The two biggest music streaming apps, Spotify and Apple Music have always been pinned together head to head to which one reigns supreme in which app is officially the best. 

Created in 2008, Spotify has been the primary streaming service with up to 286 million active users as of 2020, but in 2015 Apple created Spotify’s greatest competitor: Apple Music, which has garnered up to 72 million users. 

Both services cost $9.99 a month for a single premium subscription, but both provide a student discount for only $4.99 monthly payment. Spotify though doesn’t require a subscription unlike Apple Music,  free Spotify users have access to all music with the exception of regular ads. 

Within the apps themselves, each feature is easily accessible. On apple music, there’s the listen now, browse, radio, library, and search tabs. On spotify, you have a simpler array of tabs with home, search, and your library. 

Playlists consume a majority of each service. Some are user generated and some are created by the makers themselves. They have playlists arranged by genre and mood, and the ability to make playlists on your own for whatever you want to arrange them by. Spotify curates more personal and individualized playlists for each user within the made for you section. You can find daily mixes containing songs from each of the different genres you listen to, as well as “Spotify “Wrapped” playlists that are all the top songs you’ve listened to throughout the years as a Spotify user.  Spotify not only has songs, but podcasts with some only exclusive to Spotify while Apple Music does not. Apple Music though does have some exclusive radio shows that you can’t find on Spotify. 

When it comes to streaming the actual music, both apps have the pause, play, skip, and go back buttons, as well as allowing you to see the upcoming music on your queue, but a feature that Apple music has that Spotify doesn’t is the lyric button in the bottom left corner that allows you to see a song’s lyrics in real time as you play it. 

Both platforms are solid in their own rights, but when it comes down to which is worth subscribing to, Spotify definitely is a must. It’s overall more personable and more accurately leads you to new music that you’ll like. When looking for a place to listen to music, your $9.99 a month will be put to better use with Spotify.