Spotify is different from Pandora, it provides facility to listen to your desired music at any time. You can create your own playlists. The library of Spotify is bigger than Pandora that has more tracks than Pandora. The free account is available of Spotify with ads. Free version is impressively robust; Spotify Connect simplifies connecting to wireless. Best for: Pandora Premium is of most interest to people who already use Pandora and want to be able to. Verdict on the Difference Between Pandora And Spotify As you can see, there are some difference between Pandora and Spotify. Like we mentioned earlier, those differences are primarily around the. In this post, we will compare Pandora with Spotify, and Apple Music to get the hang of music streaming trends. Let’s get started! There are two versions of Spotify – Spotify and Spotify premium. The former one is free to use, whereas the premium version is further subdivided into three different sub-versions.
If you’re facing trouble to decide whether to pick Spotify or Apple Music as your best music streaming service, then go through this post. Here, we will compare almost all the largest music streaming services.
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At present, there are several music streaming services available out there, but there are four major ones that stand out from the huge crowd – Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and Google Play Music. There is no doubt that these four widely popular streaming services are also competing with each other, quite much on the same level. However, the problem is that you want only one, even though there are numerously available.
These days, users face trouble when it comes to choosing whether Apple Music or Spotify/Pandora/Google Play Music. That’s why we come up with the complete guide on Apple Music vs. Spotify vs. Pandora vs. Google Play Music to help you pick the right one.
Part 1: Apple Music or Spotify
Spotify is a Swedish-based music streaming service that has more than 10 millions of subscribers. On the other hand, Apple Music is quite popular for its high-level and exclusive releases and full support for the Apple iOS ecosystem. Both these music streaming services are great, and that’s why it has become a hot topic that which service is better to choose.
Hi, Spotify has charged me £10 for a subscription which was meant to be free for the first month through my network Ee. Pls I just want my refund cause I unsubscribed the service but Spotify still charged me. ( I sent stop to 78660) I've spoken to someone on this number(1) but he hasn't bn very helpful n want me to contact Spotify. Spotify free contact number uk. Obviously some sort of fraud but the multiple charges of £50, £25 and £9.99 all have my spotify username against them on my credit card statement, exactly the same as my normal charge of £4.99. I need to contact Spotify urgently but can find no contact details for them except for a 'contact. Find out how to set up and use Spotify. Learn about features, troubleshoot issues, and get answers to questions. Everything you need to stay in tune. Spotify HQ Spotify AB Regeringsgatan 19 SE-111 53 Stockholm Sweden Reg no: 5 [email protected].
Apple Music or Spotify
Let’s give a closure look at the comparison between Apple Music and Spotify on the basis of various factors, which include:
Price and Subscription
Both Apple Music and Spotify provides a free three-month trial session for their premium services, which generally cost $10, even though Spotify service isn’t actually free as you need to pay $0.99 for the trial period. And Spotify is music streaming service with free and ad-supported tier and thus, it means that if you don’t want to prefer its premium version, then you still can listen.
On the other hand, Apple Music service allows free users to stream Beats1 Radio only or they can listen to songs from their iTunes library.
Music Library
The music library of Spotify has 30 million-plus songs. Along with this huge collection, it adds 20,000+ new songs on a regular basis. The service also come up with the latest record releases, live sessions, and numerous new songs.
On the other side, Apple Music has around 45 million songs and thus, it is superior to the music streaming service called Spotify. There is also another area where Apple Music service is a better option than Spotify and it is iTunes Library integration.
In other words, any music you’ve purchased through iTunes store, uploaded to iTunes Match o ripped from a physical CD will show up in your Apple Music library and provide you with the option to browse your own music along with Apple’s standard library. Spotify also provides a similar feature, transferring your local songs to a separate tab, but you are not able to access the local songs via broad searches, unlike Apple Music.
Compatibility
Both music streaming services provide support for Android and iOS. Also, both come with standalone desktop applications for Mac and Windows. You can listen to music in the browser in case of Spotify i.e. open.spotify.com. However, Apple Music isn’t a full web player, but mere a web widget at tools.applemusic.com.
Apple Music along with Siri Voice control on HomePod of Apple and also provides support for Amazon’s full line of Echo smart speakers through the Alexa App. Plus, the service is available on other Amazon and Apple devices, such as FireTV, and Apple TV.
Apple Music along with Siri Voice control on HomePod of Apple and also provides support for Amazon’s full line of Echo smart speakers through the Alexa App. Plus, the service is available on other Amazon and Apple devices, such as FireTV, and Apple TV.
