News From the Students, For the Students

The Griffin Gazette

News From the Students, For the Students

The Griffin Gazette

News From the Students, For the Students

The Griffin Gazette

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LOS ALAMITOS, CA -- On Friday, Dec. 1 Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to be a part of the U.S. Supreme Court, passed away at age 93. She...

The Dancing With the Stars finale aired, but who took home the Len Goodman Mirrorball?
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Fast food restaurants are convenient and important to many teenagers because of the fast and speedy services. But inflation is causing a rise in prices, and now students have to be wiser about their spendings.
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LOS ALAMITOS, CA -- After an eventful day at school, students typically crave fast food as a reward for enduring the day. Fast food is seen as...

Spotify vs. Apple Music

Spotify and Apple Music have been going head to head for years, but which one is better?
A visual depiction of the debate between Spotify and Apple Music.
Kalea Davies via Google Slides
A visual depiction of the debate between Spotify and Apple Music.

LOS ALAMITOS, CA —  Spotify and Apple Music are popular music-streaming apps that have been competing for years. Apple Music and Spotify’s audiences have a considerable amount of contrasting viewpoints about each streaming app. They each have a lot to present with many selections of podcasts, audiobooks, and music. Both Spotify and Apple Music have many sources of entertainment and exciting features. The question is which one is better? Apple Music or Spotify?

Apple Music

Apple Music is music software that was developed by Apple Inc. in 2015 with over 88 million subscribers. The streaming service has over 100 million songs and 30,000 playlists, ad-free with a subscription. It offers playlists created by professionals that are made personalized for users.  

“I like the setup [of Apple Music] and how the playlists are arranged,” said Emma Foden, a freshman. 

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In the preparation stage of Apple Music, there were many controversies about the royalties payment policy, regarding the decision to not reimburse artists when listeners use the free trial. Even popular artist Taylor Swift said she would not publish her album, “1989,” back in 2014 because of this policy. Apple Music did end up changing the policy and avoided any further criticism about this subject.

Apple Music also offers a paid subscription that allows users to listen offline. If users do not have a paid subscription, another option that the app provides is receiving full access to any music that is purchased or downloaded. 

Spotify

Spotify is a streaming service for music, podcasts, and audiobooks. It was first established in 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden by Daniel Ek. 

Spotify began its popularity in 2011 when the app announced its gain of 1 million subscribers. Today, Spotify has a total of 220 million subscribers and 305 million using Spotify’s free-tier plan. Spotify has 100 million tracks available, providing a variety of choices for its users.

Spotify’s free-tier plan, although great for those saving money, can be frustrating to people. Spotify users using the free-tier plan have ads, can’t skip songs more than six times, and can’t shuffle playlists, along with other restrictions. 

Spotify does offer a lot despite its disadvantages using the free tier. The platform offers an option of quality of volume, collaborative playlists, and recommendations on playlists and artists. 

Overall, Spotify is a favored app for numerous users and continues to be a popular choice for music.

A Los Alamitos High School freshman student listening to music on her iPhone. (Kalea Davies)

Apple Music & Spotify

Spotify and Apple Music are both similar apps offering their users music, audiobooks, and podcasts. They each have subscriptions, but they provide different features.

Spotify offers a premium subscription costing $10.99 a month with benefits. Without the premium subscription, you are able to get the free-tier plan without the benefits of premium. 

On the other hand, Apple Music’s subscription grants access to 60 million songs, listening offline and online ad-free. Without this subscription, users can only listen to music from their library. The library consists of songs that are installed into your phone from other software. 

The most popular choice solely on subscription would be Spotify due to its free-tier plan. 

Spotify allows users to generate a plan individual to your needs for free. It helps me feel like Spotify knows how to cater to my needs.

— Alyssa Mathews, freshman

Spotify’s free-tier plan allows non-paying users choices of listening to music with ads, without feeling required to pay for an add-free subscription. Users don’t feel pressured to spend money, so they feel comfortable using Spotify over Apple Music.

Spotify and Apple both give out royalties to artists, but each pays them different amounts. Although Spotify is a high-paid app, it only gives their artists 0.0033 per stream. 

“That’s not fair to the artist,” said Elena Predolin, a freshman. “The artist deserves more. They put their time, effort, and money into that music. They deserve better.”  

Apple Music, meanwhile, pays artists at 1 cent per stream. This means that Apple Music compensates artists at a higher salary than Spotify. 

According to the Spotify vs Apple Music poll on the Griffin Gazette, 81% voted for Spotify and 19% voted for Apple Music out of 31 people. 

In conclusion, Spotify is the preferred app of Los Al students, over Apple Music. Each have quality features specific to their users and provide innovative ways to listen to music. Which one do you prefer?

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About the Contributors
Kalea Davies, Staff Writer
Kalea Davies is a freshman in Journalism. Her interests range from listening to indie pop, reading fantasies and historical fiction, to binge watching murder mysteries and singing in choir. She can’t wait to join clubs on campus and participate in other activities in the future. She joined Journalism because of her passion for expressing herself through her writing and to improve her skills. Honest and loving, Kalea aspires to teach elementary school kids while digging deeper into her writing. You can contact Kalea at [email protected].
Reese Neiger, Staff Writer
Reese Neiger is a freshman at Los Alamitos High School. This is her first year in journalism, but she has always enjoyed writing and wants to pursue it in the future. She enjoys writing about current events, especially activities and pop culture. In her free time, you will catch her playing with her dog and having a good time at her swimming practice. She is excited to write impactful articles during journalism class this year.
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Comments (4)

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  • C

    CruzOct 8, 2023 at 8:17 pm

    Love the look to it, the quotes fit perfectly. Keep up the great work guys!!

    Reply
  • A

    AlyssaSep 14, 2023 at 9:04 am

    Great article guys 🙂

    Reply
  • K

    Katie A.Sep 13, 2023 at 7:10 pm

    I love this article! Great job Kalea and Reese!

    Reply
  • E

    ElenaSep 13, 2023 at 12:49 pm

    Another great article! Keep up the great work Reese.

    Reply