Why Apple Music is no better than the competition

Much is the commotion that Apple Music has caused, marketing above all. In fact the music industry has been shaken at least after knowing the intrusion of the greatest of technology in the world of music (once again). But all that glitters is not gold. We are facing a service that despite coming standard on almost 20% of the world's smartphones It has only managed to host eleven million users in your three-month trial plan. It seems that the musical offer, the method or simply the interface has not finished convincing the public. And it is that Apple Music is undoubtedly a novelty and a push to a fairly stagnant industrial sector in recent years, but what is clear is that it has not yet brought anything that was not already there before it arrived. I am going to explain to you point by point, why Apple Music is no better than the competition.

What Apple Music is not

Apple Music promised to be the platform platform during its launch, but we are still awaiting what Apple Music offers us, undoubtedly a ship that has been launched to the high seas without finishing. None of its functions turned out to be so bad, its interface is by no means the friendliest and its music is simply the same as that of the competition. That is why I can affirm what Apple Music is not, it is certainly not a revolutionary music streaming platform. If a case, one day it could be, but now it is not, and these are my reasons.

Free is king

Free service in exchange for publicity ?, Apple says: «No thanks«. Of course, in a world where the most demanded applications are "freemium", where piracy is the order of the day and where Spotify has 45 million users of its free plan. I think it is not that difficult to understand, people are reluctant to enter their credit card in depending on which places, and then there are those who settle for mediocrity or simply who do not mind advertising, it is the price to pay for listen to music for free and they have decided not to pay money.

Apple has not been able to take advantage of the pull, in fact, it offers you a totally free three-month trial, but the first thing it does is request your credit card information. Raise your hand first, who in three months will remember to cancel your subscription so as not to see how 9,99 euros disappear from your account. The free is the boss, paying for an application or a service has long since ceased to be a mark of quality, companies have found much more potential in the world of advertising, or simply in the fact of selling your personal information, call it what you want.

A good sign of this is that Spotify currently has more than fifteen million Premium users, of which of course, all of them will have previously benefited from the free system and after the month or three months of trial that Spotify grants (remember that Spotify offers 3 months of Premium for € 0,99), therefore, it is quite evident that has managed to convince them.

Multi platform? Another day if anything

Yes, we promise an application for Windows 10 and for Android, but don't worry, there's no rush. It seems like Tim Cook forgot to note that more than 80% of devices smart devices found on the market are installed as an operating system Android, and that means many millions of users. That little disregard for the android platform can cost Apple dearly. Although it is true that the integration with Windows is total due to the iTunes issue, it must be borne in mind that the iTunes suite for Windows is not exactly the one that most respects the stability and performance of a PC, and in this Spotify also is light years away, offering a dedicated platform, simple, easy to use and easily recognizable in all systems.

Musixmatch, because there are those who love to sing

It may seem like a small detail, but one that is quite considerable for many. Apple Music does not include any kind of system for detecting or offering song lyrics. Spotify, on the other hand, has long been bringing full integration with the Musixmatch platform, the world's largest and most accurate song lyrics database, adapted in the purest karaoke style, which has undoubtedly enlivened more than one party. Once again, Spotify wins.

What does Apple Music offer me?

We might think that Apple Music also offers something above the competition, for example the quality of the music. Certainly not, offers almost totally identical quality to Rdio and Spotify, not to mention that platforms like TIDAL leave it totally on the floor. What would it have cost them to enable a high-fidelity audio system, even if it were only via WiFi or for Macs? It seems that they ignored the sound foodies. A bit disconcerting move when you consider that Apple owns one of the headphone company that generates the most revenue in the world, and it is none other than Monster Beats.

Then, Will you offer me sweeping prices?. Nor has Apple simply slightly made up prices offered by the competition, keeping exactly the same price as for example Spotify for the individual subscription, having to take advantage of the "family" of up to 6 devices to really pay off with respect to the competition. As for the three months of free trials that have generated so much controversy and applause, we must remember that for many months (almost a year) that Spotify has been offering a three-month subscription of Spotify Premium at the price of € 0,99, without a doubt I don't think the difference of one euro motivates a user to select one or the other system.

Lists lack life and meaning

It is true that Apple Music is quite right with musical tastes if we compare it with Spotify for example, but it is no less true than the lists that Apple boasts so much that they are composed and elaborated by Apple personnel they are quite poor, sometimes you find lists composed of less than fifteen songs, which force you to be continuously interacting with Apple Music so as not to be left listening to the pleasant silence by surprise.

On the other hand, it does not have any type of system of the most listened to hits in Apple Music, however it shows us a list of the most listened to songs, but they forgot to include the play button to be able to play them often. Needless to say, they don't include any kind of music list by country, which forces you to practically swallow all the commercial music from the United States, there has been and will be. Of course, this movement will penalize them a lot in countries with certain musical cultures, for example the Netherlands where electronic music is our father in the charts, ignoring Spain, where you can hear Kiko Rivera (Paquirrín) among the top 10 of songs.

Connect, yes, but with whom?

It was presented as an incredible platform that artists would use almost like Twitter, where they would interact with their loyal followers every day, even showing videos and songs exclusively. But the truth is that no, that section has less movement than a plaster cat. The few who have deigned to write something smell like Apple money miles away. In fact, recently Jimmy Iovine has already come to the fore to tell us that he expects a lot from this function, however it is quite evident that there is no artist enthusiastic about this possibility.

Conclusions

Apple Music is here to stay, of course, but it would be blind to say that it has revolutionized the market in any respect. At the user interface level it does not offer a notable advantage, in fact it has received more criticism than praise. At the level of quality and prices, it has not been a real change either, they have simply dedicated themselves to making up the prices offered by the competition to give a feeling of savings that is practically not real.

As with WhatsApp and its hundreds of annual "killers", it is difficult to nobody get to take down Spotify. It is clear that Spotify has a place not only on devices, but also in the hearts of many people, it was the first, and also for free. And most importantly, people often find a greater affinity in dedicated companies, focused on a single service, and not related to multinationals.

At least for now, Apple Music is becoming one of those applications that Apple embeds in its devices and for which we have our ideal substitute. These have been my reasons why I think Apple Music is no better than the competition. These lines are the result of a subjective opinion, not necessarily shared by the rest of the people, but that I have tried to offer with the maximum possible rigor. The intention of this article and the reply that my colleague Juan Colilla will offer is none other than to motivate you to offer your different points of view on the subject, so, take advantage of the comments section to indicate whether or not you agree, and the why, your opinion also counts.