![Why I'm Ditching Spotify for Apple Music in 2025 [Analysis]](https://tryrunable.com/blog/why-i-m-ditching-spotify-for-apple-music-in-2025-analysis/image-1-1766923498084.jpg)
Why I'm Ditching Spotify for Apple Music in 2025: The Complete Story
I've been staring at my Spotify app for the past week, watching that green logo load playlists I spent ten years curating. And honestly? I'm done. Not angry, not suddenly converting to some Apple fanatic, but genuinely disappointed in what music streaming has become.
Here's the thing—when Spotify launched its free tier in 2008, it felt revolutionary. A teenager in suburban nowhere could listen to literally any song ever recorded, whenever they wanted. No piracy, no sketchy downloads, just music. Seamless, instant, beautiful.
That magic? It's gone.
Streaming services have spent the last five years optimizing for engagement metrics instead of listening experience. Algorithms push you toward what's popular. UI gets clunkier. Artists get paid less. And somehow, the service that promised to save music ended up making it feel more disposable than ever.
I'm not alone in this feeling. Music fans have been quietly migrating for months. But most articles about switching services focus on surface-level stuff: "Apple Music has higher-quality audio" or "It integrates with your Apple Watch." Sure, those matter. But there's something deeper happening that nobody wants to admit.
Streaming has taken something away from us—and it's time to talk about what.
TL; DR
- Spotify prioritizes engagement over discovery, pushing viral hits instead of helping you find music you actually love
- Apple Music's curation is deeper and more personal, with human curators who understand context and artistry
- Audio quality matters more than tech companies admit, and lossless audio on Apple Music makes a real difference
- Artist payments are becoming unsustainable, with Spotify paying 0.007-0.01
- The user experience has degraded, with bloated interfaces and features nobody asked for cluttering both services
Apple Music offers both lossless audio and spatial audio, unlike Spotify, which only offers compressed audio streaming at 320 kbps. Estimated data.
The Death of Discovery: How Spotify Lost Its Way
When I started using Spotify, the algorithm felt like magic. Discover Weekly would arrive every Monday with songs I'd never heard before but immediately loved. The algorithm actually understood my taste. It wasn't pushing garbage to keep me scrolling—it was genuinely trying to expand my music horizons.
Somewhere around 2018-2019, that changed.
Discover Weekly started feeling like a marketing tool instead of a discovery tool. I'd get the same 15 artists I already followed, remixed slightly. One Monday it was "Look, Billie Eilish made a new single." Another week: "Remember The Weeknd? Here he is again." It wasn't helping me discover new artists anymore. It was pushing the most algorithmically safe choices to keep engagement high.
This isn't accidental. Spotify's entire business model depends on time spent in the app. The longer you listen, the more ad impressions they serve (to free users) and the more data they collect (from everyone). An algorithm that genuinely broadens your taste might make you satisfied faster, might make you listen less overall. An algorithm that feeds you the same viral hits on repeat? That keeps you engaged.
Apple Music took a different approach. Their algorithm is honestly weaker in some ways—it doesn't have 15 years of Spotify's data advantage. But they compensated by hiring human curators. Real music critics, DJs, industry experts who understand context. They won't recommend a song just because it'll keep you clicking. They'll recommend it because it's good and it fits what you're listening to.
Is human curation less scalable than algorithmic discovery? Absolutely. But it's also less soulless. When I look at an Apple Music playlist curated by a real person who knows indie rock, it feels like a recommendation from a friend who actually gets it. Not a mathematical optimization function designed to maximize engagement.
Why Algorithms Became the Problem
The original Spotify algorithm worked because the company's goal aligned with users' goals: find music you love. But then Wall Street got involved. Spotify needed to grow quarterly revenue. The algorithm's job secretly shifted to: keep users in the app longer, regardless of whether they're actually happier.
This is the fundamental problem with ad-supported and even subscription models when they're publicly traded companies. Engagement metrics matter more than satisfaction.
