Despite being one of the biggest music streaming services globally, Spotify has a lot of negative sentiment surrounding it. Whether it’s the ridiculous price hikes, the crappy algorithm that keeps pushing the same song again and again until you’ve had enough, or the long-promised Hi-Fi tier that is still nowhere to be seen. There’s a lot to complain about the service.
Even with all its quirks, I’ve been hooked on Spotify Premium for the last five years. I tried jumping ship to Apple Music and YouTube Music, but I always find myself coming back to Spotify, like an addict after a relapse who just can’t quit. So, here are the reasons why I just can’t let it go.
Unparalleled Interconnected Experience
Spotify offers an interconnected experience, the likes of which can only be matched by Apple’s ecosystem. I have the app installed on my phones, tablet, smartwatch, PlayStation, and both my home and office workstations. With just one account, I can control music playback on any of these devices.
So I can have a song playing on my office PC, and I can quickly pause it from my phone to take a call. I don’t even need to touch the mouse. Vice versa, I can control my phone, tablet, or watch’s Spotify stream with my computer, and they don’t even have to be on the same network.
I used to rely on this feature a lot while playing games, where I would have Spotify playing a podcast on my PS4, and change episodes from my phone without interrupting my gaming experience.
It’s not just play or pause, but I can jump to a specific section of the song, change audio sources, and everything in between. It’s this level of interoperability that no other app offers at this point. Heck, YouTube Music doesn’t even show the same song I am playing on the other device, with the SAME Wi-Fi and ACCOUNT. The funny thing is, the YouTube app does allow me to continue a video on another device from where I left off. So why not bring that to YouTube Music?
The Instagram of It All
Spotify doesn’t just play nice with its own app, but also with others. Many apps offer proper Spotify integration, but none of them come close to Instagram. Now, before you question how Instagram chimes in on a topic about Spotify, let me tell you that like the rest of the Gen Z crowd, even I discover most of my songs through Instagram Reels.
No one is suggesting vinyls, CDs, or albums anymore. Whatever new song is trending, I get to know about it from an Instagram Reel. You can call me out on that, but hey, don’t judge a man’s journey.
So for someone like me, Spotify’s integration with Instagram is game-changing. If I see a reel with a song I like, I don’t have to comment “Song name, pls.” Instead, I can tap on the audio and directly add it to my Spotify Liked songs playlist. All that without ever once leaving the Instagram app. It’s a really useful and underrated feature.
Let me tell you, my song collection has grown twice as big since Spotify added this feature, and I use it regularly. If that’s not enough, Spotify also lets me share my currently playing songs on Instagram Notes. I can also directly set up tracks as my Instagram Story from Spotify, and my friends can tap on the album art to instantly jump into the music streaming app. This is the level of seamlessness I expect from other music apps in 2025.
It’s Not Just About the Music
Spotify is also one of the best podcast apps, and I discovered some good ones on the platform during the COVID period. Like The Office Ladies, which got me into watching The Office show, or StarTalk Radio, hosted by the famous scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Waveform podcast hosted by tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD.
Heck, I even found some great regional podcasts like Person Behind the Persona, which is a talk show that delves into the inside life of being a YouTube creator. I spent hours listening to these late at night while gaming, and it is this variety of podcasts that Spotify offers that is unmatched by other platforms.
Amazon Prime Music does come close, but it misses out on a lot of other things in terms of overall experience. So, Spotify is the only answer there is. Plus, they even have a growing catalogue of Audiobooks now. These are not available in my region right now, but if they were, I would have read several books that I always wanted to.
Collaborative Music Discovery
Like I said in the Instagram section, don’t judge a man’s journey because everyone has their own tastes. But Spotify allows you to explore other people’s music preferences with collaborative features like Spotify Blend. This is one feature that I and a couple of my friends have started using a lot over the past couple of years.
It provided us the opportunity to discover tracks we might never have explored on our own. Through our Blend, I listened to some fantastic Punjabi hip-hop songs and artists, along with Japanese and K-pop tracks. Similarly, my friends were introduced to some underrated Hindi songs, which they enjoyed so much that they set them as their ringtones.
It’s like only Spotify understood the assignment that music is not just a personal thing, but something worth sharing with others. And it lets me explore playlists made by other users, which is another feature that doesn’t get enough credit. Last month, I found a random guy’s playlist, which introduced me to a bunch of retro country songs I really enjoyed.
Moreover, Spotify has made gifting songs a thing with its song code feature. Many gifting companies can imprint the code on an item, which you can then scan in the app to play the song. Just last year, I gifted my sister a memorabilia with a Spotify code of a song that we used to listen to a lot growing up. And turned our childhood memories into a physical thing to hold on to.
Spotify Wrapped
I couldn’t talk about Spotify and not mention Wrapped. It’s the one that started the trend around personalized listening data. And I mean, it’s just numbers and details at the end of the day, right? But Spotify has made it fun, engaging, and something worth waiting for. So much so that articles and stories for the next Spotify Wrapped release date start showing up months before it comes out.
I would argue that Spotify Wrapped has become the modern-day equivalent of those MTV’s greatest hits countdowns of the year, but tailored to each individual’s taste. Sure, last year’s Wrapped wasn’t a success, or maybe the one before that either. But the fact that we look out for it so desperately shows the cultural impact it has on us.
Apple Music and YouTube Music have come out with their own yearly recaps, but they have been mostly meh so far. They might eventually surpass Spotify Wrapped, but until then, I will be waiting to see what my Wrapped looks like this year.
Spotify vs Apple Music vs YouTube Music
So now that I have made my points, you may start to see why it has become so difficult for me to jump ship from Spotify. It is like that toxic relationship where everyone keeps pointing out the red flags, but I only focus on the green signals. I still hate its song recommendations, which kill the mood entirely, and don’t get me started on the Spotify Hi-Fi tier again.
That’s one of the reasons I also pay for Apple Music, apart from its elegant user interface. And YouTube Music shows how to get the algorithm right. I mean, it honestly feels like YouTube can just read my mind sometimes, it is that good. But neither of them has the features that matter to me the most. And for those reasons, I can’t move on from Spotify just yet.
