Streams and roundabouts: Apple Music just fixed one long-running issue, while Spotify added a different one | Tech Radar

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Streams and roundabouts: Apple Music just fixed one long-running issue, while Spotify added a different one

One makes music easier, the other makes it much more difficult to enjoy tunes

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Apple changes playlists to give you more control over your library

Spotify bans free listeners from hearing new music, for three days

A few years ago, a word was coined to refer to companies' attempts to make their products worse to increase profit margins — it's a profanity so I can't use it here, but some call it platform delay — and two fresh pieces of music streaming service news reinforce, and subvert, it.

Spotify and Apple Music are both making some moves, it seems. One is making a slight improvement, and the other is doing something that, depending on where you live, is plain annoying. You've read the headline, and even if you hadn't, you probably know it'd be Spotify making the contentious decision.

Let's start there, then. Listeners on Spotify's free, ad-supported tier have posted to Reddit with a new problem: they can't listen to new music.

Not all new music, mind you: a pop-up appears when you try to listen to a new release saying that only Premium listeners can hear a track in its first three days of upload. Apparently, this is only being tested in certain regions right now (Bangladesh and India are mentioned), but it's possible it may roll out to other places in the future. Tech Radar has reached out to Spotify for word on this and we'll update this missive with any response from the company on whether a more global rollout is planned.

Redditors commenting on the news — Premium and free subscribers alike — were critical, though none seemed very surprised. It further emphasises Spotify's desire to push its free subscribers to start paying, if they want to listen to new music.

My favorite music streaming site just got a big update that makes me even happier I quit Spotify

Apple is putting up prices on Apple Music and Apple One plans

Spotify lacks album folders, so I've started using third-party apps

At the other end of the spectrum is Apple Music. i OS27 has an added an option which would be nondescript most days of the week, but which helps as a useful juxtaposition to Spotify's downgrade (and which, Redditors claim, fixes "one of Apple Music's biggest issues since forever").

Now, in the Settings menu, two new sliders exist, and are turned off by default. One is for playlist songs, and the other is for favorite songs, and toggling these means that you can add tunes to a playlist or your favorite songs, without it being added to your library.

The Apple Music library could sometimes feel like a dumping ground for just about every kind of music you'd heard or listened to even once. It's full of your owned songs, tunes from playlists you listen to, anything from a Smart Playlist, and so on.

This could be a problem if, say, you make a playlist for a Christmas party, because all these festive tracks would show up in your library when you were doing a general shuffle. Inappropriate, for July. If you deleted the tracks from your library, the playlist would become eerily empty next time December rolled around, because they'd be deleted from both spots.

Now, your library and playlists can function independently. If I'm being honest, I'm surprised this wasn't a feature before. It's not a huge change, but on Reddit, various commenters are describing use cases in which they'll appreciate it, so it's clearly gone down well.

And Apple could have simply added the ability to change the Apple Music logo color; if it was an improvement, it'd have gone down well. Yes, you always pay for Apple Music while Spotify does at least offer something for free. But don't forget, Apple casually upgraded all of its Music catalog to CD quality in 2021 without charging users more than they were already paying. So Apple Music fans might say that Spotify is continuing to show music streaming subscribers how not to do it, and its near rivals will benefit.

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Tom Bedford is a freelance contributor covering tech, entertainment and gaming. Beyond Tech Radar, he has bylines on sites including Games Radar, Digital Trends, Android Police, Tech Advisor, Whatto Watch and BGR. From 2019 to 2022 he was on the Tech Radar team as the staff writer and then deputy editor for the mobile team.

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News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
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Unlock instant access to exclusive member features
Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards