Summary
Because there are so many music streaming services available, selecting the best one may be difficult. A few of the more well-known ones are Spotify and YouTube Music, both of which have song catalogs over 100 million and comparable subscription choices that span from ad-supported free tiers to several premium paid plans.
Spotify vs. YouTube Music
Spotify is the most widely used music service globally. In comparison to YouTube Music, it provides somewhat higher audio quality, podcasts, and audiobooks. YouTube Music, on the other hand, is a superior option for those who already use Google for other reasons since it is an expansion of the well-maintained and feature-rich Google ecosystem.
But, as you would expect, Spotify and YouTube Music are similar, so it’s important to compare the two before making a choice.
Devices and user interface
Since its 2008 launch, Spotify has had plenty of time to perfect its user-friendly UI, and it remains among the finest. There are many methods to access Spotify: via a web browser, as well as desktop and mobile applications for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and Kindle. Coming up with techniques to prevent access to Spotify is more difficult. It works with a variety of wearables, network speakers (like Sonos), game consoles, smart TVs, streaming gadgets (like Apple TV and Roku), and automobiles (via CarPlay and Android Auto).
The user interface has undergone several changes and still does. However, it is fundamentally divided into three sections. With tabs for audiobooks, podcasts, and music, home is the center of it all. Suggested mixes and new releases are combined with previously played tracks in its scrolling form (more below). Additionally, you can access features like Spotify’s new DJ tool, which is akin to an AI radio station, and its new TikTok/Instagram-like interface, which beautifully visualizes animated album artwork, video clips, song previews, playlists, podcasts, and more. Everything you’ve made, saved, and downloaded—including playlists, songs, albums, artists, podcasts, and more—is arranged in your library. Last but not least, search is simply that—a search box that helps you locate what you’re searching for. It also keeps a record of your previous searches, which is useful for reviewing later.
The desktop and online interfaces for Spotify are identical. If your primary device is a PC, the Spotify app is better than the YouTube Music app, which just offers a web player.
Similar to Spotify, YouTube Music has a well-designed, aesthetically pleasing user interface that makes use of a scrolling architecture. Although there are other methods to access YouTube Music, its reach is not as extensive as that of Spotify, yet it is still extremely broad. The dedicated YouTube Music app is accessible for iOS and Android smartphones (including those with CarPlay and Android Auto), compatible smartwatches, Sonos speakers, and Chromecast. It is linked to the user’s Google account. You may use the YouTube app on your smart TV or any browser to access its online player. For even more ease, you may cast the web player from the web player or applications to additional compatible devices.
Similar to Spotify, the user interface (UI) of YouTube Music is divided into many primary areas, whether you’re using the app or the online player. The Home area, which features a variety of usage-based material such as your favorite artists, mixes, radio broadcasts, playlists, new releases, trending music, and more, is located along the bottom (or top in a web browser). You may narrow down the new releases, charts, and popular songs in Explore by mood or genre if that’s what you’re looking for. Similar to Spotify, all of your favorite songs, albums, artists, and playlists are located in the library. Additionally, there is a magnifying glass symbol for searching at the top, where you can access your cast and user icons for Google.
Both Spotify and YouTube Music provide many of the same organizing and discovering options, and their user interfaces are very similar. Spotify, on the other hand, makes you feel as if the well is far deeper since it presents you with apparently unlimited categories and ideas in more imaginative and aesthetically pleasing ways. Additionally, it surpasses YouTube Music by having a few extra connection choices.
Spotify became victorious
Library and exploration
Many music streaming services, including Spotify and YouTube Music, now have enormous music collections with over 100 million songs. As such, the quantity of songs is no longer a crucial consideration when selecting one of these services over another. Let’s look at some more features that set them apart.
Spotify offers much more than simply its enormous collection. It has grown to be a leader in the field with over five million items in its collection of podcasts, and it also provides audiobooks.
