I was a big Apple Music fan. I went for the 3 months trial when it first launched and then continue paying the subscription. Later, I stopped, thinking I don't really have much time for music only to realize that I cannot live without having instant access to songs. I subscribed again.
Yes, Spotify is more popular in Malaysia and I think around the world. But I am a huge Apple fan and I have a lot of historical data in iTunes - I started using iTunes when it was just version 4. And I have stuck with iTunes all these years because it remember the songs I starred, it keep track of my play count and because of these data, I could create Smart Playlist such as "My top songs I have not listened to in the past 3 months" or "Recently played songs that is in my top 20 list" or "Songs in my library which I have not listened to". When Apple Music was introduced, it still uses iTunes library and as such my analytic data are still being kept and updated and it was great.
But I have since switched away from Apple Music. Here's 4 reasons why:
1. Discovery
Apple Music have beautiful curated music - these are songs put together by experts employed by Apple. And as such I have discovered many new musics or old ones that I know of but do not know the name. But as you use more and more, you realize many of the curated music are repeats. Spotify have the same thing but Spotify have something else - it allows users like you and me to publish our playlist and allow collaboration, so people (or even friends) of the same era or love the same genre can contribute to build playlist of long forgotten songs. You can follow friends or follow a playlist. When you share a playlist with a friend within Spotify app, all of you can have instant messaging and discuss about the playlist, what sucked and what should be added. The social aspect here is excellent.
2. Speed
I am on maxis. Spotify has partnership with maxis. I don't know why but I feel that browsing and searching for music on Spotify is so much spiffy and faster. Apple is supposed to be king of User Experience but sadly, Apple Music is not as snappy as I like. Maybe too much graphic. But yeah, we are here to listen to songs, not looking at graphics. Well, actually I am a album art whore, I admit, but even then, I'd love to be able to quickly listen to a song and not wait for some syncing to happen.
And did I say that searching for a song or album is super fast in Spotify? Maybe Apple Music does not have servers in Malaysia. Spotify does and it shows in the speed. Whatever searches are local to Malaysia network and is INSTANT!
3. Free
Seriously, who can argue with free? If you are a MaxisOne 98 Plan and above, you get free subscription to Spotify Premium. That's free vs Apple Music MYR$12/month. Free vs 12 bucks per month! And even if you are not on MaxisOne Plan and is just a maxis user, there is a 30% discount for subscribing to Spotify. Not only that, when you are listening to Spotify, it does not use your usual internet quota. maxis let you stream for free! 15GB Spotify data/month free! FREE! FREEEEE!
Yeah, the free part probably have a strong weight-age over my decision to finally dump Apple Music for Spotify. But I think user experience and speed is equally important and I don't see myself paying and yet using something inferior to the competition.
Apple, you need to up your stuff man, just saying!
Yes, Spotify is more popular in Malaysia and I think around the world. But I am a huge Apple fan and I have a lot of historical data in iTunes - I started using iTunes when it was just version 4. And I have stuck with iTunes all these years because it remember the songs I starred, it keep track of my play count and because of these data, I could create Smart Playlist such as "My top songs I have not listened to in the past 3 months" or "Recently played songs that is in my top 20 list" or "Songs in my library which I have not listened to". When Apple Music was introduced, it still uses iTunes library and as such my analytic data are still being kept and updated and it was great.
But I have since switched away from Apple Music. Here's 4 reasons why:
1. Discovery
Apple Music have beautiful curated music - these are songs put together by experts employed by Apple. And as such I have discovered many new musics or old ones that I know of but do not know the name. But as you use more and more, you realize many of the curated music are repeats. Spotify have the same thing but Spotify have something else - it allows users like you and me to publish our playlist and allow collaboration, so people (or even friends) of the same era or love the same genre can contribute to build playlist of long forgotten songs. You can follow friends or follow a playlist. When you share a playlist with a friend within Spotify app, all of you can have instant messaging and discuss about the playlist, what sucked and what should be added. The social aspect here is excellent.
2. Speed
I am on maxis. Spotify has partnership with maxis. I don't know why but I feel that browsing and searching for music on Spotify is so much spiffy and faster. Apple is supposed to be king of User Experience but sadly, Apple Music is not as snappy as I like. Maybe too much graphic. But yeah, we are here to listen to songs, not looking at graphics. Well, actually I am a album art whore, I admit, but even then, I'd love to be able to quickly listen to a song and not wait for some syncing to happen.
And did I say that searching for a song or album is super fast in Spotify? Maybe Apple Music does not have servers in Malaysia. Spotify does and it shows in the speed. Whatever searches are local to Malaysia network and is INSTANT!
3. Free
Seriously, who can argue with free? If you are a MaxisOne 98 Plan and above, you get free subscription to Spotify Premium. That's free vs Apple Music MYR$12/month. Free vs 12 bucks per month! And even if you are not on MaxisOne Plan and is just a maxis user, there is a 30% discount for subscribing to Spotify. Not only that, when you are listening to Spotify, it does not use your usual internet quota. maxis let you stream for free! 15GB Spotify data/month free! FREE! FREEEEE!
Yeah, the free part probably have a strong weight-age over my decision to finally dump Apple Music for Spotify. But I think user experience and speed is equally important and I don't see myself paying and yet using something inferior to the competition.
Apple, you need to up your stuff man, just saying!
how does the free spotify works? How does it detect that you're maxis user who is entitled to the free and not the paid one?
ReplyDeleteYou signed up using maxis app so maxis knows it is their customer (you) who are signing up; behind the scene, maxis will sign up Spotify for you. The billing is done through maxis.
ReplyDelete