Spotify Vs YouTube Music In-Depth Comparison [Who’s Better]
Spotify and YouTube Music are two of the most popular music streaming platforms and these platforms have billions of active users. Spotify is famous for providing the best audio content like music, podcasts, albums, and many more. Since the day of launch, the app has undergone lots of changes in its services offered and its user interface has also made a huge impact in enhancing the user experience. Spotify has millions of music content, and these are added regularly so that users won’t feel bored with it.
Further to compete with this music streaming platform YouTube Music was launched a few years back. This platform tends to provide lots of amazing audio content. However, the app has earned lots of users over the past few years. Still, the technical features between Spotify and YouTube Music have some similarities and differences. So, let’s discuss the features of both these mesmerizing music platforms and get to the conclusion of which one is better.
In This Article:
Spotify Vs YouTube Music Features Comparison
YouTube Music and Spotify tend to have similar features which leaves users in lots of confusion about which one to choose. So, here we shall compare the features of both apps profoundly.
Device Compatibility
Spotify is compatible with a wide range of devices such as users with iOS 14 or above, macOS, Windows 10 or above users, and Android smartphone users with operating system 5.0 or above versions. The app is very light in weight which does not impact the device’s performance and can play your favorite song in the background while you are working.
If you wish to use YouTube Music on your device then it supports not only Android phones, iOS, and laptops, but it also supports Google Home, Smart TVs, smart watches, cars, and smart speakers. In addition, YouTube Music allows you to cast to desired devices. Despite having similar features, Spotify is far ahead in effectively connecting and adapting to new devices compared to YouTube Music.
Trending Songs
Most of the users are busy with their daily routine and usually miss listening to their favorite music composed by their preferred artist. However, both apps are well-developed, and the algorithm works perfectly fine in providing the most popular and trending songs to the users. And both apps work at a similar rate.
Playlist
YouTube Music has a playlist feature like Spotify. While users can find it irritating to use the YouTube Music playlist. The playlist associated with your official YouTube will show up here and negatively impact on your user experience.
Spotify offers excellent, well-organized playlists, but a search bar for finding specific playlists would improve usability. Still, it securely manages your favorite songs and albums, ensuring peace of mind. It also allows users to make their playlists public and share their musical treasures among friends and family. You can make your playlist popular by gaining followers and likes.
Vast Range of Content
Spotify boasts an extensive library of over 100 million songs, in addition to hosting 6 million podcasts and more than 4 billion playlists. This positions it as the leading music streaming platform globally, surpassing all competitors in content variety.
However, YouTube Music stands neck to neck with a 100 million song library but the number of podcasts available on YouTube Music is not available on the internet but it is expected to be less than Spotify.
Both YouTube Music and Spotify have a premium feature. The use of subscriptions in Spotify and YouTube Music is a little similar and here the users can listen to unlimited songs without any irritating ads, and if you love to listen to your favorite song again and again, then you can download it and listen to the audio content when you are offline. But when compared to the audio quality, the premium version of Spotify provides 5 types of audio quality.
YouTube Music and Spotify both offer premium subscriptions, allowing users to listen to unlimited music without ads. Users can download songs for offline listening. However, Spotify’s premium version stands out with five audio quality options.
But the YouTube Music offers only four. In addition, Spotify has proved to provide better audio quality compared to YouTube Music and other streaming apps. The maximum audio quality offered by YouTube Music is 256 kbps while Spotify has achieved a huge fleet where it offers 320 kbps.
Free Version
YouTube Music and Spotify offer a free version but the sad part of using the free version is that users have to face interrupting ads while listening to their favorite song. In addition, even in the free version, Spotify offers several audio qualities for desktop apps like 96 kbps to 128 kbps. This makes Spotify most preferred as YouTube Music doesn’t offer any kind of audio quality adjustment feature for the free users.
Further, the maximum audio quality for mobile apps is 160 kbps in Spotify for free users along with many different audio qualities, while YouTube Music offers 128 kbps. YouTube Music allows users to skip the Ads while using the free version. However, Spotify does not offer any feature to skip ads.
