What's wrong with Apple Music? I switched over from Spotify because it has better integration with iOS and it has a similar library and neither service has a distinguishing feature that makes it really stand out.
Apple Music has some things Spotify doesn't have, some out of the control of Spotify Inc, some they choose to ignore:
- Siri integration (this is Apple's fault, no reason not to open SiriKit to music services)
- An Apple TV App (This is on Spotify, it's been asked for forever)
- An Apple Watch App (This is also on Spotify, but there are rumors it's coming soon)
But there are some real downsides to Apple Music vs Spotify:
- Apple Music's playlists aren't as good, community playlists are tough to find. I've found links to Spotify playlists filled with interesting music, no luck for Apple Music.
- Apple Music's radio is subjectively worse. Repeats far too often.
- iTunes is a travesty and I'm forced to use it to listen on my desktop. It's slow, ugly, tough to navigate, terrible to search. It does 500 things and none of them well.
- The Apple Music app on iOS isn't much better. UI is scattershot and it is tough to do some things that shouldn't be.
- No cross-device play state sync. For example, if I start listening to a playlist on Spotify I can start at the same point in the song and pick up exactly where I was on any other device.
- Social integration - I can send Spotify previews to people via Facebook Messenger, and Spotify integrates with other social stuff. Apple Music is all by itself.
I think a big issue that Apple will run into is that they insist on tying releases of Apple Music to iOS releases. Spotify can release new versions whenever they want, but because Apple didn't announce something like cross device state sync there's no chance I'll get it until at least next year.
I have both Spotify and Apple Music, but I'm not 100% happy with either.
> Social integration - I can send Spotify previews to people via Facebook Messenger, and Spotify integrates with other social stuff. Apple Music is all by itself.
What about Ping? Doesn't it allow this kind of sharing?
- Siri integration (this is Apple's fault, no reason not to open SiriKit to music services)
- An Apple TV App (This is on Spotify, it's been asked for forever)
- An Apple Watch App (This is also on Spotify, but there are rumors it's coming soon)
But there are some real downsides to Apple Music vs Spotify:
- Apple Music's playlists aren't as good, community playlists are tough to find. I've found links to Spotify playlists filled with interesting music, no luck for Apple Music.
- Apple Music's radio is subjectively worse. Repeats far too often.
- iTunes is a travesty and I'm forced to use it to listen on my desktop. It's slow, ugly, tough to navigate, terrible to search. It does 500 things and none of them well.
- The Apple Music app on iOS isn't much better. UI is scattershot and it is tough to do some things that shouldn't be.
- No cross-device play state sync. For example, if I start listening to a playlist on Spotify I can start at the same point in the song and pick up exactly where I was on any other device.
- Social integration - I can send Spotify previews to people via Facebook Messenger, and Spotify integrates with other social stuff. Apple Music is all by itself.
I think a big issue that Apple will run into is that they insist on tying releases of Apple Music to iOS releases. Spotify can release new versions whenever they want, but because Apple didn't announce something like cross device state sync there's no chance I'll get it until at least next year.
I have both Spotify and Apple Music, but I'm not 100% happy with either.