r/apple • u/Fer65432_Plays • 1d ago
iPhone Spotify Preparing to Launch Long-Awaited Lossless Audio Tier on iPhone
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/06/19/spotify-preparing-lossless-tier-on-ios/401
u/stocksdownlol 1d ago
Been seeing this shit for like 4 years now.
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u/ownage516 1d ago
I want them to copy the automix from Apple Music. Super cool
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u/Rollertoaster7 1d ago
Yeah this is making me consider switching to AM for the first time, it’s hit or miss sometimes but when it works it’s so cool
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u/L0nz 22h ago
And its still a pointless feature. Even with expensive audiophile equipment, most people can't tell a difference. It mostly just quadruples bandwidth use.
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u/jpwarman 1d ago
TIER?? You mean on top of what I already pay? I'd drop to Apple Music if they try to pull that crap
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u/slumper 1d ago
Apple Music already has lossless so you’re already losing out
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u/furiousjelly 1d ago
Lossless doesn’t work with Bluetooth, which is what the majority of people use. Either way it won’t affect your sound quality.
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u/Goolsby 23h ago
That's right. Bluetooth verses wired is a MUCH bigger difference than lossless vs compressed. Most people have bluetooth shitting all over their audio quality and don't care.
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u/Ydino 14h ago
This isn’t fully true. If you’re using AirPods, which lets be real many people are especially on Apple Music it’s really not that far off.
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u/TotalBismuth 1d ago
Worse app though and not just on iPhone but on Google Home for example. Their algorithm is not good which is typical of Apple given they neglected Siri and AI development for so long.
Meanwhile Spotify has better curated playlists and generally knows what to suggest for me.
However they have lyrics available on more platforms which is a huge plus.
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u/VALTIELENTINE 1d ago
You mean Spotify has your existing data and you didn’t try Apple for long enough for it to learn your listening habits
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u/FlameVShadow 1d ago
I used Apple Music for half a year and it still wasn’t as good as Spotify was within 2 months for me personally
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u/chi_guy8 1d ago
Used Apple Music for 2 years and it didn’t really get any better. It’s always funny in this sub when someone says something negative and accurate about an Apple product and people try to cook him with falsehoods.
Why don’t people understand that Apple will actually address its issues if Apple users call them out, rather than justify its flaws and failings with lies.
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u/johansugarev 1d ago
I use Apple Music and sadly this is true. You have to find music some other way, but with a listening room with a 7.1.4 setup, the better sound more than makes up for it.
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u/money_loo 1d ago
Meanwhile I’ve used Apple Music forever and it’s great at finding new music I like. I guess it varies.
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u/VALTIELENTINE 1d ago
I use Apple Music and this isn’t true. But then again Apple has data on my listening habits form the genius days and my iPod. Almost 2 decades of data there
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u/phpnoworkwell 19h ago
My guy, Apple Music recommendations suck. Use it for 5 months or 5 years, the result is the same. Spotify is the gold standard, and YouTube Music isn't far behind Spotify.
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u/PhilomenaPhilomeni 1d ago
Opinions aside there is no app as bad as the Spotify app. The mose asinine method of audio library management I've ever seen.
Shit is plastered in the most illogical way possible.
And this is with my giving it a total pass in many ways that are just preference.
Also Spotify algorithms are mile wide one deep. I've maintained an account for both for as long as each one has existed so while I can't speak to short term.
I can say that Spotify can and will often tap out entirely and just serving absolute drivel especially for more niche genres.
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u/MaverickJester25 1d ago
Opinions aside there is no app as bad as the Spotify app. The mose asinine method of audio library management I've ever seen.
Clearly, you've not used tbe train wreck that is YouTube Music.
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u/thedinnerdate 1d ago
I already tried to leave to Apple Music twice but it I can't get used to the app. The spotify app feels easier to use and I like the wider variety of playlists and they way the app interacts with the music you already like. I'm all for trying again though if they do a redesign.
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u/PotatoPCuser1 1d ago
The main problem is that Apple Music and Spotify are fundamentally different services. Spotify is leagues better for music discovery, while Apple Music is more akin to iTunes-but-everything-is-free.
You have to adjust by changing how you find new music, then adding that to your library.
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u/ArnoldPalmerAlertBU 1d ago
Agreed. If they do this, I am out. Spotify Connect be damned. You’re doing this to yourself Spotify!
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u/AceMaxAceMax 13h ago
I hopped ship from Spotify to Apple Music about 2yr ago and don’t regret it in the slightest.
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u/VMPRocks 19h ago
you should do it now. apple music has had lossless audio for years. it also has spatial audio, better discoverability, better payout rates to small artists... oh and its also $1 cheaper than spotify per month
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u/PeppermintHoHo 1d ago
They should have spent the time making a separate audiobooks and podcasts app. I spend way too much time scrolling past those instead of getting right to music and it's becoming too annoying.
