Apple Music Streaming vs Spotify - Mobile Data Question

[tekchic]

Apple Music will stream at 256kbps, while Spotify offers three speeds - from 310kbps all the way down to 96kbps on mobile devices.

I stream heavily on Spotify at 96kbps and it doesn't eat a ton of data compared to other services I've used in the past (Google Play Music).

Has anyone seen if Apple Music will offer other bitrates besides the 256kbps? I'm definitely doing the 3-month trial, but I'm concerned that I might eat a ton more data streaming over cellular than I do with Spotify. Too bad I don't have wifi access at work. :/

With Spotify I download music playlists for offline as well, but have lately been streaming more, as I'm enjoying the variety of new curated stations. I'm guessing I'll enjoy those same curated stations with Apple Music as well, thus more streaming than downloading.

It'll be fun finding out on Tuesday though!

 

[tonyr6]

I think Apple Music is offering 64k aacPlus bitrate for those who want to stream on mobile with limited data.

 

[WJKramer]

I think Apple Music is offering 64k aacPlus bitrate for those who want to stream on mobile with limited data.

Link to this? Because the only official statement regarding quality so far has been 256k AAC.

 

[WJKramer]

Apple Music will stream at 256kbps, while Spotify offers three speeds - from 310kbps all the way down to 96kbps on mobile devices.

I stream heavily on Spotify at 96kbps and it doesn't eat a ton of data compared to other services I've used in the past (Google Play Music).

Has anyone seen if Apple Music will offer other bitrates besides the 256kbps? I'm definitely doing the 3-month trial, but I'm concerned that I might eat a ton more data streaming over cellular than I do with Spotify. Too bad I don't have wifi access at work. :/

With Spotify I download music playlists for offline as well, but have lately been streaming more, as I'm enjoying the variety of new curated stations. I'm guessing I'll enjoy those same curated stations with Apple Music as well, thus more streaming than downloading.

It'll be fun finding out on Tuesday though!

How do you listen to 64k?! It sounds worse than AM radio to me.

 

[tekchic]

I streamed this morning for 45 minutes at the gym to test it out and it only used 30mb of data from one of their curated playlists. I'm impressed. It didn't skip and sounded fine to me. I'm no over-the-top audiophile, I just want to be able to stream during workouts without it eating my LTE data plan into the ground.