As we've shifted towards more of a digital and streaming-centric culture for the better part of a decade, physical media has fallen a bit to the wayside. This is nothing new for the music industry, though, as the days of carrying around casettes or a book full of CDs with your favorite albums have largely disappeared when the original iPod was introduced over 20 years ago and revolutionized the way we carry and consume our music.
Apple Music is the next evolution of Apple's original vision of "1,000 songs in your pocket" as you now have access to over 100 million songs in your pocket, on your wrist, or really — anywhere, as music streaming has become the primary way we all enjoy and share our favorite songs. Check out our full rundown of Apple Music below to learn about the service itself including how much it costs, how and where you can listen, and how it compares to the other popular streaming service, Spotify.
What is Apple Music?
Apple Music is a subscription-based music streaming service from Apple that launched in 2015. Currently, it boasts the largest music library across any service with over 100 million songs and more than 30,000 curated playlists for just about every genre, mood, and taste. As with most streaming services, you can download your favorite songs, albums, and playlists to listen offline without requiring any additional data to stream.
Apple Music also includes access to a number of live 24/7 radio stations including Apple 1, Apple Music Hits, and Apple Music Country hosted by popular DJs from around the world and feature exclusive artist interviews, live performances, and much more. And, if you're a fan of classical music, Apple Music also includes access to Apple Music Classical, the world's largest library of classical music with over 5 million tracks. It features a tailored experience that allows you to explore the vast classical music genre as well as listen to exclusive albums and performances by famous orchestras.
Additionally, Apple Music also includes a 24/7 channel dedicated to music videos called Apple Music TV that features non-stop music videos and live performances from your favorite artists. There are also music video playlists that you can throw on in the background to relive those classic MTV days from your childhood, if you so desire.
One of Apple Music's best features, however, is its high-quality audio. Apple Music features a variety of different streaming qualities to satisfy the audiophile in you, including a custom Advanced Audio Codec (AAC) called Apple Lossless Audio that delivers sound quality that is "virtually indistinguishable from the original studio recording." Additionally, the entire Apple Music catalog is available in 24-bit/192kHz audio quality, although you'll need specific audio equipment to enjoy the full range of audio. Apple has also digitally remastered a number of classic albums with its Apple Digital Masters to ensure your favorite albums sound better than ever.
If you own a pair of Apple's wireless headphones such as AirPods, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max, as well as a number of additional Apple-owned hardware devices, you'll also be able to enjoy Spatial Audio, an immersive 3D audio experience that envelops you in audio to make you feel like you're right in the middle of the action. Additionally, Apple offers a number of songs that support Dolby Atmos audio, so if you have a pair of compatible headphones or speakers, you can enjoy a wider range of sound than traditional speakers or headphones.
How Much is Apple Music?
Apple Music features a number of different plans depending on how you want to listen to music. The standard individual Apple Music plan is $10.99 a month and provides access to everything described above, while the family plan for up to six unique users is $16.99 per month. Apple Music is also included in a bundled service called Apple One that gives you access to Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and a 50GB iCloud+ plan for $16.95 per month (or $22.95 a month for a family plan).
If you're a current college or university student, you can sign up for a discounted Apple Music Student plan for $5.99 per month that includes everything available in the standard Apple Music plan, plus access to Apple's video streaming service Apple TV+. There's also a voice-only plan that allows you to request any song, album, playlist, or radio station in the Apple Music catalog via Siri, Apple's digital assistant, that will run you $4.99 a month. However, you aren't able to download anything for offline use and can't browse through the library via the Apple Music app as you're limited only to voice commands. Additionally, you won't be able to enjoy the lossless audio format or experience Spatial Audio on supported devices.
Apple also offers six months of Apple Music for free with the purchase of any new Apple audio device such as AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, HomePod, HomePod mini, and the Beats family of headphones. New users can also try Apple Music free for one month before committing to a plan.
Where Can You Listen to Apple Music?
Apple Music is available natively on any Apple device through the Music app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, as well as HomePod devices. Additionally, Apple Music is available on Android devices, Windows, Sonos speakers, smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Nest, and many internet-connected smart TVs. You can also listen online at music.apple.com.
How Does Apple Music Compare to Spotify?
While Apple Music is undoubtedly one of the biggest music streaming services in the world, it has always been compared to Spotify which launched much earlier in 2011 and pioneered digital music streaming. While both services have their benefits, Apple Music has bolstered its offerings in recent years to compete more directly with Spotify, as well as offer features that are only available on Apple's streaming service.
For audiophiles, Apple Music is the clear winner as it offers lossless audio and up to 24-bit/192kHz audio quality across the entire library, assuming you have the audio equipment that can take advantage of the expanded audio range. Spotify, on the other hand, offers audio streaming quality ranging from 24kbp/s up to 320kbp/s (the highest level of MP3 streaming) for Premium subscribers. Spotify does allow you to lower the audio streaming quality to reduce data consumption, while Apple Music only allows you to disable the lossless audio options to stream at a flat of 256kbp/s.
While Apple Music has doubled-down on more tailored playlists based on your listening preference, Spotify still provides a better discovery experience with a more dynamic curated selection of playlists, including Daily Mixes, as well as the recently released Spotify DJ — an AI-powered companion that serves you up the right music for the moment.
If you like to listen to music with friends, both streaming services offer ways to achieve that, albeit with different steps. Spotify's ease-of-use when it comes to sharing and playing music with friends via Group Sessions can't be beat. Any users can join the Group Session, add their own music to the queue, and even control playback. Apple Music also allows you to group together and share music via SharePlay, but this requires the other users to own an Apple device as it can only be initiated through iMessage or FaceTime.
If you're a fan of karaoke, both Apple Music and Spotify feature built-in lyrics for most songs, but Apple Music has taken it a step further with the recent Apple Music Sing feature which allows you to follow along to the song in real-time while adjusting the volume of the vocals to allow you voice to shine.
One major differentiator for Spotify is that it also offers a free tier, something not available on Apple Music. Spotify's free tier allows you to listen to millions of songs and podcasts without a monthly subscription, however you're unable to choose exactly what you listen to as everything is shuffled by default, and you have a limited number of skips available per hour. Additionally, the audio quality is much lower at 160kbp/s and you'll have to listen to unskippable ads in between songs. But hey, it's free, right?
As far as the mobile apps go, Spotify's app is a bit easier to navigate as Apple tends to update the Music app every year or so and inevitably shuffles controls around in an effort to make things easier to navigate and discover, as well as showcase the app's new features such as the aformentioned Apple Music Sing. However, the frequent changes can make finding certain features a bit unwieldy at times, while Spotify has kept things virtually the same for many years.
Matthew Adler is a Commerce, Features, Guides, News, Previews, and Reviews writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream on Twitch.
