Spotify vs YouTube Music: which streaming service is the best option in 2024? After using YouTube Music for a while now, I decided it was time to find out. In this post, I’ll compare YouTube Music and Spotify based on four key points: content, search and recommendation features, sound quality, and value for money.
Spotify vs YouTube Music: Content
To start, let’s talk about music. Which platform has more? Well, both YouTube Music and Spotify claim to have over 100 million songs. With that many songs on both platforms, it’s guaranteed that no matter which streaming service you choose, you will easily find all the songs you want to listen to and then some. This also means that if you ever wanna switch from Spotify to YouTube Music or vice versa, transferring your music collection from one service to the other is a breeze, especially if you use a service like Tune My Music, which is designed for people who want to hop from one music platform to the other or if you’re like me and regularly use multiple streaming services at the same time.
So let’s say by the end of this post, I do decide to move from Spotify to YouTube Music. All I have to do to transfer my playlists is go to tunemymusic.com on my laptop, phone, or tablet. Then I’ll select Spotify as my source, load my playlists from Spotify, select the playlists I wanna transfer over, and then select YouTube Music as my destination.
I’ll then hit start transfer and then Tune My Music’s matching technology will work to match songs across your source and destination platforms. And a few minutes later, my entire Spotify Music collection is now on my YouTube Music account. Besides transferring playlists, Tune My Music also lets you share tracks and playlists with friends and family, even if they’re using a different music streaming service.
Additional content
Both platforms offer additional content, such as podcasts, in addition to music. Although Spotify does have a larger podcast collection than YouTube Music. But it doesn’t really end there. Each music streaming service also has an extra ace up its sleeve.
For example, in addition to podcasts and music, Spotify gives users access to over 375,000 audiobooks. And with a premium subscription, you can enjoy up to 15 hours of free audiobook listening time per month. And then you also have the option to buy additional audiobooks individually if you’d like.
On the other hand, YouTube Music has one big advantage over Spotify, and it’s the fact that YouTube Music is a part of YouTube. This means that YouTube Music gives users easy access to additional content, such as music videos and live performances. And you’re also able to watch those videos ad-free, offline, and in the background.
And on top of that, because YouTube Music can take data from your YouTube browsing history, YouTube Music can also help identify the podcast versions of videos you are watching on YouTube. So that’s really convenient.
Putting this all together, both YouTube Music and Spotify are pretty much the same when it comes to music content. However, if you are into audiobooks and podcasts, then yeah, you’re probably gonna enjoy Spotify’s collection.
Otherwise, if you regularly watch podcast-style videos from your favorite YouTubers or you’re a big fan of music videos, and watching them on the go, then you might like the integration of YouTube videos with YouTube Music.
Spotify vs YouTube Music: Search & Recommendations
It’s clear that YouTube Music and Spotify have more than enough content to last several lifetimes. But how do you go about listening to your favorite songs, or better yet, discovering new tracks to listen to?
Spotify
Well, on Spotify, there are a couple of ways to do that. A good place to start is Spotify’s Discover Weekly, which is a playlist that updates every week with new songs you’ve probably never heard of, but is actually based on the songs that you’re currently listening to. To kick it up a notch, there’s also Spotify’s Daylist, which is a playlist that updates throughout the day and changes based on the types of the songs you listen to at different times in the day.
You can also try out Spotify’s DJX feature, which is an AI-based DJ that cues songs based on your listening habits. DJX will play songs you’re currently listening to, songs you’ve probably never heard before, but still fits your tastes, and songs you probably haven’t listened to in a while.
Spotify is also slowly rolling out its AI Playlist feature, which allows you to generate playlists using a chat-GBT-style prompt. Now, this feature is only available in select countries, but I’m really hoping that this feature will be rolled out to more countries soon.
YouTube Music
So, how does YouTube Music compare? Well, let’s take a look. Just like Spotify, YouTube has a feature called Discover Mix. This is essentially a playlist filled with new songs that update weekly, according to your listening preferences, similar to Spotify’s Discover Weekly.
