There’s a browser version along with apps for iOS and Android. YouTube Music, regrettably, doesn’t have anything like this degree of flexibility. And Spotify Connect allows users to control playback from one device on another too. It’s also supported by both Amazon Echo and Google Nest smart speakers for voice control. There are apps for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Xbox, PlayStation and plenty of smart TVs. Spotify vs YouTube Music: ConnectivityĪs Spotify spent many years after its 2008 launch without any serious rivals, the company used its market dominance to offer support pretty much anywhere you might want to listen to music. Google once said it had no plans to go any higher than this or to introduce lossless streaming, but that was four years ago now, so never say never. YouTube Music, meanwhile, reveals on its support page (opens in new tab) that the max sound quality is a bitrate of 256kbps AAC. It's been in the works since 2021, but its release date is still unknown. With Spotify Premium, you can stream in up to 320kbps quality, and that will soon be improved with the introduction of Spotify HiFi (opens in new tab) to offer CD quality lossless audio. While it loses out against Tidal, Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited, against YouTube Music, Spotify can finally chalk up a win on sound quality. On the other hand, a song’s presence may not be signed off by the artist/label which means it may not be there for long, and the abundance of unofficial and low-quality versions could make finding what you want a frustrating experience. This is very much a mixed blessing: on the one hand, you get a ridiculous amount of music and you’re very likely to find what you’re looking for - even obscure tracks from labels no longer around to make deals with streaming services. While YouTube Music has deals in place with the major record labels to ensure that all the albums you could want are available, it’s also a user-generated content site, which means all sorts of stuff is constantly being uploaded by fans including live recordings, amateur covers and remixes. YouTube Music doesn’t provide any data here, but that might be because it’s near impossible to track. Back in February 2021, the company revealed it had more than 70 million tracks on the service, but given it supposedly adds 60,000 songs a day, it has likely passed the 90 million mark by now. Neither are particularly transparent about the size of their libraries, but it’s easier to hazard a guess with Spotify. For $11.99/$17.99 a month, this feels like a no brainer if you consume a lot of YouTube. This not only pays for two Premium accounts, but compiles a shared playlist mixing up each partners’ most played songs, which is a nice touch.īut YouTube Music has one particularly strong trick up its sleeve: for an extra $2 per month, you can add YouTube Premium to your plan, which removes ads from regular YouTube and allows subscribers to watch YouTube Originals content. Spotify also has a rather neat option for couples that live together called “Duo” priced at $12.99 per month. Both also offer a family plan that covers up to six members of a household: it’s $14.99 for YouTube Music and $15.99 for Spotify. Like pretty much every other music streamer out there, the default price for the two services is $9.99 per month, with a discounted $99.99 per year option and a $4.99-per-month tier for students. Obviously if you primarily listen to music on your desktop PC this will be of little benefit, but for mobile users it’s essential. Subscribing fixes the drawbacks for both, as well as allowing the downloading of tracks for offline play.īut for YouTube Music, the real game changer is the introduction of background play, which allows the music to keep playing on your phone or tablet while you use other apps or turn your screen off.
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