I Don't Know What My Favorite Music Service Is

There are way too many music services available in the landscape of 2024. In fact, there's so many that I'm kind of struggling to figure out which one I like the most. As of writing, I use Spotify and I enjoy it for the most part. But it could be better. Let's get this out of the way right now - I don't care about lossless audio or spatial audio or anything like that. I just want something to stick into my ears that I can jam to.

Lots of apps from yesteryears have survived and are still going strong today; like Pandora and Spotify. One of my favorites from 2011, Google Play Music, has been dead for a while and replaced by YouTube Music. There's also quite a few others that offer all sorts of cool quirks and features that have me half-interested and half-not-wanting-to-switch-and-import-my-music-all-over-again.

Google Play Music was peak. Whatever you want to listen to listen to, when you want to listen to it, for just $9.99/ month

Image source: https://www.dmitry-salnikov.info/article/apple-music-vs-google-play-music

Maybe I'm entirely too picky and I need to just settle for one that satisfies me for the most part - or maybe I need to keep looking and I'll find my perfect one out there eventually. Okay, now I sound like I'm looking for my soulmate. But that's just how it feels!

If you're like me and looking to find the right music app or service for you, keep on reading and join me as I discuss what I like and dislike about the apps that I've tried in the last year or two.

Deezer

Likes:

The Now Playing screen changes color depending on the song that's currently playing
There's an actual desktop app, and it works well
The app icon is a heart, and I love that
Has lots of artists and podcasts available
Mobile app is very streamlined and easy to use

Dislikes:

Not as many podcasts available as Spotify or Apple
The font kind of drives me crazy

Left: Now Playing screen on mobile, Right: layout on desktop app

This one almost had me. I almost pulled the trigger and made the switch. It's like Spotify in so many cool ways, with the playlists for different moods, collaborative playlists, the ability to change your playlist cover photo to any photo, and a few other things. I really dig how simple and clean (insert Kingdom Hearts joke here) the Now Playing screen is and I like how easy it is to find your music.

But where I get disinterested is the weird font and the fact that Deezer doesn't have as many podcasts available as some other apps. I honestly didn't use Deezer all that much. I think I had a discount for 2 months, tried it, and cancelled my trial.

YouTube Music

Likes:

Massive YouTube library
Leave comments on videos, songs, podcast episodes, etc
Custom radio stations
Slick UI animations
Gorgeous Now Playing screen
Seamlessly switch from audio to video

Dislikes:

Not as many official albums as the other apps
Not very many social features
Cannot use custom images as playlist covers
No dedicated desktop app

Left: Library, Middle: Home, Bottom: Now Playing

YouTube Music was my favorite for so long. I was a YouTube Music apologist for nearly 3 years, and I still am for so many reasons. As a big lover of video game music, I love that YouTube Music lets you tap into the seemingly endless library of anything that's ever been uploaded to YouTube. So many video game soundtracks never get official releases, but thankfully, the fine folks who rip and upload video game tunes to YouTube are preserving so many of these lost goodies. I have a GIGANTIC playlist in YouTube Music for only video game jams. But YouTube Music also taps into YouTube in a few other cool ways! Comments left on videos, podcasts, or songs on YouTube or YouTube Music feed directly into the other. YouTube Music also has an insanely large amount of music videos, with the ability to seamlessly switch from video to audio-only and vice-versa.

Another cool feature that this app has is the custom radio stations. You can choose from a few artists to add to your station, which will determine the type of music that plays, choose different levels of artist variety, music discovery, and quite a few other filters. It really tailors to anything you want and it's so insanely customizable.

The UI for YouTube Music is insanely slick. The animations from swiping down the Now Playing screen, tapping on any of the three tabs on the bottom (Up Next, Lyrics, or Related), or even just adding a song to a playlist looks and feels so velvety smooth. That Now Playing screen is also so good. The gradient is very easy on the eyes and it just looks great.

As much as I love YouTube Music, it has a lot of flaws. For one, it definitely isn't as social as Spotify or Deezer. With those apps, you could make collaborative playlists that would automatically update based on each individual's algorithm. YouTube Music also doesn't have nearly as many official albums as Spotify or Deezer. Not to mention the fact that you CANNOT use custom images as the cover for your playlists. The cover will either be a mishmash of the covers of different songs in the playlist or you can use AI-generated art from right within the YouTube Music app. I mean, that is pretty cool, but sometimes I just want to make my cover image something stupid, like King from Tekken 2. Also, there is no desktop app for YouTube Music. Just a web-based app which does work pretty well. But it definitely doesn't work as well as a dedicated desktop app would.

Spotify

Likes:

Cool social features
Lots of official albums
Integrate music from your device into your app library
Desktop app rules
Lots of cool ways to support artists
Custom images for playlist covers

Dislikes:

Now Playing screen is pretty cluttered
Home screen has a lot going on all the time
Definitely not as many game tunes as YouTube Music

Top left: now playing, Top Middle: library, Top Right: home

Bottom: desktop UI

Here's where we are now. Spotify does a lot of really cool things that others don't. First off: the social features. You can make cool collaborative playlists that update based on the participant's algorithms, "Jam", which is a listening party where anyone can add whatever songs they want to the queue, the ability to join friends when listening to any song, and so much more. As you can tell from my screenshots, I really love slapping custom photos on my playlists.

Spotify has an incredible library of official albums to listen to. I switched from YouTube Music to Spotify just a few months ago because YouTube Music dropped a few albums that I really love; Salt the Wound's "Carnal Repercussions" and Through the Eyes of the Dead's "Malice". Not to mention how janky the web app for YouTube Music can be. On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, Spotify's desktop app SLAPS. I can easily switch the device that I'm listening to, change the song from either my phone or laptop, and it's just so clean. No jank to it.

Speaking of jank, holy hell is the home screen and now playing screen cluttered. The home screen is littered with different suggested playlists, suggested artists, podcasts, and songs, upcoming concerts for bands that you follow, and even audiobooks. I like that Spotify has so many options and so many suggestions, but I wish I could dismiss a lot of the stuff that I don't care about. And it's cool that I can support artists by buying concert tickets or merch through Spotify, but I wish that was only from the artist's profile. When you're on the now playing screen, you can swipe up to see lyrics, "About the Artist", upcoming concerts, "Explore so-and-so Artist", credits, and a lot more. I mean, I don't HAVE TO swipe up from the now playing screen, so it shouldn't be an issue. But it's there, and it's cluttered as hell.

It's also weird that you can't dislike a song and keep it form showing up in future playlists or something like that.

But, I think I like Spotify. If they'd stop raising their prices, that'd be cool. I also like that you can easily integrate songs from your phone's memory into your playlists or library.

Conclusion

Out of the last 3 music apps that I've tried, I really don't know which one I like the most.

I really liked YouTube Music, but I dislike how the amount of official albums kept decreasing. On top of that, when the rest of the world is using Spotify and partaking in Jams, sharing their Spotify playlists, or making cool collaborative playlists with friends, I felt kind of left out.

While I like Spotify, I dislike how cluttered it is. I wish I could remove the audiobooks feature, dismiss the upcoming concerts, and anything else that just doesn't need to be there. I just want to listen to some lo-fi beats or some death metal and do some emails at work, for fuck's sake.

Deezer is pretty cool too. It just doesn't do anything better or worse than its competitors. I will say that out the three that I've talked about, Deezer has much better audio quality (if that's your thing).

All things considered, I'll stick with Spotify for now. That desktop app is really cool.

Let me know in the comments what you use and what you look for in a music app!

PEACE.