be bit more colored than Apple Music, and AM bit more Resolving.
Other Reasons for Preferring Apple music was
1. I'm mostly using macbook Pro and many ios devices, Same with other members in my family
2. It's loseless in my config
3. Plays Dolby 5.1 output via my AVR SR 8015
4. The user interface is quite intuitive, and improving
5. The Combo of Apple Music, TV and icloud storage is quite VFM.
6. Apple Music Can be Configured to change EQ depending upon the Controlling Device, Quite handy for Bollywood Oldies.
7. Availability of medical Podcasts, that matter to me.

 

[MaSh]

I Compared Apple Music with Spotify Recently Via Lumin U2 Mini ( Has Native support for Both) and preferred Apple Lossless, by a little margin. I felt the Spotify to be bit more colored than Apple Music, and AM bit more Resolving.
Other Reasons for Preferring Apple music was
1. I'm mostly using macbook Pro and many ios devices, Same with other members in my family
2. It's loseless in my config
3. Plays Dolby 5.1 output via my AVR SR 8015
4. The user interface is quite intuitive, and improving
5. The Combo of Apple Music, TV and icloud storage is quite VFM.
6. Apple Music Can be Configured to change EQ depending upon the Controlling Device, Quite handy for Bollywood Oldies.
7. Availability of medical Podcasts, that matter to me.

How are you running it lossless?

MaSh

 

[mbhangui]

How are you running it lossless?

MaSh

I use a macbook pro. It cannot do lossless using apple music. The apple music app on macbooks, mac mini cannot automatically change the sample rate according to the source. As of now only the apple music app on ipad and iphones have that ability.

There is a programmer who has written some code to do this switching. I use this on my mac mini. But the glitch with this app is that it takes few seconds to switch to lossless when the song changes

LosslessSwitcher adds bit-perfect Apple Music playback to MacOS | Darko.Audio

A neat little app from an independent software developer.

darko.audio

apple uses ALAC codec to store the lossless version of the masters. Only apple devices can use this code. What this essentially means that for android, linux, windows the apple server will stream the lossy AAC version instead of ALAC. This essentially means that for non-apple devices the quailty will be same as spotify.

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

Spotify for me - as native lossy streaming of Spotify through my streamer (CXN2) sounds better than Apple Music AAC played via AirPlay. Not interested in tethering the phone with cable to the DAC (only way to hear lossless ALAC) and getting up to select and play.

Fewer stages = better results

 

[sand87ch]

If you find a way let me know. I had posted this on this forum few months back. Till date not even one apple music user has replied if it is possible.

apple music - how to start where you left

I'm having tremendous difficulty in understanding how to use apple music having a long playlist. Suppose there are 50 songs in a playlist. I start playing the song. After sometimes it gets difficult to find in the playlist which song is playing. So what I do is click on the ... and click on 'go...

www.hifivision.com

definitly if i do.

Spotify for me - as native lossy streaming of Spotify through my streamer (CXN2) sounds better than Apple Music AAC played via AirPlay. Not interested in tethering the phone with cable to the DAC (only way to hear lossless ALAC) and getting up to select and play.

Fewer stages = better results

my issue with spotify has to mainly do with its UI though everyone seems to suggest its really great.with so many podcasts etc its just seems cluttered to me.maybe thats because i dont tune into podcasts but for a music streaming app i wud prefer the songs or collections placed at the centre.

 

[MaSh]

I use a macbook pro. It cannot do lossless using apple music. The apple music app on macbooks, mac mini cannot automatically change the sample rate according to the source. As of now only the apple music app on ipad and iphones have that ability.

There is a programmer who has written some code to do this switching. I use this on my mac mini. But the glitch with this app is that it takes few seconds to switch to lossless when the song changes

LosslessSwitcher adds bit-perfect Apple Music playback to MacOS | Darko.Audio

A neat little app from an independent software developer.

darko.audio

apple uses ALAC codec to store the lossless version of the masters. Only apple devices can use this code. What this essentially means that for android, linux, windows the apple server will stream the lossy AAC version instead of ALAC. This essentially means that for non-apple devices the quailty will be same as spotify.

Yes aware of this. I was asking @drkrack about it as he mentioned it in his Pt2.

MaSh

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

However the sound at the same volume setting seems a bit less over airplay for spotify than apple music

That’s my experience too (while Airplaying from iPhone to CXN). However while playing Spotify natively (Spotify Connect) from the CXN (using iPhone app only for control), the volume is higher than Apple Music through AirPlay. And the sound quality better.

I’d suggest to those who have the facility, to play Spotify natively on their streamer and then compare sound quality with Apple Music which can only be played via Apple Music necessitating the signal to pass through the additional stage of the phone/laptop.

I Compared Apple Music with Spotify Recently Via Lumin U2 Mini ( Has Native support for Both)

Are you sure? To my knowledge Apple hasn’t opened up native support to any streamer. If in fact it is, then that can be a big differentiator for Lumin over other streamers.

The Streaming protocol from Lumin U2 Mini’s website doesn’t have any Apple Music Connect listed unlike Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect. It only says AirPlay-compatible.