The Playlist Overload Problem
Spotify has over 11 million playlists. That sounds great until you realize it's overwhelming. Most of those playlists are algorithmic noise—auto-generated combinations designed to capture search traffic but not actually curated for listening quality. You can't distinguish between a playlist made by someone who loves music and a playlist generated by a computer.
Apple Music has roughly 250,000 human-curated playlists. Fewer options, but every one was created by an actual person who considered the flow, the narrative, the emotional arc.
It sounds inefficient. But inefficiency is sometimes the point.
Artists earn approximately 2-3 times more per stream on Apple Music (
The Audio Quality Issue Nobody Wants to Discuss
Tech enthusiasts have been screaming about audio quality for years, and Spotify fans consistently respond with "most people can't tell the difference." That's technically true. Most people listening through Air Pods or phone speakers won't notice the difference between 128 kbps and 320 kbps streaming.
But here's what gets ignored: some people do care, and they shouldn't be made to feel crazy for caring.
Spotify streams at 320 kbps maximum on Premium (which is already compressed audio). Apple Music offers lossless audio—full, uncompressed CD-quality streaming—at no extra cost. That's not a minor feature. That's fundamentally different audio.
The catch? You need decent headphones and equipment to actually hear the difference. If you're using $20 earbuds, lossless audio won't help you. But if you've invested in quality audio equipment (which millions of people have), listening to compressed music feels like settling.
I've had the same pair of Sennheiser HD 650 headphones for eight years. They're not fancy, but they're good. When I switched to Apple Music and listened to albums I know inside-out, I heard things I'd missed on Spotify. Subtle instrumentation. Vocal layers. Production details that mattered.
Did it change my life? No. But it mattered. And Spotify's response was essentially "you're a snob." That's not a great way to treat customers who care about quality.
The Spatial Audio Question
Apple's spatial audio (Dolby Atmos) is where things get interesting. It's available on certain songs, and when it works, it's genuinely impressive. Imagine surround sound mixed into a stereo track. You get depth, dimension, separation between instruments.
Again, you need decent equipment to appreciate it. But the option exists. Spotify doesn't even offer the possibility.
Why Spotify Doesn't Offer Lossless
The official explanation: bandwidth costs. Lossless audio uses about 3x more data than compressed streaming. For Spotify's infrastructure, scaling that up would be expensive.
The real explanation: margin. Spotify already operates on razor-thin margins (about 25% net profit on revenue). Upgrading infrastructure costs money. Apple can absorb that cost because they sell phones and laptops at high margins. Spotify can't afford the same luxury.
But that's exactly why Spotify's business model was always vulnerable. They're dependent on cutting costs everywhere, which means cutting features that matter. Apple, with its hardware ecosystem, can make better long-term bets on audio quality because one good experience might convince you to buy their headphones, watches, and computers.
It's a different business model. One that happens to result in better audio.
The Artist Payment Crisis (And Why It Matters)
Here's something most music streaming users don't want to think about: the artists creating the music you love are getting screwed.
Spotify pays between
I know what people say: "But there are way more Spotify users." True. A
Except here's the thing: Spotify's algorithm makes it nearly impossible for independent or mid-level artists to break through. Their recommendation algorithm is so powerful, and so focused on already-famous artists, that new music gets buried. You'll see the same 500 artists in your recommendations, over and over.
Apple Music's human curation actually helps smaller artists. If a real curator thinks your album is worth listening to, it gets playlisted. You might reach 100,000 listeners instead of 10 million, but that's 100,000 people who actually chose your music instead of having it served to them by an algorithm.
The Economics Are Unsustainable
At
So streaming services have created a weird economy where only mega-famous artists make real money. Everyone else needs Patreon, merchandise, or live shows. The streaming income is almost irrelevant.
This is bad for the music industry. It means musicians have less time to actually make music, because they're spending time on other income sources. And it means the diversity of music available is shrinking—only artists who can afford to make music without substantial income can sustain a career.
Apple Music's slightly higher payment rate won't solve this. But it's at least acknowledging that artists deserve to be paid decently.
Spotify's algorithm is highly effective in engagement but may lack in diversity and user satisfaction compared to Apple Music's human-curated approach. Estimated data based on narrative insights.
