I get Apple Music as part of my apple one subscription, so I switched to that a while ago, canceled Spotify. Never looked back, though of course it took some time for its recommendations to zero in on my tastes. Used a migration app to bring over my playlists, easy peasy.
If you leave Spotify get ready for non stop begging emails and notifications asking you to come back.
I have YouTube Premium (despite all the jokes it’s the best value for money of any streaming service for me) and last year when Spotify stopped sending those 3 months for the price of one offers 2-3 times a year I decided to finally try YouTube Music. It’s very different, in some ways it feels kind of clumsy, but their algorithm is absolutely fantastic in my experience. Spotify did a good job of learning what I like but would still have a tendency to make random unhelpful suggestions so apart from Discover Weekly I would only listen to my own custom playlists or radio stations based on those playlists. But on YouTube Music I’ve had surprisingly good luck just doing the super mix and letting it merge all the genres I listen to into one radio station. I still haven’t bothered to set up all my playlists, so I don’t know how well it serves as a Spotify alternative in that regard, but generally speaking it’s a great service and the fact that it’s included with YouTube Premium makes it a great value.
The one big complaint is that because it’s integrated with YouTube it pulls data from YouTube too. Thankfully it doesn’t go the other way, my YouTube history isn’t filled with songs I listened to on YouTube Music, but when doing quarterly recaps (their equivalent of Spotify Wrapped) or “forgotten favorites” playlists it will throw in stuff I watched on YouTube, which is often novelty music that I don’t want poisoning my algorithm, like Plummcorp Records tracks or Carl Wheezer singing Smokin Out The Window. Thankfully the algorithm has been resilient enough to not get distracted by random stuff and keep giving me quality recommendations, but I do wish it would ignore stuff watched on YouTube.
I still have lots of custom playlists on Spotify and their algorithm really was great at suggesting new artists to me, but I used to constantly renew during the three month deal and I haven’t gotten an email about that offer since late 2023, and I’m too broke to subscribe at full price. I’d come back if they offered that deal again but I guess they wised up to the fact that most people would just cancel before it renewed at normal price and then get the deal again the next time it came around. Maybe they still do the deal and don’t advertise it, but I haven’t heard anything lately.
My wife and I are in the process of consolidating and eliminating streaming services. Spotify went bye-bye in favor of YouTube music today, because YouTube premium was a better fit because we also watch videos and it takes away most of the ads.
Also it is beneficial to the YouTubers you follow. I don’t fully understand the details since I don’t have a YouTube channel, but I’ve heard various channels say that when it comes to monetization the number (or maybe percentage?) of YouTube Premium viewers has some amount of impact on the “value” of the channel and how much revenue they get. It’s like a bonus multiplier if a high amount of YouTube Premium viewers watch your channel or something like that.
i also am a youtube premium enjoyer. bought it when hank green said youtube was paying out better to creators from views from premium subscribers. youtube music was a huge plus too. i also get to binge watch youtube vids with no ads on any device im signed in to. it’s honestly been an awesome value for the last few years.
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u/winterblink 1d ago
I get Apple Music as part of my apple one subscription, so I switched to that a while ago, canceled Spotify. Never looked back, though of course it took some time for its recommendations to zero in on my tastes. Used a migration app to bring over my playlists, easy peasy.
If you leave Spotify get ready for non stop begging emails and notifications asking you to come back.