From classic country to modern pop, Homewood High School students and faculty spent 2024 enjoying their favorite music. Spotify, Apple Music and other music streaming platforms offer an end-of-the-year review so users can revisit the tunes that defined their year.
When Wrapped and Replay are released at the end of the year, the long-standing debate of Apple Music vs. Spotify is rekindled. Many users on each side of the matter have strong opinions as to which is the better choice.
Globally, Spotify leads music streaming services, a trend reflected among Homewood High School’s music-listening community. It surpasses Apple Music with over 500 million users, specifically from Europe and North America.
Spotify Wrapped is a marketing campaign by Spotify to attract more users and attention at the end of the year. It is a specialized composition of each user’s most listened-to songs, artists and genres available every December on their account.
The “Wrap” allows users to revisit the music that defined their year. Users can listen to a playlist of their favorite songs, and many choose to share their results on social media to find community and self-concept.
Other music streaming services have joined the trend of an end-of-the-year music review. Apple Music has Replay and Amazon Music has Delivered, each adopting essentially the same concept as Wrapped.
According to Variety.com, Taylor Swift was the most streamed artist globally in 2024 followed by Drake, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd and Billie Eilish.
In a survey among students and faculty at Homewood High School, 60 percent of users had 25,000 minutes or more spent listening to music this year. Most students had Taylor Swift as their top artist, with other popular artists including SZA, Zach Bryan and Elevation Worship. Additionally, the majority of HHS students and faculty prefer Spotify over Apple Music.
Earth and space science and forensics teacher Tommy Lyas uses Spotify and says that he prefers it over Apple Music for many reasons, mainly because of the platform’s travel features.
“It’s more user-friendly while I’m traveling and even when I am at school,” Lyas said. “I can just pull up my playlists quicker on Spotify than I can on Apple.”
Senior Jack Mitchell is a Spotify streamer. He says his go-to artist is Creed. He prefers Spotify because of how easy it is to use.
“Apple music can be a total pain to use if you’re not using Apple phones or products,” Mitchell said. “I have a PC I use for my schoolwork, and Spotify is just a lot better on there than Apple.”
Junior Meade Parris is a frequent Spotify listener. His top artist of the year was Pink Floyd.
“What I like about Spotify is that it gives you more stats on what you listened to over how many Apple gives you,” Parris said.
Freshman Annahilly Conklin’s top artist on Spotify is Olivia Rodrigo. She uses Spotify because its basic subscription is free whereas Apple makes you pay. She also appreciates the personalized playlists it automatically makes.
“The recommended songs it gives you based on your music taste is a huge benefit for using Spotify and it is why I use it over Apple,” Conklin said.
In an age where digital music is a huge source of entertainment, Spotify has adapted to user’s needs. Apple Music advocates appreciate the service’s user-friendly interface, album-oriented listening experience as opposed to Spotify’s playlist-oriented approach and spatial audio features.
Ultimately, there is no winner in the debate between Spotify and Apple Music- just preference and opinion, as each platform appeals to the different tastes and priorities of its users.
