Spotify Vs Apple Music: Which App Offers Better Sound Quality?

When it comes to music streaming, Spotify is the undisputed titan, its name nearly synonymous with on-demand music. But Apple Music is a compelling option, too. Apple guided the music industry into the digital age with the iPod and iTunes, giving it a strong track record here. Choosing between Apple Music and Spotify can feel overwhelming, so instead of comparing their equally large music catalogs or perusing their personalized playlists, it can be helpful to focus on what matters most. Which one sounds the best?

Think of it this way: if you were picking between two restaurants for dinner, you'd probably choose the one with the best food, even if the other had a nicer atmosphere. Similarly, the most accurate AI playlists on Spotify or exclusive radio shows on Apple Music aren't going to mean much if the songs don't sound their best.

I've been using both Apple Music and Spotify for several years, and while there are plenty of reasons to like both, there's a clear winner in terms of sound quality. Spotify's podcasts, AI features, and availability on nearly every platform  — it works on everything from game consoles to smart speakers  — may give it the edge in some ways, but sound quality is where Apple Music reigns supreme. Spotify's greatest weakness is its lack of a truly Hi-Fi experience. Here's what you need to know.

If you were expecting a deep and nuanced comparison between the sound quality of these two streaming apps, you won't find it here. There's no need to split hairs about soundstages and imaging, or to dive into subtle differences between the masters each service uses. The winner is Apple Music, and it's not even close. Apple offers high-resolution audio encoded at up to 24-bit/192kHz with Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) to please even the most fastidious audiophile, along with premium surround-sound formats like Apple Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos, all included with a paid plan. Spotify offers none of those features and delivers music in the lossy Ogg Vorbis format at a maximum bitrate of 320 kbps. Things get even worse for Spotify when you remember that its promised high-resolution streaming has yet to materialize as of 2025, despite being announced in 2021.

With that said, there are a few more things to keep in mind when deciding which service to use. If you only stream music from your iPhone via Bluetooth, you won't hear a difference between Apple Music and Spotify. Because iPhones do not support high-resolution Bluetooth codecs, Apple Music's best quality audio only works with wired headphones. It's a different story for Android, which supports high-resolution codecs like Sony's LDAC and versions of Qualcomm aptX. However, Bluetooth is technically never lossless, and wired headphones are technically superior to Bluetooth of any kind, all else being equal.

If you're getting ready to cancel your Spotify subscription in favor of Apple Music, hold your horses. There are plenty of good reasons to ditch Spotify, from the infamously poor wages it pays independent musicians to the fact that artists have been pulling their music off it because of CEO Daniel Ek's links to a company manufacturing military drones. However, if audio quality is your primary concern, you should test both and choose the one that sounds best to you personally.

As mentioned above, if you're among the many Americans who own an iPhone, you'll need to invest in some good-quality wired headphones to take advantage of high-resolution audio on Apple Music, or any other hi-fi audio source. AirPods won't cut it. But even should you invest in audiophile headphones, research shows that the average person cannot hear the difference between a song encoded at 320 kbps, the highest quality available from Spotify, and a Hi-Res Lossless song from Apple Music at its highest quality of 24-bit/192 kHz. That said, many listeners will likely be able to tell the difference between Spotify's Ogg Vorbis format and Apple's far superior ALAC, even without particularly fancy playback equipment. The latter delivers better dynamic range and depth, which translates to a more airy sound with a much more detailed soundstage.

Ultimately, if you're looking for the best audio quality, Apple Music is the clear choice over Spotify. However, some music fans may find that Spotify's other features offer quality-of-life improvements that make it worth the reduced audio quality.