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Apple's doing very impressing stuff with audio, and it's interesting to see just how strategically strong Apple is (when you realize the link between Dolby and
by concinds 5y ago
Apple's doing very impressing stuff with audio, and it's interesting to see just how strategically strong Apple is (when you realize the link between Dolby and Spacial Audio, and the future Apple VR/AR headsets). But I still switched back to Spotify a week ago because there's appwide back and forward buttons, you can subscribe to song stations and they're refreshed often, better music discovery (there's no daily mixes or discover weekly on Apple Music), Spotify Connect, much better playlist management (not forced-alphabetical sorting, visible song recommendations within playlists as opposed to an opaque "infinity play" thing.
I love music and I've been using Spotify since ~2010, then Apple Music since 2018, and I'd almost stopped listening to music after a few years using Apple Music exclusively. I prefer playing back on my Mac, and controlling playback on my phone. The worse music discovery and orders-of-magnitude lesser amount of shared public playlists on Apple Music (on Spotify, your playlists are public by default, on Apple Music they're private; I liked adding total strangers' playlists and discovering music that way) made it so that on Apple Music, I oftened just kept listening to the same music over and over again, until eventually I played music only an hour or two per month. After switching back to Spotify I'm finally enjoying music again, and listening every day. All because Apple couldn't get the basics right.
Corporate strategy that's well coordinated from the top is an immensely powerful thing, but Apple's execution has been extremely lacking in some areas. They don't have the best Email, don't have the best productivity suite except for Keynote, don't have the best books app/store (can't sync book & audiobook like on Kindle), don't have the best Maps, don't have the best movie streaming service (despite Foundation & Stewart's great show), don't have the best browser, all their webapps are very poor; and on and on. That's all a culture issue.
Spotify doesn't have lyrics, or Hi-Fi (yet, and will likely have to make it a paid upgrade) because Spotify's literally can't afford lyrics and other stuff right now. Yet they still execute better, on the basic user experience, than Apple. Strategy is vastly overrated when you don't execute well (anymore).
- viktorcode 5y ago> (there's no daily mixes or discover weekly on Apple Music) There's "new music" station which is updated weekly based on listening history. Also I get additional recommended stations in genres I tend to listen to. Is it close to discover on Spotify?
- concinds 5y agoNew Music isn’t like Discover Weekly from what I understand, it’s more like Release Radar, just music that’s just come out that AM thinks you’ll like. And recommended stations: you can’t add to your library or subscribe to, unlike Spotify; for Spotify they’re just normal, regularly updated playlists you can “Like”, so you can revisit them every now and then and discover new stuff. BTW, I think Apple Music’s playlists are way better than Spotify’s, so I expect to switch back once they fix the basic experience. I tried to stick to Apple Music for years, and rationalised it with all the features Apple has Spotify doesn’t, but the amount of music I listened to on Apple Music vs. on Spotify just doesn’t lie (obviously an anecdote, and Monterey’s Airplay to Mac will likely fix the bulk of my issues with it)
- threeseed 5y agoNot sure what you mean here. a) Discover Weekly according to Spotify is identical to New Music. Every week you get a new playlist that has new releases that they think you will like based on previous listening history. b) You can add recommended stations to your library and they do appear as regular playlists that you can like, revisit them every now and again and discover new stuff.
- plorkyeran 5y agoI have no idea what the DW algorithm actually does, but I almost never get new releases. It quite often doesn't even pick the most recent popular song from a given artist.
- p49k 5y ago> Every week you get a new playlist that has new releases that they think you will like based on previous listening history That's not what Discover Weekly is. Discover weekly contains a diverse selection of music from any time period which you might like and refreshes itself with a new set of songs every week, which would generally be higher quality and more interesting since there is far more material to choose from. Spotify also has "Release radar" for personalized new music suggestions.