Spotify versus SoundCloud a few of you have been commenting that I should take
a look at Spotify versus SoundCloud and debunk any of the myths going on between
Spotify and SoundCloud so that's what exactly what I'm going to do I'll be
looking at Spotify and SoundCloud over a variety of different sections and seeing
whether SoundCloud might be right for you or if it Spotify is right for you if
you're new here please push the subscribe button and stick around I do
weekly videos I'm a singer-songwriter myself and I do have my music on
SoundCloud and Spotify. I'll leave a couple of links in the description below
let's get right into this video though Spotify versus SoundCloud. Okay how I'm
going to structure this video is in four different sections. Music, music discovery,
features, and pricing and I'm going to go over each of those sections between both
the applications which one's better for you SoundCloud or Spotify the first
section and most important section would be music the catalog of songs on Spotify
versus SoundCloud are very different SoundCloud actually has more songs than
Spotify SoundCloud has I think about 125 million songs how can that be right
where Spotify only has about 60 million only that's still an incredible amount
of songs that you'll never be able to even listen to in your entire lifetime
well Spotify has less songs because their main focus is on mainstream music
and popular music where sound clouds focus is more on independent music and
kind of this bedroom producer bedroom artist music work for example if I'm a
producer or artist I can make a song in my bedroom studio and upload it to
Spotify for free because of that there are many more songs on soundcloud it
means actually more choice but it doesn't necessarily mean more quality so
you're gonna find more songs on soundcloud and if you're interested in
more bedroom artists singer songwriter producer music that might not have the
same quality as the music on Spotify well
SoundCloud is going to be right for you there are more
independent artists on Soundcloud if you are more interested into mainstream
music you want to listen to the Ed Sheeran albums you want to listen to the
Justin Bieber albums you want mainstream pop music you're gonna want to go with
Spotify Spotify recommends mainstream music to you they sort it nicely they
categorize it nicely there's less noise in Spotify than there is in SoundCloud
and if you want that type of mainstream pop music go with Spotify it's so when
it comes to the section of music obviously when if it's quantity
SoundCloud is the winner here and it's a crowd winner if you're into that
independent music when it comes to mainstream pop music and clean design of
categorization of this music I'm going to crown Spotify and personally
subjective I like the Spotify music more than I do
like the SoundCloud so for me crown winner for Spotify second section which
is music discovery and definitely a big one for you out there if you're deciding
between Spotify and SoundCloud music I'm definitely a fan of the Spotify
algorithm Spotify recommends new music for you that are very in line with your
interests and they have playlists such as the discovery weekly playlist and the
taste breakers playlist which really put that new music right in front of you
that you've never heard before that you likely will like I've
discovered a lot of new music on Spotify of bands and artists that I've never
heard of before but I do like them now when it comes to SoundCloud not as
strong of an algorithm they do recommend new artists for you that you should
check out in your feeds but the recommendations just are not as strong
from what I've noticed in terms of my tastes and likes this is basically
SoundCloud here and they do have the section of who to follow so they do
recommend artists that you might like I have found some other things here you
can see though that this section this guy here has a promoted post there so
SoundCloud is pushing a bit of a revenue stream there and having space for
promoted ad probably wouldn't like this person because they're being they're
being paid to put there I might like these people it's more of an organic
thing this is something that Spotify doesn't do yet I haven't noticed like
paid promote to get on top of the list like you can't
pay to get on someone's Discovery weekly playlist if you're looking to discover
more independent artists you're going to want to go with SoundCloud because you
just don't get that discovery on Spotify you will discover new music but it's
always high-quality mainstream music we're on soundcloud this is like some
some of the recordings are really bad some people like that and if you want
that you're gonna want to go with soundcloud subjective opinion for music
discovery I'm going to crown Spotify as the winner because I'm more into that
mainstream thing if you're into independent music I'll crown SoundCloud
as the winner for you let's jump into the third section features who has
better features SoundCloud or Spotify the core business models of Spotify and
SoundCloud are very different Spotify is a mainstream streaming music streaming
service where SoundCloud is also a mainstream music streaming service but
they're really promoting independent musicians and for musicians and artists
to upload music to Spotify so a lot of their core business model is uploads of
new songs so they have that whole distribution service as well on Sound
Cloud which Spotify you can't you can't upload music directly to Spotify
you have to use a distributor between you and Spotify so that's a big
difference there between the core business models and because of that the
features are quite different really great features when it comes to the
social networking side of Spotify who you can follow who they're listening to
you can create collaborative playlists with your friends you can see in real
time what your friends are listening to you can follow your friends you can
follow your artists that whole feedback loop of follow to see what people like
is very strong on Spotify those types of features are on SoundCloud as well but
they're just a little less prevalent you can tell that SoundCloud is more of a
creator for example SoundCloud it has a great feature where you can
just message other people so it is a messaging service they offer that inside
their platform and I guess both are winners in this section in their own
rights because they're quite different the last section which would be pricing
quite simple when it comes to Spotify there is a free version
sign up to listen to as much music as you want but you can't download music
you have to listen to ads and you're limited to a number of skips so it's
kind of annoying if you want to get rid of all that stuff you can pay $9.99 a
month you can bump up to about $14.99 a month and have six accounts as a family
plan and if you're a student you can have a plan for about $5.99 a month with
SoundCloud it's very similar you can just go to SoundCloud sign up with your
email and have a free account and start streaming music and listening to things
but you're going to be blocked again with ads and these types of things if
you want to get rid of that they do have a starter plan at $5.99 a month it's
just a less expensive than Spotify but there are a couple of restrictions for
example you're not going to get access to the full catalog of SoundCloud
they're gonna dampen that a little bit for you and they're going to try to get
you to upgrade to the next plan which is the sound cow
SoundCloud go+ which is $9.99 a month and with this plan you know you'll get a
free listening you can save unlimited tracks you have the access to full
catalogue and high quality audio it's about the same quality as audio as you
would get on Spotify the amount of compression is quite similar the only
big platform that has the best quality audio is title and I've done another
video on comparison to Spotify you can go check that out if you're interested
pricing when it comes to SoundCloud and Spotify which is better well SoundCloud
is cheaper but you don't get access to a full catalog of music so I'm going to
crown Spotify as the winner here just because they have the extended free
platform forever you can get to like it and then if you do really enjoy it start
paying the $9.99 a month or if you're a student it's $5.99 you know what
subjective opinion if you're a independent musician fan get the free
account for for SoundCloud and then start paying later if you really enjoy
it so both crown winners there I guess it's a bit of a combo let's debate about
this in the comments do you like Spotify more than you like SoundCloud which do
you use I'm interested to hear what you think feel free to check out some of my
own music I've left some links in the description below it's all on SoundCloud
and it's all modify as well punch the subscribe
button if you're new here and I hope to see you in the next video