Spotify VS Apple Music - Does lossless matter?

GoldenSound compares the sound quality, library and features of two streaming giants; Spotify and Apple Music.

Measurement Index

Resolve's Headphone Ranking:

How to read the new measurements:

The 10 stages of headphone measurements

00:00 - Intro
00:44 - Library Size
02:38 - Sound Quality
08:21 - Extra Features
09:59 - Conclusion

[kbar]

Use YT music since it comes with premium. Just wish it had lossless, with music videos and many songs that are no where else since they are on Youtube only makes me like it a lot.

[bobstokesrn]

For years I was a Qobuz subscriber and listened to music through my HD600s through my Chord Mojo DAC, and yes I was getting great sound . However, I now listen to Spotify through my Sony XM5s running Bluetooth in LDAC mode (shown on the Sound Connect Sony App with custom Equalizer settings) on my Samsung smartphone with HD audio LDAC 16 bit 660 Khz turned on in the Developer Options menu. I can categorically say that the sound quality that I am listening to now is excellent and just as good as my previous listening experience, with the added bonus of the Spotify user interface being 1000 x better than Qobuz's, and because I am using Bluetooth I am now mobile again enjoying my music 🙂

[Lishtenbird]

Technically, you can bypass Android's audio subsystem, but that does require separate apps (USB Audio Player Pro, Poweramp...) which will communicate with your DAC directly.

[openjaws]

i love discovering new music which Spotify is great at doing, so im stickign with it

[TheChazas]

6:04 ain't Android 14 finally stopped downsampling and is bit-perfect?

[turbomustang]

Apple allows me to add albums from my personal library that are not available from any streaming service but I still listen to YouTube music most of the time because of convenience and it's free with my YouTube premium

[davegorthuis]

Please do the same with Spotify and Tidal.

[MOWFWDU]

Thanks for the review. I was hoping you would talk about Airplay and the quality of wireless streaming connections for both services. It's clear that while Apple Music connected to my network wirelessly is very good sounding (using Audirvana Studio), it's clear that when I connect my MacBook Pro (to my LAN with an ethernet cable (using a good network switch which feeds my steaming DAC) and streaming Apple Music upnp, the quality of the music is noticeable better. I am still hazy about Airplay's capabilities....

[AlumarsX]

Apple Music on Android has cast, so I can keep my 5 year old Chromecast Audios rocking on for all my systems. I wish they'd do Cast on iOS as well instead of airplay.

[sandeeplalka]

Does you said in these video still apply if one is using iPhone or Android device to stream or cast it to a hi res amplifier?

[paulmicrox]

Absolutely brillint review my friend. excellent knowledge and fantastic presentation. Therefore I've subscibed to your channel

[mr.potato]

How is the mixing in Windows not the same as with Mac OS? If you have the bitrate and sample rate on the sound interface matched to the track and the DAC is getting that sample rate, how is Windows altering it so it isn't lossless?

[swm]

Great comparison, GoldenSound. I've found that Apple does a great job with bluetooth devices, whereas Tidal is terrible from my experience. I can definitely tell the difference on my Svanar Wireless headphones, and so I use Tidal for my wired listening via my SP3000 and HiFiman Ananda Nano's which is great! I will say apple music sounds great as well with the latter set up. I also did try spotify and I'm not a fan. Its more the UI for me. And finally, your deep dive into MQA was awesome and I actually cancelled my Tidal subscription after that video. I recently restarted it after your lastest review of Tidal vs. Qobuz. Thanks for the great vids!

[JayPerera.Official]

If you want to really compare what sort of music are available on both platforms, you need to also consider music from other parts of the world too like Asian music, Korean, Hindi, Sinhala, Tamil etc.

[jdrukman]

“As long as providers are providing the same files to both services”… well that’s the rub isn’t. Apple has its Apple Digital Masters program (formerly Mastered for iTunes) which provides specific tools to help mastering houses understand how the music will sound once it’s been processed via’s apple pipeline. Theoretically they can make adjustments prior to delivery which will ensure a better final product.

[frixxer]

I personally use YouTube Music, it’s YouTube but just with the UI of Spotify. It has EVERY single song on the planet, even small remixes are on there, it’s insane.

[jjcoolaus]

Can we get a link to these playlists please?

[mpasistasyalanci]

Apple Music pays the artist 3 times more per stream than Spotify, this fact alone is a good reason for me to prefer it. Losseles audio is a welcome addition too. I have the whole trinity of apple devices a Mac computer, iPad, iPhone (even if I’m no so much an apple fanboy) so it works for me. Though I think that Spotify has better features, interface, more music and better recommendations and auto play

[chewyy]

As someone who’s tried both of them, I must say, Apple Music proved me wrong. First, I like how “light” it feels, how simple it is and of course the audio was the most shocking part. I was listening to an Aespa song with a pair of earphones but noticed some quality difference, in a good way. It’s as if I could hear everything lol. I can hear the little details in the background, the little ad libs etc.

[mumenrider]

Would love a video tutorial on how to setup a PC for optimal audio quality