Written by: Caroline Walters
Whichever streaming service you use, there’s always more you can learn about it. We all debate about what the best service is, but the reality is, they’re all incredible in their own ways! Apple Music can promise you the best sound on their platform, the Spotify algorithm tries to show you as many new songs as it can, and Amazon Music wants to make sure you have access to exclusive songs and merch. There’s no right answer to which service you should use — pick the one that’s best for you! Whatever your preference, hopefully, these hacks can be helpful for you! 🎶
Spotify
This one isn’t as much of a hack as it is a perk, but it’s definitely worth noting. With Spotify, a lot of artists will create limited edition vinyl records and only share the link to buy one with their top fans! If you’re an experienced vinyl collector or if you’re new to the community, it’s always so fun to have the limited variants of your favorite albums. This happens with other pieces of merch as well, but it’s pretty common that artists will (secretly!) share the links to buy their new vinyl with their top listeners. If you’re lucky, you’ll get an email directly from Spotify saying the artist has made something special for you! 💿
Another cool feature Spotify has is a new one: assisted playlists. This one is super helpful in discovering new artists and songs! All you have to do is make a playlist and name it, and then click one simple “plus music” button, and Spotify will do all of the work for you! It takes the name of your playlist and then recommends music the algorithm thinks you’ll absolutely love. It hasn’t been wrong for us so far! 🎸
One of our favorite Spotify hacks is that you can add local files to the desktop version of Spotify so you can make playlists with them! Local files are files that the artist hasn’t uploaded to Spotify (think videos you’ve taken of your favorite performances at concerts). The process to get the songs downloaded is a tiny bit complicated, but we promise it’s so worth it in the end. First, you need to convert the video to an MP3 file and then upload it to Spotify. From there, you can add it to any playlist you want on your desktop and stream your favorite versions of songs! 🎤
Collaborative playlists are one of the best things Spotify has ever released. They’re a fun way to share music with your friends and create a playlist that you’ll all love. You can invite any friend to “join your playlist,” and once they accept, they can add any songs they want to! It’s such a good way to make road trip playlists, give each other song recommendations, or just share what songs you’ve both been obsessed with lately! 🚙
Apple Music
Apple Music users can guarantee they’ll get one thing: Dolby Atmos, aka the highest quality sound you can get from Apple, whether you use headphones or speakers! Dolby Atmos is Apple’s way to create the most immersive surround-sound system that they can, and everyone who subscribes to Apple Music (and has compatible headphones) is able to access it. 🎧
If you’ve ever needed a quick and easy way to share music with your friends, Apple Music’s “Shared With You” feature is one of the best things for you! The feature has its own tab in the app, so when you open it every day, you’ll see what new music your friends have shared with you. You can even pin the songs in group chats with your friends! This is a super cool way to share music and make sure it’s all in one place! 📌
If you’re like any of us and absolutely hate the generic alarm sounds, Apple Music has made way for you to change your alarm sound without having to pay to download a song! It’s one of the easiest features they’ve uploaded, but definitely one of the most helpful. All you have to do is go into the clock app on your phone and when changing the sound, click “Song” and bam! You can now pick any song from your Apple Music library to be your wake-up call in the morning. Just make sure you switch the song out every few weeks so you don’t get tired of it! ⏰
Apple loves to make us cry when they make video albums of photos from our favorite trips for us, but did you know you can make the song on those videos one you choose? It’s such a simple way to soundtrack important moments of your life, and Apple Music wants to help as much as it can. Once you decide which song to add, you can do it through photos and then reminisce on all of your favorite memories! 🎥
Amazon Music
During the holiday season, Amazon Music really showed how much they love their uses: they released a bunch of exclusive holiday singles! Artists such as Lauren Spencer Smith, Kane Brown, and even Lizzo covered classic holiday songs that were only available on Amazon Music. We absolutely love listening to all of the quintessential holiday music, but it’s even better when it’s sung by some of our favorite voices! 🎹
A lot of artists will even offer Amazon Music exclusive merch! This means that Amazon music is the only place you can purchase that item, which is a really cool way to reward people for using different streaming platforms. Metallica and Dolly Parton have exclusive shirts through Amazon Music, so if you love either of those artists, make sure to check out their shops! 🎸
We know everyone has different preferences for what streaming service they like to use, but the reality is, they all want to make the time you spend listening to music as best as it can be. Whichever service you use, just know that there are so many cool tips and hacks that are available to you! 🤘🏼
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