Spotify Takes Aim at Apple Music With Major Changes

With its extensive music library and user-friendly interface, Spotify is the world's most popular music streaming service, boasting over 713 million active monthly users. However, despite its massive popularity, it does still have competitors that have long offered a more premium experience.

While Spotify might surpass Apple Music in terms of numbers, it hasn't always been able to challenge the actual product, as Apple Music offered higher-quality streams and things like Music Videos. However, Spotify has recently challenged Apple Music a bit with some recent changes.

Lossless Music Quality

While Apple Music has long been able to boast noticeably better streaming quality, Spotify made a move to fix that recently.

Back in September, Spotify began rolling out lossless sound quality to its premium users across the country, allowing users to experience richer, more detailed, and higher-quality streams.

“The wait is finally over; we’re so excited lossless sound is rolling out to Premium subscribers,” said Spotify VP of Subscriptions Gustav Gyllenhammar in a news release back in September. “We’ve taken time to build this feature in a way that prioritizes quality, ease of use, and clarity at every step, so you always know what’s happening under the hood. With Lossless, our premium users will now have an even better listening experience.”

With Lossless, customers can now stream tracks in up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC, allowing them to enjoy greater detail across nearly every song available on Spotify.

Music Videos

Another area where Spotify was lacking compared to Apple Music was music videos. While Apple Music has long offered an extensive library of music videos, that was not something that Spotify offered. However, that has recently changed.

Earlier this month, Spotify officially announced that it was bringing music videos to its premium subscribers in the United States and Canada.

“For decades, music videos have done more than just accompany a song; they’ve shaped style, started conversations, and helped us fall in love with our favorite artists. Now, music videos in beta are rolling out to Premium users in the U.S. and Canada, bringing fans even closer to the music they love,” Spotify wrote in its announcement on Tuesday.

This comes after Spotify previously tested music videos in beta in 100 different markets. The test was presumably successful, and it sounds like the company is moving forward with the plan to bring more videos to more markets.

“When we introduced music videos in beta to nearly 100 markets last year, we saw how video can elevate the listening experience—and users agree. A recent Burson survey* found that more than 70% of users say more video content would enhance their experience on Spotify,” the company wrote.

Continued Competition

While Spotify has its own strengths and a loyal base of customers, these moves make it pretty clear that Spotify is going to continue competing with Apple Music for those who want more of a premium experience.

If Spotify continues to improve its product while maintaining its user-friendly platform and beloved features like its AI DJ and Spotify Wrapped, that would go a long way toward bringing in new customers and ensuring that existing customers are happy.