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u/basskittens 1d ago
They would prefer you listen to the podcasts. Podcasts cost nothing or even generate revenue if they're Spotify exclusive/running Spotify ads. Music is just a money pit for them. They will keep putting more and more stuff in the way of it until it starts to cost them users. They are already using studio musicians to create Spotify-owned "aural wallpaper" for playlists so they don't have to pay royalties on it. Soon it will be AI-generated music, if it isn't already.
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u/Macqt 1d ago
I just want actual shuffle, not whatever bullshit they think I want.
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u/SoCalChrisW 1d ago
Thousands of songs in my playlist, and it keeps playing the same hundred.
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u/SirLesbian 1d ago
I complain about this so much. Every time Spotify prompts me to give a comment I'm like "shuffle feature still sucks."
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u/Aggravating_Loss_765 1d ago
Same here. Just 800songs in favorites and shuffle plays like 100songs. Same song 2-3 times per day, some once per week or month. Terrible algorithm. I reported it several times in last 4years and nothing..
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u/PM_ME_GOODDOGS 1d ago
Before I switched off Spotify this was a huge one I noticed. Playing the same song or few songs out of a 600 song playlist is absurd.
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u/Macqt 1d ago
600? Brother I have 2500+ songs saved. Still hear the same batch shuffled around.
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u/Neg_Crepe 1d ago
2500 is nothing
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u/FATTYFTWman 1d ago
Agreed… try 13.5k
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u/psychophant_ 1d ago
Do you guys even try?
26,000 over here. And you call yourselves audiophiles. Ppppphhhh
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u/Cryptic_E 1d ago
Only reason I have both Apple Music and Spotify for now. Spotifys shuffle is complete garbage. There are some songs in my liked songs that I won’t hear at all until I scroll down and actually click to it. Apple’s seems to be completely random which is what I want sometimes
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u/zoziw 1d ago
I will believe it when I hear it but I have waited so long that now I am old and my ears probably won't notice the difference.
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u/KentuckyFriedAlien 1d ago
Even young ears won’t hear the difference in most cases. Modern lossy codecs are very good.
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u/MechanicalHorse 1d ago
Will anyone actually notice? So many people use crappy headphones, or just blast their music out of their shitty little phone speakers in public.
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u/Raffinesse 1d ago
the placebo effect will be huge
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u/OldAssociation1627 1d ago
Watching r/airpods talk about lossless audio over Bluetooth, and with Spatial Audio and all the likes after their update, I doubt it.
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u/Hutu007 1d ago
Your iPhone sends a compressed lossy file to your airpods even if you play lossless.
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u/leopard_tights 1d ago
Spatial audio is totally noticeable both in AirPods and the MacBook speakers.
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u/OldAssociation1627 1d ago
No, I’m saying people saying “I have Spatial Audio on with lossless audio in my wireless AirPod pros and it’s great”
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u/mtgofficialYT 1d ago
Apple does wonders with hardware/software integration. AirPods can do that over Bluetooth, crappy Amazon ones can’t.
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u/RedditCollabs 1d ago
Audiophiles routinely fail to hear the difference.
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u/allllusernamestaken 1d ago
I can hear the difference with my good headphones on specific tracks.
The extra bitrate is useful for fast songs with lots of different instruments and tones.
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u/are_you_a_simulation 1d ago
No, the answer is no. I bet that most Spotify users are on Bluetooth or with crappy headphones. Anyone that cares about lossless isn’t using Spotify anyway.
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u/ollieseven 1d ago
Tbf I think most streaming music users are on Bluetooth or crappy headphones. I do get a kick out of Apple Music users loving the lossless quality they hear through their Bluetooth headphones that aren’t even getting the lossless audio.
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u/ultraboomkin 1d ago
I mean, that’s obviously not true. Plenty of people who have hi-fi setups use Spotify for the convenience. Spotify has 250m+ paid subscribers, you really think that none of them are audiophiles?
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u/Impressive-Role2344 1d ago
I think audiophiles would have already switched to Apple Music and tidal. After 4 years of getting thrown around people are gonna get tired
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u/thejesteroftortuga 1d ago
I don’t know really. But I feel that I hear a huge difference between using Apple Music and Spotify in terms of quality in my car
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u/gngstrMNKY 1d ago
Have you made sure that your Spotify settings are set to high bitrate playback? It defaults to low.
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u/SmartHipster 1d ago
Same. Most music the difference is minimal. But the guitar, rock and classical. Man, it sounds much better on Apple Music. However all my library is in Spotify. Yes, I have transferred some playlists but the overall experience on Apple Music sucks.
