Amazon Music has grown – a lot! 80+ million users… Impressive, but nowhere near Spotify’s 200+ million subscriber count.
Does that matter? And is Spotify better than Amazon Music because of that?
Subscriber count is, of course, not the key factor when comparing streaming platforms. We did the heavy lifting, though. We crunched the numbers and compared these two giants in all the metrics that matter. So, Spotify vs Amazon Music, go!
- Quick Summary
- Ease of Access
- Pricing
- Music Library
- UX and Interface
- The Social Factor
- Sharing Made Simple
- Audio Quality
- Tuning Into The Radio
- Personalization
- Final Winner: Amazon Music vs. Spotify
- Final Table Score: Amazon Music vs Spotify
- Conclusion
Amazon Music vs Spotify: TL; DR
Overall, Spotify is better than Amazon Music. It has more advanced personalization features, better ease of access, all combined with extra pricing options were crucial. It’s the winner of our Spotify vs Amazon Music duel. But, Amazon Music is still the preferred option for audiophiles, offering stellar 3,730 kbps sound quality.
If you are interested in trying Amazon Music Unlimited, get a 3-month free trial by clicking on the link below:
Now, are you curious about what makes each music streaming service stand apart from its competitors? Keep reading and find everything about this final comparison of Amazon Music vs Spotify.
Spotify Vs Amazon Music: Ease of Access
Winner: Spotify
Both Amazon Music and Spotify are convenient, with iOS and Android apps, easy use on Windows or Mac devices – these things are smooth. You can register or sign in using all major social platforms.
But – you can play Spotify from all major digital assistants. Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri, the whole show. Amazon Music, on the other hand, pairs perfectly with Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices, but you cannot access it through Google devices. That’s why Spotify wins this one.
Spotify vs Amazon Music: Pricing
Winner: Amazon Music
When we compared Amazon Music to Spotify in terms of pricing, we started with the free plans.
Spotify’s Free plan allows access to the full library of content, while Amazon Music does not. Neither streaming service allows ad skips nor offline streaming in free mode.
Also, both limit your song skips, Amazon to a maximum of 6, and Spotify to 6 an hour. You might call Spotify slightly better for now, but we’re just getting started.
Moving on to the paid plans, the pricing structures were identical until Amazon Music announced pricing increases for Individual and Student plans beginning February 21, 2023, and then Spotify raised its prices in mid-2024.
Let’s check out the available plans for both streaming platforms.
 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | Yes (plus 1-month trial for paid plans) | Yes (plus 1-month trial for paid plans) |
| Individual plan | $10.99 per month | $11.99 per month |
| Duo plan | N/A | $16.99 per month (2 users) |
| Single Device | $5.99 per month to use only on Echo devices | N/A |
| Family | $16.99 (up to 6 users) | $19.99 per month (up to 6 users) |
| Student | $5.99 per month | $5.99 per month (includes Hulu w/ads and SHOWTIME) |
| Annual Plan | $99 per year for Prime members | Individual $99 (with BestBuy card) |
So let’s break it down: Spotify has a better Free Plan and it has a Duo plan while Amazon Music doesn’t. But unfortunately, that’s it.
Amazon Music’s Individual plan is cheaper, and that Spotify Duo plan costs as much as Spotify Family – that’s two accounts versus six. And there’s also the Single Device option with Amazon Music.
So if our Amazon Music vs Spotify duel came down to pricing, Amazon would only win because it’s cheaper since Spotify’s mid-2024 price hike.
Amazon Music vs Spotify: Music Library
Winner: Spotify
Spotify leads the music streaming industry in song selection where many streaming services are concerned. Spotify offers more than 100 million songs and 5 million podcasts, which is more than enough to keep most people busy. But Amazon is also out there.
Amazon Music has over 100 million songs in lossless HD quality and millions in Ultra HD. They claim the most extensive catalog of ad-free major podcasts, too. And as the cherry on top, Amazon has videos and live streams.
Still, Spotify has audiobooks, way stronger podcasts – it’s just a tad more well-rounded, and we decided to crown it the winner for this one.
Often people don’t want to switch music streaming service providers because of how much time and effort they’ve put into creating the perfect playlist. With Tune My Music, you never have to feel trapped with a subscription you no longer want. We make migrating your playlists easy and in a few seconds for free!
Comparing Amazon Music and Spotify: UX and Interface
Winner: Tie
Both Amazon Music and Spotify offer a similar user experience. It’s simple to use and clearly marked. You can search in the Search bar or browse through their popular selections and topics. They’re both smooth on desktop and mobile devices.
Spotify has the drag-and-drop feature, where you can click on a new song, hold and drag it over to an existing playlist to the left part of the dashboard that contains all your playlists.
Amazon, on the other hand, doesn’t offer this cool feature, but when you click on a song in Amazon, a plus sign appears asking if you want to add it to a playlist. Both platforms sport a darker vibe and design, so we’re declaring this one a tie.
