Spotify vs YouTube Music (In 2024) — Why I Switched To YouTube Premium From Spotify Premium & Why You Should Too
A comprehensive review & comparison of Spotify vs YouTube Music in 2024 & why YouTube Premium wins the Spotify vs YouTube Music debate
It was the day of my parents’ anniversary last month in January & I was thinking of something to gift them, after all, they’ve been together for 39 years. I’d run out of ideas for conventional gifts & didn’t want to gift them something I’d already given them over the years; I wanted to gift them something they’d find useful & use a lot.
Incidentally, my Spotify Premium subscription ran out at around the same time. So while I was preparing to renew it as usual, I thought I’d check out YouTube Music to see what was on offer.
I went through the features & then learnt that YouTube Music comes along with YouTube Premium included at no extra cost which was such a sweet deal. I checked the family plan for YouTube Premium and it was for just 189/- INR per month.
It seemed like the perfect gift given how much YouTube my family uses. And furthermore, how much music I consume.
Now, I have been a loyal Spotify user since 2019/20 & I’d been using Spotify Premium for over two years so it was a decision I did deliberate, but after taking the plunge, I realised why YouTube Premium is 10x better than Spotify, for a plethora of reasons. Here’s why…..
YouTube Premium vs Spotify Premium — Features
Simply put you get a ton of features on YouTube Premium that Spotify just can’t match. It’s totally value for your monthly subscription given how many features it has.
YouTube Premium gives you access to ad-free YouTube & YouTube Music, which is also ad free. So not only can you watch YouTube videos at length without ads, you can also minimize the videos or whatever you’re listening to on your phone.
This is for any video, song or podcast.
So while Spotify is only limited to audio, with YouTube Premium you get everything under the YouTube sun.
A Google search reveals the following features:
You can check out the full detailed features here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6308116?hl=en
YouTube Music vs Spotify Premium — Catalogue
Comparing both platforms music catalogue-wise, YouTube Music has a much wider catalogue of music — this is mainly because it relies on YouTube users’ uploads along with its own YouTube repository. So you’ll find rare cuts, live performances & bootlegs & remixes that you won’t otherwise find on Spotify.
It’s also great because YouTube Music is synced to YouTube so those DJ sets/mixes, i.e. those long 1–2 hour mixes that a lot of channels & artists have on YouTube, that can be listened to on your phone or any device, either via the YouTube app or the YouTube Music app with minimizing capabilities & without ads.
Like my latest DJ set/mix titled “Udaipur”
The numbers in other reviews online suggest the same amount i.e 100 million+ songs available on either platform. But, I can safely say that YouTube Music has much more music on offer, with tons & tons of rare & old & obscure music compared to Spotify.
I know this because I regularly dig YouTube for samples to use in my music production & there are also so many fan-made or artist-made remixes — the sheer volume of rare music, bootlegs, outtakes, mashups, & rare concert audio or video rips on YouTube trump Spotify staggeringly.
Here are a couple of examples of rare artist/fan-made remixes:
Amon Tobin vs The Velvet Underground — Venus In Furs
Or this brilliant one….
David Bowie — Bring Me The Disco King (Danny Lohner Mix)
Then there are also covers. YouTube Music has many more covers of popular & moderately popular songs made by established artists, upcoming artists or even your regular YouTube users. So that’s another box to tick for YouTube Music.
As I’ve mentioned YouTube & YouTube Music are linked so you can watch the official VEVO videos of all songs as well; this beats those repeating gif-like videos on Spotify songs too(I don’t know what they’re called).
Also if you’re from India & listen to Hindustani classical, Bollywood, Carnatic or any regional Indian music, YouTube has an extensive range of all of it & so has much more to offer than Spotify too. This is particularly true for older Bollywood music from the 50s, 60s, 70s etc & a lot of Carnatic & Hindustani concerts both new & old concert audio bootlegs.
Likewise, you can find a lot more music on YouTube & YouTube Music in your regional language(s) wherever you’re from in the world.
YouTube Music vs Spotify Premium — Recommendations
There are arguments that Spotify is much better at recommending music, but I’d take that with a pinch of salt.
When it comes to the recommendation algorithm, it’s almost similar. Maybe Spotify shades it, but it’s too close to call. The recommendations I’ve been getting at the end of listening to an album or playlist on YouTube Music are nearly as good as the ones I was getting on Spotify. Maybe Spotify had slightly better algorithmic recommendations, but oftentimes stuff would repeat.
Meanwhile, the algorithm-generated playlists on Spotify i.e. the your mix, based on your listening mixes, your artist mixes, or create a radio algo-generated playlists etc, also often recommended stuff I’d already heard or had bookmarked or added to playlists. So it just became repetitive. YouTube Music has the exact same features, so algorithm-wise you’re getting the same deal.
Maybe Spotify’s editor-curated playlists are a shade better, but I’m a music curator myself & I found that the Spotify editors recommended a lot of music from my playlists (believe it or not).
There’s this line that Jazz legend Stan Getz once said, “I listen to new music the way a Wall Street broker studies the stock market” — that’s basically me.
So if you don’t avidly explore music or dig deeper for obscure artists & those rarities & gems, & usually listen to mainstream music — pop music, et al, maybe Spotify is a better music recommendation platform.
