- Pandora Radio Vs Spotify
- Pandora Sound Quality Vs Spotify
- Spotify Free Vs Pandora Free
- Spotify Free Vs Pandora Free Fire
- Spotify Free Vs Pandora Free Music
- Pandora Vs Spotify Vs Amazon
We checked out Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and Pandora Premium to see how each platform stacks up for your subscription buck. While most offer music catalogs of more. Spotify is a live music streaming service that is used by millions all around the globe. Pandora is also live music streaming service that is more likely to be an internet radio station. Spotify is present in various countries all around the world. Pandora is present only in US, New Zealand and Australia. Pandora doesn’t seem to have anything like this. Download it now: Google Play. Verdict on the Difference Between Pandora And Spotify. As you can see, there are some difference between Pandora. The streaming quality on Pandora isn’t that impressive. Free users are restricted to low-quality streaming at 64Kbps. Pandora uses AAC format for streaming. Even the Premium subscribers can enjoy music at 192Kbps, which is among the lowest bitrate in the industry for paid subscribers. Spotify vs Pandora: Music library. Spotify has a catalog.
It may not seem like it at first glance, but YouTube was always perfectly positioned to take over music streaming. You might already know that Google is the most popular search engine in the world, but not many people know that the second most popular search bar that people type things into is YouTube. Now that Google Play Music (RIP) has officially been turned into YouTube Music, it’s worth asking how it stacks up against some of the other most popular music streaming services. In this article we’re going to be comparing it specifically to Spotify to see which one is worth your money.
What are the differences between the free version of Spotify and YouTube Music?
While both Spotify and YouTube Music offer premium subscription plans, it isn’t required. Both services offer decent free tiers that let users use the service without needing to spend a dime. Of course, be prepared to be blasted with ads if you choose to go this route. Both Spotify and YouTube Music will play ads in between songs which can really get in the way of a good playlist. It isn’t just ads that get in the way either as both have other limitations to their free tiers. The first, and most important limitation when talking about a music streaming service is sound quality. If you’re on the free tier YouTube Music will stream at 128kb/s and Spotify maxes out at 160kb/s on mobile.
Spotify and YouTube Music both have their strength and weaknesses when it comes to UI design.
It’s true that neither of these services are known for their superior sound quality, but being able to choose something other than the bare minimum would be nice. Aside from the streaming quality, there are also limitations on functionality. If you’re not on a paid Spotify plan, it isn’t possible to search for and select individual songs that you want to listen to. Instead, you can only choose songs that are already in select playlists. Though it’s worth mentioning that in researching this I found that Spotify was letting me access certain premium features while on an unpaid plan for some reason. On Spotify, you also won’t be allowed to skip more than six times if you’re on a mobile, and you also can’t download music for offline listening. Neither of these limitations exist on YouTube Music.
The free version of YouTube Music also has some annoying limitations.
Before you go dancing off to use YouTube Music though, you should know that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. The free version of YouTube Music also has notably annoying limitations. For example, if you’re on mobile you can’t leave the app to go do something else because then the the music will stop playing. So if you turn off the screen—it will also cut off the music. This isn’t a problem on desktop (you can just open up a new tab in your browser), but it’s really annoying if you’re using a smartphone.
What content do they offer?
Spotify offers both music and podcasts side by side.
If you’re torn between Spotify and YouTube Music, this is the section that will most likely be the deciding factor for most. Both are primarily music streaming services but that isn’t all they offer. Let’s start with Spotify. The company is one of the most popular music streaming services in the world, so obviously they have a lot of music. The music library numbers in the tens of millions and in my usage they have almost every song I can think of readily available to listen to.
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April 25, 2020The company has also been making a huge push to dominate podcasts. Not only does it have almost all of the programs I regularly listen to, but Spotify has been dropping some serious cash to bring a number of exclusive podcasts to the service including Joe Rogan, Kim Kardashian, and Michelle Obama. True, you might not really care about what any of those people have to say, but you have to admit those are some big names. If Spotify is willing to spend that amount of cash just on a few podcasts then it’s clear they have big plans for this part of their business down the line. If you consume a lot of podcasts like I do, it’s something to be aware of.
Spotify is making a huge push into podcasts.
