Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Which Is Better?

By Justin SabrinaUpdated on February 15, 2023

• Select your language:
• English

  Arabic Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Finnish French German Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Kazakh Korean Malay Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Slovenian Spanish Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese

Streaming saved music, and after years of service availability, it has become a fiercely competitive market. Apple Music and Amazon Music are the two most prominent in the music streaming industry. When it comes to discussing Apple Music VS Amazon Music, it is hard to say which one is best. Some people prefer Apple Music as it is compatible with most Apple devices, while others prefer to choose Amazon Music for CD-quality music. Apple Music or Amazon Music, which should you choose? Now keep reading this article, we've reviewed all the different features on both streaming music to make your decision easier. So let's dive in!

CONTENTS

Part 1. Apple Music vs Amazon Music: Full Comparison

Apple Music and Amazon Music, A Brief:

Apple Music and Amazon Music are two subscription-based music streaming services, and you need to register a subscription account to stream to your devices on-demand. ‌Apple Music‌ gives the subscribers access to 90 million songs in its catalog, while Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers have the pick of "over 90 million" songs and podcasts.

Amazon Music is one of the digital streaming service, owned and by Amazon. Before Amazon Prime Music, there was Amazon MP3, which was launched in 2007. Amazon Music was the first digital music download store to offer "DRM-free music", including MP3 songs and albums. Amazon Music Unlimited was then released in 2016, and then the Amazon Music HD (is now part of Amazon Music Unlimited). Up to now, Amazon Music accounts for 10% of the total music streaming market, and now has over 68 million subscribers, among them, about 52.6 million users from its main market, the United States.

Apple Music is an all-in-one music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. It has become immensely popular since it launched in 2015. Before Apple Music, there was iTunes. You can purchase songs from iTunes Store. But the songs your purchased before April, 2009 are DRM-protected, which means you can't export them to MP3 files. As of the latest data released, Apple Music has over 78 million subscribers worldwide under its roster. This translates to more than 15% of global music platform subscriptions.

Next, we'll compare Apple Music vs Amazon Music in depth, including price, music quality, music library, features, and more, to see which one you should invest your money in.

1. Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Pricing & Plans

One big difference in these two service is that Apple Music doesn't offer a free plan. It only offers subscription plan (Student, Individual or Family). Unlike Apple Music, Amazon Music offers not only subscription plan, but also a free plan, called Amazon Music Free. Amazon Music Free users will have to listen to ad-supported music. This happens every few songs, and it's no different from commercial radio. If you mind the ads, you can upgrade to Amazon Music Prime or Amazon Music Unlimited.

It is worth to mention that they all offer free trials. For new users, you can sign up for an account with your Amazon account (Amazon email or mobile number) or Apple ID.

Check out this handy form to find out the information you need.

Winner: Apple Music

2. Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Music Library
Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited plans both feature massive libraries, allowing you stream more than 90 million songs in its catalog.

Apple Music claims to have over 90 million songs in its catalog. But is also no longer focused on releasing exclusive (or timed-exclusive) albums. Move to the good side, Apple has worked harder to ensure artist-exclusive releases, including new releases, live performances, and concert videos.

With Amazon Music Unlimited, you can access more than 90 million songs and podcasts, including the latest releases, as well as exclusive songs and albums, and even more playlists and stations. If you have an Amazon Music Free account, you can free access selected content (limited songs and podcasts), while Amazon Prime members are allowed to listen to 2 million songs at no extra cost.

- On Apple Music Library, you can find all types of Songs, Playlists, Albums, Artists, TV & Movies, or Music Videos.

- On Amazon Music Library, you can find your favourite Songs, Playlists, Artists, Albums, Genres, Music Videos or Podcasts.

Podcasts Content
● Apple Music doesn't have podcasts in its app, with a few exceptions. You can find over 2 million Podcasts on the iTunes Store or Apple Podcasts app.

● Amazon Music's music and podcasts are in one place. Users can easily stream and discover thousands of popular and exclusive podcasts on its separate Amazon Music app or iTunes.

Winner: Amazon Music

3. Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Music Quality

When streaming music on Apple Music or Amazon Music, most users are satisfied its music quality, Apple Music is offering 256 kbps AAC, while the Amazon Music is offering the 320 kbps format. In addition, both of them offer lossless audio High-Resolution Lossless as well.

Beginning in June 2021, Apple Music rolled out Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio for free to all subscribers, which will significantly improve the listening experience. Apple offers three tiers of higher resolution audio: CD quality (16-bit/44.1kHz), Apple Music Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/48kHz), and Hi-Res Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/192kHz). To adjust the music quality, please go to Settings > Music > Audio Quality section of Apple Music.

Amazon Music, meanwhile, also offers Spatial Audio, and free HD & UHD music for Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers, in HD quality 16-bit/44.1kHz, UHD quality up to 24-bit/192kHz (FLAC).

Winner: Draw

4. Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Availability
Apple Music is available on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac OS, Apple Watch, Apple TV 4K, Apple HomePod, Apple CarPlay, Sonos, and Amazon Echo devices. You can stream Apple Music on all of the above compatible devices through the Apple Music app, iTunes, and even the Apple Music Web Player.

Amazon Music allows users to listen to Amazon music through the Amazon Music app on iOS, Android, Amazon Fire tablets or Fire TV, or stream music on the Amazon Music Desktop Player for PC & MAC, or Amazon Music Web Player (only in the U.S., U.K., and Germany).