Amazon Music vs Spotify: The Social Factor
Winner: Spotify
Is Spotify better than Amazon Music when it comes to the social factor? Well, Spotify practically begs you to share your content on Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. Sharing a Spotify playlist simply couldn’t be easier.
And while you can add it with Amazon Music, it isn’t easy.
Spotify allows you to share your content on Instagram and Facebook stories or post album art on Snapchat, which will instantly link your friends and followers to the song.
Amazon Music makes it easy to share your content via social if you’re the artist. However, Amazon doesn’t provide clear directions on how to share content through social media if you’re an average listener.
Spotify Vs Amazon Music: Sharing
Winner: Tie
We want the whole world to know when we do something we’re proud of. That’s why being able to share your playlists easily is an important feature to have for any premium music streaming service.
Both Spotify and Amazon Music allow you to conveniently share links to your playlists directly or via email and social media.
While both offer collaborative playlists, Amazon requires a premium subscription for all collaborating.
Spotify vs Amazon Music: Audio Quality
Winner: Amazon
If premium sound is what you want, this is where you will want to pay close attention when comparing Amazon Music to Spotify. At first glance, it seems as though they are on equal footing.
Spotify offers five audio quality settings-Automatic, Low, Normal, High, and Very High, and Amazon Music provides five audio quality settings: SD, HD, Ultra HD, Dolby Atmos, or 360 reality Audio.
However, Spotify ranges from 24kbps (Low) to 320kbps (Very High), making Amazon sit back and laugh.
Amazon Music Unlimited completely outperforms Spotify with its HD audio. This setting can get you CD-quality audio up to 850kbps. As mentioned previously, Amazon offers millions of songs with Ultra HD, too, which delivers “better than CD-quality audio” at 3730 kbps.
Comparing Amazon Music and Spotify: Music Discovery Features
Winner: Spotify
Every library has playlists showcasing old-school favorites and the latest and greatest hits. But what about when you want something new? That’s where music discovery comes in.
Both Amazon and Spotify have perfected the algorithm, pairing you with all the best songs they think you’d love the most. They showcase these songs in mixes, playlists, songs, and albums. We’d give a slight edge to Spotify in this area, but not by much.
While Spotify’s algorithm is better, Amazon does a much better job presenting its findings to you. However, you may find yourself listening to those same tracks on repeat.
This is because Spotify does better shuffle your tracks, whereas you might find that Amazon plays the same song almost back to back.
But then, Spotify is loaded with way, way mode options that invite you to discover new music. Sure, every streaming platform has its weekly recommendation-type feature, but Spotify has stuff like Daylist, an auto-updating playlist that rolls out 50 recommendations multiple times a day based on your listening preference during a specific time of day.
They also have the Spotify Playlist in a Bottle capsule and even Spotify Pet Playlists for your furry friends!
Amazon Music or Spotify: Personalization Features
Winner: Spotify
When comparing Amazon Music to Spotify in terms of personalization, Spotify wins with those little details.
Both streaming services allow you to easily create customized playlists that you can share with friends and family. You can curate the playlists their algorithms suggest to you as well.
Where Spotify wins is that Amazon does not allow you to add a cover and description to your playlist, whereas Spotify does. Also, Spotify Wrapped makes the platform really feel like it’s your own, with unique stats, facts, songs – you name it. Amazon Music Wrapped, on the other hand, does not exist.
Amazon Music vs Spotify: Declaring the Winner
Considering all the benchmarks we just analyzed here, Spotify is better than Amazon Music because of ease of access, social features and personalization, and a better music library.
This was a bit of a tough one. And it really comes down to what features are the most important to you. If sound quality is what you care about the most, then go with Amazon Music, especially if you are an Amazon Echo user.
Final Table Score: Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify
Let’s break it down into numbers, shall we? Here are the exact ratings in each category of our Spotify vs Amazon Music comparison, plus the final scores.
| | |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of Access | 95 | 93 |
| Pricing | 90 | 93 |
| Music Library | 95 | 93 |
| UX | 93 | 93 |
| Social Factor | 95 | 90 |
| Sharing | 90 | 90 |
| Quality of Audio | 90 | 100 |
| Discovery | 95 | 92 |
| Personalization | 95 | 90 |
| Score | 95 | 93 |
Transferring music between Spotify and Amazon Music + any other music platform
If you have another streaming service and we’ve convinced you to switch to Amazon Music or Spotify, don’t worry about leaving your playlists behind.
With Tune My Music, we make transferring your tunes effortless. We support Spotify, TIDAL, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, and many more. With TuneMyMusic, it’s easy to transfer your music from Amazon Music to Spotify and move from Spotify to Amazon Music.
Do you still need to decide which music streaming service you want? Then, check other comparison articles to learn more about other available platforms and compare them with each other.