While there are certainly plenty of podcasts that are uploaded to YouTube in video form, it’s by no means a priority of the service. Meanwhile, Spotify added video support to supplement their podcasts. So if you’re big into podcasts then Spotify is the clear winner here. That said, where Spotify falls short is where YouTube Music excels: songs that are off the beaten track. This includes covers, remixes, and any kind of live jam that a user might upload.
I also found some songs I had never even heard before.
While poking around YouTube Music, I not only found mixtapes from some of my favorite artists that aren’t available on Spotify (like this one) but I also found some songs I had never even heard before. For example: Blue Room by Chet Baker is one of my favorite jazz pieces, and I had no idea that there was a gorgeous acapella version until coming across it on YouTube Music. The same thing happened with this Frank Sinatra song that I was unable to find on Spotify or Apple Music.
In YouTube Music you can toggle between the full video or just the audio.
It’s in these random finds that slip through the cracks of the major publishing deals Spotify signs where I find myself really enjoying using YouTube Music. As long as someone, somewhere uploads it the chances are you can listen to it. And if you can’t find a song anywhere on the platform you can also plug the gaps yourself by uploading your own personal library. If you were a Google Play Music subscriber that already did this, YouTube Music also has a handy tool to transfer it all over automatically so you don’t have to go through the entire process again. YouTube Music also takes advantage of its huge music video library. If you search for a song you can either let the video play or, if you want to save some data, hit the “song” toggle up top which will just serve you the audio. If all you really care about is song availability then it’s hard to beat what YouTube Music has to offer.
Is Spotify or YouTube Music better for music discovery?
Both services do a good job at recommending new music once they get to know your listening habits.
Listening to your own music library is all well and good, but eventually you’ll run out of things to listen to. That’s why music discovery is also very important. Both of these services use a mixture of algorithms and curated playlists to show you new artists and songs you might like. While YouTube Music isn’t bad at this, Spotify has been putting on a masterclass in algorithm-based music discovery for years, to the point where the Spotify Discover Weekly playlists have gone pseudo-viral as so many people find it extremely good at surfacing music they would like.
Spotify has been putting on a masterclass in algorithm-based music discovery for years.
YouTube Music has its own version of this called “You Mix,” which is an endless playlist of music that the algorithm thinks you’ll enjoy and it’s truly impressive. Once it got to know what kind of music I liked I rarely found myself skipping songs here. Basically whichever service you choose, you likely won’t be disappointed once the algorithm gets to know your listening habits.
Just like regular YouTube, the strength in YouTube Music lies in its user-generated content.
Then there are the playlists offered by both services. In this aspect it’s safe to say that Spotify has the clear lead here just in terms of how many playlists are offered, but that’s mainly because they’ve had more time to make them. I’m sure YouTube Music will catch up in this aspect but as of right now I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve searched for an artist on Spotify and found a pre-made playlist with some of their most popular songs.
Pandora Radio Vs Spotify
Pricing and plans
Depending on how much you pay for data, it might be a good idea to save your favorite tunes for offline listening.
Pricing between the two services is almost identical. A subscription for an individual will run you $9.99 USD/month on both platforms and student plans are also both $4.99 USD/month. Then there’s the family plans which are also identically priced at $14.99 USD/month for up to six accounts. This is the point where things start to differ. Spotify recently added a Duo membership for two people to share that’s priced at $12.99 USD/month which works for couples.
Streaming Service | Free Model Available | Basic Plan | Premium Plan | Hi-Res Plan | Family Plan | Student Plan | Military Plan |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon Music HD | No | - | $12.99 with Prime $14.99 without | - | $19.99 | - | - |
Amazon Music Unlimited | No | - | $7.99 with Prime $9.99 without | - | - | $6.00 | - |
Apple Music | Yes | Radio is free | $9.99 | - | $14.99 | $4.99 | - |
Deezer | Yes | Free with ads | $9.99 | $14.99 | $14.99 | $4.99 | - |
Pandora | Yes | $4.99 | $9.99 | - | $14.99 | $4.99 | $7.99 |
Qobuz | No | - | $9.99 | $19.99/$24.99 monthly $299 annually | - | - | - |
SoundCloud Go/Go+ | Yes | $4.99 | $9.99 | - | - | $4.99 for premium | - |
Spotify | Yes | Free with ads | $9.99 | - | $14.99 | $4.99 | - |
Tidal | No | - | $9.99 | $19.99 | $14.99/$29.99 | $4.99/$9.99 | $5.99/$11.99 |
YouTube Music | Yes | Free with ads | $9.99 | - | $14.99 | $4.99 | - |
Spotify occasionally has random promotions where you can also get Hulu added on for an extra $3 USD so it might be worth checking that out too if you want to bundle your music and video services together. YouTube Music also has their own version of a bundle, and I bet you can guess what video service gets bundled here. If you sign up for YouTube Premium ($12.99 USD/month) which lets you watch YouTube Videos ad-free you’ll get access to YouTube Music thrown in. So if you’re looking for which service is going to give you the best bang for your buck this is something to keep in mind.
