Among multiple music streaming services, Amazon Music and Spotify have become two of the most popular platforms, as they were both launched in the early times and have expanded to large companies nowadays. For their powerful functions and large amounts of catalogs, millions of people are using them in everyday life. And there are still some people who are hesitating on these two platforms. Amazon Music vs Spotify: which is better? And is Amazon Music better than Spotify? If you are also dazzled by these music streaming platforms, you can find your answer through this detailed comparison between Amazon Music and Spotify. Also, it offers a bonus tip for you to keep your favorite streaming music locally forever.
Part 1. Quick Verdict: Key Differences between Spotify and Amazon Music
The “Amazon Music vs Spotify” debate used to be simple: Spotify for its best-in-class app and music discovery, and Amazon Music for its superior sound quality. However, the clear line has vanished with Spotify’s long-awaited launch of Lossless audio. The competition is tighter than ever. Which one to choose actually depends on your personal preferences.
TL;DR
Spotify remains the king of all-in-one app experiences. In the field of music discovery and connectivity, Spotify is still the best choice in the market. Its algorithms are unmatched, and Spotify Connect is a game-changing feature. Besides, its free tier is enough for music enjoyment if you don’t want to spend too much on music.
Amazon Music is the go-to option for pure audiophiles and Alexa-powered homes. It provides hi-res audio and pure spatial audio, like Dolby Atmos and Amazon Music 360 Reality Audio, for the same price. The Alexa+ assistant is another powerful feature for discovering and enjoying what you like.
| Amazon Music | Spotify | |
|---|---|---|
| Music Library | Over 100 millions songs | Over 100 millions songs |
| Monthly Price | From $10.99 | From $11.99 |
| Subscribers | 80 million (Unlimited) | 281 million |
| Available Regions | Over 50 countries | Over 180 countries and regions |
| Max Audio Quality | Ultra HD (24-bit/192kHz) | Lossless (24-bit/44.1kHz) |
| Spatial Audio | ✔ | ✘ |
| Device Compatibility | Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, smart speakers, consoles, and more | Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Echo devices, and more |
| Podcasts | Limited selection of podcasts | Large selection of podcasts |
Part 2. Spotify vs Amazon Music: Detailed Comparison
2.1 User Interface
The user interface plays a critical role in your overall experience with a music streaming platform.
The Spotify interface is clear, organized, and easy to navigate. It is consistent across all platforms. You can easily access your Library on the left and browse different audio content on the right. All features are organized around your personal playlists and curated feed.
The Amazon Music interface often features new music and large banners. It feels more cluttered and clunkier than Spotify. You may find it less intuitive when trying to access music you liked or have listened to. It often promotes its own ecosystem heavily.
Overall, Spotify wins in terms of user interface and experience, particularly for users who want a clean and versatile page for browsing and listening to music.
2.2 Music Discovery
The music library is arguably the most important difference for long-term listeners. What makes you stay on one platform is its library size and the unique ways it helps you find new tracks.
Spotify’s music library has more than 100 million tracks and diverse other audio content like podcasts. Many users choose Spotify due to its excellent ability in music discovery. Its algorithm is quite accurate in predicting recommendations based on your listening habits and preferences. You can find something you may like in its personalized playlists like Discover Weekly, Daily Mixes and Release Radar. In addition, you can listen to stations based on your favorite artists or genres on Spotify Radio.
The music library of Amazon Music also provides more than 100 million music tracks, curated playlists, and other content, but its music discovery feature is not as robust as Spotify’s. Its new feature, AI Maestro, uses AI prompts to help users create playlists. While fun, it is still experimental compared to Spotify’s time-tested weekly recommendations. However, you can find many high-quality human-created playlists on Amazon Music, covering all kinds of moods and genres.
Spotify takes the lead here. Thanks to its more advanced algorithms, you can find more personalized discovery options. If you enjoy discovering new music regularly, Spotify is a great choice.
2.3 Pricing and Free Tiers
Both Spotify and Amazon Music have free trials and offer different subscription plans for users to choose from. The price of their basic plans is quite the same. Here is the detailed information:
Spotify Plans
Spotify offers several plans, including Free, Premium Individual, Premium Duo, Premium Family, and Premium Student. For the free plan, you can listen to any song and music tracks in the music library, but you can’t avoid the advertisements in the process and can only skip six songs per hour. If you want to skip commercials, you have to upgrade to a premium account.
