Streaming music on subscription: Spotify v YouTube Music

Prices look similar, so any views on which is best folks?

 

Amazon are entering the market so must be worth a look

 

Have all 3 and personally YouTube music beats the others as the algorithm is far superior (for my taste anyway) at picking out similar sings whereas Spotify does alright for a few songs then goes completely left field, it also has a tendency to not play all the songs in any given playlist, say I’ve made a playlist with around 30 songs in it will play the same 10/15 over and over and never play the other. Which is so frustrating.

The other benefit of YouTube is the various covers white labels remixes etc which are just not available on the other platforms

 

Never used YouTube for music, but I don't think I could live without Spotify.

Very easy to use, easy to make playlists, easy to find new music and podcasts to listen to, playlists tailored to your listening history, and pretty much a complete library of music instantly accessible. I mainly listen to podcasts to be honest, but even with those the library is extensive.

Not great for artists though by all accounts. A mate of mine is in a band, and despite having a bit of a following (mainly in Hastings, Ipswich and a couple of small German towns), and has thousands of monthly streams, he earns practically pennies from Spotify. They're called Nosebleed if anyone wants to help them out. They stylize themselves on the Hives.

 

Why do you subscribe to all 3 mate? Not being critical, just wondered why you haven't just stuck with YouTube?

I tend to agree with Spotify, although I have a few playlists I've made and they shuffle fairly well. The thing I find with Spotify is, when the 'radio' comes on, it tends to play the same songs over and over, regardless of whatever the starter song is. I'm quite nostalgic over my teen angst years, so listen to a lot of Blink 182, My Chemical Romance etc. When the Radio kicks in, the first song is always either, What's my age again by Blink, Fat Lip by Sum 41, or Beer by Reel Big Fish. It diversifies after that initial song, but it's usually one of those 3 first (first date by blink usually pops up as the 4th or 5th song).

 

Have Amazon as part of daughters student deal, I’ve had Spotify for years and to be honest I’ve wanted to live away from it for quite a while but the rest of the family use it and have their own playlists etc so sadly I’m stuck with it and as for YouTube I pay for it through a vpn in turkey so only cost me £2

But yeh regarding Spotify it frustrates me if I’m honest I don’t feel it finds new songs as well as YouTube and as mentioned the shuffle doesn’t actually shuffle very well ( for me anyway) like you it plays the same songs in the same order. Also with YouTube (I’m a trance head) I can listen to all the old mixes from the late 90s early 2000s judge jules etc which is just not possible on Spotify

 

Bandcamp I probably use most and after that Spotify. I tried to give up Spotify due to the way they treat artists but failed spectacularly. Most of my music listening is vinyl though stream mainly when WFH.

 

YouTube is miles better for dance music. Although I'm pretty sure that if you're a trance head you must use SoundCloud quite a bit?

 

I do use it but not as much as YouTube, I used to use it a lot years ago in my electro phase there was some brilliant mixes and real filthy electro on their but it’s not as good now ( I’m really picky )

 

A lot of classic essential mixes on both platforms. As far as modern electronic music goes, I'm far more into prog, techno and progressive psy. YouTube and SoundCloud are both equally excellent for these. Although the very best thing about SoundCloud is it contains my mixes!

 

I've had Amazon music unlimited for a few years and i like it, has the biggest catalogue of them all and they do Atmos and Sony 360 tracks as well as sd/hd/uhd. It sounds very good with the Amazon Echo Studio speaker

 

I'm currently using Spotify to work through all the critically recommended albums of the 80s and 90s (from https://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/) - and there are quite a few of those missing. Some are big names, like Neil Young who removed his entire catalog, others are less famous. I'd say its somewhere around 10% of the albums I'm looking for aren't on it - and often its 1-2 albums by a particular band, so it might be contractual.

I've not tried the other services to compare though.