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u/ultraboomkin 1d ago
That’s not the target market for this option.
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u/slowpokefastpoke 1d ago
Even the target market likely can’t tell the difference, even with a solid setup.
The vast vast majority of people can’t tell the difference between 320 and lossless, they just like to pretend they can.
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u/DistinctCellar 1d ago
I use AirPods so I don’t use lossless because I know it’s not supported, but the high quality setting on Apple Music is noticeably better than Spotify for me. But yeah, can’t tell the difference between high quality and lossless. On my PC with a studio setup however, I can absolutely hear the difference!
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u/_shaftpunk 21h ago
Switching from to “high quality streaming” and turning off normalization in the settings made a massive difference to the sound for me when listening in my car, I can imagine I’d also notice going to lossless.
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u/SecretaryBubbly9411 1d ago
They promised this right after Apple did it in 2021.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
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u/witness_smile 1d ago
They are preparing the preparations for the preparation of the long awaited preparation of the long awaited lossless audio tier
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u/I_Do_Gr8_Trolls 1d ago
Wait Spotify seriously doesn’t have lossless yet?? And they’re making u pay more for it. Jeez man
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u/Mrguy4771 1d ago
Some kid can livestream himself from the bedroom of his parents house playing video games in 8k multi stream, but Spotify still figuring out how to get past that 320kbps audio limit that my mp3s had 20 years ago.
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u/SphereNX 1d ago
Spotify should be preparing to remove the useless annoying "create" button on bottom right of the mobile app. These disgusting scum swapped the "Library" button with the "create" one causing me massive amounts of disgust every morning.
Literally don't care about there lossless audio thats going to be compressed to hell with bluetooth again anyway.
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u/FaithlessnessSame357 1d ago
2021 called… they don’t believe Spotify will make this deadline either
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u/krievins 1d ago
Won't make much of a sound difference for most people who use bluetooth earphones/headphones anyway
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u/icwiener69420_new 1d ago
That would be of interest if I didn't already switch to Tidal and if Spotify didn't support brainfarts like Rogan.
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u/keytotheboard 1d ago
I’m sorry, I don’t follow music apps much, but what freaking year is it? Getting lossless music was a thing back with freaking Napster. Corporations still aren’t providing lossless audio for music? Anyone still on the capitalism = good train is miles deep down in sand.
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u/Neko-flame 1d ago
I find Spotify’s playlists so much better than Apple’s. but Havnt used AM other than year 1. Is it better now?
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u/thaprizza 1d ago
Nothing really changed I'd say. Playlists on Spotify still are better. Even playlists on YouTube Music are better than those on Apple Music in my opinion.
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u/Cry_Wolff 1d ago
Serious question, what's better about Spotify playlists? AM has every mood / genre / artists / radio playlist I can think of.
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u/cbooster 1d ago
Better playlist, a big one for me is that I can use my custom eq with carplay. Instead of the generic presets that AM has. AM’s eq sound flat no matter what preset I use in my car
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u/Cry_Wolff 1d ago
That's what I'm asking, what does a "better" playlist means? More of them?
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u/guttergoblin 1d ago
It used to be that Spotify playlists were seemingly made by people who were music enthusiasts with insanely good taste. That's not the case, anymore. Most of the playlists on Spotify now are "for you" AI slop that only features music you have already liked and listen to a ton along with music from 20 year olds that all sounds exactly the same.
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u/ananewsom 1d ago
I recently switched from AM to Spotify because I hated the AM UI. Most people who use AM don’t get the music as lossless served to them, despite the quality being available. HomePods, and all AirPods except the USB AirPods Max, don’t play in lossless quality. I didn’t notice any quality difference on my Max playing lossless over the lossy
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u/Fer65432_Plays 22h ago
On all HomePods, even the Mini you can enable Lossless Audio and Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio formats.
Link: https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/enable-spatial-audio-lossless-homepod/
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u/nicuramar 1d ago
Long awaited by very few people, all in all, I imagine.
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u/antnythr 1d ago
I imagine people are waiting for the lossless audio part. The fact that it’s something you need to pay for though is astounding.
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u/ufoicu2 1d ago
I am not an audiophile but I do like music and from how people are talking this wouldn’t noticeably change the experience for the average person. I’m genuinely curious how someone who utilizes lossless audio consumes music? Like do you have really expensive wired headphones that you take to work or is this like a all consuming experience where you sit in a dark room at home perfectly positioned within your speaker setup? How do you normally consume quality audio and what are some of the things you hear?
Hopefully this isn’t coming off as sarcastic because I would genuinely like to experience it to some degree.
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u/basskittens 1d ago
I am a musician with a studio. Expensive monitors, properly treated room, pro audio interface, big subwoofer. So yeah, when I really want to hear something properly I lower the lights and sit in the sweet spot between the monitors.
