Apple Music vs. Spotify: Where does the differences stand?

Since the Apple unveiled Apple Music at WWDC 2015 on 8 June, Spotify's CEO and founder Daniel Ek seemed very worried about the battle between Apple Music and his Spotify. It's very obvious when you tweet ''Oh ok" and delete it after a while. Apple Music came automatically with the iOS 8.4 update. And it seems even a bigger potential threat with the upcoming iOS 9 release.

Apple Music vs Spotify comparison: Price

Apple Music launched on 30 June, available for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and Windows PC in the form of a free update. Apple Music can be found within iTunes on your computer (you'll need to update your software first) or the Music app on your iOS device, and you can sign up and use the service for free for three months, after which Apple will begin charging £9.99 per month for the service.

There is a free option of Apple Music, but it only offers limited features. With the free version, you'll get access to the Connect feature, where you'll be able to view and follow artists, but you won't be able to play, save or like content from Connect. You'll also be able to listen to the Beats 1 Radio station and listen to Apple Music radio stations (but with limited skipping).

You won't, however, be able to listen to the music you choose from the Apple Music library, which is where users will turn to Spotify, which offers an ad-supported option if you want to stream music for free and don't mind the lower quality and ad-filled content. Apple Music's free option also lacks offline listening (you won't get that on the free version of Spotify, either), or the tailored music recommendations feature.

But like Apple Music, the paid-for (Premium) subscription for Spotify is £9.99 per month and offers unlimited streaming with no ads at a higher quality (we'll talk more about quality in a moment).

Apple also offers a family package for Apple Music, which works through Family Sharing. Find out more about Family Sharing here. Six individual linked accounts can have access to Apple Music at a cost of £14.99 per month with the Family membership option.

Spotify offers a family account option, but it simply gives 50 percent off each additional member. A total of five people as part of the family package costs £29.99, so we imagine it won't be long before Spotify adjusts this pricing model to match or beat Apple's.

One thing that Spotify does offer that Apple currently doesn't is a student discount, which is £4.99 for the Premium subscription.

Apple Music vs Spotify:Stream

Apple Music takes advantage of Apple's already huge iTunes Library, which has more than 40 million tracks, though you'll only get just over 30 million of those as part of the streaming service. Plus, your own songs ripped from CDs or already downloaded from iTunes will be right there in the Music app for you to listen to alongside the Apple Music tracks you're streaming.

Spotify also has more than 30 million songs available, although a noticeable omission is Taylor Swift, who Apple managed to win over when it revised its policy and promised to pay all of its artists royalties during the three month free trial.  

Apple Music vs Spotify:Audio quality

The audio quality of Apple Music is currently limited to 256kbps. That means it's lower than the 320kbps offered by the Premium option in Spotify, but higher than the 160kbps offered in the free version.

However, it's important to note that Apple Music is AAC while Spotify's tracks are MP3, and 256Kbps AAC is often considered.

Apple Music vs Spotify comparison: Music discovery

And like Spotify's Browse, Apple has a New section that shows the newest music, videos, charts and more.

Spotify's recommendation tool is simply called 'Discover,' which offers up artists, albums and individual track suggestions based on your listening history and favourites. You won't see playlists in the Discover section, which is a shame, but overall we've found the suggestions to be useful and have come across new artists that we now listen to regularly.

We particularly like the Browse section for music discovery in Spotify, because there you'll get a top lists, genres and moods, new releases and news for an overview of what's popular around the world.

Browse on Spotify also knows what day and time it is, and tailors what it shows you to suit that. On Monday mornings it'll show playlists that'll give you a bit of a pick-me-up, on Friday afternoons you'll get music that helps you celebrate the start of the weekend, and on Sunday you'll get relaxing lazy day playlists, for example.

Apple's discovery offering is called 'For You,' and like Spotify it shows you recommendations that it tailors to your music taste. The first time you use the service, you'll be asked to choose your favourite genres and artists – you can tap once on the artists you like and twice on the artists you love. This will kickstart the recommendation engine.

Apple's recommendations include albums and playlists, and several of those playlists come from experts in different genres, as well as music magazines and websites such as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork. Apple has put lots of emphasis on the "human" element to its recommendations.

Both Apple Music and Spotify's recommendations can be fine-tuned by clicking the like or dislike buttons, so the more you use them the better they'll get.

Apple Music vs Spotify: Radio

As mentioned, Apple Music has its own 24/7 radio station called Beats1. It's based in three locations around the world and DJs Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden and Julie Adenuga will be running it. Wherever you are in the world, the music will be the same on Beats1. It's an interesting idea but we've already discovered that there are lots of people who don't enjoy listening to it, as it's not always going to be the kind of music they like to listen to.

Aside from that Apple Music and Spotify offer similar Radio functionality. Both let you pick an artist (or in Apple Music's case an artist song or album), and create radio stations based on that, with music from that artist and similar artists included.