Many Spotify new members asked how to make a playlist play in order, the answer is to pay for the premium subscription. Ad Free: No VS Yes. With Spotify Free, you can listen to any music in Spotify, but you'll hear ads between tracks both on computer and mobile. Sometimes, the ads may ruin your mood totally when you are enjoying music leisurely. Price and subscription options. Both Spotify and Apple Music offer a free. three-month trial period for their premium services, which normally cost $9.99, £9.99 or AU$11.99 a month. While we can discuss the pros and cons of Spotify Free versus Premium all day, in the end there’s no substitute for actually living with the service for a while. Spotify knows this as well as anyone, which is why they offer a free trial for new users.
It may not seem like it at first glance, but YouTube was always perfectly positioned to take over music streaming. You might already know that Google is the most popular search engine in the world, but not many people know that the second most popular search bar that people type things into is YouTube. Now that Google Play Music (RIP) has officially been turned into YouTube Music, it’s worth asking how it stacks up against some of the other most popular music streaming services. In this article we’re going to be comparing it specifically to Spotify to see which one is worth your money.
What are the differences between the free version of Spotify and YouTube Music?
While both Spotify and YouTube Music offer premium subscription plans, it isn’t required. Both services offer decent free tiers that let users use the service without needing to spend a dime. Of course, be prepared to be blasted with ads if you choose to go this route. Both Spotify and YouTube Music will play ads in between songs which can really get in the way of a good playlist. It isn’t just ads that get in the way either as both have other limitations to their free tiers. The first, and most important limitation when talking about a music streaming service is sound quality. If you’re on the free tier YouTube Music will stream at 128kb/s and Spotify maxes out at 160kb/s on mobile.
Spotify and YouTube Music both have their strength and weaknesses when it comes to UI design.
It’s true that neither of these services are known for their superior sound quality, but being able to choose something other than the bare minimum would be nice. Aside from the streaming quality, there are also limitations on functionality. If you’re not on a paid Spotify plan, it isn’t possible to search for and select individual songs that you want to listen to. Instead, you can only choose songs that are already in select playlists. Though it’s worth mentioning that in researching this I found that Spotify was letting me access certain premium features while on an unpaid plan for some reason. On Spotify, you also won’t be allowed to skip more than six times if you’re on a mobile, and you also can’t download music for offline listening. Neither of these limitations exist on YouTube Music.
The free version of YouTube Music also has some annoying limitations.
Before you go dancing off to use YouTube Music though, you should know that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. The free version of YouTube Music also has notably annoying limitations. For example, if you’re on mobile you can’t leave the app to go do something else because then the the music will stop playing. So if you turn off the screen—it will also cut off the music. This isn’t a problem on desktop (you can just open up a new tab in your browser), but it’s really annoying if you’re using a smartphone.
What content do they offer?
Spotify offers both music and podcasts side by side.
If you’re torn between Spotify and YouTube Music, this is the section that will most likely be the deciding factor for most. Both are primarily music streaming services but that isn’t all they offer. Let’s start with Spotify. The company is one of the most popular music streaming services in the world, so obviously they have a lot of music. The music library numbers in the tens of millions and in my usage they have almost every song I can think of readily available to listen to.
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April 25, 2020The company has also been making a huge push to dominate podcasts. Not only does it have almost all of the programs I regularly listen to, but Spotify has been dropping some serious cash to bring a number of exclusive podcasts to the service including Joe Rogan, Kim Kardashian, and Michelle Obama. True, you might not really care about what any of those people have to say, but you have to admit those are some big names. If Spotify is willing to spend that amount of cash just on a few podcasts then it’s clear they have big plans for this part of their business down the line. If you consume a lot of podcasts like I do, it’s something to be aware of.
Spotify is making a huge push into podcasts.
While there are certainly plenty of podcasts that are uploaded to YouTube in video form, it’s by no means a priority of the service. Meanwhile, Spotify added video support to supplement their podcasts. So if you’re big into podcasts then Spotify is the clear winner here. That said, where Spotify falls short is where YouTube Music excels: songs that are off the beaten track. This includes covers, remixes, and any kind of live jam that a user might upload.
I also found some songs I had never even heard before.