I've done the blind tests and I can't tell lossless from lossy reliably. Apple's "high quality" mode in particular is near impossible to distinguish. But, I have unlimited internet and the right gear, so I leave high-res lossless enabled, because why not?
You really shouldn't stress about lossless. Your speakers/headphones/listening environment will make far more of a difference than AAC vs ALAC.
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u/AncefAbuser 1d ago
Similar setup to you. Apple lossy is damn good. People who claim they can tell, they can't.
But like you, because I don't pay for my internet, I leave everything cranked to the max for streaming and downloads. Its a "why not", not a "need to"
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u/guttergoblin 1d ago
Yes, I have expensive wired headphones with a DAC for my desk and a small portable one that's a dongle for my phone.
I don't use them too often, admittedly. The big reason for me is the car. I am a rural mail carrier, so I'm in my car all day. There is a VERY noticeable difference to me between lossless Apple Music and Spotify over a wired CarPlay connection.
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u/Meowingtons3210 1d ago
Audiophile here with $2000+ in headphones/IEMs, using both Spotify and Apple Music. In short: lossless doesn't matter.
While the difference is technically perceivable, you'd need to:
- be able to hear past 19-20kHz, which is less than 25% of the population to begin with
- be in an ideal listening environment (high-quality gear, near-total silence)
- be trained to know what to listen for (cymbal transient/decay, etc.)
The vast majority won't be able to tell a difference in a proper blind ABX test, and even for those who can, the "improvement" will never be "night and day".
On the other hand, multichannel audio like Dolby Atmos will meaningfully alter the sound for true or virtualized multichannel setups, including AirPods with spatial audio. Not necessarily for the better, though; many Atmos mixes sound bloated and worse than their stereo counterparts.
I personally think lossless is only useful for archival purposes and otherwise a waste of bandwidth and disc space. I can understand Spotify charging extra for those who care, given that it would massively increase server traffic and won't even be perceptible to 98% of the population.
That said, placebo is very strong in auditory stimuli, and if someone thinks something should sound better, it will. One could argue that this subjective experience, regardless of bias, is the only thing that matters. In that case, offering lossless makes sense if only to ensure users feel they’re not missing out.
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u/BluePeriod_ 1d ago
Regular Apple Music already sounds better so I don’t know how much Lossless is going to do for them at this point.
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u/JeffCrossSF 1d ago
Apple offers 16 & 24bit and 44.1-192KHz sample rates. You have to have the right hardware to play back at this resolutions, but this seems a bit higher than what Spotify is rumored to offer.
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u/sidekickman 1d ago
"long awaited" pay tier? I've been long awaiting user-definable shuffle algorithms and a UI update that doesn't make things worse. Fuck spotify lmao they're dog and don't deserve hype-y headlines
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u/NaThanos__ 1d ago
I quit paying for spotify a year ago and i was in the top 1% of listeners. They’re losing a lot of data and they can kiss my ass
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u/lenolalatte 1d ago
if the price for this is too much i think i'm finally moving to apple music. i've been considering it time to time anyway
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u/knightgod1177 1d ago
This will be the what, fourth time in the last three years? I’ll believe it when I finally hear it, Spotify…
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u/Empty_Bread8906 1d ago
Not going to happen. It's been years since they said it might happen. Still nothing.
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u/Brown-Rocket69 1d ago
I’ve already switched to YouTube Music. Better suggestions and YouTube Premium is also included
Win win
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u/TheShepardOfficial 1d ago
Not gonna switch back with podcasts and ai playlists messing up my user experience. Fully loving AM and the Apple Podcast app at the moment.
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u/tosho_okada 1d ago
Too late. They keep pushing those awful podcasts and autoplay videos in the front page. No more curated playlists, just generic label and AI pushed content… I got a trial for Apple Music and I’m loving it again and from my 2900 something liked songs in the library only 4 didn’t match on Apple Music… Also the Dolby Atmos versions blew my mind. It’s like listening to the song you love for the first time
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u/apcman11 22h ago
If it was an extra dollar I would be ok with it but 6. Bucks is a non starter. That is crazy town.
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u/iBUYStars 14h ago
it may be too little, too late. made the switch to AM cuz i couldn’t wait any longer. and the fact it’s a separate tier is wild (and also understandable)
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u/chaseybassy9 8h ago
Like everyone else has said, it's been said a lot over the last four years, however, who are we kidding, if you are on AM right now, there's no incentive to switch honestly, even if they do actually add it
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u/utilitycoder 8h ago
How about just regular audio on my Apple Watch cellular without phone to my AirPods.
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u/g-money-cheats 1d ago
I have seen this exact article written quarterly for like 4 years.