I can only share my experience. I used Spotify for the first time in 2011. It completely defied what I thought was possible with music streaming.
Songs would play immediately. It was faster than iTunes. I believe Spotify is still faster than Apple Music.
This was at a time when I had no expectation that my smartphone's internet was fast enough to do much of anything. It was so impressive, that I became a paying customer and have been a paying Spotify customer for 10 years.
And Spotify pulls a lot of annoying bullshit. They have a habit of treating their users like shit in various ways - you pay and don't get ads in between songs, but they still spam pop ups and try to direct your behavior in various ways. It feels like their attitude towards you as a user is very much influenced by the "free tier" even if you're a paying customer.
Their various app UIs have suffered greatly over the years (current incarnation is mostly tolerable)
But the base thing they do - play music faster than any other service is what has kept me. I also don't think it is ethical that Apple can offer a competing service, while forcing Spotify to give up a significant cut of its revenue. I think it should be illegal, so I likely would never pay for Apple Music because of that.
Songs would play immediately. It was faster than iTunes. I believe Spotify is still faster than Apple Music.
This was at a time when I had no expectation that my smartphone's internet was fast enough to do much of anything. It was so impressive, that I became a paying customer and have been a paying Spotify customer for 10 years.
And Spotify pulls a lot of annoying bullshit. They have a habit of treating their users like shit in various ways - you pay and don't get ads in between songs, but they still spam pop ups and try to direct your behavior in various ways. It feels like their attitude towards you as a user is very much influenced by the "free tier" even if you're a paying customer.
Their various app UIs have suffered greatly over the years (current incarnation is mostly tolerable)
But the base thing they do - play music faster than any other service is what has kept me. I also don't think it is ethical that Apple can offer a competing service, while forcing Spotify to give up a significant cut of its revenue. I think it should be illegal, so I likely would never pay for Apple Music because of that.