Which has better sound quality, YouTube Music or Spotify?
The YouTube Music interface is a weird mashup of YouTube and Spotify.
As these are both music streaming services, it’s only right that we talk about the sound quality. As I mentioned above neither of these are known for their superior sound quality. For that you’ll need to look at Tidal, Amazon Music HD, or Deezer. That’s not to say that either of these services sound bad, they’re fine.
Streaming Service | Max streaming quality | Supported Formats |
---|---|---|
Qobuz | 24bit / 192kHz | AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, WMA Lossless |
Amazon Music HD | 24bit /192kHz | FLAC |
Tidal HiFi | 24bit / 96kHz | AAC, ALAC, FLAC |
Deezer HiFi | 16bit / 44.1kHz | FLAC |
Google Play Music | 320kbps | AAC, ALAC, FLAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA |
Deezer Premium | 320kbps | MP3 |
Spotify Premium | 320kbps | AAC, Ogg Vorbis |
Apple Music | 256kbps | AAC |
YouTube Music Premium | 256kbps | AAC |
SoundCloud Go+ | 256kbps | AAC |
Slacker Radio | 320kbps | MP3 |
Pandora | 192kbps | AAC |
Spotify Free | 160kbps | AAC |
Deezer Free | 128kbps | MP3 |
Choosing the highest quality on Spotify will get you a stream of 320kb/s using AAC, while YouTube Music maxes out at 256 kb/s and also uses AAC. Technically Spotify wins out here, but it’s worth mentioning though that the actual number fluctuates depending on your connection so you might be kicked down to a lower quality if you have a poor connection. Plus, unless you have some seriously good equipment to A/B test on you likely won’t be able to hear the minute differences here.
Other features you should pay attention to
I’ve gone over some of the more important similarities and differences between the two services but there are plenty of other smaller differences that might matter to you as well. For example, the design of the UI might be enough to draw you to one or the other but that’s something you’re going to have to try out for yourself. I can say in my experience neither service is what I’d call intuitive. Searching on Spotify rarely gives me what I want without a few extra clicks and while the filters on the YouTube Music search is cool, I’m sure there is a better way to display the results than a just a list.
![Pandora Pandora](/uploads/1/3/4/1/134168102/964306050.jpg)
Spotify and YouTube Music both have the option to cast, but they’re not compatible with everything.
Each service also has its own Cast functionality so if you want to play your music on something like your surround sound system at home you can do so just by clicking on the Google Cast button or on the Spotify Connect in their respective apps. In my experience I found that I prefer to use Spotify Connect as it doesn’t forget that it’s connected to someway halfway through a song like Google Cast constantly does. But again, which one is best for you really depends on your particular setup. Some receivers and speakers might be compatible with just one or the other (or neither). So make sure to check whether the service you choose plays nice with your existing hardware.
So which one is right for you?
I usually recommend people to just go with Spotify, as I find it the safer bet for most people. Unless you have very particular preferences, chances are that you’ll be happy with Spotify. But if you can’t tell by now, picking between Spotify and YouTube Music really depends on what you’re looking for in a streaming service. If you value podcasts then you’re probably better off using Spotify, but in my time using YouTube Music I found that it excels at more of the random finds that make music fun in the first place. They’re also both priced similarly so you’re not missing out on much there, and while Spotify technically has a higher bitrate you likely won’t be able to tell the difference unless you find a particularly bad upload of a song on YouTube Music.
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With new services like popping up every day, the music streaming world is dominated by two main players — Spotify vs. Pandora. Streaming is the newest way to get entertainment at our fingertips, and music is no exception. Which service is right for you? Keep reading to discover the main differences between Spotify and Pandora’s free and paid options, plus learn how you can access the services from anywhere in the world!