But Spotify shines when it comes to the many ways consumers can search for and discover its material. For several of these characteristics, it was a pioneer. For those who would rather delegate tasks to the algorithm, there is a dynamic “Made for [your name here]” category. You may always rely on playlists such as Discover Weekly, Daily Mixes, and Release Radar when you are not sure which album or artist to listen to. Infinite playlists, mixes, and radio station suggestions are also available; they are automatically produced depending on the genres, moods, and artists that you listen to the most. Your favorite audiobooks and podcasts are prominently displayed, along with new episodes.
You may peruse through categories like “Made for You,” “Spotify Classics,” “Live Events,” “Charts,” and “Decades” under the Search area. You may browse through music previews and videos similarly to TikTok and Instagram stories. Although some of its discovery tools are hit or miss, Spotify regularly introduces new ones. An AI clone of Xavier “X” Jernigan hosts a radio station, for example, thanks to the DJ function. Still, it’s good that Spotify is adding new features. Daylists and Smart Shuffle are two comparatively recent features. Smart Shuffle optimizes the sequence of songs, while Daylists provide a continuously updated stream of suggested music. This is just a small sampling of the content available on the site.
Similar to Spotify, YouTube Music has a massive collection that includes almost anything you can imagine. Even though it hasn’t begun offering audiobooks yet, the service just began offering podcasts to US customers on the platform’s main page last year. But in terms of discovering music to play, how does YouTube Music compare to Spotify? It learns your preferences and provides more relevant recommendations the more you use it, just like any other streaming service.
The Home area isn’t as extensive as Spotify’s, despite offering some fantastic produced playlists like its constantly changing Discover Mix, the fantastic My Super Mix, a New Release Mix, and a ton of “Similar To” lists based on songs you may enjoy. Offering up new albums and singles, popular songs, and music depending on mood and genre, the Explore area does a respectable job, and the inclusion of YouTube videos brings something special to the mix. All things considered, however, it’s difficult to match Spotify’s discovery experience—you simply feel like you’re receiving more, particularly given that their prices are almost same.
Spotify became victorious
characteristics and capabilities
Many of the fundamental features and functionalities of Spotify and YouTube Music are similar, ranging from the ability to play, stop, shuffle, and skip songs to the ability to add content to your library and favorite items to help you keep track of what you’re listening to. When accessible, both services even include lyrics and may be connected to speakers and other devices in your house with ease. All of the same features are there in the play window, which shows album art and very similar dropdown menus with choices to download (more on premium tiers in a moment), share, start “radio” stations based on your choice, explore the artist or album, make playlists, and more. Spotify allows users to create playlists with friends, and YouTube Music also offers a year-end recap, but it’s nothing like the fun and games that come with Spotify’s much awaited Wrapped event. However, we don’t consider it to be a deal-breaker. Spotify and YouTube Music are fairly comparable in terms of functionality.
Winner: Draw
Audio quality
For a variety of reasons, we have matched Spotify and YouTube Music against one another. However, one of the primary ones is that, unlike rivals like Tidal, Apple Music, and Amazon Music Unlimited, they are some of the only music streaming services that do not currently provide a plan tier or option for lossless or high-resolution (hi-res) codecs. YouTube Music hasn’t made any mention of the hi-fi option that Spotify has long hinted at but hasn’t delivered on. For the time being, the sound quality options provided by these two providers are still rather comparable.
In terms of technical specifications, Spotify provides higher-quality audio than YouTube Music. While Spotify’s maximum streaming quality for its free versions is 160kbps (maximum at 128kbps if using the online player), YouTube Music’s highest streaming quality is 128kbps.
As you go up to the premium levels of both services, you get 256kbps if you use the web player to play Spotify Premium in your browser. You may choose between a range of 24 kbps and 320 kbps while using Spotify’s applications. Regardless of the location, YouTube Music Premium plays at the same 48 kbps to 256 kbps peak bit rate.
Which is thus superior? Spotify, on paper. But most people wouldn’t know the difference or care unless they were audiophiles, in which case they wouldn’t be considering any of these platforms. On a technicality, Spotify prevails.
Spotify became victorious.
