YouTube Music vs Spotify in 2024 - Which is Better?

Summary

In 2024, the battle between YouTube Music and Spotify continues, with each boasting unique features to lure music lovers. YouTube Music offers a less cluttered interface, enhanced personalization with Quick Pick, and the ability to upload a vast personal music library. It also stands out with AI-generated playlist artwork and a bundled YouTube Premium subscription. On the other hand, Spotify boasts dedicated desktop apps, a straightforward like system, real-time collaborative features like Jam Sessions, and the comprehensive Spotify Connect for device integration. With free versions, both have their unique selling points, but YouTube Music's advantages are enhanced through its bundle with YouTube Premium, making it a compelling choice. However, Spotify still leads with its larger user base and unique features like Spotify Wrapped.

Highlights

• YouTube Music app is less cluttered and offers podcasts without overwhelming the user interface. 🚀
• With Quick Pick, YouTube Music customizes radio stations based on listeners' preferences. 🎶
• AI-generated artwork in YouTube Music playlists adds a fun, personalized dimension. 🖌️
• Spotify's Jam Sessions allow for real-time collaborative playlists, a fun social feature. 👫
• YouTube Premium bundle solidifies YouTube Music's value proposition, offering an ad-free video experience. 📺
• Spotify's market dominance means it's easier for music sharing among friends and family through its expansive network. 🌐
• Offline mixtape and Smart Downloads in YouTube Music make music accessible without using data. 📱
• Both YouTube Music and Spotify lack high-res audio, but Spotify might introduce a Hi-Fi tier soon. Await the audio upgrade! ⚡

Key Takeaways

• YouTube Music provides a cleaner interface compared to Spotify by reducing podcast clutter. 🎧
• Spotify offers a more complete experience on desktop with dedicated apps. 💻
• YouTube Music allows users to create customized radio stations with the Quick Pick feature. 📻
• Spotify's Jam Session feature lets friends and family collaboratively build playlists in real-time. 🎉
• The YouTube Music app offers AI-generated playlist artwork for a personalized touch. 🎨
• Both services have free versions with unique annual recaps: YouTube Music's seasonal and Spotify's Wrapped. 🔄
• YouTube Music leans heavily on video content, offering more covers and live recordings than Spotify. 📹
• Spotify has the edge with Spotify Connect, allowing seamless cross-device streaming. 🔊

Overview

The battle between YouTube Music and Spotify in 2024 showcases how each platform has evolved to cater to different user preferences. YouTube Music tempts with its less cluttered app design and innovative features like Quick Pick and AI-driven playlist artwork. Meanwhile, Spotify remains a social powerhouse with Jam Sessions, Spotify Connect, and a massive network effect in its favor, making music sharing simple and accessible.

Both platforms cater uniquely to music lovers. YouTube Music relies on videos uploaded to the main YouTube platform, providing a plethora of live performances and indie covers. Spotify, through its AI DJ and simplified liking system, offers a seamless, user-friendly experience, appealing to those who enjoy a straightforward yet connected musical journey.

The defining factor for many might be the YouTube Premium bundle which gives YouTube Music an edge over Spotify. Although both have free tiers, additional bundled benefits enhance YouTube Music's attractiveness. Meanwhile, Spotify's community-driven features and potential future upgrades keep it in the running as a favorite among traditional streaming services.