YouTube needs to step up its editor-curated game, which I actually wrote to a product manager at YouTube, (who’s this girl I studied with in college) about this as well.
But yes, I guess it’s only a matter of time until YouTube Music gets better than Spotify when it comes to recos.
YouTube Music vs Spotify Premium — Playlists
For the creation of your own playlists & curating music, YouTube Music again has a much, much wider catalogue to choose from. The playlist song suggestions, while you’re making a playlist are equivalent to Spotify’s; not much give or take there.
A lot of great playlists created by users are very easily accessible & recommended in the ‘Community Playlists’ section when you enter a search or scroll through the ‘Home’ or ‘Explore’ sections of the YouTube Music app. Also, YouTube Music shows you the number of plays your playlist has got, not just likes like Spotify.
You can also add much longer playlist descriptions & enter hashtags. The only feature YouTube Music lacks when it comes to #playlists is that you can’t upload your own images or artwork to your playlist(s).
YouTube Music vs Spotify Premium — Streaming Quality
Talking about music streaming quality, YouTube Music is also considerably better. Since I’m also a musician & producer, I listen to my music on rather expensive studio monitors when I’m listening on my laptop, so the sound quality is largely better as well as compared to Spotify.
Although the mixing & mastering quality of songs plays a certain role, especially for older music, listening through YouTube Music on my monitors sounds significantly better. It’s even great on portable Bluetooth speakers like my Tribit XSound Go or on my Balupunkt or SkullCandy ear buds.
A bitrate comparison reveals the following:
Although Spotify does offer 320 kbps for Spotify Premium subscribers, I’d still say YouTube Music is much better. Trust me, don’t just go by the bitrate, the ear test matters the most.
Spotify vs YouTube Premium — For Podcasts
Spotify does have more podcasts than YouTube. The numbers suggest that Spotify has over 5 million podcasts. But here’s the thing, it depends on the way you consume your podcasts. If you’re more into just listening to audio, Spotify is the better bet.
But if you’re more of a video podcast kind, YouTube Premium is perfect. You can check out the entire show without ads & even scroll to certain time-stamped sections, all of which is unavailable on Spotify.
Also, YouTube is considerably upping its podcast game, so while Spotify does boast more podcasts, YouTube has video options & when it comes to the volume of podcasts on offer, YouTube will get there eventually.
Pricing
Pricing-wise they’re more or less the same. Just check out the prices for various plans in your region online. As per my understanding, there’s probably just a $1 or $2 difference in the per-month plan worldwide.
In India, Spotify Premium for individuals is 119/- INR per month while YouTube is 129/- INR per month. 10/- INR is a minimal amount, so for 10 bucks(rupees) more, getting all these features makes way, way more sense.
The family option, as I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this piece is 189/- INR, and you can add up to 5 family members. If you have kids, there’s YouTube Kids which comes along with YouTube Premium, including parental monitoring controls.
The key thing is that for paying nearly the same, YouTube Premium offers you several more features & functions as compared to Spotify.
Using YouTube Music Under Various Channels/Accounts
If you have multiple YouTube channels or YouTube accounts under one email address, all of them qualify for YouTube Premium & YouTube Music. That’s simply not possible on Spotify.
This feature became really cool for me, as I could segregate my accounts & have each channel/account fine-tuned to my listening/watching preferences & use cases.
My artist account as a producer for music that I can put into mixes & DJ sets, my personal account for live performance videos ranging from old Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Neil Young, Radiohead gigs etc etc & the algorithm recommends me stuff based on my preferences on each account.
Another reason my decision to make this switch was great is because I started a new YouTube channel last month called #1PlaylistAWeek where I curate music. This was before switching to YouTube Premium, but it panned out like one perfect move leading up to the other.
On my channel, I recommend albums in short video essays & curate playlists every week.
You can follow my channel linked below:
Here’s a playlist from it, as well:
Verdict — Why Other Spotify vs YouTube Music Reviews Are Flawed
It’s honestly taken me some time to understand that Spotify is mostly hype. They got the upper hand over YouTube mainly because of entering the music-specific streaming market niche earlier than YouTube, & offering portability & minimised listening on mobile & then of course, the commotion behind Spotify Wrapped (frankly f*ck Spotify wrapped it’s a social fad).
In hindsight, YouTube was where I was listening to my music before I shifted to Spotify, but because I couldn’t minimize the videos while listening to them on my phone on-the-go & had to deal with those sh*tty ads, I switched over to Spotify.
My best guess is that Spotify is paying top SEO & Google ranked review pages to promote Spotify as the winner in this debate(which you’ll find online) to ensure that they don’t lose business because they know YouTube is far ahead — features, usability and catalogue-wise(trust me they know).
Most reviews you’ll find don’t give you a clear picture and run down. They just simply state that Spotify has over 100 million+ songs, more podcasts, higher bit rate etc etc, but they largely don’t dive into the usability & value on offer from YouTube Premium & YouTube Music in a comprehensive review.
This is my review & personal experience of making the switch to YouTube Music & YouTube Premium, which is something I should’ve done sooner.
Final verdict — Exploring the finer details & analysing the features & value for your buck, YouTube Premium & YouTube Music is the standout winner. The earlier you switch the better.
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