Why You should be Streaming Music in 2018

Are you still downloading music in 2018? Are you stuck deciding between Apple Music and Spotify ?

Music streaming is a gift to listeners much less so for artists (another topic for another article) . Music streaming means access to any and all music.

Downloading vs Streaming

You may like to own and collect music but the truth is downloading or buying music limits your music library. It means you have to pick songs or albums you’re interested in, listen over again, repeat.

Streaming music means access to all music, old and new. It gives you the opportunity to discover new music or artists, established and upcoming. You can discover through playlists, charts, radio, music sites, recommendations and just randomly. You can also stumble on different genres and artists you never thought you’d like. There’s a lot of music out there so don’t limit yourself. You can still build a library of songs, albums and playlist on streaming platforms, while you download your favourite songs for offline listens.

You may need to consider your data plan before making the switch.

Which streaming service should I pick?

Now that you’ve decided to stream music, you can't consider options without starting with Apple Music and Spotify. They currently lead the streaming game. I’m going to make cases for both as unbiased as possible.

Spotify

Spotify is a Swedish company and a pioneer in the streaming game. It’s the most popular service which translates to more subscribers than Apple music and Tidal combined. It's currently available in more than a few countries, but not Nigeria at the moment. (there's a way around this) With Spotify, you get great recommendations from algorithms based on artists and songs you like and don’t like by skipping. There are hundreds of playlists on Spotify based on genre & moods, time of day, celebrations or festivals and more. There are also sponsored playlists that are filled with popular songs based on who has paid more. So expect to see playlists like Rap Caviar in you face all the time. If you want more than charting songs and you like to discover music, follow music blogs and individual people that curate great playlists. The more you use Spotify the more familiar you get and the more personalized recommendations you get . At the start, make sure you follow artists you like and add a bunch of songs or albums to your library to create a profile for recommendations. Also keep an eye on playlists like Your Daily Mix, New Music Friday, Discover Weekly and Release Rader. There's a cool Concerts section to check out all your artists' next show or tour in any location you select.

Spotify's premium plan will cost you $9.99 per but you can use it for free with a few ads in between songs. With Premium you get high quality streaming, no ads and offline mode. Spotify is currently not available in Nigeria but there’s a way around this. You’ll need a vpn service or app like TunnelBear or HotspotShield. Connect to a country Spotify is available in (e.g US), and then create an account for that country and you can begin to use Spotify. Be aware that every 2 weeks or so you’ll be logged out and you’ll need to sign in while your vpn location is set to the country you picked (you get logged out after 14 days in a foreign country if you are not a premium subscriber) That’s it, you don’t have to use vpn every time, just to sign up and sign in every 2 weeks when you are logged out. If you are going to pay for premium you need to use a card from the country you registered with. You also need to find a way to download the app on your phone/tablet. On iOS it’s a bit difficult. You need to create a us/uk/canadian apple id. On Android, you just need to download the spotify apk.

Spotify is available on iOS and Android, PC & Mac (app & webapp). It is also available on consoles, which is a great feature for gamers. A great advantage of having Spotify on more than one device is that you can continue playing music on another device when you start with one.

Apple Music

If you don’t like all the stress above, Apple Music is available in Nigeria. After the free 3 months trial, the individual plan costs N900 every month while the family plan (where up to 6 peoples share a subscription) costs N1400. You can pay with a Zenith naira card, a dollar card or an Alat virtual dollar card.

With Apple Music you have access to all music on the iTunes store with lyrics (which means more songs than Spotify). Apple music has a lot of playlists. Not as much and obvious as Spotify, but just enough to discover more music. The personalized recommendations are in the For You tab. They include recommendations based on songs, albums, artists and genres you love and also playlists like New Music Mix, Favourites Mix and more. So make sure you love songs you like and follow artists. You can see posts from those artists in the Connect section. You also get to see what your friends are listening to.

Another feature of Apple Music is Beats 1 radio. The shows are hosted by famous presenters like Zane Lowe, Julie Adenuga & Ebro Darden and even artists. They keep you updated with a variety of hot and new music along with interviews.

Apple Music features African content (curators and playlists)

If you have a very large library of music, iCloud music library takes care of that by syncing the songs with your Apple Music library. This means all your songs are stored in one place, so you can access them on any device where you are signed in. You can also download music you like to play offline.

Apple Music is available on all Apple mobile devices, Android, PC & Mac through iTunes. It's currently not available on consoles.

Design & UI

Apple Music and Spotify are both well designed, so this may be down to personal preference. Apple Music has a predominant white background with black bold text while Spotify has the black background and smaller white text.

On both apps, everything seems well placed and easy to navigate. Although I'll say that Spotify just seems a bit quicker while searching and playlists are more visible.

Conclusion

You can use Spotify for free, there's easy access to numerous playlists and it is available on multiple devices. For Apple Music, it is available in Nigeria, you can have all your music in one place with iCloud music library and there's the easy apple ecosystem integration.

They both have their advantages and I hope I have given enough reasons to choose one or the other.

Overall, I personally think it's a tie. After a while, you get attached to the service you have been using . There's nothing stopping you from using both to discover more music.

Although Spotify and Apple Music are the big 2, you can checkout other services like Tidal, Deezer, Google Music, MTN music plus and Boomplay music.

#applemusic #spotify #musicstreaming #music