On the other hand, if a device is listed as Spotify connect compatible, then you can use the Spotify music streaming service app as a remote for controlling playback. That’s all on Apple Music vs. Spotify. If you would like to use a free service, then Spotify is the best option. But, if you want to pay for a service, then Apple Music may be the right pick.
Part 2: Apple Music vs. Pandora
Pandora’s been providing music streaming for a long time now and it is also known as internet radio. Even though Apple Music is a newcomer to the music streaming world, Apple’s and iTunes dominating presence in the market has made it worth to consider. However, if you are still confused which one to pick whether Apple Music or Pandora, then give a closure look at the following points:
Price
Apple Music service will cost $9.99/month for a user or it also offers a family plan that cost $14.99/month. The family plan provides support for six users. On the other hand, Pandora is quite cheaper for a single user that cost $4.99/month or $55/year. As you can see that it is the half the price of Apple Music service, but Pandora doesn’t offer a family plan.
24/7 Radio
One thing that Apple Music and Pandora have in common is 24/7 radio. However, Apple Music streaming service plans to get his job done quite differently. Rather playing music all the time, Apple Music can stream true radio along with DJs as well as everything. It is known as Beats 1 that will broadcast live from New York, London, and Los Angeles.
Support for music video streaming
Another remarkable feature of Apple Music is that it provides support to watch music videos within its service. Plus, there will be no-ads while streaming. On the other hand, Pandora doesn’t provide such type of music video streaming feature.
Siri Support
Apple Music streaming service provides support for Siri and it means that you can ask Siri to look for or play a song using your voice. And Pandora doesn’t provide support for Siri.
Music Recommendations
Apple Music service provides music recommendations for you. When you open Apple Music, you will get the “You” tab that includes music recommendations for you. The app will allow you tom select some genres you like and artists that you love to listen. On the other hand, Pandora creates music stations based on user likes.
Part 3: Apple Music vs. Google Play Music
Another music streaming service that has gained huge popularity among music lovers is Google Play music. If you need help to decide whether to pick the Apple Music or Google Play Music, then following Apple Music vs. Google Play will decide which one is the right match for you.
Apple Music vs. Google Play Music
Plans and subscriptions
A standard subscription for Google Play Music is the same as of an individual Apple Music subscription and it cost $9.99/month. With Apple Music subscription, you can download music for offline listening, stream catalog of Apple music and get access to new releases and shows broadcast on the Beats 1 radio station. On the other hand, with Google play music subscription, you can access Google’s music catalog, radio stations, music recommendations, offline listening, and Youtube Music premium access.
Both music streaming services has a family plan that cost $14.99/month. Here’s the catch, if you don’t even get Google Play Music subscription, you can still upload up to 50,000 songs from your music library for free.
Free Trails
Apple Music provides a free three-month trial of its premium services. On the other hand, Google Play Music provides existing holders of Google account with a shorter 30-day free trial. It becomes the paid membership if you don’t cancel it before the trial period expires.
https://treethink309.weebly.com/blog/download-own-songs-spotify. The steps to add these files (known as local files) to Spotify are outlined in article.If you have any further questions about local files, let us know - we're here to help.If, on the other hand, you are an artist who wants to make their music available on Spotify, make sure to head over.Thanks! Hey folks,If you can't find something you're looking for on the Spotify app, then it's likely that it's not been made available in your country yet - check out article to find out more about the reasons for this.If you own music files which you would like to add to your collection on Spotify, then you can totally do this.
Music Library and offline listening
All paid Google Play Music and Apple Music plans provide you with access to a big catalog of songs when you register. Apple Music has 50 million songs, while Google Play Music users get 40 million songs. Spotify desktop app slow redddit. Users of Apple music can download up to 100,000 songs to their own music library, whereas Google Play Music let you download as many songs, playlists, and albums as you want.
Streaming quality
Apple Music is capable of streaming 256kpps AAC files, whereas Google Play Music subscribers can choose the streaming bit rate from low to medium to high (198 to 192 to 320kpbs).
Compatibility
Apple Music is available to download for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and almost all the Android devices. On the other hand, Google Play Music is also available for both Android and iOS devices.
Google Play Music allows you to upload up to 50,000 songs from the computer through a web player or upload client app. Apple Music in iTunes that is available for Mac and Windows PC is based on a similar format as the mobile version.
However, Apple doesn’t provide a native player for web browsers, unlike Google Play Music, although third-party services like Music allows users to listen to Apple Music via the web.
