Two of the most popular free streaming services for music are Spotify and YouTube Music. They both have their differences, in this article we’ll be diving into the differences I’ve observed whilst using them both.
What’s the quality like?
Spotify doesn’t allow reuploads of the exact same song, maybe remixes sure, but not identical copies. This means that only original content can be uploaded by the artist. However, with YouTube anyone can reupload videos and they can be what the algorithm recommends to you and be much lower quality than the original upload. Spotify is most likely to have the best quality.
Device availability?
Both Spotify and YouTube Music both have desktop client (Electron) and mobile versions, as well as being directly available via the web browser. Additionally, modifications can be made to both versions, but most commonly the desktop versions. For example, you can change the appearance of Spotify with Spicetify and YouTube Music with the unofficial YouTube client (with custom CSS files).
Can I listen to music offline?
With Spotify, you can only download music with premium or a client modification. All downloaded music can only be accessed via the Spotify client. It is the same situation with YouTube Music. However, with YouTube Music you can use a tool like yt-dlp, which saves the music directly to your filesystem (which is freely accessible).
Music availability?
Upon my experience, I’ve come to the conclusion that YouTube has a much larger collection of music, and that’s probably because anyone can upload content with a single click (even if the original artist hadn’t uploaded). So, before you decide on a music streaming service, it’s probably worth searching for some of your favourite music on your preferred service to see if they’re available. If not, you could consider trying the other.
Hold on, aren’t their anymore music streaming services?
Of course there is! I have only mentioned Spotify and YouTube Music because those are the only ones I have used myself. Here is a list of others.