I've been a Spotify subscriber for over 10 years, but I'm ditching it for Apple Music in 2026 – here's why
Apple Music works across multiple platforms and the web, and it lets you build smart playlists – and that's why I'm quitting Spotify in 2026.
(Image credit: Shutterstock / sdx15)
I'm not sure exactly when I signed up for Spotify, but according to my email archive, it's been at least 10 years – and quite possibly much longer than that (the music streaming service launched in the UK in 2009). Honestly, I've loved it, and having access to a catalog of tens of millions of songs has transformed how I listen to music, along with many others.
However, with a new year audit of my many, many digital subscriptions imminent, I'm ready to return to my first digital music love: Apple Music (or iTunes, as it used to be). There's one main reason and several secondary reasons why I'm making the switch as I'll get into here.
If you're weighing up your own relationship to the best music streaming services then you might find this perspective helpful – especially if you've been thinking of switching away from Spotify or wondering what Apple Music has to offer. Don't stick with your current music streaming service just out of habit.
The digital listening revolution
Hands up if you remember iTunes (Image credit: Future)
Some context is probably going to be helpful to understand why I'm switching to Apple Music. I bought into the digital music revolution very early, being a teenager during the time when MP3s finally got digital audio tracks down to a reasonable size and internet speeds improved enough to share them online.
While I was still buying music on CD, I was patiently ripping everything and feeding it into Winamp and Windows Media Player – and then later iTunes not long after it first appeared on Windows in 2003. Being able to store hundreds of albums on a single device seemed like magic at the time.
iTunes eventually morphed into Apple Music of course, but my history with the software goes way, way back – and as I'll get into, that past history helps to explain why I'm returning to Apple Music again. I've always liked having my own copies of my music, rather than renting everything for a monthly fee, though I can see the advantages of both.
Apple Music's history, iTunes and all, means it works slightly differently to Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer, Amazon Prime Music, Tidal, and any others I might have forgotten. It was originally designed to be a desktop application, playing tunes from a local music library, and for me that still counts in its favor in 2025.
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