Part 4: Comparison Chart
Apple Music | Spotify | Pandora | Google Play Music | |
Price | $9.99/month | $9.99/month | $4.99/month | $9.99/month |
Free Trial | 3 months | 30 days | 60 days | 30 days |
Family Plan | $14.99 for 6 users | $14.99 for 5 users | $14.99 for 6 users | $14.99 for 6 users |
Max Streaming Quality | 256 kbps | 320 kbps | 192 kbps | 320 kbps |
Supported Platforms | iOS, Android, Apple TV, OS X, Windows | iOS, Android, WP, Web, Windows, OS X | iOS, Android, WP, Windows, Web, OS X | iOS, Android, Web |
Bonuses | Beats 1 Live DJ radio | Algorithm radio, provide access to catalog from third-party apps | Radio services | Access to YouTube Music Premium |
Library Size | 45 million tracks | 35 million tracks | 30 million tracks | 40 million tracks |
Offline Playback | YES (Mobile only) | YES (Mobile and desktop) | YES (Mobile only) | YES (Mobile only) |
Siri Support | YES | NO | NO | NO |
Free Option | Yes with ads | Yes with ads | Yes with ads | Yes |
Podcasts | NO | YES | YES | YES |
Music Videos | YES | YES | NO | NO |
The Bottom Line
We hope that you now got an idea of which music streaming service is the right pick for you with the above complete guide on Apple Music vs. Pandora vs. Google Play Music vs. Spotify. All these music streaming services are good in its unique features it offers and which one is the right one for you depends on what you would like to have in your music streaming service.
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How Pandora and Spotify Work
When a user visits Pandora and creates a radio station based on, for example, his or her favorite artist, Pandora searches for similar artists and songs using the complex algorithms of the Music Genome Project, a music database that Pandora has patented. The Music Genome Project compiles information on songs, first categorizing each one by genre. A musician then analyzes every song for up to 30 minutes at a time, finding unique characteristics with which to further categorize the music by (e.g., types of instruments used, gender of lead vocalist, rhythm, tonality, etc.). Most songs have hundreds of attributes that help Pandora determine the similarities and differences between one song and another.
Pandora users can further customize their personal radio stations by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to songs that are recommended to them. They can also share their stations with friends; however, linking to specific songs directly is impossible due to licensing restrictions.
Spotify is less about new music discovery than it is about replacing traditional music players, like iTunes or Windows Media Player, with streamable music. Spotify depends on a large catalogue of roughly 20 million songs to accomplish this—a sticking point in some countries when major record labels have not wanted to make deals with the company. In theory, users should be able to create an account on Spotify, search for any song or artist that they like, and begin streaming that music with Spotify's online player.
Playlists
On Pandora, radio stations are really just playlists (and vice versa) and come with the same limitations that all Pandora stations come with. Users can build their own stations/playlists based on their favorite music, use friends' shared playlists, or take advantage of one of many public Pandora stations that are based on genre. However, manually adding individual songs or albums is not supported.
Playlists on Spotify work in the same way that playlists in traditional media players work. Music is manually added or removed by the user. The only difference between Spotify's playlists and traditional media players' playlists is that Spotify's can be easily shared (and even co-edited). This has made Spotify a popular choice among those searching for a free or cheap and legal way to share their favorite artists and songs. It has even led to the creation of full websites (e.g., Playlists.net) dedicated to sharing and rating spotify playlists.
Pandora allows users to create up to 100 unique stations/playlists, while Spotify puts no limit on the number of playlists a user can create.
Phone Apps
Pandora has mobile phone apps for Android and iOS, as well as some limited support among Windows Mobile devices and Blackberries. On the iPhone, the Pandora app can only be installed using a U.S., Australian, or New Zealand iTunes account.
Spotify has apps available on a wide variety of mobile devices around the globe. Android, iOS, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile and Windows Phone are all supported.
Free vs Paid Subscriptions
Relatively few restrictions are placed on non-paying Pandora and Spotify members. The most jarring difference between free and paid memberships on both services is the presence of ads; paying members experience no audio ads on Pandora or Spotify.
Pandora's premium membership is known as Pandora One and costs $4.99 a month. Spotify's subscription is known as Spotify Premium; at $9.99 a month, it is more expensive than Pandora One.
As of 2014, students can subscribe to Spotify Premium for $4.99 a month provided they have a .edu email address from an accredited college or university in the U.S. that they can prove they are enrolled in. This reduced pricing is available to students for three years.
Restrictions on Free Membership
Both Pandora and Spotify put restrictions on non-paying users. The restrictions have changed numerous times over the years as both companies have tried out different pricing models and been affected by changing licensing fees or laws.
At present, Pandora's restrictions on its free members are as follows:
- Audio advertisements that last for 15 to 30 seconds periodically interrupt music. The number of ads served up in an hour varies depending on the operating device (i.e., whether listening to Pandora via computer, mobile, or car).
