When we think of an audio streaming platform, Spotify comes to mind. But YouTube Music is not far behind as it has seen huge growth in its user base. Many users are confused when choosing between these two platforms. So, to help you, I will review Spotify and YouTube Music in this post. We will look at all the different aspects of both platforms and decide who won the battle.
Spotify vs YouTube Music
It is always difficult to choose between these two platforms as both are good in their own way. However, we can compare their different features such as content, quality, user interface, and price. This way, you will have a better idea of what you need to choose.
Price and plans
Both platforms have the same prices and plans. You can take a look at the table below to get a clear idea.
| Audio Platform | Individual Plan | Family Plan | Student Plan |
| Spotify | $9.99/month | $14.99/month | $4.99/month |
| YouTube Music | $9.99/month | $14.99/month | $4.99/month |
If we talk about Spotify pricing, it has three plans: Individual, Family, and Student. The individual plan costs $9.99/month, the family plan costs $14.99/month, and the student plan costs $4.99/month. YouTube Music also has the same three places that cost the same price.
The premium plan of both platforms offers the same features:
- You can experience high-quality audio quality.
- Completely ad-free.
- You can access all content.
- You can download music for offline listening.
- You can also play music in the background.
Therefore, price does not matter on these platforms as they both offer the same price for their premium plans. If you subscribe to either of these two platforms, you will have to pay the same amount.
Content
There is no doubt that both platforms have countless songs and audios to listen to. You can find your favorite artists on both platforms.
But Spotify offers podcasts, while YouTube Music doesn’t have this feature. You can listen to many podcasts on Spotify.
On the other hand, YouTube Music has a video streaming feature that attracts more users. Spotify has videos, but only for some songs.
So, if you want to listen to music along with podcasts, you can use Spotify, and if you like watching music videos, YouTube Music is the best option.
Discovery
The music discovery feature should be great on an audio streaming platform for suggesting new music and creating playlists. Both Spotify and YouTube Music have great music discoveries, as they work with algorithms based on Artificial Intelligence.
The algorithm suggests users songs according to their musical taste and creates playlists based on their listening habits. It is an indispensable feature as it helps users find the songs they want to listen to. This discovery feature also promotes new artists.
Spotify suggests songs in different genres and moods, and YouTube Music has the same functionality.
Both have global music charts and new releases on their respective platforms.
Spotify suggests songs to its users by showing a “ Recommended Songs ” button; on the other hand, YouTube Music does this with a “ Suggestions ” button.
Spotify creates a mix of playlists like Daily Mix , Release Radar , Discover Weekly , Testbreakers , and YouTube Music creates playlists like My Mix , My Supermix , New Release Mix , and Discover Mix .
Both recommend artists to their users, but they have different buttons. Spotify says it as “ Fans also like “, and YouTube Music says it as “ Fans may also like ”.
In terms of music discovery, Spotify is miles ahead of YouTube Music, proving why it is leading the audio streaming market.
Audio quality
The most important aspect of an audio streaming platform should be quality. It is something that makes users dive into the deep ocean of music. Who has the best audio quality of both? Let’s compare:
To get high-quality audio, you must subscribe to their premium plans. While you can use both for free, it won’t give you a great audio service.
Spotify has five types of audio levels in its premium plan – Auto (depends on your Internet connection), Low (24 kbps), Normal (96 kbps), High (160 kbps), and Very High (320 kbps).
On the other hand, YouTube Music has four audio quality levels – Low (48 kbps), Normal (128 kbps), High (256 kbps), and Very High (256 kbps).
If you want to listen to high-quality music, you must go to Spotify.
User Interface
It is also a concern as it makes your app look good. Both have dark themes, allow for a beautiful interface, and have well-organized libraries and playlists.
Spotify offers good cover art and playlist descriptions. YouTube Music is pretty sketchy when it comes to cover art.
Spotify has a quick navigation sidebar that allows users to easily navigate through pages. On the other hand, YouTube Music has three tabs that are not as easy as Spotify’s.
Spotify allows users to rearrange playlists by dragging and dropping them quite easily. It has different sorting options such as filtering downloaded songs, finding favorite songs, and sorting favorite songs, which makes it easier for users to find their favorite songs.
Both platforms have good search filters, but I have to say that YouTube Music has the edge. YouTube Music has more search filters than Spotify, and YouTube Music also leads in terms of showing relevant search results in case of typos.
Spotify has a better, easier-to-use interface than YouTube Music, and YouTube Music has great search functionality.
Additional Resources
Sometimes reading the lyrics to better understand a song is better, and both platforms offer song lyrics. Spotify also provides information about a song, allowing you to learn more about the music of your favorite artists. YouTube Music lags behind in this regard.
Importing local audio files in the YouTube app is much easier than in Spotify, although you can import local files on both platforms.
Both offer a free plan to listen to music with ads. But only Spotify allows you to play music in the background with the free version. Spotify has no ad skip option, but you can skip ads on YouTube Music after 5 seconds. YouTube Music allows its users to skip unlimited songs; On the other hand, you can only skip five songs per hour on Spotify.
You can easily connect Spotify and YouTube Music to your other devices. Spotify has a feature called Spotify Connect, and YouTube does the same with Google Chromecast.
Conclusion
After discussing the aspects of both platforms, I can say that the premium version of Spotify is much better than YouTube Music. But, if you want to watch music videos, you can definitely opt for YouTube Music. I hope this post helped you make your decision. Please share with your friends to let them know about Spotify vs YouTube Music. Thank you very much!