While poking around YouTube Music, I not only found mixtapes from some of my favorite artists that aren’t available on Spotify (like this one) but I also found some songs I had never even heard before. For example: Blue Room https://qvlybi.weebly.com/spotify-free-netflix.html. by Chet Baker is one of my favorite jazz pieces, and I had no idea that there was a gorgeous acapella version until coming across it on YouTube Music. The same thing happened with this Frank Sinatra song that I was unable to find on Spotify or Apple Music.
In YouTube Music you can toggle between the full video or just the audio.
It’s in these random finds that slip through the cracks of the major publishing deals Spotify signs where I find myself really enjoying using YouTube Music. As long as someone, somewhere uploads it the chances are you can listen to it. And if you can’t find a song anywhere on the platform you can also plug the gaps yourself by uploading your own personal library. If you were a Google Play Music subscriber that already did this, YouTube Music also has a handy tool to transfer it all over automatically so you don’t have to go through the entire process again. YouTube Music also takes advantage of its huge music video library. If you search for a song you can either let the video play or, if you want to save some data, hit the “song” toggle up top which will just serve you the audio. If all you really care about is song availability then it’s hard to beat what YouTube Music has to offer.
Is Spotify or YouTube Music better for music discovery?
Both services do a good job at recommending new music once they get to know your listening habits.
Listening to your own music library is all well and good, but eventually you’ll run out of things to listen to. That’s why music discovery is also very important. Both of these services use a mixture of algorithms and curated playlists to show you new artists and songs you might like. While YouTube Music isn’t bad at this, Spotify has been putting on a masterclass in algorithm-based music discovery for years, to the point where the Spotify Discover Weekly playlists have gone pseudo-viral as so many people find it extremely good at surfacing music they would like.
Spotify has been putting on a masterclass in algorithm-based music discovery for years.
YouTube Music has its own version of this called “You Mix,” which is an endless playlist of music that the algorithm thinks you’ll enjoy and it’s truly impressive. Once it got to know what kind of music I liked I rarely found myself skipping songs here. Basically whichever service you choose, you likely won’t be disappointed once the algorithm gets to know your listening habits.
Just like regular YouTube, the strength in YouTube Music lies in its user-generated content.
Then there are the playlists offered by both services. In this aspect it’s safe to say that Spotify has the clear lead here just in terms of how many playlists are offered, but that’s mainly because they’ve had more time to make them. I’m sure YouTube Music will catch up in this aspect but as of right now I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve searched for an artist on Spotify and found a pre-made playlist with some of their most popular songs.
Pricing and plans
Depending on how much you pay for data, it might be a good idea to save your favorite tunes for offline listening.
Pricing between the two services is almost identical. A subscription for an individual will run you $9.99 USD/month on both platforms and student plans are also both $4.99 USD/month. Then there’s the family plans which are also identically priced at $14.99 USD/month for up to six accounts. This is the point where things start to differ. Spotify recently added a Duo membership for two people to share that’s priced at $12.99 USD/month which works for couples.
Streaming Service | Free Model Available | Basic Plan | Premium Plan | Hi-Res Plan | Family Plan | Student Plan | Military Plan |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon Music HD | No | - | $12.99 with Prime $14.99 without | - | $19.99 | - | - |
Amazon Music Unlimited | No | - | $7.99 with Prime $9.99 without | - | - | $6.00 | - |
Apple Music | Yes | Radio is free | $9.99 | - | $14.99 | $4.99 | - |
Deezer | Yes | Free with ads | $9.99 | $14.99 | $14.99 | $4.99 | - |
Pandora | Yes | $4.99 | $9.99 | - | $14.99 | $4.99 | $7.99 |
Qobuz | No | - | $9.99 | $19.99/$24.99 monthly $299 annually | - | - | - |
SoundCloud Go/Go+ | Yes | $4.99 | $9.99 | - | - | $4.99 for premium | - |
Spotify | Yes | Free with ads | $9.99 | - | $14.99 | $4.99 | - |
Tidal | No | - | $9.99 | $19.99 | $14.99/$29.99 | $4.99/$9.99 | $5.99/$11.99 |
YouTube Music | Yes | Free with ads | $9.99 | - | $14.99 | $4.99 | - |
What Is Spotify Premium
Spotify occasionally has random promotions where you can also get Hulu added on for an extra $3 USD so it might be worth checking that out too if you want to bundle your music and video services together. YouTube Music also has their own version of a bundle, and I bet you can guess what video service gets bundled here. If you sign up for YouTube Premium ($12.99 USD/month) which lets you watch YouTube Videos ad-free you’ll get access to YouTube Music thrown in. So if you’re looking for which service is going to give you the best bang for your buck this is something to keep in mind.