- Restrictions on how many songs can be skipped in a day. Six skips are allowed, per hour and per station; only 30 skips are permitted across all stations in a 24-hour period. Clicking the 'next' play button, selecting 'I'm tired of this track,' or downvoting (giving a thumbs down to) a song while it plays all count as a skip.
- Reduced audio quality. Music for free members plays at 64 kilobits per second in an AAC+ format. Built-in apps for televisions and other non-mobile devices, like Roku, may receive a slightly higher quality of 128 kbps.
- Timeouts. To avoid paying royalties on songs that users might not be listening to, Pandora periodically times out if the player has not been used in a while.
Spotify places similar restrictions on its free members:
- 15- to 30-second audio ads.
- Reduced audio quality. However, at 160 kbps in the Ogg format Spotify's free version offers a higher quality sound than Pandora does.
Premium Membership Benefits
Pandora One's benefits include the following:
- No ads.
![Pandora vs spotify subscription plans Pandora vs spotify subscription plans](/uploads/1/3/3/9/133940328/294728112.jpg)
- Higher audio quality of 192 kbps.
- Downloadable desktop application. Users are no longer limited to using Pandora on their mobile devices or in the browser.
- Custom skins for the web application.
- Fewer timeouts, allowing users to listen for longer periods of time without having to interact with the player.
Spotify Premium benefits include the following:
- No ads.
- Ability to download music for offline listening.
- Higher audio quality of 320 kbps for some songs.
- Use of Spotify Connect, which allows users to hook up other hardware to Spotify's mobile app.
Library Size
In 2011, Tim Westergren, a founder of Pandora, stated that the service had over 900,000 songs in its library catalogue at the time. More recent statistics are difficult to find, but it is likely Pandora has well over a million songs in its database as of 2014. Pandora has a good track record of finding and adding obscure independent artists, which aids users in discovering new music.
Because Spotify depends on having songs available on demand, the company has been more aggressive about making deals with major labels as well as well known independent labels. In 2012, its catalogue was said to hold about 20 million songs; however, the size of the catalogue varies by region due to licensing restrictions.
Social Features
Pandora and Spotify provide users with several ways to share music, but Spotify has more widespread, general sharing capabilities than Pandora does.
On Pandora, users can share links to stations via email, Facebook, or Twitter. Users can also share links to individual tracks, but the web address points to general song information—lyrics, purchase info, and a link to create a station based on the song, not listen to it directly (see an example).
![Free Free](/uploads/1/3/3/9/133940328/453983139.jpg)
With Spotify, users can share individual songs, full albums, and playlists. This is done via special links that target the Spotify application itself. This flexibility has led many third-party websites to adopt Spotify links as a method to legally share music. And as of 2014, Spotify has teamed up with Last.fm, an online music statistics and recommendation service, to try to compete with Pandora.
Parental Controls
For parents who are concerned about the music their children might listen to, Pandora is the better option, as it offers parental control options that will play censored versions of songs and exclude others entirely. Because every song is analyzed by real people, Pandora's parental controls are very reliable and do not simply rely on 'Parental Advisory' labels.
In contrast to Pandora's rigorous parental control system, Spotify offers no such capabilities. This means that explicit, uncensored music is available to anyone who signs up to Spotify.
Other Features
While Spotify's flexibility may make it more universal on the web in some respects, Pandora is found a lot more frequently beyond computers and mobile devices. Not only do many audio-video receives, media players, and HDTVs carry default support for Pandora, but so too do many modern automobiles that have digital radio systems.
Spotify can be found on or downloaded for many mobile devices and media players, but it is rarer on HDTVs and is not built in to any vehicle's digital radio systems by default. In some cases, Spotify Connect can be used to join Spotify with a device or set of speakers, which are controlled via the Spotify mobile app, but Connect requires a premium membership.
Availability and Popularity
Pandora is much more popular than Spotify in the U.S.
Pandora has more users than Spotify does, but Spotify's service is available to more users around the world. Whereas Pandora only serves users in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, due to licensing issues, Spotify reaches dozens of countries and territories (click here for a full list). This has made Spotify popular outside of the U.S., but Americans remain loyal to Pandora according to statistics.
In 2014, Pandora reached 200 million users, with nearly 70 million active each month. By comparison, Spotify has about 40 million users as of 2014, 10 million of them premium subscribers.
Both Pandora and Spotify depend on banner advertisements, music-interrupting ads, and premium member subscriptions for funding. However, as of 2014, both companies operate at a net loss.