Want to uninstall Spotify? Apple Music is alternatives

Today, Spotify is the dominant music streaming platform in several regions, including the US. But lately Spotify users have shown a lot of interest in trying something new.

Some are just curious to see what else is out there as they have been using Spotify for a long time while its competitors have continued to evolve. Some are keen to make changes due to controversy over the platform’s deal with podcaster Joe Rogan or its financial relationship with artists.

We are going to focus on the real competitors of Spotify, so we are looking for services that allow you to stream almost any song on demand at any time. Notably, this excludes popular radio services such as Pandora, which are not focused on à la carte song selection. It also rules out a lot of smaller services that just can’t offer the same amount of content as Spotify, even if they offer similar features.

This list isn’t exhaustive, but we think these services are good enough that switching from Spotify doesn’t feel like a downgrade.

Big

Apple Music

Plans: $10/month (individual), $15/month (family), $5/month (voice, student).

It’s an obvious choice, and for good reason. Apple Music is Spotify’s biggest competitor and the overall user experience is as close to Spotify as possible.

The biggest difference between the two is that while Spotify’s music discovery has a major component of algorithmic recommendations (such as the Discover Weekly playlist), Apple Music is much more focused on professional human curation, either in handcrafted playlists or radio streams in style up the Internet with live DJs.

Yes, Spotify has professionally curated playlists and Apple Music has algorithmic radio stations. But Apple puts a lot more effort into carefully selected things, and its algorithmic recommendations and associations aren’t as strong.

Each accent has pros and cons, of course. But these two services have the most important thing in common: each has a relatively large library of individual songs, covering many genres and eras. You can listen to songs a la carte and sort them into playlists as much as you want.

Notably, Apple Music doesn’t have an ad-supported free tier like Spotify does. So, if you don’t want to pay $10 a month for a subscription, this service is not for you.

For some content, Apple Music also offers higher quality audio (via lossless and Dolby Atmos) and also gives artists a slightly bigger piece of the financial pie.

pros

• Higher audio quality for some content
• Best Human Curation and Live Radio Programs
• Compensates artists a little better
• Tighter integration with Apple hardware, software, and services (if you prefer that kind of ecosystem).
• A stronger inclusion of your personal music library

Minuses

• Noticeably worse algorithmic features and recommendations
• While there are apps for Android and Windows, Apple Music doesn’t always work well with smart speakers or other non-Apple products.
• Smaller selection of podcasts