Amazon Music vs Apple Music: Side by Side Comparison
Amazon Music was formerly Amazon MP3 while Apple Music was iTunes store. They started as music download services. Eventually, they’ll end up as music streaming services having their own online web players and apps.
Both of them can create user-defined playlists, download content for offline listening, upload personal content and have discovery features that curate music according to one taste. With these features, we’ll see how music download services evolved into complicated AI-driven music streaming services.
In this article, we’ll have an in-depth comparison between the two services (Amazon Music vs Apple Music) and see who is better in which category. As added bonus, we’ll discuss a third-party tool that can be used on web-players that have DRM protection.
This will help audio enthusiasts keep their purchased content even without an active subscription. This will also include a versatile music conversion tool that will come in handy anytime you need one.
Article Content Part 1. Detailed Introduction: Apple Music and Amazon Music Part 2. Comparison: Apple Music vs Amazon MusicPart 3. Summary and HighlightsPart 4. Tip: How to Keep Apple Music Forever
Part 1. Detailed Introduction: Apple Music and Amazon Music
Amazon Music started as Amazon MP3 in 2007. It was selling MP3 files as a download service. It was the first company to sell music without DRM (Digital Rights Management) by limiting its availability only in select territories.
Eventually, as new technology came out, Amazon Music Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited started rolling out in 2014. They included music streaming as a service. It meant that they can play music in real-time, with no need to download it, while a subscription plan is taking place.
Millions of songs were added to its library and now it has a catalog of at least 75 million songs to stream. Add supported (free version) and add free tier options are available.
Apple Music originally started out as iTunes back in 2001 both as a music player, library keeper, and configurator. It eventually moved to stream music, replacing iTunes starting in Mac OS Catalina with Apple Music.
The Music app became available not only in Apple but in Android as well. The iTunes software remained in the PC version. Currently, it boasts at least 85 million songs and 30,000 playlists.
In the next section, we’ll discuss more in-depth differences between Amazon Music vs Apple Music.
Part 2. Comparison: Apple Music vs Amazon Music
No.1. Subscriptions and Free Trials
Apple Music has the usual Individual ($9.99), Family ($14.99), and Student ($4.99) subscription plans that are quite common for music streaming services. Family subscription is limited to 6 members, while student subscription requires verification. There is also a 3-month free trial to test the subscription plans.
Amazon Music has also the usual subscription plans but with added value for Amazon Prime members. They offer it at a discount of $7.99/month for Individual plans and $0.99/month for student plans.
Additionally, they offer device-specific discounts for its Echo and Fire-TV device users at $3.99/month. One important difference to note is they have a free plan (excluded from the trial plan) that is ad-supported with limits on track availability and use.
The winner between Amazon Music vs Apple Music subscription category: Amazon Music for its discounts and free subscription.
No.2. Libraries and Offline Listening
Apple Music had previously boasted having 75 million songs included in their library. Upon checking this has now increased to 85 million songs. They have a wide range of song categories and niches. This can spread over a hundred plus categories. They also cater for more genres to cater to the varying tastes of people with music.
With regards to offline listening, Apple Music has a download option for this. As long as you are signed in to your Apple ID on your device, you should have no issues playing offline content. You also have the option to upload your own music to Apple Music then download them to any of your devices if you wish to.
Amazon Music has the usual standard of 75 million songs for its library. Their main niche is mainstream music. They cater to music that is popular to most people, ala-music for the masses. They have a limited amount of music genres totaling up to 12. They are usually the more common one like All Time Hits, Pop Culture and others.
Much like Apple Music, Amazon Music has the ability to play offline content. This feature though is not supported on the free version. You have the option to buy or purchase the song and it will be “DRM free” meaning it can be copied and played anywhere.
The winner between Amazon Music vs Apple Music libraries and offline content: Apple Music for its vast number of categories and genres.
No.3. Streaming Quality
Both Apple Music and Amazon Music have lossless and standard streaming audio. Apple Music does have an edge on the Lossless/HD category with Apple having 24-bit/48kHz while Amazon only having 16-bit/44.1kHz. The maximum rate for lossless audio is a tie from both sides with 24-bit/192Khz which is the High-Res Lossless or Ultra HD category.
Standard stream quality for Apple Music is about 256Kbps while it’s the same for Amazon Music. Even though they have the same bitrate they have different file formats. Apple uses AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) while Amazon Music uses a variable bitrate MP3 file format.
The winner between Amazon Music vs Apple Music with regards to Streaming Quality: Draw, they almost have the same bitrate for standard audio. There is a slight edge on Apple Music with regards to lossless audio.
No.4. Compatibility
Apple Music has several compatible devices for streaming music. Gone are the days when they were restricted to Apple-only devices. They’ve now supported Android, and an Apple Music app is available for download in Google Play.
Every device with the Apple Music app can stream digital music from Apple be it a tablet, iPad, iPhone, or Android device. There is also the Apple Music web player where one can use Apple Music on a desktop PC.
Amazon Music also has an app and this can be downloaded on your Android phone in Google play too. They can also be downloaded on the App Store on an Apple device. They also have a web player where you can play it on a desktop PC or Mac. There are additional hardware devices from Amazon though that are unique to Amazon only, these are the Echo and Firestick TV, and Fire Tablet.
The winner between Amazon Music vs Apple Music in the compatibility category: Amazon seems to have a slight edge due to its availability on unique hardware such as the Fire-TV, Echo, and Fire-TV tablet.
Part 3. Summary and Highlights
Here we presented the differences between the two music streaming app through an Amazon Music vs Apple Music presentation. We presented their different strengths and weaknesses. We also judged who the winner is in different categories.
We see that Apple Music favors library content and music quality while Amazon Music favors subscription plans and compatibility.
Part 4. Tip: How to Keep Apple Music Forever
To keep Apple music forever you will need a third-party tool to remove DRM (Digital Rights Management) on your songs. This tool is the TunesFun Apple Music Converter. This will help you keep your music tracks even when you terminate your subscription from Apple Music. This should also be true for Amazon Music as we have seen this Amazon Music vs Apple Music article. Please see the steps below on the process:
- Download and Install the TunesFun Apple Music Converter. Please see the links below:
- Open TunesFun and go to Library. You should see your iTunes library in sync with this.
- Check the song files you want to be converted. Batch conversion is possible.
- You can change the setting below. Change output directory or conversion settings.
- Click Convert to start converting.
- When finished got to the Finished area. Click the View Output File to go to the output directory. It’s that easy!
- It’s that easy. File conversion and DRM removal have never been so simple.
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