The User Interface Became Bloated
When was the last time Spotify's interface actually improved? Not changed—improved. Made your life simpler. Made finding music easier.
I'm genuinely asking. Because from my perspective, every interface update in the past five years has made Spotify more confusing.
They added Spotify Canvas (animated backgrounds for songs). Cool, unnecessary, appreciated by about 5% of users, confuses the other 95% looking for actual music features.
They promoted podcasts to equal status with music. Sure, podcasts are content, but I'm paying for a music service. When I open Spotify, I want music recommendations, not Joe Rogan promotions shoved in my face.
They added social features—collaborative playlists, share buttons, "what's your friend listening to?" Nobody asked for this. People wanted Spotify to be better at music. Instead, it became more like Tik Tok.
Meanwhile, Apple Music's interface is clean. You open it, you see your music, you listen. The algorithm suggestions are there if you want them. The playlists are curated. The interface doesn't get in the way.
There's a reason minimalist design is considered sophisticated. Removing unnecessary features is harder than adding them. Apple did it anyway.
The "Messed With Something" Feeling
Every few months, Spotify changes where things are. The menu moves. The icons shift. Features you liked disappear or get renamed. It's the user interface equivalent of going to a restaurant and discovering they moved all the furniture around for no reason.
Apple's interface has been consistent for two years. Maybe boring. But boring means you can focus on music instead of figuring out how to navigate the app.
Integration Matters More Than People Admit
I have an i Phone, an i Pad, a Mac, and an Apple Watch. If you're in Apple's ecosystem (and millions of people are), Apple Music just works better. It's not gimmicky integration, it's actually useful:
Siri voice control actually works. "Hey Siri, play that song I heard at the coffee shop." On Spotify, this is hit or miss. On Apple Music, it just works. Your device understands context.
The Apple Watch experience is legitimate. You can control playback, skip songs, see what's playing, all from your wrist. Spotify's watch app is clunky and frequently loses connection.
Mac integration is seamless. Music syncs across devices instantly. Your current queue, your position in an album, your saved songs—everything is synchronized. Spotify has to sync through the cloud, and it's slower.
Air Play is built-in. Send music to any Air Play speaker with one tap. Spotify requires third-party apps or settings buried in menus.
Now, if you're not in Apple's ecosystem, this means nothing. But if you are—and especially if you use multiple Apple devices—Apple Music integration is genuinely better.
Estimated data shows Apple Music consistently outperforms Spotify in user satisfaction across key interface and feature categories.
The Emotional Case: Why This Matters
Here's something that never makes it into tech articles because it's not quantifiable: streaming services used to feel like they respected music and listeners. Now they feel extractive.
Spotify started as music lovers trying to solve piracy. They genuinely believed unlimited music would make people happier and artists richer. The mission mattered.
Now Spotify is a publicly traded company optimizing for quarterly earnings and engagement metrics. That's fine, it's how capitalism works. But it means every decision is made with profit margins in mind, not user happiness.
Apple Music was born as a way to sell more i Phones and Macs. That's the honest truth. But something interesting happened: Apple realized that if people actually loved music, they'd keep using Apple devices. So they invested in the service. Real curation. Better audio quality. Actual artist support.
The profit motive is still there, but it's aimed at a different target. Instead of maximizing engagement time, they're maximizing user satisfaction with the Apple ecosystem.
That difference matters. And it shows in the product.
What Spotify Did Right (and Why I'm Still Sad)
I don't want to be unfair to Spotify. They revolutionized music. They made streaming the default. They proved the business model works (barely). They created an interface so good that everyone else copied it.
Their collaborative playlist feature is still the best way to share music with friends. You can genuinely create something together, and it's fun.
Their family plan is reasonably priced and works smoothly. If you have four family members, $16.99/month for unlimited music is fantastic value.
Their mobile app is fast and responsive. It doesn't crash. It doesn't slow down.
The reason I'm switching isn't because Spotify is bad. It's because Apple Music is better at being a music service, and Spotify has become good at being an engagement app.
