Music has been part of our everyday lives. Indeed, without it, life could be boring. It is all thanks to modern technology that accessing music has become a lot easier for people. The birth of music streaming platforms has been the gateway to seamless streaming.
With the introduction of those mentioned platforms, we can’t surely deny the fact that we’ve got our favorites. If you are one of those who have been looking at YouTube and Spotify but can’t decide which one to use going forward, finding a guide that highlights “YouTube vs. Spotify ” comparison would definitely be beneficial.
Both YouTube and Spotify have their own unique features and notable advantages that they offer to users. For those who aren’t so sure which one is better to use, comparing YouTube vs. Spotify would be the key. In this article, we have listed some major factors to look into when checking both platforms.
If you are now excited to find out more about the YouTube vs. Spotify comparison that we have prepared in this article, then start by reading the first section of this post.
Contents Guide Part 1: An Overview of Spotify and YouTubePart 2: Comparing YouTube vs. Spotify in Terms of Different FactorsPart 3: Additional Tip: How to Keep Listening to Spotify Songs Forever on Any DevicePart 4: Summary
Part 1: An Overview of Spotify and YouTube
Before we move into comparing YouTube vs. Spotify in terms of several different factors, it would be good to get an overview of them first.
What is Spotify?
Spotify is already a known name in the music streaming industry. In fact, it has been regarded as one of the market leaders, with over 400 million active users around the world. When using Spotify, one will have the ability to access its huge catalog and collection of contents, including music and podcasts, both on its app and web player. Regardless of which tier you are using, you will enjoy various things through this platform, such as the ability to create playlists, look for and discover new types of content, and even see what your close friends are listening to!
One of the best things that music enthusiasts love about Spotify is that it is supported by almost all devices already: mobile and portable gadgets, PCs, Kindles, smart TVs, etc. It even has a web player that can be utilized by users.
What is YouTube Music?
YouTube has already been known as a popular video streaming platform. With the launch of YouTube Music, it has been much easier for people who are merely interested in streaming songs to focus on the content that they want to access.
The same is true with Spotify, with YouTube Music, one can access a large catalog of music collections and even get to know more artists and other genres. There is also a YouTube Music app that’s available for portable devices, as well as a web player that can be opened on browsers or via the regular YouTube application itself.
Part 2: Comparing YouTube vs. Spotify in Terms of Different Factors
Of course, since our main goal here is to show you a YouTube vs. Spotify comparison, apart from giving an overview of the two platforms, we have listed here some key factors to consider when deciding which of the two is better to use.
Sound Quality
We will be starting off our “YouTube vs. Spotify” comparison with “Sound Quality” as the first major factor to look into.
Spotify is actually offering different audio quality options depending on which tier a subscriber is on. With OGG Vorbis as the file format, on the desktop app, Spotify’s audio quality is at 160 kbit/s. Premium Spotify subscribers can enjoy encoding at 320 kbit/s. When using portable devices such as Android and iOS, the lowest bit rate is 24 kbit/s, whereas the highest is 320 kbit/s.
It must be noted as well that the higher the audio quality, the more data is needed. Therefore, if you are already using a premium account, it would be good to take advantage of the highest configuration to enjoy the best music streaming experience.
YouTube Music, on the other hand, has three audio quality selections. The lowest one is at 48 kbit/s, followed by the normal one at 128 kbit/s (the default setting), and the highest selection is at 256 kbit/s.
After reading the above, if you decide to subscribe to a Spotify premium plan, you can enjoy the highest audio quality possible.
Pricing and Subscription Plans
Our “YouTube vs. Spotify” comparison should not end with just presenting details relative to the sound quality each platform offers. Let’s jump into the second factor: pricing and subscription plans.
One of the many things most Spotify users are thankful for is that the platform has a free version. However, there are quite a lot of drawbacks when using it: ad popups, a limited number of skips, the inability to download songs, lower audio quality, etc. But one good thing is that access to Spotify’s content isn’t limited.
In order to get rid of all the limitations when streaming via the free version, one can decide to upgrade to a premium plan. An individual premium account would cost 10.99 USD per month. There is even a duo plan (for two users) that’s priced at 14.99 USD monthly and a family plan (that can be used by up to 6 members) at 16.99 USD.
Getting any of these will let you enjoy Spotify’s exclusive features and perks. However, it must be noted that there are some requirements that must be met prior to getting the duo or the family plan. It is even worth mentioning that Spotify is offering a discounted offer to eligible students. Upon meeting all qualifications, a student can enjoy Premium Spotify streaming for only 5.99 USD per month.
