Spotify Better Than Apple Music

2015-08-04T22:42:19.000Z

It's been one month since Apple launched its new music service, and the software is still unfortunately buggy and often frustrating to use. So it's easy to recommend Spotify Premium as the superior music experience at the moment.

Of course, Apple Music is still an attractive offering — it works with all your Apple computers and devices, it has a 24/7 radio service in Beats 1, and you can try it free for three months to start. But Spotify has a few major legs up on Apple, including one feature in particular: It's easier and more fun to discover new music.

Let's compare how the two services approach music discovery...

In Apple Music, you'll find most of your recommended music in the "For You" tab.

You'll see individual albums, compilations based on certain themes and back stories, and "introductions" to artists you may know or like.

But despite the variety of curated content to choose from, the interface feels very busy, particularly with so names, albums, colors, and playlists crammed into each row.

Clicking on the "New" tab takes you to what's essentially the front page of Apple Music. You'll notice it's extremely similar to the layout of the iTunes Store, highlighted by popular albums, songs, and playlists.

Now let's look at how music discovery is treated on Spotify.

Spotify's interface is pretty straightforward. Just click the "Browse" tab on the left panel and you'll be taken to the overview, where you can choose one of several subcategories to discover new music.

In the "Charts" tab, you can discover the top music from the US and other countries around the world. You can also check out the top songs your friends are listening to.

This is my personal favorite way to discover music through Spotify: listening to playlists curated around certain moods and genres.

This is what a category from the "Genres and Moods" tab looks like. You'll notice there are lots of different ways to "chill" in Spotify, with each playlist boasting dozens of songs.

Of course, if you just want to see all the new albums from recent weeks, you can check out the "New Releases" tab.

And this is the "Discover" tab, where you'll find recommendations based on all of the albums and songs you like and listen to.

This playlist from the "Discover" tab, however, is easily the best one.

This is "Discover Weekly," one of Spotify's newest features. It's a two-hour personalized playlist that Spotify builds for you each week, and it's deadly accurate as far as finding songs you've never heard but will almost certainly enjoy.

There's one key reason why Spotify is better than Apple Music

Let's compare how the two services approach music discovery...

In Apple Music, you'll find most of your recommended music in the "For You" tab.

You'll see individual albums, compilations based on certain themes and back stories, and "introductions" to artists you may know or like.

But despite the variety of curated content to choose from, the interface feels very busy, particularly with so names, albums, colors, and playlists crammed into each row.

Clicking on the "New" tab takes you to what's essentially the front page of Apple Music. You'll notice it's extremely similar to the layout of the iTunes Store, highlighted by popular albums, songs, and playlists.

The only recommended content in Apple Music's "New" tab relates to music videos. Everything else related to discovery is in "For You."

Now let's look at how music discovery is treated on Spotify.

Spotify's interface is pretty straightforward. Just click the "Browse" tab on the left panel and you'll be taken to the overview, where you can choose one of several subcategories to discover new music.

In the "Charts" tab, you can discover the top music from the US and other countries around the world. You can also check out the top songs your friends are listening to.

This is my personal favorite way to discover music through Spotify: listening to playlists curated around certain moods and genres.

This is what a category from the "Genres and Moods" tab looks like. You'll notice there are lots of different ways to "chill" in Spotify, with each playlist boasting dozens of songs.

Of course, if you just want to see all the new albums from recent weeks, you can check out the "New Releases" tab.

And this is the "Discover" tab, where you'll find recommendations based on all of the albums and songs you like and listen to.

This playlist from the "Discover" tab, however, is easily the best one.

This is "Discover Weekly," one of Spotify's newest features. It's a two-hour personalized playlist that Spotify builds for you each week, and it's deadly accurate as far as finding songs you've never heard but will almost certainly enjoy.

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