I’ll admit, YouTube Music is great but Spotify is still better for me

A few weeks ago, I ran an Open Thread asking readers why they prefer using YouTube Music over many available alternatives, including my service of choice, Spotify. It would be an understatement to say that it received a flurry of comments and strong opinions from our community questioning my views. With just under 400 replies at the time of this writing, not to mention the big win for Google’s streaming service in the accompanying poll, it’s clear that I was perhaps missing a trick by siding with Spotify. So, as I enjoy reevaluating my opinions, I once again signed up for YouTube Music to see what the fuss is all about. A little over a week later, I’m thoroughly impressed by the strides made by Google’s offering.

I was a happy Google Play Music user for many years, and regularly defended the service when people recommended alternatives. But when Google announced the end of the service in 2021, I was left disillusioned by its replacement. In its early days, YouTube Music was unintuitive and leaned too heavily on its video-hosting namesake. It often pushed video when I wanted an audio-first service. It was also heavily influenced by my YouTube browsing and viewing habits, and was astonishingly slow in operation. In short, it sucked, and I quickly jumped ship to Spotify.

The green team is where I still find myself now, and I’ve been pretty comfortable with it ever since. The Duo plan allows my partner and me to have separate and combined playlists, and collaborate in real-time via Spotify Jam if needed. I also appreciate Spotify’s recommendations and the ease of finding new artists. It fits into my life perfectly.

So when I returned to YouTube Music earlier this month, the experience was a shock to my system. A wave of nostalgia hit me as I reencountered some treasured playlists I thought I had lost, from the pop-heavy Turbulence reel for managing my anxiety in the air to Sunny Days, a curated list of tracks that feel like a cool summer morning.

From a more objective lens, the app has changed so much since its early days. A tighter, cleaner UI greeted me, frontloaded with playlists I’ve made or artists and albums I’d always tend to pick first. There’s an angle towards content already discovered, which was a refreshing change from Spotify, where my mission was always to find new songs, genres, albums, and slot these into carefully designed playlists. There’s something comforting about using Google’s product, something functional and purposeful.

I’ll admit that because of this approach, Spotify can sometimes feel scattered. While YouTube Music keeps new content and known or saved music largely contained within distinct tabs or sensible filters, Spotify lays these cards out everywhere on the home screen. At least this is what it feels like visually. I can’t say that I prefer either layout, but I will say YouTube’s makes better use of its screen space in almost all areas.

What about the experience of playing music? I quickly realized why many people like the service, especially those who love deep cuts. Songs that I couldn’t find on Spotify, I found here, which usually took the form of a video from YouTube. This included many long-lost EDM remixes from the 2011-2012 era, like Vicetone’s remix of Zedd’s Clarity. Leveraging the music service gives YouTube Music a huge content discovery advantage, and the option for users to upload their content to the service, even if it’s a bit of a schlep to do it via the website, makes it incredibly valuable for those who want to carry their bespoke content selections around with them.

Dare I say, I like YouTube Music’s Explore tab far more than Spotify’s Search tab, even if both act as portals into new content. While Spotify opts for a genre-categorized layout with themed collections above, YouTube Music tempts me with its more analytical system, which includes new releases from artists I already follow and a breakdown of top tracks in my country. Again, Google’s service makes far better use of the available space on this tab, switching between recommendations and genuine trending content. This perhaps surprised me the most during my experiment. I have always regarded Spotify as the best of the two for naturally discovering new music, and, for the most part, I feel that the Swedish app offers a better hands-off experience in this regard. But if you’re the type to flip through vinyls on a Saturday morning slowly, I can appreciate YouTube Music’s charm here.

My partner also mentioned another important point: some artists still boycott Spotify. She was delighted to participate in this experiment, as Spotify does not host Joanna Newsom’s music, while YouTube does. That’s essential if you’re a fan of more obscure or opinionated artists who don’t appreciate the latter’s financial model.

All in all, YouTube Music has a lot going for it. In the four years since I last used the service, I’m surprised by how many elements Google has polished. However, this is a Google product after all, and some quirks largely ruin its otherwise positive glow.

Remember when I said that YouTube Music uses its namesake to increase its music availability? Well, this does have some side effects. I can’t help but notice YouTube Music listing a video playlist of CART/Champ Car races stretching from 1979 to 2007. No tracks are found in this playlist, even though the engine sounds could be considered music to some. So why is a video playlist in my music streaming app? This was one of the core reasons I left YouTube Music in the early 2020s, and it seems that Google still hasn’t quite drawn a line between playlists on the two services.

There are some other odd additions that I wish Google would reconsider. While the Comments feature is excellent in theory, usually remarks left by users offer no insight related to the track itself. It feels like a YouTube comment section, which isn’t a good look. I’m not a fan of YouTube Music’s Samples tab, either. While Spotify is also slowly trending towards music videos, it’s far less intrusive. Dedicating an entire tab for music videos on an audio streaming platform feels counterintuitive.

But let’s come back to Spotify. There are a handful of features that still sell the service to me. As I mentioned earlier, Spotify Jam is essential in my daily life. My partner and I often listen to music while doing chores, cooking, or driving. So, having an option to add individual songs to a playlist queue seamlessly is invaluable. More importantly, the feature has also rolled out to Android Auto, which makes road trips far more enjoyable and easier to manage. YouTube Music offers no equivalent.

Then there’s Spotify’s advanced search chops. For a search giant, Google sure doesn’t know how to implement smart search in its products. I can search for artist releases in a specific year using syntax in Spotify. YouTube Music does not.

Of course, Spotify Connect is another indispensable feature I use daily on my PS4. I can control music on my phone while enjoying both game audio and my Spotify playlist, and then seamlessly jump that music over to my Nest Mini when I put the controller down. YouTube Music doesn’t have this option, so it’s either game chat or music for me.

Although many readers thought I was biased against YouTube Music, I went into this experiment with an open mind. Google’s service has genuinely impressed me with its clean UI, innovative use of space, far broader library, and focus on hands-on discovery. However, some of the annoyances that initially turned me off the service still exist today.

There are other practical problems that I haven’t yet mentioned, one of which is price. YouTube Music doesn’t have a Duo equivalent, so I need to buy the whole Family package to share the service with my partner. Although only marginally more expensive than Spotify Duo, this is still a waste of money.

Of course, Spotify wins on other fronts. As mentioned, Jam and Connect are two unique features that YouTube Music has yet to rival despite Google’s expertise in the smart home and service space. The Swedish service is also more broadly available and compatible with the devices I already use and own, while it also offers best-fit plans for my lifestyle.

This isn’t to say that YouTube Music is trash. I’ll give Google its deserved plaudits: it’s an excellent music streaming platform, but it’s the small things that Spotify offers that I’ve grown accustomed to and that I can’t quite live without. Nevertheless, I can now understand why YouTube Music has plenty of fans, even if it still falls slightly short for me.