Music Streaming Review: Apple Music
Surprise, Surprise. This Is the Best Music Streaming App for Apple Users
Unbeatable experience across the Apple ecosystem
Verdict
Apple Music is made for Apple users and nobody can beat Apple at that. If you are heavily invested in their ecosystem, look no more.
If Apple Music is not for you, read about Tidal HiFi, Amazon Music HD and Qobuz.
- Strengths: made for Apple users, sound quality, combines streaming and personal library, curated playlists
- Weaknesses: made for Apple users
Key information
- Type of service: premium on-demand music streaming
- Cost: $9.99/month or $99/year, first 3 months free
- Audio formats: lossy, AAC at 256 kbps
- Declared catalog size: 60 million tracks
- Platforms: mobile, desktop, any other Apple device and any non-Apple device that is CarPlay or AirPlay-compatible
User interface
Apple is the single most convenient service for Apple users. Few can beat Apple in user experience and their music service carries on the legacy of game-changer iTunes.
It looks gorgeous in light and in dark mode. The design holds up to Apple’s standards and shows an attention to detail that is unparalleled in the world of music streaming.
The Library tab displays all the music you have added to your library and lets you browse across playlists, artists, albums, songs, genres and downloaded music.
Apple shines in library management capabilities. While most streaming services do not allow you to do much in terms of managing your library, Apple Music inherits a rich set of functionality from iTunes.
Like most streaming services, Apple Music allows you to add songs to your library and create playlists. But while most competitors use the “like” or “favorite” approach to building your library, Apple distinguishes between “Add to Library” and “Love”.
The first one does what it suggests, it allows you to add tracks, albums or videos to your library. The later lets you mark your favorite or loved content for multiple purposes: 1) Apple will use that information to improve its recommendations, 2) You can use it to build smart playlists. By the way, in addition to loving songs, subscribers can also use the star system to rate songs.
Smart playlists are a fun way to automate playlist creation and it can get as geeky as you want. For example, you can create a simple playlist that automatically adds every song that you love. Or you can take it up a notch and create a playlist that automatically adds songs from the 80s that you rated with at least 4 stars, from a specific genre that excludes a specific artist.
Smart playlists can only be created from the desktop app, but they will be available to stream from any other device with Apple Music.
Music library
Apple’s music catalog is as vast as it gets. At the start of 2020, Apple reports a catalog of 60 million songs*. This is the largest streaming catalog you can find, only matched by Tidal, who also reports the 60 million tracks.
I spent a lot of time searching albums on Apple Music and its competitors to assess their catalogs. On the one hand, I wanted a benchmark that would be useful to most of my readers, so I searched the first 200 albums on Rolling Stone magazine list of “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
I also wanted to see how Apple did at finding the music that I was searching for my personal use, so I noted down all my music searches for 3 weeks.
On the first test, Apple performed very well. It found 93% of the top 200 albums on the Rolling Stone’s list. No other service scored higher, but Deezer, Pandora, Spotify and Tidal all reached that same mark.
I was also able to find 85% of my personal searches. Of all the services I tested, only Spotify scored higher with a success rate of 86%.
The reported library size and the results of my tests already put Apple Music near the top of the list in terms of the music catalog, but Apple holds an ace up the sleeve that brings it to number one.
Apple Music allows its subscribers to use the desktop app to upload their music files. Apple Music will make them available on the cloud for you to stream on all your Apple devices. That way, Apple Music allows you to combine your personal library of downloads and CD rips with their streaming catalog. Furthermore, Apple Music allows users to edit tags, both for personal files and the streaming catalog, which is something truly unique in the world of streaming. In a recent article on 9to5Mac, Bradley Chambers makes it clear: this is reason enough to choose Apple Music over Spotify.
Apple’s streaming service is the only one with such functionality. Deezer also allows its users to upload their files, but they never truly merge in one single library. Plus, Deezer does not allow to edit metadata.
Spotify has similar functionality too, but it does not upload the tracks to the cloud, so it only works if your second device is connected to the same wifi as the computer holding the files.
On top of that, Apple Music’s library is enriched with radio shows, exclusive content (like iTunes Sessions), music videos, artist bios and album reviews.
Like any other premium service, Apple Music allows you to download any track or album in their catalog for offline listening. This includes any files you have uploaded to the platform.
Music discovery
Apple approach to music discovery in two different ways: algorithm-based recommendations and curated content.
Algorithm-based recommendations are automatically generated based on data. For example, tab “For You” on the main menu and you will find your “Favorites Mix”, “Recently Played” (including albums, songs and playlists), suggested albums and playlist recommendations. Scroll down to find out what your friends are listening to as well as new releases.
Curated content will help you discover new music outside of your comfort zone. In this section, you will find new releases of the week, playlists by mood and a daily top 100.
Apple’s Essentials playlists are especially good as an introduction to an artist. These collections of songs almost always feel stronger than any of the artist’s compilation albums.
Audio formats and sound quality
Apple Music offers excellent sound quality within the boundaries of lossless formats. Don’t be fooled by the numbers. Apple’s AAC at 256 kbits/s sounds better than Spotify’s Ogg Vorbis at 320kbit/s.
My wife (not an audiophile by far) and me (initiated audiophile) did some very basic blind tests that put Apple ahead of Spotify Premium in sound quality, but behind Tidal HiFi and Qobuz. This other audiophile, however, goes as far as saying that Apple Music beats Tidal HiFi in sound quality.
A note for audiophiles: Apple Music will allow you to play Apple’s lossless format ALAC on a computer, but will not play FLAC and it does not offer lossless streaming of any kind.
Devices and integrations
If you are already invested in the Apple ecosystem and you are not an audiophile, look no further. Apple Music is completely integrated with Siri. Ask Siri to play a specific track, love it, rate it, add it to a playlist… it will execute just about any order you can think of. If you have any other Apple devices, and especially if you have several (think iPhone, MacBook or iMac, HomePod, AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch or even CarPlay), Apple Music will deliver like no other.
The Music app on Apple TV, for example, looks gorgeous as it displays cover art and real-time lyrics as you play a song. Even if you listen to music on your computer, the Music app does a great job of organizing your library and helping you discover new music. Despite the fears surrounding the removal of iTunes, months after the switch I have not found missed a single piece of functionality.
Apple Music also works on Android and Windows, but you are not an Apple user, Spotify will probably make more sense.
Social and sharing
When you sign up to Apple Music, you can create a profile and tap “Start Sharing with Friends”. By doing this, you can share playlists and see what your friends are listening to. You can even get notifications from your friends’ activities.
In theory, Apple will also send you notifications about new releases and shows from artists you like, but I never received one.
Economics
Apple likes to make things simple and they make no exceptions with their Music app. There is no free tier, no hifi tier, only a premium plan for $9.99/month. However, there are quite a few options to bring that cost down.
- The annual subscription brings the yearly cost to $99. That makes Apple Music $20.88 cheaper than Spotify.
- The student plan brings the price down to $4.99/month. Plus, it includes Apple TV+ until you are no longer a student or you complete 48 months of your student subscription.
- The family plan covers access for up to 6 people for $14.99/month. Each family member has their own account and can control what they share with other family members.
- Additionally, Apple frequently releases prepay offers that allow you to buy redeemable gift cards at a discounted price.
Footnotes
Apple (2020). Lose yourself in 60 million songs. Available at https://www.apple.com/apple-music [Accessed 2020/01/25]
