Apple music vs Spotify??

[CKumar]

Wow!


Did the chain allow Apple Music lossless (ALAC). Or were you listening to it in AAC (compressed)?

Sorry for missing out this micro detail.

Amazon Music was played through Wiim Pro Amazon Music Native app
Spotify and Apple music were played though cast/airplay. I will let @MaSh to confirm.

Some Songs we compared were back to back with interval of 4-5 sec.

 

[msankadi]

Apple Classical (lossless) - app designed for Classical music comes free with the Apple Music subscription.

Thanks I didn't even know this existed. Downloaded the android app now to try it out. Concerned by the poor ratings of 3.4 for the app though

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

Spotify and Apple music were played though cast/airplay.

In that case AM will sound only better if you can AirPlay ALAC. You’d need either a MacBook (universal setting) or AirPort Express (if AirPlaying from handheld device). I find a significant difference between the sound when I AirPlay from the iPhone directly to my CXN streamer (in which case it is AAC ie lossy) and through the AirPort Express (ALAC, i.e. lossless).

Thanks I didn't even know this existed. Downloaded the android app now to try it out. Concerned by the poor ratings of 3.4 for the app though

The rating is 3.9 on the App Store… which also is far below the 4.7 for the main Apple Music app. May be the additional complexity in the Classical app feels cumbersome to most except the diehard classical fans who would find the same valuable.

 

[bpranay]

I generally listen to spotify through airplay. Have taken subscription of Apple Music but thinking to discontinue & stick with spotify. Have compared atleast 10-12 songs on spotify vis a vis AM. Spotify has better clarity & layers and layers of music with details whereas AM sounded too boomy & bassy.

Also can someone please explain the rationale behind using Wiim devices? What difference does it make in SQ in comparison to Airplay? I haven’t figured it out yet although I am not using any Wiim devices.

 

[hooram95]

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 but spotify app has a amazing feature of AI DJ which recommend you the songs of your choice.

I Completely agree with you Apple Music sounds impressive in theory with its lossless promise and massive catalog, but it’s broken in practice lossless isn’t really lossless, and the app is missing basic features. Spotify may not be lossless, but it’s far more user-friendly and reliable across devices, so I personally prefers spotify for listening music.