Apple Music...data and battery usage through the roof

[HandsomeDanNZ]

I have been using Apple Music for a couple of days now and have noticed insane usage of both my data cap and battery.

Using Spotify was never close to this thirsty on resources...what have Apple done wrong?

What's your real-world experience been like?

 

[andyp350]

The default 'Normal' bitrate for both steaming and offline downloads on the Spotify iOS app is 96kbps, I believe Apple Music is 256 iTunes Plus, so that may explain the data.

 

[HandsomeDanNZ]

Can't be that...I only ever used the highest quality setting for Spotify which I believe is 320kbps

 

[zhenya]

No issues here. Been streaming constantly, and we have been over our data cap already this month before Apple Music launched, so I've been watching our data closely. Battery life seems unchanged, as it should be with Apple's native music playback.

 

[teidon]

Apple Music should automatically choose the bit rate it uses based on the connection type. So it should use 256kbps on WiFi and something lower on cellular. I don't know if it's mentioned anywhere what that lower bit rate is though.

 

[sparkyms]

I've been pleasantly surprised at the little effect it has on the battery; but similarly I would not be shocked if some are reporting battery life changes, it's streaming data..

 

[zhenya]

Yep, streaming anything will always be partially dependent on your local connection. If it's a poor connection, or non-optimized in some way, it can kill your battery no matter how good the underlying system is.