It's 2023, and Apple Music and YouTube Music have changed a lot since I last compared them
two years ago.
I spent the past six months comparing both of these services, so now I'm going to break
down for you what really differentiates them and ultimately which one I think most people
should subscribe to.
First, let's look at Apple Music and its advantages.
The first major advantage Apple Music has over YouTube Music is higher-quality music
streaming, especially support for the Dolby Atmos format.
Apple Music has a 75 million-song catalog available in lossless audio at no additional
cost.
Apple uses their own AAC (as I just pronounced it), which stands for Apple Lossless Audio
Codec, to preserve every single bit of the original audio file.
It starts at CD quality, which is 16 bit 44.1 kilohertz, and goes up to 24 bit 48 kilohertz.
They also offer high-resolution lossless all the way up to 24 bit 192 kilohertz, but you'd
need a DAC to experience that version.
While most people typically can't tell the difference between a CD-quality lossless track
and a compressed lossy track like those found on YouTube Music, I'd still argue that in
2023, the default for all streaming music should be CD quality, which YouTube Music
does not have.
Overall, I've preferred Apple Music for music quality, in part because of their Digital
Master program, but also because they aren't pulling songs from YouTube (more on that later).
But every time you play a track, you know it's going to be high quality.
Now, one music format everyone can absolutely hear a difference with is Dolby Atmos.
It gives music more space and allows artists to place different parts of a music track
in a three-dimensional space during the music mixing process.
Early Atmos tracks were a bit of a gimmick, but this year in particular, I've really been
enjoying the Atmos format.
That's because the majority of the major artists that I listen to have been releasing their
new music in this format, and most of the mixes in Atmos from these artists actually
sound pretty good.
Though I will caveat that with you do really need the right equipment to enjoy Atmos and
listen to it with its full potential.
For me, that's mainly been with the Sonos Ear 300 speaker.
The Sonos Ear 300 really makes Dolby Atmos sing (pun intended).
It can reproduce songs in a way that makes it sound like the artist and accompanying
instruments are in the room with you.
I've got an upcoming review on that speaker, what it can do, and how it works with Apple
Music, so make sure you're subscribed if you want to see that and other reviews like it.
Apple Music's next advantage over YouTube Music is iTunes.
Remember iTunes?
It dominated the music industry for more than a decade.
I feel like everyone's forgotten about it.
Well, that good old, tried-and-true iTunes interface that allows you to meticulously
manage your library and local music still exists within Apple Music on Apple devices,
and it gives you a ton of options compared to YouTube Music.
Apple Music also lets you purchase music through iTunes as well, though not in lossless quality
or in the Dolby Atmos format.
The next advantage Apple Music has is radio stations.
Unlike most major music streaming services, where a radio station is actually just an
algorithmically generated playlist based off of a song or artist that you select, with
Apple Music, their radio feature is actually old-school radio.
It's human-curated music by DJs and hosts.
It's actually a pretty unique feature, with several stations like Apple Music 1, Apple
Music Hits, and Apple Music Country.
On each of these stations, there are several shows, like The Zane Lowe Show, where he gets
exclusive interviews with some of the biggest artists in music, and others like Rocket Hour,
hosted by Sir Elton John, who plays some of his favorite artists in music today and from
the past, plus exclusive interviews.
Now, because Apple Music's recommendation algorithm, in my experience, has not been
very good, I've actually found the radio feature to be a great way to get exposure to artists
and music that I normally would not have been exposed to.
Apple Music's next advantage is Apple Music Sing.
This feature automatically takes the vocals out of supported tracks and makes use of Apple
Music's real-time lyrics feature to give you an on-demand karaoke experience.
And later this year, it'll support Continuity Camera so you can see you and your friends
on screen as you sing along to your favorite tracks.
Apple Music Sing is also a feature that perfectly illustrates how you get benefits when using
Apple Music with other Apple products.
You'll soon be able to listen to a playlist with family and friends and collaborate on
that playlist, share-play music to your car with Apple CarPlay so everyone in the car
can choose what's playing (probably causing a bunch of fighting), and users can control
music from their own devices even if they don't have an Apple Music subscription.
Another advantage Apple Music has is that when you subscribe to it, you now also get
access to Apple Music Classical, the companion app that boasts 5 million tracks, the world's
largest classical music catalog according to Apple.
I've actually used it quite a bit over the past six months.
I've been a fan of movie soundtrack and orchestral music for years, which you can find in the
app, but Apple also has some great intro to classical music history podcasts within the
app as well.
These help introduce you to the different sounds and composers in the different eras
of classical music.
It's a great way for someone to get started listening to classical and figure out what
they like.
The app has a better built-in search for finding all of the recordings of a particular work.
Plus, you'll find recordings in both lossless and high-res, as well as Dolby Atmos spatial
audio, which, in my experience, really brings classical music to life in a new way.
For example, John Williams' live concert from Berlin in Dolby Atmos with my Sonos Ear 300
sounds like I've just placed John Williams in the orchestra in my room.
Now, Apple Music Classical is also a perfect example of another advantage Apple Music has,
which is simply simplicity.
Apple is not trying to bundle all of their audio stuff into a single app.
Apple has separate apps for audiobooks, podcasts, and music.
