Amazon Music, Apple Music and Spotify: How to select the streaming service that is right for you
Jan. 20, 2023
By Tara Tiyaloglu
Managing Editor
Music and podcasts provide people with joy and entertainment, but what is the best platform for streaming this content?
Right now, the most popular music streaming platforms are Amazon Music, Apple Music and Spotify. Here is a breakdown of the benefits and drawbacks of each of them:
Amazon Music
Amazon Music is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon that has about 100 million songs to stream and download.
Founded in 2007 by Amazon.com, Amazon Music provides Prime members with access to 100 million songs ad-free. It has the largest catalog of ad-free podcasts and includes thousands of playlists and stations at no additional cost.
Apple Music
Apple Music offers Apple exclusives, curated playlists, lossless audio, more than 90 million songs, quality features such as Dolby Atmos 3D Spatial Audio and social listening tools.
Released in 2015, Apple Music had 80 million subscribers as of 2021, an increase of 8 million compared to the previous year.
Apple Music offers a one-month free trial, and after that, the normal subscription costs $10 per month. There are additional plans for students and families.
Users can utilize Apple Music to make playlists, name them, add followers, follow others and share their favorite music. It is a limited platform because it is only for streaming music, not podcasts, but it is still a popular option.
Spotify
Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming platform that was founded in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.
It has over 80 million songs, including 4.7 million podcasts, available free of charge or with a $9.99 paid subscription to Spotify Premium. This exclusive plan includes features such as ad-free listening, downloadable tracks and on-demand playback.
Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with 456 million users, including 195 million subscribers across over 180 markets.
Spotify offers a wider range of music and podcasts compared to Amazon Music and Apple Music. It also differs from Apple Music because it has a free, ad-supported plan. Apple Music has more content, but Spotify is still extensive with around 60,000 songs added daily and more than 4 million podcasts.
Conclusion
These three platforms all have their strengths and weaknesses, so the decision on which to use comes down to your needs and preferences.
If you favor podcasts, Spotify is the platform for you. If don’t like paying to listen to music, don’t get Apple Music. If you have Amazon Prime and want to use another one of its benefits, try Amazon Music.
Whichever service you decide to use, happy streaming!