Which has better sound quality, YouTube Music or Spotify?
The YouTube Music interface is a weird mashup of YouTube and Spotify.
As these are both music streaming services, it’s only right that we talk about the sound quality. As I mentioned above neither of these are known for their superior sound quality. For that you’ll need to look at Tidal, Amazon Music HD, or Deezer. That’s not to say that either of these services sound bad, they’re fine.
Streaming Service | Max streaming quality | Supported Formats |
---|---|---|
Qobuz | 24bit / 192kHz | AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, WMA Lossless |
Amazon Music HD | 24bit /192kHz | FLAC |
Tidal HiFi | 24bit / 96kHz | AAC, ALAC, FLAC |
Deezer HiFi | 16bit / 44.1kHz | FLAC |
Google Play Music | 320kbps | AAC, ALAC, FLAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA |
Deezer Premium | 320kbps | MP3 |
Spotify Premium | 320kbps | AAC, Ogg Vorbis |
Apple Music | 256kbps | AAC |
YouTube Music Premium | 256kbps | AAC |
SoundCloud Go+ | 256kbps | AAC |
Slacker Radio | 320kbps | MP3 |
Pandora | 192kbps | AAC |
Spotify Free | 160kbps | AAC |
Deezer Free | 128kbps | MP3 |
Choosing the highest quality on Spotify will get you a stream of 320kb/s using AAC, while YouTube Music maxes out at 256 kb/s and also uses AAC. Technically Spotify wins out here, but it’s worth mentioning though that the actual number fluctuates depending on your connection so you might be kicked down to a lower quality if you have a poor connection. Plus, unless you have some seriously good equipment to A/B test on you likely won’t be able to hear the minute differences here.
Other features you should pay attention to
Spotify Free Vs Premium Reddit
I’ve gone over some of the more important similarities and differences between the two services but there are plenty of other smaller differences that might matter to you as well. For example, the design of the UI might be enough to draw you to one or the other but that’s something you’re going to have to try out for yourself. I can say in my experience neither service is what I’d call intuitive. Searching on Spotify rarely gives me what I want without a few extra clicks and while the filters on the YouTube Music search is cool, I’m sure there is a better way to display the results than a just a list.
Spotify and YouTube Music both have the option to cast, but they’re not compatible with everything.
Each service also has its own Cast functionality so if you want to play your music on something like your surround sound system at home you can do so just by clicking on the Google Cast button or on the Spotify Connect in their respective apps. In my experience I found that I prefer to use Spotify Connect as it doesn’t forget that it’s connected to someway halfway through a song like Google Cast constantly does. But again, which one is best for you really depends on your particular setup. Some receivers and speakers might be compatible with just one or the other (or neither). So make sure to check whether the service you choose plays nice with your existing hardware.
So which one is right for you?
I usually recommend people to just go with Spotify, as I find it the safer bet for most people. Unless you have very particular preferences, chances are that you’ll be happy with Spotify. But if you can’t tell by now, picking between Spotify and YouTube Music really depends on what you’re looking for in a streaming service. If you value podcasts then you’re probably better off using Spotify, but in my time using YouTube Music I found that it excels at more of the random finds that make music fun in the first place. They’re also both priced similarly so you’re not missing out on much there, and while Spotify technically has a higher bitrate you likely won’t be able to tell the difference unless you find a particularly bad upload of a song on YouTube Music.
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Being one of the best ways to listen to music on multiple devices, Spotify has established itself as one of the most favored music and video streaming services around the world. Not only it gives you unlimited access to millions of songs, but also provides personal recommendations and pre-made playlists to cater to every budget and lifestyle.
There are basically two main tiers of Spotify subscription plan: Free and Premium. You can access the huge catalog of over 30 million songs, regardless of your subscription plan, according to Spotify. However, only basic features are free with adverts and some limitations, while additional features like Spotify Connect, offline access, music streaming quality, and Shuffle mode are limited to only premium users.
To provide a more tailored listening experience, Spotify put some restrictions and limitation in place for the free subscription plan, while providing unlimited ad-free access to the premium users. This article mainly compares the two Spotify subscription plans from various aspects such as price, features, and streaming quality.
