mac4mac.co.uk

I know here we are all Apple fans but is there a case for comparing Spotify to Apple Music. I am thinking of subscribing to one but, Apple loyalty aside, which one is best? Or are they both very much the same?

I tried them both for free. I didn't get on with Spotify. I found it hard to navigate and use. My daughter likes it but she has never used Apple. Although they are £9.99 a month, Apple does a year for a one-off £99 (which I'm on) after you take the trial or pay monthly. Neither has everything I want: some obscure albums back to the 60s and 70s, presumably publishing label deals not made.

I suggest you take out the offered trials. See what suits you.

If you have Amazon Prime, you get limited access to their music, similar to their video. I read that Tidal is having financial problems. Spotify is trying to list on the NYSE.

I trialled Apple Music for 3 months but didn't carry it on because I hardly used it. IIRC Apple Music tried to take over your entire Music library and get you to ignore your own ripped and downloaded music in favour of streaming.

I have a free Spotify account only because it's free. If I was having to pay for it, I wouldn't.

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I'm never wrong, I'm just less right on occasions.

Yes, I forgot that, it tried to upload my local MP3 music from my MBPr via iTunes to iCloud. It can be turned off, which I did, but now I can't remember where I did it. D'oh!

I think a lot comes down to how old you are. Seriously. I'm of the generation that likes to own music not just stream it.

Having said that, I find the audio quality of Spotify's free accounts rather iffy, and imagine you'd have to subscribe to improve it to the level of Apple's.

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"If it ain't broke, we can fix it" (© Tim Cook, Jonny Ive)

Core i7 2011 21.5" iMac 12,1 2.8 GHz 16GB RAM OS X 10.9.5 1TB SSD & 128GB SSD

Do they both cater for jazz and classical interests too? Or is it all pop?

Search in the Spotify app for classical and jazz

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I'm never wrong, I'm just less right on occasions.

A cursory search in Apple Music reveals Jazz. I hope doing that search doesn't get them thinking I like it

The search came up with playlists, three 'radio' stations, various specific albums and a genre result. There's a lot of stuff in the genre thing but I have no idea if it is to your taste. I can't post screnshots.

Get a trial. It is the only way to find out and it will cost you nothing. Just cancel after a day or so if you are not sure and you won't get charged. One month of Spotify Premium or three of Apple should sort you out. One will suit you better than the other.

If you're interested in classical, www.idagio.com is outstanding. It's actually designed for classical music (surprise, surprise!). So, for instance, Beethoven is listed as a composer and not an artist (Spotify), and is also listed under his surname (ie 'B') rather than 'L' for Ludwig. They're adding 5,000 new tracks a week and the compilers produce some really interesting playlists or suggestions.

But no Pop or Jazz I'm afraid.

Lorimer

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Mid '09 MacBook Pro 2.66ghz, 500gb SSD; OS 10.10.4; 11" MacBook Air 128gb;1 TB Time Capsule; iPhone 5s, 64gb; 13" 2012 MBA

When I looked in my Purchased iTunes playlist, I noticed at the bottom a "Download previous purchases" button. I followed this to a page that showed me all my past music purchases but I couldn't see any way to download them again.

But if I could find a way, would it convert all my Protected purchases to the DRM-free status they've had for years?

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"If it ain't broke, we can fix it" (© Tim Cook, Jonny Ive)

Core i7 2011 21.5" iMac 12,1 2.8 GHz 16GB RAM OS X 10.9.5 1TB SSD & 128GB SSD

Yes you can now get DRM-free versions of past purchases. Do a search in your favourite search engine and you'll find "how to" pages. I've not needed to do it as I never bought from Apple. I used cheaper vendors. iirc Leewave did it.

I think the problem is that I have iTunes 10. The way to re-download apparently is to click the iCloud symbol top right, but there is no iCloud symbol in iTunes 10.

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"If it ain't broke, we can fix it" (© Tim Cook, Jonny Ive)

Core i7 2011 21.5" iMac 12,1 2.8 GHz 16GB RAM OS X 10.9.5 1TB SSD & 128GB SSD

Install Sierra on a spare partition somewhere - just for cases like this. I've done that but to be honest I barely use it except just to look at it once in awhile. My installation (without any significant data) is just 12.5 GB. I can use the data on my Mavericks installation just by pointing to it, for example Image Capture doesn't now recognise my iPhone 5s in Mavericks as being unlocked (even though it is), I have to use the Sierra partition but it saves images to the iPhone pictures download folder I keep in my Mavericks installation. But you should be able to run the latest iTunes there to sort this out (perhaps).

Thanks Dave - I have got Sierra on a spare partition. Unfortunately the entire partition is smaller than my iTunes Library!

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"If it ain't broke, we can fix it" (© Tim Cook, Jonny Ive)

Core i7 2011 21.5" iMac 12,1 2.8 GHz 16GB RAM OS X 10.9.5 1TB SSD & 128GB SSD

I have looked at using Apple Music but read that I have to download and install the DRM encryption music converter program first

.

Is this normal practice and do I have to do similar again if I go with Spotify?