Winner: Amazon Music

5. Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Offline Listening
Both paid users of Amazon Music or Apple Music can enjoy the download feature and Offline Playback mode. Apple Music subscribers can download music for offline playback on their mobile devices and computers. Thanks to Apple's iCloud Music Library feature, these music can be synced across any device signed into the same Apple ID. Amazon Prime Music and Music Unlimited subscribers can only download Amazon Music on iOS and Android devices.

Either Apple Music users or Amazon Music member can only download a maximum of 100,000 songs to their library, and these are accessible across a maximum of 10 devices (with a maximum of 5 computers) associated with your Apple ID or Amazon account.

Winner: Apple Music

6. Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: User Interface

Apple Music has a clean, light and stark user interface, its design is typically Apple. But most users complain about poor navigation when using the Apple Music app or the iTunes app.

Amazon's Music app has a contrasting black interface that's closer to Spotify's, which is appreciated by more users. While the interface of the Amazon Music desktop player for PC and Mac is very basic, the presentation is uninspired by comparison.

Furthermore, whether Apple web player or Amazon web player only provide basic streaming functionality, no comparison.

Winner: Amazon Music

7. Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Music Sharing
Apple Music‌ allows you to choose music or created playlist to share with your followes (with a subscription). Or share the music with friends via song link. Besides, Apple Music‌'s For You tab lets you see what your friends are listening to in Apple Music. Last but not least, you can use SharePlay with Apple Music on your iPhone or iPad. In comparison, Amazon Music is a bit less impressive, it only allows you to share songs links via text or social media.

Winner: Apple Music

8. Apple Music vs. Amazon Music: Speakers and Voice Assistants

Siri is the voice assistant on Apple devices. With an Apple Music subscription and Apple device, you can ask Siri to play your favorite songs, artists, albums, playlists, or stations, or even play something new.

Amazon's Alexa is equivalent to Apple's Siri. If you have an Amazon Music account and and also own any Amazon Echo products or Alexa-enabled Sonos speakers, then you can use Alexa Voice Control to control music playback and enjoy DJ skills. To do it, you need to set up with the Amazon Echo App on your IOS or Android device first. Then ask Alexa to play songs, playlists, albums, podcasts, and more from Amazon Music library.

Winner: Draw

Final Verdict: Which Is Best?

What music streaming service to choose in 2022? Apple Music or Amazon Music?

Both Amazon Music and Apple Music have a lot to recommend, and they're almost on par! If you're already an iPhone user, Apple Music is the obvious choice. Apple Music is compatible with most Apple devices and you can use Siri to play Apple Music from your Apple devices. If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber already, then you can stream Amazon Prime Music with no extra cost. Also, you can upgrade from Amazon Prime to Music Unlimited to get lossless, HD and UHD music at will! Of course, the choice is yours, and you can choose the right service according to your needs.

Part 2. Benefits: Keep Apple Music & Amazon Music Songs Forever

Apple Music and Amazon Music come with DRM protection. Whether you choose Apple Music or Amazon Music, you can only enjoy your favorite songs and artists on a few authorized devices. Although you can download songs through the membership plan, you are limited to access your downloads through its official app, Apple Music, iTunes or Amazon Music app. This measn you are unable to transfer these songs to your own devices for listening, such as MP3 players, USB drives, iPods, smart speakers, car audio, game console, etc. Furthermore, when you stop your subscription, you will loss access to all downloaded music files.

Do you want to keep Apple Music songs playable after unsubscribed? How to play Apple Music or Amazon Music on MP3 player? How to download Amazon Music to computer? To get these job done, you are required a third-party streaming music converter.

Apple Music Converter and Amazon Music Converter from UkeySoft Inc are two desktop application for Windows and Mac computer. With it, users can easily download tracks, albums, artists, playlists or podcasts from Amazon Music Web Browser or Apple Music Web Browser. It has ability to download and convert Apple Music/ Amazon Music to MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, WAV, or AIFF with lossless music quality. What's more, it will keep the original ID3 tags for music tracks, and lets you sort output songs by artist/album! After conversion, you can keep the output songs forever and transfer them to any device and player for offline listening!

The interface of UkeySoft Apple Music Converter:

The interface of UkeySoft Amazon Music Converter:

Justin Sabrina

Justin Sabrina has over 10 years of content writing experience. She specializes in product reviews, how-to guides, tips and tricks, top lists, etc. on data encryption, multi-media conversion, screen recording and iOS unlocking. At UkeySoft, she performs in-depth research SEO copywriting and collaborates with our R & D team to offer effective software solution, most of her articles on software are helpful and easy to read, helping our reader easily solve problems through using software or apps.

Justin Sabrina

Li Zhang is a sophisticated editor for UkeySoft in tech blog writing, as well as a SEO and content marketing expert. She has been writing related article about multimedia conversion, streaming music and streaming video since 2018. Also, she's starting to write article about data security, including articles about file lock, USB encryption, DVD encryption, etc. Each helpful tutorial and solution is based on her practical tests, she is aways energetic and trustworthy in this field.

Justin Sabrina

Chester is an experienced editor for UkeySoft focused on tech article writing, software & hardware produce review and tutorial. He specializes in composing posts about music conversion, video downloading, video conversion, screen recording and other tech knowledge tips. He always understands user needs and pain points and familiar with all kinds of multimedia conversion software and streaming music downloader on the market. So far, he has published 400+ helpful tech articles of software reviews, how-to guides to help reader in need.

Comments

1. No comment yet. Say something...

Prompt: you need to log in before you can comment.
No account yet. Please click here to register.