Reviews

Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: A Comprehensive Comparison

By Adam Davidson

Published June 23, 2023

Apple and Amazon are tech giants, but which offers better music streaming? We’ll explain everything in this head-to-head, Apple Music vs. Amazon Music review.

Apple and Amazon are two of the biggest tech companies in the world. Although music was never at the heart of either business when they were founded, it has played a big part in the growth of both companies. Today, both Apple and Amazon offer music streaming services similar to Spotify that give you access to a huge catalog of songs.

How do the music streaming services from these two behemoths compare? We’ll take a close look in this side-by-side comparison of Apple Music vs. Amazon Music.

Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Catalog

Both music streaming services boast a catalog of more than 100 million songs. The days of music only being released on one specific platform are largely behind us, so you should expect to find the music you want to listen to on both platforms.

Amazon Music also includes a wide selection of podcasts within the app whereas Apple hosts its podcasts in the dedicated Podcasts app.

Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Discovery

If you want to discover new music, both services can help you to do so. Amazon Music offers a My Discovery Mix with a selection of songs it thinks you will like based on your listening history. The playlist updates every Monday. It will also suggest other music you might like.

Apple Music has a New Music Mix by artists the algorithms think you will like. This playlist updates every Friday.

Both services also provide curated playlists for specific genres such as Pop Hits, and playlists for specific artists with a selection of their most popular music.

Apple Music also offers traditional-style radio stations that play music in real-time with presenters introducing songs. Amazon Music offers a similar service where select stations can be played in DJ mode with commentary and stories about the music being played.

Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Audio Quality

Apple Music offers its entire catalog in AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) by default. However, you can opt to turn on lossless audio, which uses Apple’s own Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). The entire catalog is available in 16-bit/44.1kHz (which Apple calls Lossless Audio) with some music in 24-bit/192kHz (Hi-Res Lossless Audio).

Amazon Music also offers similar options, with Amazon Music using FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec). Lossless audio is labeled as HD which is 16-bit/44.1kHz and Ultra HD which is 24-bit/192kHz.

Streaming lossless audio uses a lot more data, however. It’s something to bear in mind if you’re on a limited data plan. In addition, for both Hi-Res Lossless Audio and Ultra HD audio, you’ll need specialist equipment to be able to play the music at the highest resolutions.

Both services also have some music in spatial audio. This is a 3D mix of the music; rather than stereo placement where parts of the mix can be shifted left or right, spatial audio places them in a 3D layout so that you can feel as if you can hear the drummer playing just to your left as the vocalist sings right in front of you.

Apple offers spatial audio based on the Dolby Atmos surround sound tech. Amazon Music also offers music in spatial audio, with songs using Dolby Atmos and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio. For both services, you’ll need to be using supported devices to take advantage of spatial audio.

Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Devices

Apple Music is available on all of your Apple devices; you can listen on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Mac, and HomePod. In addition, Apple Music is also available on Android, PC, games consoles, Roku devices, smart TVs, Sonos, and Google Nest. You can also use Apple Music through your Amazon Echo devices.

Amazon Music is available across all Amazon Echo devices, as well as Fire TV and Fire tablets. It’s also available on iOS devices and Android, Mac and PC, games consoles, smart TVs, Roku devices, and Sonos.

Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Additional Features

Apple Music and Amazon Music offer a lot of similar features, but there are some features that are exclusive to each service.

An Apple Music subscription includes the Apple Music Classical app, focused solely on classical music. It provides an effective way of finding and listening to your favorite classical works.

There’s also Apple Music Sing, a feature that allows you to turn down or completely remove the vocals from compatible songs, to create your own karaoke tracks.  Apple Music Replay creates a playlist and stats from your listening habits for the entire year. It’s similar to the popular Spotify Wrapped feature.

Amazon Music offers something that Apple Music can’t—a free tier. And if you’re already subscribed to Amazon Prime, you now get access to the whole Amazon Music catalog, although there are provisos, which we’ll explain below.

Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Price

Both companies offer music streaming services at similar price points. Pricing with Amazon Music gets a little more complicated, as the price you’ll pay depends on whether you’re an Amazon Prime member or not.

Free Plans

Amazon Music offers a very basic free tier. You can play selected playlists, but can only skip songs twice before the function is disabled. If you try to play other content, you’ll get a ‘station based on your selection’ which again has a limit of two skips. So you can play music, but you’re very limited in what you can choose yourself.

Apple Music doesn’t offer any free tiers; if you want to listen, you’ll need a paid subscription.

Individual Plans

Apple Music has a basic subscription of $10.99/£10.99 per month for the Apple Music Individual subscription. You get all the features of Apple Music, including access to the full catalog, as well as additional features such as Apple Music Classical and Apple Music Sing.

In comparison, Amazon’s plans are a little more complicated. That’s because there are two different types of individual plans, and you’ll pay different prices depending on whether you’re an Amazon Prime member.

First off, Amazon Prime members get Amazon Music Prime for free. You now get access to the full library of over 100 million songs. An Amazon Prime subscription costs $14.99 per month or $139 per year (£8.99 per month or £95 per year in the UK). It includes perks such as free deliveries on many product orders, and access to Prime Video.

There is a catch, however. As an Amazon Music Prime member, when you select an artist, album, or playlist that you want to play, you can only play that content in Shuffle mode. To make matters worse, the artist, album, or playlist you’ve chosen is shuffled with other ‘similar songs’ that are from different artists or albums. If there’s a song you don’t want to hear, you can skip it, but there’s a limit of six skips per hour. After that, you’re stuck listening to whatever songs the algorithms decide to throw at you.

There are also curated playlists called All-Access playlists. They allow you to play any song, play the playlist in order, and have unlimited skips. You can also download these playlists for offline listening. On voice devices such as an Echo Dot, these playlists are only available in shuffle mode and have the same limit of six skips.

If you want to choose the music you play then you’ll need to upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited. The Individual Plan is $10.99 per month if you’re not an Amazon Prime member. If you already pay for Amazon Prime, you’ll still have to pay an additional $8.99/£8.99 per month on top.

Amazon Music Unlimited members enjoy complete online and offline access to the entire catalog. Members enjoy no annoying shuffle modes or skip limits. It supports HD audio and over 7 million songs in Ultra HD audio included.

Family Plans

Both services offer family plans that allow you to share your subscription with up to six different people. Each account gets its own full access with separate libraries, and you can play music on up to six devices simultaneously.

An Apple Music Family Plan costs $16.99/£16.99 per month. The Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan costs $15.99/£16.99 per month, although Amazon Prime members can pay an annual price of $159 per year.

Student Plans

Both services also offer reduced subscriptions for verified students. To qualify, you’ll need to verify your student status through a third-party validation service. The Amazon Music Unlimited Student Plan costs $5.99/£5.99 per month and an Apple Music Student Plan costs the same.

Alternative Plans

For low-cost subscriptions, Apple offers Apple Music Voice. You get full access to the Apple Music catalog, but can only play music by asking Siri. The Amazon Music Unlimited Single-Device Plan allows you to access the full catalog on (you guessed it) just one specific Amazon Echo or Fire TV device. Both services are $4.99/£4.99 per month.

Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Which Should You Choose?

When comparing Apple Music vs. Amazon Music, there are a lot of similarities. Ultimately, your decision may come down to other factors such as whether you already use Apple devices or if you have an Amazon Prime subscription.

Apple Music offers a few exclusive features that Amazon Music doesn’t, but some are fairly niche. Both services offer free trials, so why not take both for a spin and see which you prefer?

Of course, there are other options available too. You might decide that there are good reasons to prefer TIDAL, or you’d like to take advantage of making collaborative playlists on Spotify. If you’re switching services, the good news is that there are ways to transfer playlists from one streaming service to another.