YouTube Music vs Spotify in 2024 - Which is Better? Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 It's 2024, and I've spent well over the past six  months using both YouTube Music and Spotify. The   question I really wanted to answer this year  is: Is YouTube Music better than Spotify? First, let's look at YouTube Music. Coming  in at YouTube Music's number six advantage   is the YouTube Music app. While it does include  podcasts like Spotify, if you don't engage with   podcasts on YouTube Music, it doesn't clutter  the interface with podcast suggestions, unlike   Spotify, which continues to do so, as well as with  audiobooks. The app is not only less cluttered,
• 00:30 - 01:00 but it has some great features that Spotify  doesn't, like Quick Pick customized radio stations   based on songs you liked or recently listened to.  Related to Quick Pick is YouTube Music's music   tuner feature. This feature allows you to create  customized radio stations based on artists you   select. You can choose up to 30 of them and adjust  settings like artist variety and song selection,   letting YouTube Music know if you want to discover  more new things or keep things more familiar.
• 01:00 - 01:30 You can also apply filters to your station to  further refine the music YouTube will generate. One new feature that YouTube Music added within  the past year involves AI image generation. But   don't worry, it's actually kind of cool.  If you create a lot of custom playlists,   it can sometimes be hard to sort through them all  visually. Now, when you go to edit a playlist,   you'll see this new gradient edit button on the  artwork. This will allow you to use generative   AI in a limited way to create artwork that  better fits the mood and vibe of your playlist.
• 01:30 - 02:00 Another great YouTube Music feature is the music  video toggle. You can easily toggle between the   song version and the video version of  a song. But what if you don't want the   music video versions of songs to appear in your  recommendations or playlists? To prevent that,   you can toggle the "don't play music videos"  setting under playback and restrictions. The last big feature that helps differentiate  YouTube Music's app from Spotify is the offline
• 02:00 - 02:30 mixtape, which honestly deserves its own number.  So, it's the number five advantage of YouTube   Music. This feature automatically downloads a  100-song playlist locally on your device based   on your recent and past listening history. I use  this feature all the time when traveling, where I   don't want to use any data. What makes it so great  is you don't have to do anything. You don't have   to remember to download your favorite music to  your phone. That new song you can't get enough
• 02:30 - 03:00 of? It's on there, along with your favorites and  stuff you listened to a while ago that you still   like. In my experience, YouTube Music does an  excellent job with its algorithms, figuring   out the perfect balance of what music to put in  the playlist. You can also set YouTube Music to   automatically download music to your device using  the Smart Downloads feature, which will save up   to 500 songs on your device automatically. Smart  Downloads will keep your offline mixtape up to
• 03:00 - 03:30 date, as well as your liked music playlist,  stations you created using the music tuner,   and other customized mixes like your replay  mix and albums you listen to a lot and like. Moving on, the number four advantage for  YouTube Music is music uploads. Unlike Spotify,   which only lets you play files off your  computer locally, YouTube Music lets you   upload up to 100,000 tracks of music from your  computer to the cloud. It'll upload them and   make them available on all of your devices. This  is actually a pretty important feature because,
• 03:30 - 04:00 while music streaming services are overall  great, there are gaps in the music that's   available on them, sometimes because of  licensing issues or because the artists   themselves have pulled something from  their earlier catalog off the services. Moving on, YouTube Music's number three  feature is algorithmic choice. Unlike Spotify,   YouTube Music lets you fine-tune  the recommendation algorithm that   appears in the Up Next queue after you play  a song. When using Quick Pick, for example,
• 04:00 - 04:30 you can tune the recommendations to be more  familiar to you or give more weight to discovery,   popular tracks, deep cuts, and other moods  and genres. If you like the list of songs the   algorithm creates in the Up Next queue, you  can save it as a playlist with a single tap. YouTube Music's number two advantage  is music track availability. Because   YouTube Music leans on videos uploaded to  YouTube and the official versions of songs,   you'll find way more covers, live recordings, and  indie bands in YouTube Music compared to Spotify.
• 04:30 - 05:00 And YouTube Music's number one feature over  Spotify is actually how you get it. You can   get YouTube Music bundled with an ad-free  YouTube experience in a subscription called   YouTube Premium. Here in the US, YouTube  Music for individuals costs $10.99 a month,   but the YouTube Premium bundle is just  $3 a month more. It's probably the best   streaming service bundle out there. I've  left a link in the description if you
• 05:00 - 05:30 want to check it out and see how much  it'll cost you in your local currency. So, those are YouTube Music's advantages. But what  about Spotify? Well, before we get to Spotify,   if you're thinking about switching between Spotify  and YouTube Music, doing that manually can be a   real pain. Thankfully, there are solutions out  there that can help with this, like the one I use   to keep my playlists in sync from Tune My Music,  which happens to be this video's sponsor. With   its powerful transfer tool, Tune My Music lets you  seamlessly transfer your music between services.
• 05:30 - 06:00 It works across all of the major music platforms,  including Spotify and YouTube Music. You can   easily move playlists, albums, and your entire  music library between services. Tune My Music's   matching technology finds songs across platforms,  so nothing gets left behind. I was able to move   more than 2,000 songs from one service to another  with minimal "no matches found." It saved me a ton