| Spotify Free | Spotify Premium Individual | Spotify Premium Duo | Spotify Premium Family | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Fee | Free | $11.99 | $16.99 | $19.99 |
| Ad-free | × | √ | √ | √ |
| Accounts | One | One | Two | Six |
| CD-quality | × | × | × | × |
| Offline Listening | × | √ | √ | √ |
Amazon Music Plans
Amazon Music provides similar plans, including Free, Amazon Music Prime, Unlimited, Unlimited Family, and Single Device. Unlike Spotify’s free plan, Amazon’s completely free version won’t allow you to listen to music with on-demand playback on the mobile app and web player, you may achieve this with shuffle mode only. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can get into the Amazon Music Prime service without the need to get subscribed. And to access 90 million songs, you need to upgrade to the Amazon Music Unlimited plan for an extra fee.
| Amazon Music | Amazon Music Prime | Amazon Music Unlimited | Amazon Music Unlimited Family | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Fee | Free | Free with Amazon Prime | $11.99 ($10.99 with Prime) | $19.99 |
| Ad-free | × | √ | √ | √ |
| Accounts | One | One | One | Six |
| CD-quality | × | × | √ | √ |
| Offline Listening | × | √ | √ | √ |
When comparing the free tier, Spotify wins since it provides a genuine taste of its service. You can play song on-demand without any problem. For paid tiers, Amazon Music offers a slight edge to Prime members. If you care about cost-effectiveness, Amazon Music wins.
2.4 Audio Quality
For audiophiles, audio quality is a key factor. Spotify offers sound quality ranging from 160 kbps (for free users) up to 320 kbps (for Premium users). It is enough for casual listeners who use standard earbuds or basic speakers, but not enough for true music lovers.
On the other hand, Amazon Music provides a lossless high-quality - Amazon Music HD and Ultra HD, with bitrates up to 850 kbps, depending on the device you're using. When you use a high-end sound system or headphones, you can experience the enhanced audio quality immersively. More importantly, its inclusion of Spatial Audio is a massive differentiator that Spotify does not currently offer.
Without hesitation, Amazon Music is the winner for audio quality. Its hi-res audio makes it the obvious option for audiophiles. If you do not care that much about sound quality, Spotify’s 320 kbps will suffice.
2.5 Compatibility and Availability
Another essential factor you should take into consideration is the compatibility and availability of a music streaming service. It ensures you can access your favorite music across all your devices in your region.
Spotify is accessible on virtually every device, including smartphones, computers, tablets, smart TVs, speakers, game consoles, and more. For compatible devices, Spotify is much better than Amazon Music thanks to its compelling feature – Spotify Connect. Spotify Connect has a wide range of supported platforms and smart devices, which enables you to control what is playing on any Spotify Connect device or Spotify app, from any other. According to Spotify, you can stream Spotify music on over 379 devices,
Amazon Music is also highly compatible, and can be accessed on your computer, mobile device, browser, and so on. But the setup and control are often less smooth when dealing with non-Amazon hardware compared to Spotify. If you’re already in the Amazon ecosystem, it’s the natural choice because of the loyalty to its ecosystem.
In terms of device compatibility, Spotify offers more universal support, but Amazon Music is better if you’re a heavy Alexa user.
As for the available region or country, Spotify is currently available in 184 countries. Amazon Music, on the other hand, lags behind only 50 countries. And for the HD feature of Amazon Music, the number of available regions can be as short as 7 regions.
Part 3. Bonus: Download and Keep Amazon Music Songs Forever
Both Amazon Music and Spotify have their own biases, strengths, and weakness. After knowing their key differences through the part above, you can choose one that meets your requirements and begin enjoying your favorite music. For users who choose Amazon Music, one of its biggest disadvantages can be the download limitation. Once you cancel the subscription or want to switch to other platforms, your downloaded songs won’t be accessible anymore. In this case, why not use a professional Amazon Music Converter to keep your favorite tracks permanently for unlimited offline playback?
TunesMake Amazon Music Converter is your ideal helper. Thanks to its advanced decryption technology, you can easily remove the music DRM protection and download songs, playlists, albums, podcasts, and other content you like from Amazon Music to your computer. On the basis of your desire, you can save the songs in compatible audio formats, like MP3, M4A, M4B, WAV, FLAC, and AIFF, without quality loss. What’s more, all the ID3 tags will be retained so you can manage your music library offline. After downloading, it’s a piece of cake for you to listen to them on other devices or players anytime you want, even if you don’t have a premium account or network.
TunesMake Amazon Music Converter –
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- Keep original lossless audio quality and ID3 tags of Amazon Music
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Conclusion
Amazon Music vs Spotify, which one is better? They both offer excellent music streaming services with unique features. While Amazon Music excels in audio quality and integration with Alexa, Spotify shines in terms of user interface and music discovery. If you are looking for a method to keep your music collection forever, a third-party tool like the TunesMake software will give you the freedom.
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