Apple Music vs. Spotify: What the students are saying

Apple Music/iTunes uses more data on campus servers than any other streaming service – and over ten times more data than Spotify.

According to data provided by Ray Walker, Vice President of Information Technology, about 100 gigabytes of Apple Music/iTunes data is downloaded on campus per week — nearly half the audio streaming on the campus server. Pandora is next, with 27 gigabytes, followed by various internet sites, SoundCloud and Tidal. Spotify came in sixth.

However, this data may not tell the whole story. Based on an unscientific count of 18 students about their streaming habits, more streaming takes place on Spotify than you would think; all but three of those asked had Spotify downloaded on their phone.

The school’s data doesn’t reflect that, possibly due to offline listening or listening done without being connected to UVU’s wifi network. The data favors listening done on PCs and laptops and may be particularly favorable to streaming done by faculty.

Of the students asked, the majority preferred Spotify as their streaming service of choice.

“I really like the layout. It’s so easy to use,” said Sophie Perrett, a freshman who has had Spotify for the last four years. She only recently upgraded to the paid service because she was tired of the ads.

Junior Emma Hadley agreed with Sophie. “I like the interface [of Spotify],” she said.

But her friend, freshman Alex Vogler, disagreed. She has both Spotify and Apple Music on her phone and she prefers the latter’s curated playlists and personalized recommendations.

Among the 18 students, one pattern emerged: people tended to prefer the streaming service they downloaded first. Since Apple Music launched only three years ago, that was typically Spotify.

Another pattern was that only seven of the 17 students who had a paid streaming service on their phones took advantage of either Spotify or Apple Music’s student discounts. In both cases, the discount cuts the monthly bill in half.

To obtain those discounts, visit www.Spotify.com/student for Spotify or Support.Apple.com/en-us/HT205928 for Apple Music.