That's the loss. Music streaming used to be about the music. Now it's about the metrics.
Apple Music excels in curation and audio quality, while Spotify leads in engagement. Artist payments and user experience are areas of concern for both. Estimated data based on qualitative analysis.
Apple Music's Actual Weaknesses (Let's Be Honest)
Apple Music isn't perfect. Before you switch, you should know:
The search function sometimes misses obvious songs. Not often, but occasionally you'll search for something and get weird results. Spotify's search is more robust.
The algorithm isn't as good as Spotify's. If you specifically love the algorithmic recommendations (and some people do), you might miss that. Apple's algorithm is okay, but Spotify's is legitimately better from a pure machine-learning standpoint.
No free tier. Spotify has a free tier that lets you listen to music with ads. Apple Music is subscription-only. If you're not ready to pay $10.99/month, Spotify is your only option among the big services.
Less indie hip-hop presence. Spotify's algorithm loves indie hip-hop and underground artists. Apple's curation skews more toward mainstream. If you're deep in underground rap communities, Spotify's discovery is better.
Desktop app is clunky on Windows. If you use Windows, Apple Music is awkward. It's designed for Macs. Spotify works great everywhere.
Integration only works with Apple devices. All that seamless integration? Only if you're in the ecosystem. If you have an Android phone, Apple Music doesn't get any integration advantages.
So before you switch, ask yourself: Do you use multiple Apple devices? Do you care about audio quality? Do you value human curation? Do you want to support artists better?
If the answer is no to most of those, stick with Spotify. It's still great.
The Bigger Picture: What Streaming Has Lost
This isn't just about Spotify vs. Apple. It's about what happened to music consumption overall.
Before streaming, owning music meant something. You'd buy an album, listen to it dozens of times, really know it. You'd read liner notes. You'd understand the album's narrative arc because you had to, since you weren't constantly switching between thousands of options.
Streaming changed that. Suddenly you had access to every song ever made. That's incredible. But it also means you listen more casually. You skip more. You rarely sit with an album long enough to really understand it.
Playlists made it worse. Now you're not even listening to albums in the order artists intended. You're listening to algorithmically-generated sequences designed to keep you clicking.
And artists adapted by making 3-minute dopamine hits instead of cohesive albums. Songs designed to be catchy immediately, not rewarding over time. Because if you skip after 30 seconds, they don't get paid.
Music got worse because the system incentivized worse music.
Apple Music's human curation is an attempt to fix this. By having real music experts deciding what's worth listening to, you get back some of that curation you lost. You get albums that were meant to be heard as albums. You get context. You get art.
It's not perfect. But it's an acknowledgment that something was lost, and an attempt to get it back.
Making the Switch: What I'm Learning
I've been on Apple Music for three weeks now. Here's what surprised me:
It's actually relaxing. Not having the anxiety of "am I discovering the right music" is nice. The curated playlists are good enough that I can just listen without overthinking.
My listening habits changed. I'm sitting with albums longer. Listening to full albums instead of jumping between playlists. Actually paying attention to the music instead of using it as background to everything.
The loss of Discover Weekly stings. I do miss that Monday moment. Apple Music's equivalent (New Music Daily) is good, but it's not the same.
Air Play is genuinely useful. I didn't expect this, but having music automatically play on my Home Pod when I enter a room is actually magical.
The audio quality difference is real. On songs I know, lossless audio is noticeably better. Not life-changing, but real.
Cross-ecosystem people need to think harder. If you use Android, Windows, or non-Apple devices, the integration benefits disappear. Apple Music is essentially the same as Spotify if you're not in the ecosystem.
Would I recommend everyone switch? No. Spotify is still a fantastic service. But if you care about music, use Apple devices, and want to support artists better, Apple Music is the better choice now.
What Happened to the Dream?
When Spotify started, music fans had a dream. Universal, unlimited access to all music. Artist payments that sustained careers. Technology that understood taste better than any DJ could.
We got the universal access. We didn't get the rest.
