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Amazon Music vs Spotify: Which Is The Best Music Streaming Service?

Published on: Aug. 15, 2020


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Amazon Music vs Spotify: Which Is The Best Music Streaming Service?

Nowadays, most people are opting for online music streaming platforms. Instead of buying CDs and music, they now consider paying a fixed monthly fee to music streaming platforms to get access to millions of songs without having to buy them individually.

 

Both Amazon Music and Spotify are listed among some of the most in-demand and popular music streaming platforms and have tough competition between each other. Some features set both of the music streaming services apart from each other, making people confused regarding which one to subscribe to. So if you are thinking of subscribing to a music streaming platform, but want to clarify which one has better features, then here’s a comparison of Spotify and Amazon Music Unlimited:

 

History

Spotify was launched back in 2008 and people really loved the music streaming platforms. Since it did not have many competitors that time, most people would opt for the platform as it offered some really good stuff, such as 40 million songs and podcasts, DJ features, discovering new artists, etc. But in recent years, Spotify has been facing some tough competition, with the emergence of other music streaming platforms such as Deezer, Google Play Music, Apple Music, etc. But now, it seems like Spotify is facing even tougher competition, with Amazon introducing its new Amazon Unlimited Music.

Spotify

 

Before Amazon would only sell CDs and individual songs to its customers, meanwhile providing Amazon Prime users access to two million songs as part of the subscription. But now, Amazon has introduced its new music streaming platform Amazon Music Unlimited, that gives users access to a catalogue of 50 million songs at just a monthly fee of $7.99 (for Prime members) and $9.99 (for normal users).

 

Amazon-music

 

So here are some feature comparisons of Amazon Music and Spotify:

 

Subscription Plans

Spotify

Low on budget? Then Spotify has got you covered! The music streaming platform offers users a free subscription that comes with a few annoying ads and limited features, but the good thing is that it’s totally free and you don’t even have to pay a single penny for the free plan. But if you want a premium subscription, Spotify Premium will cost you just a monthly fee of $9.99, with ads-free music and unlimited features. Plus Premium users can also listen to music while they’re offline! Other than that, Spotify also has a family plan that costs $14.99 and allows up to six users, but the condition is that they have to reside at the same address.

 

Amazon Music Unlimited

Amazon does not offer any free plan for Amazon Music Unlimited. You must have a subscription in order to access the music library. But it does offer a 30-day free trial like some other music streaming platforms, and if you’re a Prime member, you get free access to Amazon’s Prime Music streaming (which is not the same as Amazon Music Unlimited) as a part of the subscription. As mentioned earlier, Amazon Music Unlimited charges basic users a monthly fee of $9.99 whereas Prime users have some advantage and only have to pay $7.99/month or $79 Other than that, there’s also a cheaper $3.99/month plan but that’s only for a “single eligible Echo or Fire TV device”. The family plan for Amazon Music unlimited is the same as Spotify: $14.99/month for six users.

 

Result

Spotify wins when it comes to subscription plans thanks to its free plan that Amazon Music Unlimited does not offer.

 

Music catalogue

Spotify launched in 2008, and Amazon Music Unlimited launched in 2018, so you may be thinking that Spotify has a larger library of music. But that’s not true. Spotify gives users access to 50 million songs, sounds like a lot, right? but guess what? Amazon Music Unlimited gives you access to 60 million songs, which is 10 million songs more than Spotify.  And while Spotify does not provide exclusive songs only limited to subscribers, Amazon Music Unlimited does, so Amazon Music users can listen to songs of a certain artist exclusively only on the platform, and they won’t be able to find it anywhere else.

 

Result

Since Amazon Music Unlimited offers a wider catalogue of 60 million songs to users, as well as exclusive artists and songs, it wins when it comes to the music catalogue.

 

Compatibility

Spotify

Spotify is compatible with both Android and iOS, and also offers a desktop app and a web player. And with Spotify Connect, premium users can listen to music on Spotify through their TV, speakers, and smartwatches. And it is also compatible with Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant!

 

Amazon Music Unlimited

Just like Spotify, Amazon Music Unlimited is also accessible through Android and iOS devices and tablets through its Amazon Music app. And for laptop, PC, and Mac, it has a web player as well as a desktop app. Other than this, as mentioned earlier, the music streaming platform can also be accessed through the Echo or Fire TV device, as well as in-car entertainment systems. Amazon Music is also compatible with Alexa (obviously), but since Amazon and Google are not on good terms, Amazon Unlimited is not compatible with Google Assistant.

 

Result

Both Amazon Music and Spotify are compatible with almost the same devices, resulting in a draw between the two when it comes to compatibility.

 

Other Factors

Spotify wins when it comes to music discovery on the music streaming platform. While Amazon has some unlimited discovery options, Spotify is always letting users discover new songs and artists. The “Discover Weekly” feature is a feature that integrates with AI and introduces users to 30 songs they’ve never listened to that match their preferences. Amazon Music Unlimited also has discovery options, which are very good as well, but less sophisticated than Spotify.

 

The sound quality for Spotify and Amazon Music Unlimited is almost the same, hence resulting in a draw between the two. Both of them have almost the same sound quality if you listen to them carefully, with the same headphones. There are barely any differences and so it’s a draw when it comes to sound quality.

 

Final Verdict

It depends on your personal preferences about which one is the best when it comes to Amazon Music vs Spotify. There are some features that one of them has and the other doesn’t, and vice versa. So according to the importance you give to those features, you can decide on which one to subscribe to. If you like discovering new songs and artists, then Spotify is the best option for you, but if you want a wider catalogue of music with more songs, then you should subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited. If you’ve got Alexa, then you may want to subscribe to Amazon Music. The competition is very close, and both of the music streaming platforms are barely different from each other. Therefore, it depends on your preferences that which one among the two you want to subscribe to.








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