When it comes to music streaming, the ‘audiophile’ crowd usually dominates the conversation with talk of lossless audio and high bitrates.
But I have finally realized that technical perfection isn’t what keeps me pressing the play button.
I’m finally ready to say it: YouTube Music is the best streaming service on the market, and it has nothing to do with its audio quality.
While Spotify and Apple Music focus on studio-perfect versions of tracks, they completely miss out on the soul of the modern music scene.
The advantage of the creator economy
This is the specific area where YouTube Music leaves the competition in the dust.
When I’m using Spotify or Apple Music, I often feel like I’m trapped in a polished museum. Everything is official, licensed by a major label, and strictly curated.
My listening habits are much messier and more creative than that. I don’t just want the studio version.
Take, for example, a 13-minute Kishore Kumar mashup I stumbled upon recently. It wasn’t released by a big music house or remastered in a high-end studio.
It was uploaded by a relatively unknown creator – just a talented singer with a microphone and a passion for the classics.
This person managed to weave together Kishore Da’s greatest hits into a seamless, emotional journey that is brilliant. It’s better than any official greatest hits album I have ever heard.
Because YouTube Music is built on the backbone of the world’s largest video platform, such talent is just a search away.
I’m more than happy to trade a tiny bit of audio quality for the ability to hear a masterpiece that doesn’t officially exist anywhere else.
It’s just one of the examples. I have stumbled upon many such remixes and mashups from unknown creators that proudly sit on my playlists.
Superior algorithm
Beyond the catalog of hidden gems, what really keeps me locked into the YouTube Music ecosystem is the intelligence of its recommendation engine.
It’s one thing for an app to play similar artists, but it’s another thing entirely for an algorithm to feel personal.
There is a specific kind of magic that happens when I’m driving.
I will finish a curated playlist or an album, and instead of the music cutting to silence or jumping to some generic Top 40 hit, the Autoplay kicks in.
It’s in those moments (cruising down the highway with my Google Pixel 8 connected to Android Auto) that the app truly shines.
The transitions are so seamless, and the song choices are so perfectly aligned with my mood that I often forget I’m not listening to a hand-picked queue.
It feels less like a cold calculation and more like a genuine understanding of my taste.
While other services tend to loop me back into the same safe songs I have heard a thousand times, YouTube Music’s algorithm isn’t afraid to dig deep into the archives or pull in a live version of a track it knows I will love.
Some of my favorite recent finds didn’t come from a blog or a friend’s recommendation. They came from the app simply knowing where to go next after my playlist ended.
Whether it’s a soulful Coke Studio session I hadn’t heard yet or a rare concert recording of one of my favorite artists, the smart part of these algorithms actually feels smart.
The value of the YouTube ecosystem
Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police
As someone who spends a lot of time researching tech and watching creators, I can’t imagine going back to a world with ads on YouTube.
When you look at YouTube Premium, you aren’t just paying for a music streaming service. You are paying for a completely transformed experience across the world’s largest video platform.
By the time I factor in the ad-free videos, background play for my research sessions, and a top-tier music library, the cost of a Spotify subscription starts to feel like a bad deal.
I’m also glad that it carries all my favorite podcast hosts.
Then there is the big one: the audio quality argument. Before you dismiss YouTube Music because it doesn’t offer Lossless or High-res audio like Apple Music or Tidal, let’s be real.
I’m either wearing my Pixel Buds while running, or I’m in the car with the windows down. In those real-world environments, the technical difference between a 256kbps AAC stream and a massive lossless file is very slim.
Function over fidelity
Overall, music is about more than just the number of kilobits per second; it’s about the connection to the songs and creators that actually move you.
While Spotify and Apple Music are busy perfecting their ‘walled gardens’ of official releases, YouTube Music delivers a chaotic, creative, and endless library of the internet at large.
If you are tired of the same stale recommendations and want a service that finally includes that one remix you can’t find anywhere else, it’s time to give YouTube Music a shot.