Artists still struggle to make money. Technology became a tool for engagement maximization instead of understanding. The service that was supposed to save music became another algorithm optimizing for addictiveness.
Apple Music isn't saving music either. But they're at least not making it worse. They're trying to remember what music is supposed to be.
That matters. Not enough to change the world. But enough to change how I listen.
FAQ
What makes Apple Music better than Spotify?
Apple Music offers higher audio quality with lossless streaming, human-curated playlists, better integration with Apple devices, and higher artist payments (
How much does Apple Music cost?
Apple Music costs
Can I transfer my Spotify playlists to Apple Music?
Yes, you can transfer playlists using third-party tools like Tune My Music or Soundiiz. These services let you export your Spotify playlists and import them to Apple Music automatically. Your saved songs and listening history don't transfer, but playlists move over cleanly.
What's the difference between lossless and regular streaming?
Lossless audio is uncompressed, meaning every detail of the original recording is preserved. Regular streaming (like Spotify's 320 kbps) removes some information to reduce file size. The difference is only noticeable with quality headphones and equipment, but if you've invested in good audio gear, lossless makes a real difference.
Do artists actually make more money on Apple Music?
Yes, artists earn 2-3 times more per stream on Apple Music (
Is Apple Music's algorithm good?
Apple Music's algorithm is functional but not as sophisticated as Spotify's. However, Apple compensates with human curation by actual music experts, which many users prefer to pure algorithmic recommendations. The curation adds context and intentionality that algorithms can miss.
What if I use Android or Windows?
If you use primarily Android or Windows devices, Apple Music loses most of its integration advantages over Spotify. The service becomes largely equivalent, so Spotify's superior algorithm and free tier make it the better choice for non-Apple users.
Can I use Apple Music if I don't have an i Phone?
Yes, Apple Music works on Android, Windows, Macs, and through the web. However, the seamless integration and Siri voice control features only work on Apple devices. You can use the service on any device, but you get fewer benefits if you're not in the Apple ecosystem.
How does Apple Music's spatial audio work?
Spatial audio (Dolby Atmos) creates a surround-sound effect in stereo headphones, giving music depth and dimension. It's available on select songs across various genres. You need compatible headphones or speakers to experience it properly, and the feature isn't available on Spotify at all.
Conclusion: The Real Cost of Convenience
Streaming services promised to save music. They've made music accessible, but at a cost nobody talks about: the commodification of listening itself.
When everything is instantly available, nothing feels special. When algorithms decide what you hear, you stop trusting your own taste. When artists make $0.004 per stream, music becomes disposable entertainment rather than art worth paying for.
I'm switching to Apple Music not because I think they're perfect. They're not. They have limitations, and depending on your setup, they might be the wrong choice for you.
I'm switching because I want to use a service that respects music enough to have human beings decide what's worth listening to. That pays artists decently. That doesn't treat my attention as inventory to be maximized.
Is that naive? Probably. Apple's still a corporation. They still want your money. But at least they're not pretending to do something they're not. They're not claiming to connect listeners with artists while optimizing for engagement metrics.
Ten years ago, I chose Spotify because it was the future. Now I'm choosing Apple Music because Spotify became the present—and I don't like it.
The real loss isn't Spotify's fault entirely. It's what happens when you optimize for growth instead of love. When scale becomes the only metric that matters. When the service is the product, and the user is the customer.
Music deserves better. And after ten years, I'm ready to try something that at least attempts better, even if it's imperfect.
If you care about music—really care, not just use it as background noise—it might be worth trying too.
Key Takeaways
- Spotify's algorithm optimizes for engagement metrics rather than actual music discovery, pushing familiar artists over genuine discovery
- Apple Music offers lossless audio at no extra cost, while Spotify's maximum quality is compressed 320 kbps streaming
- Artists earn 2-3x more per stream on Apple Music (0.003-0.005), significantly impacting sustainability
- Human curation by music experts provides intentional, context-aware recommendations that algorithms cannot replicate
- Apple Music's ecosystem integration with Apple devices creates genuine user experience improvements unavailable on non-Apple platforms