You also get access to playlists such as Your Mix, which is mainly filled with songs from artists you already love, and Super Mix, which is also filled with songs you really like, but includes a wider range of genres. This can come in handy if you’ve got a long flight or a road trip, and you just want a quick way to get a playlist with all the songs that you enjoy listening to, whether it’s hip hop or orchestral, or R&B and alternative indie.
YouTube Music also lets you create radios, just like Spotify, which will play an endless queue of songs based on your favorite songs, artists, or albums. To do this, just scroll down on the homepage and press Create a Radio. Pick your favorite artists, and then use the music tuner to adjust settings like artist variety and music discovery. And you can even select filters to personalize the radio to your liking.
Spotify vs YouTube Music: Sound quality
All right, let’s move on. When it comes to sound quality, neither YouTube Music nor Spotify offers lossless audio quality, nor do they offer spatial audio formats like Dolby Atmos. And if you’re interested in higher quality listening, then you’re better off using a service like Apple Music or Tidal.
But since most people listen to music with wireless headphones and earbuds, you’ll be happy to know that both Spotify and YouTube Music offer comparable streaming quality. Spotify uses the AAC and OGG Orbis codecs with a max streaming quality of 320 kilobits per second with a premium subscription. Meanwhile, YouTube Music uses the AAC and Opus codecs at I believe 256 kilobits per second.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter which streaming service you use, at least in terms of sound quality. Both YouTube Music and Spotify are gonna offer good enough sound quality for the vast majority of listeners. And again, if you want lossless or spatial audio, then this discussion’s smooth.
Spotify vs YouTube Music: Price
In terms of pricing, a subscription to YouTube Music and Spotify costs roughly the same. However, Spotify does cost slightly more across all the plans it offers.
There’s one neat thing about Spotify’s pricing scheme: they do offer a duo subscription, which is a good way to save money if you have a partner or just a really good friend.
On the other hand, YouTube Music is included with a YouTube Premium subscription, which costs $13.99. It might be more expensive than a Spotify subscription, but those extra few dollars get you all the features of YouTube Music, plus ad-free access to YouTube, as well as the ability to play videos in the background. And you can download videos from YouTube for offline viewing.
Spotify’s free plan vs YouTube Music’s free plan
And what if you don’t wanna pay a monthly fee for a subscription? Who offers a better free plan, YouTube Music or Spotify?
Well, the answer is YouTube Music, and here’s why. With YouTube Music’s free plan, you get access to many features. This includes on-demand playback for podcasts, songs, and music videos. You also get access to audio-only podcasts, and you can play these podcasts in the background, and you should be able to download most podcasts for offline listening. YouTube Music’s free plan also lets you cue and repeat songs, and you have unlimited skips. You also have access to the Samples tab, and you can still create radios, which can be customized using the Music Tuner. Although, as expected, you will have to deal with ads.
On the other hand, Spotify’s free plan is fine. It’s better than it was when it first rolled out, but the feature set does have its limits. Spotify’s free plan does boast slightly better streaming quality than YouTube Music’s free plan, and you do get access to Spotify’s entire music and podcast library, and you get unlimited skips. However, you will still have to deal with ads. You can’t download songs or podcasts for offline listening, and you also can’t organize your song queue, which can be annoying for some listeners.
Should you use Spotify or YouTube Music?
Considering everything mentioned above, we have two questions to answer. Which is the better music streaming service? Will I finally switch from Spotify to YouTube Music? Let’s start with the first question.
If you don’t wanna pay for a music streaming service, then yeah, go with YouTube Music’s free plan. And if you are Okay to pay for a subscription, then the answer isn’t so cut and dry.
YouTube Music offers a really, really good overall value thanks to its large music library and YouTube integration. And if you watch a lot of YouTube videos, you get even more bang for buck with a YouTube premium subscription.
However, I just can’t get enough of Spotify’s recommendation features. I feel that their algorithms add a lot of value to the platform, and I feel like it can justify the slightly higher monthly cost compared to YouTube Music.
So for now, it seems I’m not gonna be switching and I’m gonna be staying with Spotify.
Thanks for reading, guys! Until next time and keep those playlists rolling! 🙂