Recommendation
These days any online platform whether it’s a music platform or a shopping online store, provides a personalized recommendation. This means they keep track of your music taste, your favorite artist, music composer, BGM genre, and many more minute details. These small details help the music streaming platforms to understand your taste and regularly provide relevant recommendations so that you can find new songs on the homepage that suit your interests.
Pay Per Stream
Creators usually look for platforms where they can share their views and content regarding certain topics and earn some side income. Even YouTube Music and Spotify have a monetization program but getting a lump sum of income requires lots of hard work. With Spotify, you can reach a higher audience but YouTube Music pays $0.008 per stream which is more than Spotify as it pays only $0.003 and $0.005 per stream. For more information about the payment and earnings on this music streaming platform, you can check out this article (How Much Does Spotify Pay Per Stream).
Search Results and Filters
YouTube Music and Spotify have a similar user interface where both have search bars. However, users who have used the YouTube Music app have encountered problems with the search results as they are not efficient and quick. People feel that YouTube Music filters are also very weak and do not make it feasible for users to get their desired songs.
However, Spotify has the best and most appreciable search engine which provides quick results even without the need to type the entire detail on the search bar. Also, the filters work effectively in finding the desired songs on Spotify.
Queue
The Queue system in Spotify is the most preferred one. The reason is when you choose multiple songs in a queue, Spotify plays songs in the sequential order you have chosen. But YouTube Music makes a blunder in the Queue as it does not follow the sequence rather it plays songs or music that was chosen last and plays in reverse order. This impacts the user experience of the YouTube Music app.
Lyrics
People often love to sing songs while they are listening. But new songs have unique lyrics and people also enjoy listening to songs of different countries but usually get struck in search of lyrics. But henceforth you need not worry, as both YouTube Music and Spotify offer lyrics while they are playing.
However, if you listen to the slowed, reverb or remix version of the song then the lyrics feature may not be available for that song in some cases in Spotify but it will always be available in the official song.
User interface
Every app is identified due to its unique and smooth user interface. The UI of any app decides the standard and quality of the app, as it’s the first impression for users when they download and open the app. Both YouTube Music and Spotify have similar User interfaces but the only difference is the logo, color, some buttons and several features.
YouTube Music and Spotify both have dark interfaces with simple navigation that makes it easy to access various hidden features, it allows users to avail the music which are trending, new releases, mixed, and many more.
What’s the difference between YouTube Music and Spotify?
To cater to this question, we can just compare the features. The primary thing that makes Spotify very dull is its shuffling feature and personalized recommendations. These days, the recommended music on Spotify is not that enjoyable and people are disappointed with it. The reason is, that Spotify regularly recommends podcasts rather than music or songs, while most users prefer music. This small technical difference is a down-falling part of the Spotify app. But YouTube Music provides only music, and it has the best personalized recommendation feature.
Further, the music quality of Spotify still makes it preferable and unique. The reason is it has several options for users to choose from. In addition, the inception of the song is also shared on Spotify creating a unique feel to the users.
Also, YouTube Music has the best bass effect and even though the sound quality is quite poor, still makes the listening experience more memorable. However, YouTube Music ads are more irritating than Spotify ads and The frequency of ads appearance is more on YouTube Music that may be annoying to some users. Moreover, the mix feature that is available on both Spotify and YouTube Music are most enjoyed feature. But people prefer Spotify in this instance.
Conclusion
Finally, the comparison between the features of YouTube Music and Spotify provides detailed insights about its benefits. YouTube Music has recently made it impact, while Spotify is far ahead. But in conclusion, Spotify is the best music streaming platform as it provides several audio quality preferences for both free and premium versions.
Spotify has a well-aligned playlist feature along with the most powerful search engine, where users can find their favorite songs quickly. While YouTube Music fails to provide such a critical feature and has a slow search engine, which tests the patience of the users. Overall, both apps have similar features, but the performance of Spotify is more impactful compared to YouTube Music.
