Music is a huge communication center that helps people to connect with one another. Your music taste can help you to express yourself, as you have many genres and varieties of music to pick from. However, how you listen to music is also an important part of the equation. Are you on team Spotify, or team Apple Music?

Spotify

Spotify is now 14 years old, and was released to the public on April 23, 2006. In June of 2020, the app estimated to have about 299 million listeners. Spotify is virtually free on the App Store, and you can listen to any playlist you want—with ads and limited skips.

“Spotify has more songs, and songs come out sooner on this app than Apple Music,” senior Christian Giarla said.

If you choose to listen to Spotify without paying for Premium, you get ad-free music for 30 minutes. However, when those 30 minutes are up, there’s an ad break. Without Spotify Premium, you also cannot pick and choose songs you want to play.

“I like Spotify, because you don’t have to pay to listen to music like Apple Music. I can handle listening to a few ads once in a while, if it means I don’t have to pay,” junior Maura Clerc said.

If you decide to invest in Premium, for $10 each month, you have the opportunity to listen to music completely ad-free, while also being able to download songs, podcasts and playlists.

“I like it because it’s cheap, and it’s got most of the songs you’d ever want. It sounds great with Premium,” senior Tyler Soval said.

Spotify, over time, does customize itself to your musical preferences. It creates a yearly wrapup playlist at the end of every year, with songs that you listened to the most. They make daily mixes with all of your favorite songs, and they even make a time capsule playlist with songs that will “take you back in time,” showing you songs you listened to a while ago that you might’ve forgotten about.

“I like Spotify because there are premade playlists, and at the end of the year they give you a yearly wrap up of what you listened to,” freshman Lindsey Moore said.

Most everyone has been using Spotify since they were in middle school or high school making it a staple in many people’s daily lives.

Apple Music

Apple Music is five years old, and was launched on June 30, 2015—this makes Apple Music fairly new to the streaming world. Obviously, it’s only available to Apple product users, but this does not make Apple Music free. The app has a range of  monthly subscriptions, including the student plan for $4.99, the individual plan for $9.99 and the family plan for $14.99.

“I like Apple Music because my family uses it. I can play any song I want anywhere, and I have playlists offered to me based on the artists and genres I listen to,” junior Chloe Hammond said.

Apple Music doesn’t have you worrying about ads, because there’s no free option— you get your music ad-free no matter what, but it comes with a price.

Apple Music also lets you add a whole album to your library, instead of having to go through song by song. They also allow you to customize your playlists so you can fit them to your aesthetic.

“I like Apple Music better than Spotify, because you can add albums to your library without having to put them on a playlist,” junior Ryan Schwendeman said.

Whether you prefer Spotify or Apple Music, both are easy to use and available for purchase. Each has unique characteristics that are specific to them and their users, so now it’s up to you to find out which app you prefer!