Pandora
Pandora’s main strength lies in its ability to help you discover new types of music. The channel refining tools are highly advanced, and the number of station combinations is basically unlimited, so you’re always going to find something in a genre you like. While Pandora’s database holds only 1 million songs to Spotify’s 20 million, there are some key artists that have withheld their music from Spotify for various reasons (most involving low compensation for music). Taylor Swift and The Black Keys are two of these artists—you can still find their music on Pandora, but not on Spotify any longer.
Countries Available
Spotify Free Vs Pandora Free
United States, Australia & New Zealand
Cost
Spotify Free Vs Pandora Free Fire
Pandora offers a free service that allows users to stream on their home-listening devices (computers, televisions, etc.) and mobile devices. This free service includes ads and limits the amount of times a user can skip a song each hour. Pandora One is Pandora’s paid subscription, which goes for $4.99USD/month or $54.89 USD/year. Benefits of the paid subscription include: the removal of advertisements and more skips allowing users to hear more of what they love.
Why People Love It
What many people love about Pandora is that it is constantly introducing them to new music. https://ghkvsp.weebly.com/blog/spotify-desktop-app-not-playing-songs. Users can select stations based on genre or multiple artist, as they go through each song they are able to offer a thumbs up or down. This allows them to shape the station to their personal tastes and ensures that if they dislike an artist they can remove them altogether. In this way Pandora is able to introduce new artists and songs into the station allowing you to remove them if they are not a good fit.
What It’s Missing
If you are the kind of person that knows exactly which 20-song playlist they want to listen to Pandora is just not the streaming platform for you. On Pandora you cannot create your own playlist of specific songs you have to start with a station and go from there. So really it comes down to what you are in the mood for.
Spotify
A newer service, Spotify gives users the freedom to stream over 20 million songs. Users can search by artist, song, genre or playlist as well as create radio station based on any of these search queries. The service currently has over 75 million users, what makes it stand out is the partnerships it has with artists and record labels. These partnerships allow users to repeatedly stream songs as portion goes to the artist each time their song is played.
Countries Available
Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Singapore, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.
Why People Love It
What sets Spotify apart is that it allows users to listen to whatever they want whenever they want. While they offer radio-like features their main selling point it that you can stream the hottest top 40 songs and then listen to your favorite album from 2005 from start to finish. For a long time Spotify has dominated this market with few other competitors allowing users to legally stream their favorite content outside of a radio-like format.
What It’s Missing
The major thing that users may notice is that certain artists refuse to have their music on Spotify because they don’t agree with the amount that artists get compensated. Taylor Swift famously removed her entire catalog from Spotify and others have since followed suit. Artist continue to criticize Spotify for their lack of compensation and many, Swift included, believe the Apple Music could be the happy medium they are looking for.
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Spotify Free Vs Pandora Free Music
Cost
Pandora Vs Spotify Vs Amazon
Spotify limits free users to only 10 hours of music/month after 6 months of free usage. To upgrade to Premium which gives you ad-free and unlimited listening, you will pay at $9.99/month. One of the main benefits of upgrading is that you can take your music on the go downloading it to your device so you can listen to it without having to stream it online. In an effort to get new users Spotify is constantly offering free one to three month trials of Spotify Premium as well as discounts for students.
How to Access Spotify and Pandora Around the World
If you find yourself in one of the many countries where either of these services are unavailable you can use a VPN to quickly gain access to all of your favorite songs.Using a VPN you can simply set your location to a country where the service is available and instantly stream all of the hits you love. A VPN (virtual privacy network) allows you to run all your traffic through an encrypted server located in whichever country you choose. You may also want to use a VPN to gain access to additional content that is only available in specific countries the USA vs. the UK for example.
When streaming online, even through platforms like Spotify and Pandora it is important to consider your online privacy. A VPN provides you with the security and anonymity needed to safely and securely browse without exposing yourself to serious privacy threats. If you are not familiar with VPNs or how to set one up simply—check out ourhelpful resources that break it down by each operating system.
The Verdict
Overall, we’d have to suggest that Pandora is a great service for heavy users that are willing to give up a little bit of control for a less limited and expensive service, while Spotify offers more musical options, but at a steeper price, and may be more valuable to listeners with specific interests. So, when it comes to choosing Spotify or Pandora, which is your favorite? Try out both services and don’t forget to use a VPN to access all your favorite content and protect your privacy while streaming!