Spotify Free vs. Spotify Premium
If you just care about the music and those annoying ads don’t bother you or the audio quality doesn’t mean much, you can for the Spotify Free plan. Playstation 4 spotify free download. That will do just fine. Unless you don’t want to compromise on the sound quality, go for the premium plan. Well, besides the higher sound quality, the premium Spotify plan offers a plethora of features including offline support, Spotify Connect, and more. Let’s take a look at the differences between them in detail.
1. Price
Spotify Free Vs Premium Sound Quality
The first and probably the biggest difference between Spotify Free and Premium plan is the cost. While, Spotify Free, as the name suggests, is absolutely free of cost for everyone, the Spotify Premium service will cost you $9.99 a month. Students will get 50 percent discount on the premium plan, making the subscription at $4.99. The premium plan will offer unlimited access to over 30 million songs. Users can also try a free one-month trial for the premium plan before subscribing it.
2. Ads
You can access and listen to millions of songs in the Spotify Catalog, but be prepared to get interrupted by the annoying ads, if you choose to go for the Spotify Free plan. After every one or two tracks, a short advert or two will be played that will interrupt your flow and disrupt your listening experience. Spotify Premium, on the other hand, allows you to enjoy music without any interruptions by removing all adverts from the tracks, regardless of the device you’re using.
3. Accessibility
Some tracks won’t even play in the free plan and you’re bound to listen to music only in the Shuffle mode or pre-made playlists while using the mobileapp (both iOS and Android). But, of course, you can use the desktop and web interfaces to enjoy a hassle-free listening experience with access to millions of tracks and playlists. Premium, on the other hand, provides unlimited access to millions of songs without any restrictions, which means you can listen to any song or playlist at any time, regardless of whether you’re using the mobile app or the desktop interface.
4. Sound Quality
Sound quality also differs a lot in both the Spotify plans, which eventually affects the overall listening experience. Generally, Spotify uses three different sound quality settings for audio streaming in the Ogg Vorbis format. It provides 96 kbps as the standard bitrate for mobile devices, which jumps to 160 kbps for desktop and web interfaces ‘standard’ and ‘high quality’ for mobile. If you opt for the Premium subscription plan, you’ll get ‘high quality’ for desktop, which is 320 kbps and ‘extreme quality’ for mobile users. Premium users will automatically get a better listening experience with higher sound quality.
5. Offline Access
Spotify Premium Vs Regular
Another major difference between the free and premium plan is offline access. In the free plan, you always need to stay online to listen to music and you cannot download tracks to play offline. Spotify Premium, on the other hand, allows you to download or sync up to 3,333 songs on all the three devices. You can save any album or playlist in the quality you want for offline listening.
6. Other Features
The Spotify Premium subscription offers a lot more, such as access to Spotify Connect, which allows you to expand your music streaming service beyond the device you use to listen to music. You can control exactly how and where your favorite music plays by using multiple devices. You can instantly switch to your speaker from your mobile without interrupting playback, making seamless transitions between your device and wireless speakers and beyond.
Spotify Free | Spotify Premium |
Provides free access to Spotify catalog with no cost at all. | Premium subscription costs $9.99 a month prior to one-month free trial ($4.99 for students). |
Plays short adverts every one or two tracks, interrupting your perfect listening experience. | Premium offers ad-free listening experience without any interruption. |
Access to only Shuffle mode or pre-made playlists in mobile devices, without any restrictions in desktop and web interfaces. | Provides full access with no restrictions, regardless of the device you’re using. |
You need to stay online to listen to music at all times. | It provides offline listening experience with unlimited skips. |
Provides 96 kbps as the standard bitrate for mobile and 160 kbps for desktop and web interfaces. | Provides ‘high quality’ for desktop and ‘extreme quality’ for mobile with 320 kbps bitrate. |
Doesn’t support Spotify Connect. | Features Spotify Connect which controls the way your music plays across multiple devices. |
Access is restricted depending on the device. | Allow you to play any track at any time without any limitations. |
Summary
Both the Spotify subscription plans have their fair share of pros and cons. If the sound quality doesn’t bother you much and you’re fine with the ads interrupting your listening session every now and then, the free subscription will do just fine. The Spotify Premium, on the other hand, is meant for the true music enthusiasts who cannot compromise on the sound quality and in fact, prefer high-quality music without those annoying ads. Premium is probably the perfect investment for the right enthusiast who knows his/her music.
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