• 06:00 - 06:30 of time from manually having to recreate playlists  when switching between services. But Tune My Music   doesn't stop there. You can also set it to sync  new playlist additions automatically. So, if you   subscribe to multiple services, it'll keep your  playlists up to date across them. Tune My Music   also has a nifty sharing feature that allows you  to share playlists with friends. When they click   on the playlist, they can add it to their music  library regardless of what music service they   use. With its rock-solid transfer and syncing  capabilities, plus its nifty sharing features,
• 06:30 - 07:00 Tune My Music is the ultimate music companion for  those looking to switch or share their music. So,   what are you waiting for? You can start using  Tune My Music for free today by using the link   in the description below. And thanks to  Tune My Music for sponsoring this video. Alright, now let's talk about Spotify.  Dedicated macOS and Windows apps come   in as the number six advantage. These  dedicated apps just feel more complete,   have more features, and are more polished  than the Chrome app YouTube Music will
• 07:00 - 07:30 have you download on a Mac. You can also  use the Add to Dock function in Safari,   which turns the YouTube Music web player into  a Mac app if you don't want to use Chrome. The number five advantage of Spotify is  a simplified like system. With YouTube   Music, liking a song or album won't  automatically add it to your library;   that's a separate action. On Spotify, hitting  the plus button does both of those actions. Moving on, Spotify's Jam Session feature  comes in as its number four advantage.
• 07:30 - 08:00 This feature allows your friends and family to  add songs to your Spotify queue in real-time,   and they don't have to be paying members of  Spotify Premium to use it. YouTube Music,   like Spotify, does have collaborative playlists,   though you can't manage the queue in real-time  like you can with Spotify Jam Sessions. The number three advantage for Spotify is its  AI DJ feature. Up now, I've pulled together a   few artists you've been listening to, maybe one or  two you haven't heard, all with kind of a similar
• 08:00 - 08:30 vibe. It's great for those times when you want  to listen to something but aren't really sure   what to listen to. The DJ will typically start off  with something you've been listening to recently,   then reach back into your listening history  and introduce you to new stuff along the way. Spotify's number two advantage is network effects.  According to Statista, it still dominates the   industry with a 30% share globally, more than  double YouTube Music's 9.7% share. Why does   this matter? Well, because it's more likely that  your friends and family are using Spotify. It'll
• 08:30 - 09:00 potentially be easier to share music with them,  have shared playlists, and start Jam Sessions. And coming in at Spotify's number one advantage  is Spotify Connect. This feature allows you to   stream your Spotify music to any device that  integrates with Spotify. Not only that, it   lets you control whatever music you have playing  on a device. For example, if I'm playing Spotify   through my Sonos speakers, I can open up the  Spotify app on my MacBook Air and control what's
• 09:00 - 09:30 playing in real-time. YouTube Music doesn't have  anything like this, even though it's integrated   into several different types of devices. That's  one big downside to going with YouTube Music:   it's not available on nearly as many devices as  Spotify, like the Sonos or Amazon Assistant on   Sonos speakers, car infotainment systems, Peloton,  and other niche devices. One other related feature   to Spotify Connect that Spotify has that YouTube  Music doesn't is called Spotify Tap. You'll see
• 09:30 - 10:00 this a lot in headphones and earbuds. One  of the most notable products of late is the   Meta Ray-Bans. Make sure you're subscribed to the  channel if you want to see my long-term review of   these. How this feature works is you just simply  tap and hold on the device to trigger it, and then   Spotify will just start playing some music. It'll  either start streaming from wherever you left off   on one of your other devices or just trigger  it again to play a different recommendation. So, those are the advantages of Spotify and  YouTube Music. But there are some similarities
• 10:00 - 10:30 between them you should know about. Both services  have free versions. Spotify has your Spotify   Wrapped yearly recap of what you listen to,  while YouTube Music actually has recaps for every   season, which is nice. But there is something  special about Spotify Wrapped being a once-a-year,   limited-time-only kind of social event. Both  have a similar number of personalized mixes.   YouTube Music doesn't have any genre or decade  mixes, but it has others that Spotify doesn't.   Spotify and YouTube Music will also use their  algorithms to recommend songs you should add
• 10:30 - 11:00 to your playlists. On Spotify, you can actually  exclude certain content from your taste profile,   like a playlist your kids want to listen to but  you don't want to impact your recommendations. At the time of recording, both services  have subpar music streaming quality compared   to competitors like Apple Music, Amazon  Music, and Tidal, which support high-res   lossless and Dolby Atmos. Though Spotify is  rumored to be launching a Hi-Fi tier soon,
• 11:00 - 11:30 there's no word on whether it'll include  Dolby Atmos or when it'll come out. So, is YouTube Music actually the better deal?  Given how similar these two services are,   for a lot of people, for the money, yes,  I do think YouTube Music beats Spotify   with that YouTube Premium bundle. Now, if  you don't care about the YouTube Premium   bundle because these services are similar,  then it's really just going to come down   to one or two features that one has over  the other that you like better. For me,   I generally like YouTube Music a bit better than  Spotify because of the YouTube Premium bundle,
• 11:30 - 12:00 obviously, but also because of features like  the offline mixtape, algorithmic choice,   and Quick Picks. But for you, you might value  Spotify Wrapped or Spotify Connect more. If you want to see how Spotify and YouTube Music  compare to other streaming services like Amazon   Music and Apple Music, you can click here to get  to my comparisons of other streaming services.   And then you can click here to see all of my  reviews and other videos of audio devices you   can use with Spotify and YouTube Music, like Sonos  speakers and different headphones. Make sure you
• 12:00 - 12:30 hit that thumbs up button below if you liked  this video and found it helpful, and subscribe   to the channel for more content like this. For 6  Months Later, I'm Josh Teder. Thanks for watching.