The cost
This leads us to the interesting last point: cost. First off, you may access the whole catalogs of both Spotify and YouTube Music under their free service levels. Nevertheless, you won’t be able to download anything for offline listening, and advertisements will still keep appearing in between songs. With the exception of certain playlists, Spotify’s free plan only allows you to listen to music on shuffle, and you may only skip six songs per hour. All of these limitations may be removed with Spotify’s premium plans, which also remove advertisements and enable downloads so you can enjoy the full experience.
Among Spotify’s Premium plans are:
- Individual: $11 a month
- Duo: $15 per month (suitable for two individuals living together or as a partnership)
- Families pay $17 a month, up to six accounts.
- Student: $6 a month
After five seconds, you can skip songs on YouTube Music for free as many times as you’d like, but the advertisements are arguably harsher and more invasive than those on Spotify. Thankfully, however, the YouTube Music app now allows you to enjoy background music playing while using other applications or while your lock screen is active—a functionality that was previously unavailable. Similar to Spotify, YouTube Music Premium may be upgraded to eliminate all advertisements, permit downloads, and provide full-service capabilities. Plans consist of:
- Individual: $11 a month (with a YouTube Premium subscription, you may save $3).
- Family: $17 a month (with a YouTube Premium subscription, you may save an additional $6).
- Student: $5.50 a month (with a YouTube Premium subscription, you may get an additional $2.50).
- The cost of Spotify and YouTube Music is around the same, with the Individual plans costing little more than $10.
We’re considering this a draw because, while Spotify has a more practical Duo tier for that particular group, YouTube Premium subscribers may utilize their subscriptions to get a fantastic add-on, something Spotify is unable to do.
Winner: Draw
| YouTube Music | Spotify |
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Music for Gamers: Spotify Knows Its Gaming Audience
These days, playing video games is closely linked to streaming music, and Spotify is the obvious option for anybody looking to do just that.
Spotify has applications specifically designed for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 gaming consoles. These apps allow you to stream music while playing a game simultaneously. Discord, the chat program that is quite popular among gamers, has extensive support for Spotify and can link to a number of chatbots in addition to displaying the music you are now listening to.
Conversely, YouTube Music is only available via the regular YouTube app for Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo consoles, and it is not integrated with Discord. Furthermore, there is no support for multitasking, so you will be unable to do anything else on your console if you wish to view or listen to YouTube Music.
In addition, the Spotify console experience is much more interesting and lively than the YouTube one, with its dynamic backdrops that show data, change color, and look great when you host guests on TV.
| YouTube Music | Spotify |
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Currently the most widely used music streaming service globally, Spotify boasts over 600 million users, 236 million of them are premium customers. Even with over 100 million subscribers to YouTube Music and YouTube Premium—a respectable figure—Spotify’s gorgeously crafted large green wall of music discovery, podcasts, and new features still prevails.
While the volumes and quality of music in YouTube Music and Spotify’s libraries are similar, Spotify’s user interface is more sophisticated and provides more features for the same cost. If you currently have a YouTube Premium subscription, it makes sense to upgrade for a few bucks to include music. Nonetheless, YouTube Music could be a better option for you if you don’t mind podcasts or the more ostentatious user interface.
Spotify became victorious
Final Verdict: Spotify vs. YouTube Music
For those who are already fully immersed in the Google ecosystem, the YouTube Music streaming service is very alluring, particularly for those who have an active YouTube Premium membership that allows them to access the whole YouTube Music Premium plan for free. It would be difficult to advise paying the Spotify fee when you already have access to YouTube Music if you’re on a tight budget and already subscribe to YouTube Premium. For serious music enthusiasts, YouTube Music also provides a large range of original song versions, remixes, and covers in addition to the ability to post new songs.
With podcasts included and a greater variety of integrations and support, it is difficult to argue against Spotify as a streaming option. When it comes to music, Spotify’s catalog is equally as large as YouTube’s, therefore if you want to stream music on your gaming console, Spotify is unquestionably the best option.
