Apple Music: pros and cons

After reaching 40 million downloads for Android users , Apple Music is not slowing down. The app serves up a library of 50 million songs, along with music videos and news.

We have a plethora of music-streaming apps to choose from, each with varying prices and features. So is Apple Music worth your hard-earned dollar? We collected the main pros and cons of Apple Music so you can decide whether or not it deserves a home on your device.

Apple Music vs Spotify vs Tidal

Pros and cons of Apple Music

Pro: It has a 90-day free trial

Surpassing Spotify Premium by a full month, Apple Music offers users a free three-month trial to first-time users. You get to use the app in its entirety during your free trial , so you can be sure you are getting the full experience.

Con: The white screen of death

With most new apps, there tend to be a few hiccups that come to light soon after launch. Since Apple Music has been around since 2015, it’s odd that issues still remain. Users often find themselves staring at a stale, white screen as the app stops working. To make matters worse, troubleshooting hasn’t been fixing the issue. The app is in desperate need of an update to fix these issues, or, at least, to improve the troubleshooting.

Pro: It is reasonably priced, and has a student plan

Most music-streaming services hover around the $9.99 to $12.99 per month price range. Apple Music charges $9.99 per month for its ad-free services, and also offers a student plan, which costs only $4.99 per month.

Con: You can’t listen to podcasts

Whether you are listening to “My Favorite Murder” during your morning commute or tuning into “Stuff You Should Know” while at the gym, podcasts have become part of our daily routines. Unfortunately, Apple Music has not gotten that memo as we are not able to stream our favorite podcasts through the app. We can listen to podcasts via iTunes, but the fact that this service isn’t streamlined into a single app like Spotify is a bit absurd.

Pro: You can avoid burning data

If you stream music daily as many of us do, you can burn through about half a gig in a day pretty easily. As this adds up over time along with everything else you do with your phone or smart device, the ability to listen to music offline is necessary . Apple Music offers a feature where you can download music while online for no additional cost, and then listen to tracks while offline. You can also create playlists with your downloaded tracks while offline.

Downloading tracks takes a matter of seconds, so you can easily spend a few minutes downloading songs, and then spend the rest of the day listening to music while offline.

This app will give you greater control over you mobile data

Con: Hazardous updates

Snapchat is a prime example of how one bad update can make many of your users uninstall the app. Apple Music has done this numerous times with updates that removed beloved features such as the “play later” feature, and updates that consequently made the app more laggy, or just not work altogether.

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