Where YouTube Music has converged podcasts and music into the YouTube Music app, though
it's not as intrusive as Spotify's approach.
YouTube Music just recently revamped its interface and added a UI more similar to YouTube with
a like and dislike button, plus comments.
Some people may like this, or you may be like me and think, "Why the hell are these here?"
So, that's everything I've liked about Apple Music.
Now, let's look at YouTube Music and its advantages.
The first of which is music track availability.
Because YouTube Music leans on videos uploaded to YouTube as well as the official versions
of songs, you'll find way more covers, live recordings, and indie bands.
A silly example of this that I've used is the song "All I Want for Christmas Is You."
A few years back, Michael Buble and Mariah Carey actually did a duet of this song, but
it doesn't exist on most streaming services because it was only recorded live for an NBC
Christmas special here in the US.
But thanks to those brave accounts willing to risk a copyright strike, that song is available
on YouTube and therefore it is available on YouTube Music.
If you've experienced finding music within YouTube Music that you couldn't find on any
other streaming service, definitely let me know down in the comments.
Another recent addition to YouTube Music has been algorithmic choice.
When you play a song, you can bring up the recommendation tab to see what songs YouTube
Music has placed in your up next queue.
But importantly, you can now fine-tune those recommendations with the buttons that appear.
You can tune the recommendations to be more familiar to you or more slanted towards discovering
new music.
Apple Music's recommendations just never get me.
Overall, it just doesn't play enough of my favorites or do a good enough job exposing
me to as many artists I end up liking as YouTube Music does.
This makes YouTube Music's overall recommendations its second advantage over Apple Music.
Even before you could fine-tune the recommendation algorithm in the up next queue, I found that
YouTube Music's recommendation algorithm was just way better than Apple Music's.
YouTube Music also has many more customized playlists based on your taste profile than
Apple Music does.
Its new TikTok-like samples feature gives you another interesting way to get snippets
of different music the platform thinks you'll like to get you discovering new music faster.
Another advantage YouTube Music has over Apple Music related to recommendations are Quick
Picks and its new tuner feature.
It's very prominent in YouTube Music's UI and makes it easy to jump into some music
based off the song you picked.
YouTube Music also recently launched another feature to help you get started listening
to music called Radio Tuner, which expands the typical radio station feature you find
in a streaming service like Apple Music.
It allows you to create stations with multiple artists, up to 30 of them.
After picking your artist, you can then adjust settings like artist variety, music discovery,
as well as filters, which are similar to the ones in the up next recommendations, like
popular, discover, deep cuts, familiar, etc.
Another awesome feature you get with YouTube Music is called offline mixtape.
This feature automatically downloads a playlist locally on your device based on your recent
and past listening history.
I use this feature all the time when traveling outside of cell coverage and I love that it's
just automatic.
You don't have to think about or remember to download your favorite music to your device
like you'd have to do with Apple Music.
That new song you can't get enough of is on there, along with your favorites and stuff
you listened to a while ago that you still like.
Another cool exclusive feature to YouTube Music is how the app handles music videos
on mobile and tablet devices.
It allows you to easily toggle between the audio and music video version of a song.
Originally, when YouTube Music rolled out this feature, I noticed that it had a tendency
to give you the music video version of a song when you requested it through an assistant.
However, in the years since, that appears to have been fixed.
Though there is still some cross-over between the playlists you create and save in YouTube
Music and the same account you use on YouTube, which can be somewhat annoying.
For example, if you subscribe to an artist on YouTube Music, you have actually also subscribed
to that artist's YouTube channel as well.
I wish these were separate things.
The last major plus I found with using YouTube Music is the YouTube Premium subscription.
If you're not a student, it's a bit more expensive, but still a great deal in my book.
It offers an ad-free YouTube experience on all devices, plus you get YouTube Music ad-free
as well.
That's everything I've liked and disliked about these services.
Now, let's talk about what they have in common.
There's actually not much they have in common.
Even the way their libraries work is completely different.
Apple Music gives you much more customization when it comes to library management, allowing
you to easily edit song metadata, purchase your own music, and import your own CDs.
Also, in Apple Music, adding something to your library is a separate action from liking
music or an artist.
On YouTube Music, when you give something a thumbs up, it's automatically added to your
library.
Apple Music also doesn't have anything comparable to the Thumbs Up auto-generated playlist on
YouTube Music.
So, I end up having to do a lot more curation on Apple Music, making sure to add new songs
I like to a yearly playlist.
Alright, now let's talk about recommendations.
For general music listening, especially if you want to just use the algorithmic recommendations,
I recommend YouTube Music for most people.
However, if you want higher quality music, Dolby Atmos support, the ability to purchase
music, or more finite control over your music library organization, YouTube Music cannot
compete with what Apple Music offers there.
So, for a subset of people, Apple Music is going to be the better choice.
That's my recommendation, but if you think I got it wrong or you think I got it right,
let me know down in the comments below.
And to see all of the devices that we used in this video, if you want to learn more about
them or check their current price, I left links in the description for that below as
well.
And if you like this video, consider giving it a thumbs up and subscribing to the channel.
See more content on music streaming services and comparison videos, and you can see the
other comparison videos we've done with music streaming services by clicking on the links
above.
For 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder.
Thanks for watching!