The way we listen to music has drastically changed over the years and with technological advancements, it has become possible to listen to any of the millions of songs out there at any given moment. Of course, that does cost you but it cost about as much as or less than what you’d pay for a vinyl record.
But that’s not what we’re here to talk about, we’re here to check out which is the best music streaming platform between Apple Music and SoundCloud, and to find the answer, we’re going to make a detailed comparison of the same. So let’s get started without further ado.
- ● Apple Music.
Let’s start with the music streaming platform that everyone knows *cough* *cough* everyone except the vast majority of the Android users of course. Just kidding, you must’ve heard about Apple Music even if you haven’t ever used Apple devices since it is one of the few Apple apps available in the Android play store.
Apple Music was launched back in 2015 after Apple inc. acquired beats electronics, it was initially a “Music-only” platform but now it offers both music and music videos in it. Apple Music was launched with the aim of becoming a cultural platform and strives to become the one-stop-shop for pop culture. The original Apple Music offered a vast music library but it kind of flopped when it came to the user interface. But after iOS 10 rolled out, Apple music received a major upgrade and became one of the best music apps for iOS devices.
Apple Music subscription starts at $9.99/ month per individual and $14.99/month for family (requires iCloud family sharing); Apple Music also offers a 3-month free trial where you can enjoy all features and access up to 60 million songs in the app.
# Features.
Apple Music has so many interesting features that make it one of the best music streaming platforms out there and some of those features include its availability on almost all devices whether its iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple products, PC, Amazon Echo, and so on. Plus, their personalized “for you” playlist which gets updated on a daily basis and 24/7 live radio station makes it more preferable. With Apple Music, one gets access to exclusive album releases, music videos, documentaries, which aren’t available on other platforms.
#Pros.
- One of the best features of Apple Music is its Family Sharing feature which allows up to 6 members.
- Offers shared audio experience with Beats 1 radio station. Beats 1 radio station works even if you don’t have the Apple music Subscription and is hosted by renowned DJs like Ebro Darden, Zane Lowe, and Julie Adenuga.
- Apple Music has a sleek clean interface that can be minimized so it takes less space on the display.
- Apple Music offers a massive catalog of music.
- With Apple music, you can directly engage with the Artists since they often post about their new ideas, upcoming music, and latest releases.
- Apple music focuses on playlists by curators rather than AI’s; this helps in the overall improvement of the music experience. You can also heart or dishearten songs which lets the service understand your preferences and recommend music based on those preferences.
#Cons.
- Tiring and long sign-up process.
- Apple Music app is known to crash frequently.
- Although rare, there have been instances where Apple music deleted users’ data.
- Every time the app is upgraded, it seems to get bigger and bigger. Which is bad if you suffer storage issues.
- No free plan available in Apple music, but they do provide 3 months free trial and free Internet radio.
- ● SoundCloud.
Founded by Eric Wahlforss and Alexander Ljung back in 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden, SoundCloud is one of the oldest music streaming platforms in the industry. One can say that it is a year older than Spotify but since SoundCloud launched their website in 2008; one can consider them to be equally old. But frankly, we all know that Spotify is far better than SoundCloud in every aspect but again, we aren’t making a comparison between those two. So anyways, speaking of SoundCloud, it was initially meant to be a platform for blooming artists to share their records with other artists and receive some valuable feedback or even collaboration requests. But later on it turned into a publishing platform for artists since it gained fame rather quickly and even went as far as to challenge Myspace.
It took SoundCloud mere 3 years to gain 1 million users after it’s launch and these days SoundCloud is recognised and one of the most massive music streaming platforms with over 175 million users. SoundCloud influenced the music industry in a big way since many of today’s famous artists started their journey on SoundCloud; even now SoundCloud is helping many aspiring music artists to kick start their career through its platform. New artists require a good number of followers on soundcloud to get the best engagement rate ?
#Features.
SoundCloud has so many cool features but the best one would be their free membership where one can listen to as many as songs they like without paying a single penny. SoundCloud lets you have your own unique URLs for uploaded files making it far easy to be shared on other social media platforms; and ofcourse, much like Apple Music, SoundCloud too offers Mobile and Desktop versions.
With SoundCloud one can listen to unlimited amounts of audio at nearly no charges but that doesn’t mean that Soundcloud doesn’t offer paid membership; SoundCloud offers 2 types of subscriptions namely SoundCloud Pro and SoundCloud Go. SoundCloud Pro is a subscription meant for artists since it can let them upload audio files with 6hours and advanced analytics. While SoundCloud go let’s you enjoy an Ad-free experience, offline playback, and allows integration of licensed music. By the way, If you wish to upload more than 6hlurs of audio,then check out SoundCloud Pro Unlimited.
#Pros.
- With SoundCloud you’ll be recommended music related to what you’re currently listening to or have previously listened to.
- SoundCloud makes it possible to subscribe to your favourite SoundCloud artists and even notifies you whenever they upload a new track.
- SoundCloud’s Explore tab offers an unlimited stream of trendy music that is sorted on the basis of its genre.
- We’ve already mentioned that Soundcloud is free to use, but did you know that you don’t even need to sign up to use the app?
- SoundCloud’s paid subscriptions are only needed if you’re a music label wanting to upload large quantities of audio files. In short, you pay only if you’re a music label.
- The best part of using SoundCloud over Apple music is that you can listen to pre-release music since new music labels frequently release their new album on Soundcloud before on any other platforms.
Buying Soundcloud plays is in trend nowadays and you can even buy soundcloud plays for your songs.
#Cons.
- One of the most annoying problems in Soundcloud is its inability to execute advanced search. It’s quite visible when you’re searching music under SoundCloud’s Creative Commons while using tags like. #HipHop #Trap.
- Ads are always annoying especially audio ads and some of the ads are usually found in the sponsored podcasts. Do understand that Soundcloud doesn’t add these ads by themselves
- While all the music streaming platforms are inching towards improvement, Soundcloud is still ridden with pesky bugs that’ll give you issues with receiving notifications, adding favorites, and even uploading music.
- ● Final verdict.
Now that we’ve reached the finale, let’s talk about which music platform is the best. As you already know, both Apple Music and SoundCloud have their own share of unique features and misgivings, the biggest issue with Apple music would be its sign-up process, which took me 30 mins and 2 tries to complete while SoundCloud took mere 10 seconds. But compared to Apple music, I couldn’t find much original classical music on the app, so I guess between Apple Music and SoundCloud, Apple music wins; especially if you own an Apple device.