Spotify vs YouTube Music?

The battle for the top-performing platform continues as players try to decide between the two popular options for streaming songs: Spotify and YouTube Music. You can stream and download songs using both apps, create playlists, and enjoy additional content. But how to pick the right one?

Let’s take you on a swift exploration of both platforms. There’s much more to them than albums of Beatles or sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven. You’ll find incredible sounds, even originals used for slots on the online casino Slotoro platform in Malaysia. Are you excited? Get set, ready, go!

App Design

Let’s begin with the software itself. Unless you listen with your desktop, the mobile app design truly matters as it can affect your experience.

Users would fall in love with the dark theme of Spotify and sections that are well-placed and easy to navigate. You can visit your profile or shift from music, podcasts, and Wrapped, all set at the top of the screen. The app is split into three main sections placed at the bottom of your screen:

• Home;
• Search;
• Your Library.

If you use the app free of charge, you’ll also see an additional tab for the premium where you can find prices and plans available.

The Home tab shows you what you’ve been listening to recently and recommendations. Your Library helps you get the best listening experience, with access to playlists and other tricks. Search is your go-to to find specific content or browse through different genres.

Dark themes are appealing, and these guys know it, which is why YouTube Music boasts the same. The app is intuitive and easy to navigate. You get the search button, your profile at the top of the screen, and four tabs at the button:

• Home;
• Samples;
• Explore;
• Library.

Home shows you your favorites, curated mixes, new releases, songs you’ve heard in YouTube Shorts (an awesome feature, by the way!), and recently played songs. Samples are like Shorts but offer snippets of songs and their videos. Explore gives you all the details, including new releases, top songs, and charts. Lastly, you’ll access your saved tracks, artists, and playlists in the Library.

Content

Both services offer similar libraries, over 100 million tracks each! This means you’ll find similar content in quantity and quality. However, there is a clear difference.

We especially love that Spotify is very particular about offering a superb listening experience. It’s not limited to songs, as users can explore over 5 million popular and upcoming podcasts, meaning you don’t need a separate app for that service. It’s an all-access functional app! Many new artists upload their art on this platform, so you may find more content here.

YouTube Music is the perfect option if you love music videos and extras like mash-ups, remixes, and concert clips. Its integration with YouTube makes it the most exciting and rewarding experience. The brand has close partnerships with several labels, so everything is as expected.

Audio Quality

Everyone wants the best audio, so let’s compare both streaming services.

Criteria	Spotify	YouTube Music
Coding Standards	AAC	AAC and OPUS
Low Quality	24Kbps bitrate	48Kbps bitrate
Normal quality mode	96Kbps bitrate	128Kbps bitrate
High-quality mode	160 Kbps bitrate	256 Kbps bitrate (only Premium users)
Very high-quality mode	320 Kbps bitrate (only Premium users)	–

Pricing

Both platforms offer free use, but there’s a catch and some limitations, of course! You’ll get the most annoying ads, but at least you can use Spotify for free whenever you want. However, you only play specific playlists, skip six times within an hour, and cannot return to the previous song. On the other hand, the YouTube alternative won’t let you play songs in the background with a free plan. However, you can pick whatever title you want, skip as many times, and easily shuffle.

You can choose from five plans when it comes to Spotify:

• Mini: From RM0.75/day for one account on mobile only;
• Individual: RM15.90/month for one account;
• Duo: RM21.50/month for two accounts;
• Family: RM24.90/month for six accounts;
• Student: RM8.50 for two months.

While there are exclusive prices for Premium Music alone, users often opt for YouTube Premium to get the best of both worlds, enjoying ad-free use of the music and the video-sharing apps. You can pick between these plans:

• Individual: RM17.90/month for one account;
• Family: RM33.90/month for five members;
• Student: RM10.90/month.

The Final Decision

The winner is not clear, but maybe you can make the final decision yourself. It’s difficult not to make a biased choice, so here’s a quick takeaway. The YouTube alternative offers extensive options for music lovers, but if you’d like to check out podcasts, Spotify is better. You may get a better experience from YouTube’s free plan, and more importantly, the playbacks are rumored to be better, so you can just play and have a good time without creating a playlist. Have you tried either or both? What was your experience, and which do you prefer? We wanna know!