Spotify Has Apple Music Beat With This One Feature

I’ve had an Apple Music subscription since it launched, but lately, I’ve been jealous of Spotify users. While this jealousy isn’t enough to make me cancel my subscription, I do envy the endless number of funny and unique user-made playlists on Spotify.

What Is Apple Music Lacking?

I don’t listen to music often. I’m so behind on new releases, new artists, and the music scene in general, except for global stars like Sabrina Carpenter. When I do open Apple Music, I typically play nostalgic music like early Miley Cyrus, One Direction, and songs that were popular on Tumblr back in 2014.

I usually queue each album or song individually, but this process can be annoying. While I could make a playlist for times like these, I don’t listen to music enough to warrant that. Instead, I wish I could find user-made playlists easily on Apple Music.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. When I last searched for early 2000s Disney, a bunch of Disney-made playlists popped up that didn’t match what I was looking for. However, if you open up Spotify, there are plenty of hyper-specific, user-generated playlist options. While you can also create playlists with Spotify’s AI DJ, it’s the user-created playlists that stand out to me.

Why Are Spotify Playlists Superior?

Spotify truly has it all if you mostly listen to music via playlists. Yes, Spotify does auto-generate playlists based on your listening history so you can rediscover old favorites and find new music. Apple Music has this too, so this Spotify feature doesn’t stand out.

But Spotify is the best in the game when it comes to finding niche, funny, and unique user-generated playlists. After all, it’s easy to create unique playlists on Spotify, but the platform also makes these playlists easily discoverable if they’re set to public.

There are times where I’ll find some strange playlist with obscure songs that I love and just think, “This person really gets me!” Whether I’m looking for early Disney music, the best of Nickelodeon music from shows like Victorious, or even old Tumblr music featuring Halsey and Sky Ferreira, I know at least one person on Spotify turned these ideas into reality.

Also, if I can’t stop listening to a certain music artist, I find that lots of Spotify playlists have great alternatives for other artists to listen to. These recommendations tend to be much better than Apple Music and Spotify’s own recommended music, too.

While I’m not canceling my Apple Music subscription anytime soon, I do wish the platform had a better way to search and find user-generated playlists. Apple Music’s small offerings for playlists leave much to be desired, and it needs to change this to compete with Spotify’s massive playlist success.