Sometimes I want to write about something in a slightly longer form than for social media like Bluesky, but don’t want it to be so long and detailed that I have to spend days curating the post. I’m calling this style of post “casual” - something that’s been on my mind, of varying length (maybe even quite short), with less editing.

I recently switched from Spotify to Apple Music, which was a big deal for me. I listen to quite a lot of music, and it’s an important part of my life. Here’s why, how I did it, and how I feel about both platforms after a month.

Why #

I used to really like Spotify, and used it since ~2010 - well over a decade. The radio was really unbeatable for a long time, and they popularised the “algorithmic playlist” which helped me discover a lot of new music. The direct integration with Sonos is also fantastic.

However, over the last ~5 years I feel there’s been a consistent degradation of the user experience for actually listening to music. The “Home” screen gained features pushing podcasts, and audiobooks, up over the top of your own library.

The prospect of a higher quality tier leaked out multiple times, with the most recent from July 2024 about a “deluxe”¹ tier. I’ve patiently waited multiple years for this feature, and I’m fed up with getting baited by it. I know, most folks can’t tell the difference between “high quality” (320 kbps MP3) and lossless. For the right track, I can probably be fooled. But I have a really nice pair of planar magnetic headphones (Hifiman Ananda²), and I would like to enjoy lossless music with them. I’m particularly annoyed at being told that I don’t actually want it.

Wrapped is a great concept, and I have enjoyed it for a few years, but my 2024 wrapped felt “off” somehow? I saw other people saying the same thing on social media at the time. Probably something to do with firing people who worked on it the year before³.

I don’t understand the “AI DJ” concept. I’m really not sure why the idea of pseudo-human voice interjecting between tracks is appealing. Perhaps to emulate the radio? But at least the people on the radio are… people, and not approximations. I guess I could just not use it, but it indicates a direction that I don’t vibe with.

I’m deeply skeptical of any desire to use AI to replace media created by people. I simply don’t want it and feel that kind of future is bleak, and worth fighting against. I don’t doubt that it could be a useful tool for exploration as part of the creative process, but that’s not what CEOs are pitching.

All that is to say, I was quite annoyed, and ready to explore alternatives.

Alternatives #

Won’t go in to too much detail here, but there’s absolutely loads of platforms to choose from. Helpfully collated⁴ by The Verge recently (focused on platforms that make sense in the UK):

• Amazon Music
• Apple Music
• Bandcamp
• Soundcloud
• Tidal

The aspects that matter to me most are:

• Music as the focus, with less UI bullshit getting in the way
• Higher quality offerings, including lossless
• Ideally a native UI on each platform
• iOS and macOS as primary platforms, with the option of Windows and web
• Price doesn’t matter as much as the other points - if it’s good, I’ll pay for it
• Artists deserve to be paid more on all platforms, and I’m not sure any of them are better at it than others

I’m deep in the Apple ecosystem already, so Apple Music was an obvious first choice. If that hadn’t been available I would have given Tidal a try.

Migrating #

I exclusively used a really helpful app called “Playlisty for Apple Music”⁵. There’s a free trial for a handful of tracks to get you started. After I saw that it worked, I paid for it, and used it to migrate a huge number of songs and playlists. It self-reported a 99% success rate, which I was a little skeptical of - but happy to confirm that I only found one dubious song match in thousands.

Good stuff #

I did actually try Apple Music a few years ago, but bounced off of it because the radio was really, really bad for me at the time.

Gladly that has vastly improved in the time since, and I think now I actually prefer it to Spotify’s radio, which feels wild to say given what a head start Spotify had. Spotify recently started getting “stuck” in my playlist generation, and felt like I’d hear the same songs repeatedly. One “Daily Mix” playlist barely changed every week and for some reason always started with the same Bonobo track? Weird.

The Apple Music playlists update less, sometimes once every couple of weeks, or a month, but they feel higher quality - more varied selections, fewer repetitions, and sometimes offering a track that expands your boundaries a bit, which I like.

It feels so nice to have desktop and mobile apps that look and feel native. They’re fast to load, the interaction is snappy, and it doesn’t feel like you have the weight of a browser waking up every time you foreground them.

Lossless is a really nice choice to have. Apple Music gives you two options for it - ALAC 24-bit/48 kHz, or ALAC hi-res 24-bit/192 kHz. The former is enough for me.

There’s a classical music app which I haven’t tried yet but love the idea of.

Room for improvement #

I only have one negative comment about Apple Music, and that’s the lack of LastFM integration. You can tell when I made the switch from my profile⁶ - there’s no first-party way of scrobbling, which I miss a lot. It was an easy way to show folks what I’ve been listening to.

I haven’t checked if there’s an Apple Music API or not, but I’d definitely play around with it to connect the two platforms. If you know something about that, do let me know on Bluesky.

Conclusion #

And that’s it! Hope this is helpful for anyone considering a switch. I encourage you to not feel trapped by your tech choices, regardless of the domain. If Spotify improved, I’m open to returning - I don’t think it’s irredeemable. I also understand that music is deeply personal, so use what makes you happy.

Sometimes giving alternatives a try can even help you rediscover why you liked the original thing. But for now, I’m very happy with my new music platform of choice.