Audio Quality: Apple Music v Spotify Premium

[Ralfi]

I'm subscribed to both services, but use Spotify much more. I'd gotten used to Spotify requiring the volume to be turned up slightly higher, but going back & forth recently to compare the two, I've noticed that not only does Apple Music sound louder, but I think it has more detail (compared to Extreme quality on Spotify).

Reading some online comparisons backs up what I'm thinking as they state Apple Music's files are less lossy.

To me, the difference is obvious when listening on the Airpods, although less so when streaming at home to my Home Theatre Receiver (I think Spotify Connect streams at a higher quality?).

Does anyone else notice a difference between the best audio bitrates when streaming on their ear phones?

 

[Ralfi]

Just did some info hunting & discovered why Spotify sounded worse - there's a setting called "Normalisation" that I had enabled in Spotify. Apparently, this is similar to the Dynamic Range reduction in AVR's. Turning it off improved the audio to match that of Apple Music.

Hope this helps others...

Edit... Furthermore, this 'Normalisation' setting is also on the current PC version of Spotify, only it's called "Play songs at the same volume" & it's within the 'Advanced Settings'.

Don't ask me why the same setting has different names on PC/portable devices....surprised at Spotify for this inconsistency.

 

[tonyr6]

Apple Music has the best sound quality which I why I suffer with the issues of iTunes not loading and the sometimes slow mobile app.

Amazon Music sound just as good as Apple Music. They also have many tracks that are unavailable on Apple Music, grayed out or missing so I use them as a supplement when I want to listen to the missing tracks.

Spotify sound quality is in the middle but it still does not sound as good as Apple Music. There Desktop app is great but there mobile app drains the battery too much.

Google Play Music sounds the worst. Like mud really bad that I beg Google for a refund after using it for 5 minutes it makes my ears bleed. Also there QC is bad as some tracks skip like a scratched up CD. Like they ripped a badly scratched CD in poor MP3. It is however stable. There web player never crashes and their mobile app does not drain the battery. As I said what makes me not subscribe is the horrible sound quality.

 

[Strelok]

Just did some info hunting & discovered why Spotify sounded worse - there's a setting called "Normalisation" that I had enabled in Spotify. Apparently, this is similar to the Dynamic Range reduction in AVR's. Turning it off improved the audio to match that of Apple Music.

Hope this helps others...

Edit... Furthermore, this 'Normalisation' setting is also on the current PC version of Spotify, only it's called "Play songs at the same volume" & it's within the 'Advanced Settings'.

Don't ask me why the same setting has different names on PC/portable devices....surprised at Spotify for this inconsistency.

Wow, thanks a lot for that. I never even knew that setting existed, it's actually on by default!

 

[oneMadRssn]

Apple Music streams using 256Kbps AAC. Spotify streams using 320Kbps Ogg Vorbis on best settings.

If that were the end of the road, I would say the two are same or close enough for all practical purposes in quality. So for listening with a 3.5mm jack, it's all the same.

Unfortunately not all things are the same when it comes to bluetooth headphones. Having bluetooth headphones that support AAC is the best you can do with iOS, because Apple refuses to license APTX. On Apple Music, the music is sent to the headphones as AAC directly, same as it comes in. On Spotify, iOS transcodes the Ogg Vorbis to AAC before sending it to the headphones. The transcoding introduces a few minor additional losses. Thus, with bluetooth headphones, Apple Music sounds better.

Spotify can (and should) easily rectify this by streaming using AAC to iOS devices. The AAC codec is relatively low-cost, I think they should do use it for paid users.

 

[Ralfi]

Wow, thanks a lot for that. I never even knew that setting existed, it's actually on by default!

They're doing themselves a disservice aren't they. Needs to be off by default!

 

[rufas2000]

They're doing themselves a disservice aren't they. Needs to be off by default!

I personally prefer it off but many Spotify users listen to playlists and the volume changes from track to track can be annoying. Maybe I'm wrong but I'd assume those users would be less likely to find the "normalization" option as opposed to users concerned enough about sound quality to turn the feature off.

Just a guess as to why it would be enabled by default and why that MIGHT be a good choice for Spotify (making less users unhappy).

 

[neil74]

I have both and just find spotify to be inconsistent, when it is good it is as good as apple music imo but there are just too many turds in there. I read somewhere that not all of the library is actually 320 kbps, apparently back in circa 2010 they were supposed to convert all of the library to 320 kbps ogg format but some feel that they did not do this or just upscaled rather than replaced, or maybe their source files are not great to start with? I love the discovery and it is the best app imo but I am only keeping it as it is free for me until June.

I am not a massive fan of apple music either but the consistency is excellent. I think that others such as Deezer or google are with considering as they get strong reviews for audio quality. Amazon is also very good but I just hate the way it handles albums (adds an album for every track on a playlist so I ended up with hundreds of 1 or 2 track albums)

Don't forget on an iPhone if you listen wirelessly you are capped at 256 kbps anyway as AAC bluetooth does not support any higher

 

[sundog925]

spotify still has a way better algorithm for playlists, AM was terrible, too many repeats.

 

[DarmoZ]

Apple Music streams using 256Kbps AAC. Spotify streams using 320Kbps Ogg Vorbis on best settings.

If that were the end of the road, I would say the two are same or close enough for all practical purposes in quality. So for listening with a 3.5mm jack, it's all the same.

Unfortunately not all things are the same when it comes to bluetooth headphones. Having bluetooth headphones that support AAC is the best you can do with iOS, because Apple refuses to license APTX. On Apple Music, the music is sent to the headphones as AAC directly, same as it comes in. On Spotify, iOS transcodes the Ogg Vorbis to AAC before sending it to the headphones. The transcoding introduces a few minor additional losses. Thus, with bluetooth headphones, Apple Music sounds better.

Spotify can (and should) easily rectify this by streaming using AAC to iOS devices. The AAC codec is relatively low-cost, I think they should do use it for paid users.

Hi this is interesting how do you know that IOS transcodes everything in AAC first? i guess this is not limited to spotify app too?

 

[neil74]

No, but it seems logical that transcoding AAC to AAC should work better. Now I am not so sure and I think the quality difference I see on Spotify is more down to their masters than any codec difference.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Hi this is interesting how do you know that IOS transcodes everything in AAC first? i guess this is not limited to spotify app too?

There aren't that many bluetooth audio profiles that are high quality. AptX is very common. LDAC and SBC are two others. SBC is mandatory and the default. AAC is favored by Apple because it is their home-grown one. Not all headphones are compatible with all codecs. Not all devices support all codecs. Many codecs require certain license agreements. Apple does not want to pay Qualcomm to license AptX, so they use AAC.

So the way it works is it takes the source audio, transcodes it to the codec for bluetooth, transfers the sound to the headphones, the headphones decode the codec in a DAC and send analog audio to your ears.

If you pair headphones that don't support AAC to an iPhone, it will transmit audio using SBC. It's good enough but not great - you'll be able to hear the compression pretty easily. If the headphones support AAC, it will sound a bit better (hence why Apple uses it if the headphones support it). It will sound best if the source file is already in AAC, like on Apple Music.

I don't know how AAC codec licensing works exactly. It's open source, so I think Spotify can just use it. The only fee structure seems to be for decoders, such as those used in headphones or speaker hardware directly. Again, not an expert here on this.