STREAMING PROTOCOL:

• UPnP AV protocol with audio streaming extension (OpenHome)
• Roon Ready
• TIDAL Connect
• Spotify Connect
• Flac lossless Radio stations
• AirPlay-compatible
• Gapless Playback
• On-Device Playlist

It's loseless in my config

While AirPlaying from phone too? The prevailing understanding is AirPlay from phone (even iPhone) is in AAC and not ALAC form (don’t go by what the App shows, check what your streamer display/streamer app shows.

my issue with spotify has to mainly do with its UI though everyone seems to suggest its really great.with so many podcasts etc its just seems cluttered to me.maybe thats because i dont tune into podcasts but for a music streaming app i wud prefer the songs or collections placed at the centre.

I had that peeve too. But then I discovered the Music tab right on top of the Home screen. I click it as soon as I open Spotify (as I don’t have much interest in the podcasts too). The page it then opens is purely music recommendations - singles, albums and playlists, one below tailored for me.



This is the workaround I use, but understand that it’s not the same as getting rid of podcasts from the Home Page itself for those not interested. Here’s an interesting discussion on this subject on the Spotify Community forum. It’s a 16 page discussion that shows many Spotify users have voiced the same problem as you.

Can't remove podcast from "your shows"

So I've had this issue for a while. If you take a look at the picture, you can see that when I'm on my homepage, the first thing that pops up is the "ASMR with Amouranth" podcast. First of all. I do not listen to podcasts and not plan on ever doing this. However, all I see on my homepage on my...

community.spotify.com

 

[amit11]

Did anyone find diference in sound quality of spotify, using android v/s iphone?

In both the setup us same and both are directly casting to the streamer, and phones are acting only as remote.

I am not able to comprehend why itsounds different

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

Did anyone find diference in sound quality of spotify, using android v/s iphone?

In both the setup us same and both are directly casting to the streamer, and phones are acting only as remote.

I am not able to comprehend why itsounds different

That’s right. Did anyone say there’s a SQ difference while playing Spotify Connect from one phone or another? Somehow I missed that. There shouldn’t be any for the reason you’ve stated.

 

[aeroash]

Apple music UI better as it seems to have less clutter unlike spotify lately(This varies from person to person).
Apple music is a great buy for ios users like apple one if one uses apple tv and music.
Apple music has lossless which spotify doesn't.

However the one major thing that spotify nails or seems to nail is that recommendations are spot on and that the more one uses it the more it gives better recommendations.

So hifi vision members what are your thoughts on the two as of this date?

PS:- Am neither an Apple fan or a spotify hater.In fact i have used both.

The Spotify CONNECT feature alone has been ultra convenient for me.

I have tried hard to love AM, twice, and it's been futile. AM UI is not intuitive. I also got better recommendations on Spotify.

 

[amit11]

That’s right. Did anyone say there’s a SQ difference while playing Spotify Connect from one phone or another? Somehow I missed that. There shouldn’t be any for the reason you’ve stated.

I have yet to test android vs android mobile.

Will try to install it on wifes mobile aswell and test..

 

[preth30]

I use both. Apple music definitely sounds better than Spotify. But Spotify has a better collection of songs. My streamer, Yamaha NP-S303, do not support Apple music, so I stream via bluetooth. Another disadvantage of Apple music is, before a song is fully over, the next track starts to play. for me SQ of Spotify sucks, but in all other department, Spotify wins.

 

[mbhangui]

The Spotify CONNECT feature alone has been ultra convenient for me.

I have tried hard to love AM, twice, and it's been futile. AM UI is not intuitive. I also got better recommendations on Spotify.

That’s right. Did anyone say there’s a SQ difference while playing Spotify Connect from one phone or another? Somehow I missed that. There shouldn’t be any for the reason you’ve stated.

Bang on. Spotify works very differently from airplay using AM. When you select a track in spotify app to play on your a device which has the DAC connected, the song data directly goes from the spotify's server to the end device. Your phone is just a dummy giving commands to the end device to select the tracks to be played.

The main difference between them is Airplay streams data from the device you are using to the selected device. Spotify Connect devices all stream from the internet on their own. For Spotify, you will most likely get much better quality sound from Connect. Primary difference is that with Airplay, the sound is being piped through the phone to the end device. The stream quality is highly dependent on your's phone's network connection. With Connect, the phone tells the end device what to play and the spotify service running on the end devices goes and gets the stream directly from spotify server. Phone isn’t needed any more.

Another difference is with spotify connect you can play a song from phone 1. If you switch to phone 2, you will see the same song being played and the same information. With AM if you quit the app, the song will stop playing. I haven't tried his, but I'm pretty sure that if you run AM on phone1 and on phone2, AM doesn't synchronize between the two phones. Both are independent of each other.

Another big advantage of spotify over AM is if your end device is not an apple device. For non-apple devices AM streams AAC, a lossy version of the song (beause only apple devices can play ALAC codec). But the bad thing is that it streams 256 kbps AAC stream. Spotify premium streams at 320 kbps and this gives better sound than AM (and louder as many users have noticed).

See this

Spotify Connect works way better, and certainly more independently, than AirPlay. And I say that as someone heavily steeped in the Apple ecosystem. The music is never interrupted by device avaialbility or incoming alerts, after the music stream is initiated you can even shut down the phone or remove it from the premises. Then Spotify Connect stream still plays.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/egrtjf