Spotify has long been the undisputed king of the music streaming world, with even Google failing to usurp the service, but with Apple’s entrance into the market expected to happen at the end of the month, there may finally be a service that can pose an actual threat to Spotify. Apple’s name alone won’t be enough to beat Spotify, however, and the two services are similar in enough ways that there’s not much of a difference between them, but with what differences there are, which one is better?
For all intents and purposes, the undisputed king of streaming music these days is Spotify. With a reported paid user base surpassing an astounding 20 million subscribers — not to mention an astronomical 55 million additional listeners of its free, ad-based service — the Swedish-born service currently trounces its competition, most of which boast a few million users at best. Now Apple has entered the fray, recently announcing its much anticipated new music service, Apple Music. However, while Apple Music has the benefit of the tech giant’s near-infinite resources behind it to go toe-to-toe with Spotify, whether or not it can upend the champ is the question of the hour. Based on Apple’s 2015 WWDC unveiling of its new service — the love child of iTunes and Dr. Dre/Jimmy Iovine’s Beats Music — Apple Music appears to represent the biggest threat facing Spotify in the current streaming marketplace. With a 24-hour, live radio broadcast headlined by BBC-alum Zane Lowe, personally curated playlists, and access to the entire iTunes music catalog, Apple Music has all the characteristics of a powerhouse music streaming client. As such, we decided to pit Apple Music against Spotify in several key categories to get an early indication of how this competition might play out once Apple Music launches on June 30th.