The YouTube Music app, like Spotify, is also a subscription-based platform. It’s a shame that there’s no free version available but the good thing is that there’s a free trial offer that would last for a month. To unlock exclusive features, upgrading to a premium plan would be required, which would cost a user 10.99 USD per month.
In addition to the above, there is also a family subscription that can be enjoyed for 16.99 USD per month (for up to 6 accounts). A student plan is also available, wherein one needs to pay 5.49 USD monthly. If one opts to add 2 USD more (per month), he’ll be able to access all YouTube Music premium features alongside streaming YouTube videos ad-free!
At some point, if you are someone who’s into video streaming as well, subscribing to a plan on YouTube Music would be advantageous given that both Spotify and YouTube Music are offering plans at the same rates (except for the student plan).
Library and Content Collections
When doing a YouTube vs. Spotify comparison, we can miss looking into their libraries and content offerings.
Spotify is known as one of the platforms with the largest collections of content. Indeed, its music library is extensive and can cater to different users’ tastes when it comes to music streaming: classic or newly released, name it, and Spotify surely has it. There are over 100 million tracks, 5 million podcast items, and even 350,000 audiobook titles that a user can access through this platform.
What makes Spotify shine even more is that it has huge podcast and audiobook collections as well, making it a platform dedicated not only to music listeners but also to those who find it hard to find time to read books.
What makes YouTube Music, on the other hand, set apart from other platforms is that one can find even the rarest tracks here, as well as live performances, song covers, remixes, and instrumentals that might not possibly be available anywhere. Additionally, one can even enjoy watching music videos while vibing to the songs.
Music Discovery
We have added “Music Discovery” to the list of vital things to consider in our “YouTube vs. Spotify” comparison as this also seems to be an important factor especially for users who are always in the look for new tracks. In fact, both YouTube Music and Spotify are taking their games to the next level by giving users the “Discover Weekly” (Spotify) and “Discover Mix” (YouTube) features.
Spotify has already been well-known when it comes to its great ability when recommending songs and giving users new music discovery options. With Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” feature, it can give music suggestions referencing the user’s listening habits and history.
YouTube Music also has “New Release Mix” and “Your Mix” features apart from “Discover Mix”. These contain collections of new music that YouTube has curated based on a user’s liked videos and streaming history.
Part 3: Additional Tip: How to Keep Listening to Spotify Songs Forever on Any Device
Upon presenting you with a list of some of the most important things to look into when comparing YouTube vs. Spotify, you probably already have an idea which of these two is a better choice. Just in case you decide to choose Spotify, this section of the article will be beneficial to you in the future.
Spotify is known to be protected by DRM encryption. With such protection, the songs can’t be played outside the app or on unauthorized devices. Thus, limiting users’ flexibility in accessing them on any gadget or media player. Surely, first-time subscribers or Spotify users would be bothered about this but thankfully, this isn’t something that’s unsolvable.
There are tools like the Spotify Music Unlocker that can help with getting rid of Spotify’s DRM protection, unlocking them, and thus making them flexible to be played anywhere. Apart from this great function, this is a tool that is also capable of supporting song conversion to common formats like MP3, FLAC, M4A, and WAV.
If you would like to try using Spotify Music Unlocker, you have to download it first and then install it on your computer. Once successfully done, start by launching it. To continue with how it can aid with unlocking and converting Spotify songs, the below steps must be followed.
Step #1. Head over to the Spotify web player by simply tapping the “Open Spotify web player” button that you’ll see the moment you open the Spotify Music Unlocker app.
Step #2. To continue, you need to provide your sign-in credentials and log into your Spotify account via the “Log in” button that’s at the top of the screen.
Step #3. It is now time to choose which Spotify playlists or albums you’d like to process. Select them and tap the green “add” icon on the side afterward to get all the songs in them added. Dragging and dropping is also allowed, as is adding individual songs. Duplication is guaranteed not to happen given that this tool has the ability to automatically detect it.
Step #4. From the available output formats, choose the one you prefer using. Setting up an output folder can also be done as needed.
Step #5. The transformation of the added Spotify songs shall begin once the “Convert” or “Convert All” option is tapped. While this is happening, the songs will also be freed from DRM protection.
Upon having DRM-free copies of your Spotify favorites, you’ll now be free to access them on any devices that you wish to use.
Part 4: Summary
Hopefully, the “YouTube vs. Spotify” comparison that we presented in this article is helpful enough in case you are having a hard time deciding which of the two would be a better choice when it comes to listening to music.
Just in case you have chosen Spotify, don’t forget that to keep the songs accessible forever, you may rely on using professional apps like the Spotify Music Unlocker.
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Written By Rosie
Last updated: 2023-08-03