Spotify versus YouTube Music
When it comes to studying, music in the background is always my go-to for getting my work done. Even if I end up jamming out and lose a good ten minutes to my own personal drum solo, work gets done faster with it rather than without.
There are countless streaming services offered across many different platforms. A lot of them offer student discounts, which is always a plus when it comes to saving money with a college budget. The two services that will be compared today are Spotify and YouTube Music, each with their own features, as well as their own pros and cons.
Spotify has many features people recognize, even its logo has become iconic, often displayed on laptops, phones, and TVs. It has accessibility across many platforms and devices that do not require viewing, with three months of free streaming, and then after a $4.99 price tag (plus tax) for students. A plus with that student subscription is that it also provides access to Hulu (with ads) and Showtime—that’s two streaming platforms for practically free, just for buying the subscription to music. Spotify’s only downside is that it needs to be renewed each year to confirm that you are still a student, though you do not have to use your college email account to qualify; I myself have been using the service under my personal email account for the last two years.
Spotify Premium for Students has many features that make it favorable, including playlists that you can create, find, or even enhance. The enhanced feature I found to be very accurate; using this feature, you can allow Spotify to enhance the playlist, which means allowing it to pick songs based on what you’ve already added to a given playlist. For example, in my personal playlist, the songs “What Hurts the Most” by Rascal Flatts as well as “If This is Love” by Ruth B led to the suggestion “Complicated,” by Olivia O’Brian, which I found to be highly accurate to the mood of the two songs.
Even Spotify’s artists are paid per stream of their music, podcast, etc. While this pay is not by far the highest, it is higher than YouTube Music. So, showing support for Spotify shows support for creators. YouTube Music costs $4.99/month with a one-month free trial; it’s ad-free, you can download songs and videos to online playlists, and play music in the background of your devices. However, device connectivity to the screen from a phone to another device such as television tends to be problematic with older devices, while the newer devices don’t have as much of a problem.
One additional fun fact: prior to 2018, YouTube Music was known as YouTube Red, which often got confused with RedTube, a pornographic site, and did not help YouTube marketing. When it comes to YT Music, though, it becomes less accessible to a user on the go, because searching for specific music or creators can be problematic. It also has lower royalties for artists. All in all, Spotify seems like the best bet for college students looking to get the most out of their music streaming, and their impromptu drum solos.
1. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/youtube-red-details/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_Premium