Rich Hein is a veteran technology journalist with more than two decades covering developer, consumer and enterprise topics. Rich’s career has been dedicated to service journalism, connecting readers to content that informs and delights.
Previously, Rich was vice president and editor-in-chief for Simpler Media Group, director of audience development for IDG and editor/writer for sites like CIO.com, ComputerWorld, CodeGuru and other tech-centric publications. He’s received numerous accolades, including the IDG Summit and Azbee awards and has been covered by Medium for his work in audience development.
When not at his desk, Rich lives in Daytona Beach with his wife and three dogs. He enjoys playing guitar, surfing and staying abreast of the latest in tech.
I’ve paid for Spotify. I’ve paid for Amazon Music. On top of that, I already pay for YouTube Premium, mostly to get rid of ads and keep YouTube usable. For a long time, YouTube Music was just part of the package. I didn’t really think of it as a serious competitor, and I definitely didn’t expect it to replace a service I’d been paying for on purpose.
That changed once I actually spent time with it. The moment I realized YouTube Music would let me upload my own music collection, everything clicked. It stopped feeling like just another streaming app and started feeling like a complete music library, one that mixed what I already own with what I want to discover. That one feature alone made it hard to justify paying for anything else.
YouTube Music’s library feels bigger because it has fewer gaps
When people talk about streaming libraries, they usually mean raw song counts. On paper, YouTube Music and Spotify look similar. Both advertise catalogs of over 100 million tracks. In practice, they don’t feel the same at all.
Spotify’s library is limited to officially licensed releases, which means if an artist never uploaded a version, remix, or live cut, it might as well not exist. YouTube Music pulls from that same pool of official releases, but it also taps into the broader YouTube ecosystem, where live performances, rare edits, regional releases, covers, and one-off uploads live.
That difference matters more than I expected. When I search for a song on YouTube Music, I’m not just hoping the album version is there. I’m usually looking for a specific version, a live take, a radio edit, or something that disappeared years ago. More often than not, YouTube Music has something where Spotify comes up empty. Even when both services technically have the same track counts, YouTube Music feels like it has fewer gaps, which makes the library feel bigger in ways that matter when you listen.
One app for albums, live shows, and music videos
What really sets YouTube Music apart from Spotify isn’t just the number of tracks, it’s the way video and audio sit side by side without feeling like two different apps. On Spotify, if I want to watch a live performance or an official music video, I either have to open another app or settle for a static album cover and hit “play” again. YouTube Music feels like the logical evolution of a streaming service because the video is part of the experience, not an afterthought. I can be listening to an album, flip over to the official video, and have it blend right back into the audio-only feed. That seamless swap between audio and video means I’m experiencing more of the artist’s work in a way that feels natural and fun.
And that changes how I listen, especially for stuff that thrives on visuals like live shows, dance tracks, and everything in between. Instead of bookmarking a video on one platform and a track on another, YouTube Music lets me build playlists that mix both without breaking the flow. It’s weird how much of a difference that makes until you’ve lived in it for a while, but once you do, going back to Spotify’s static player feels like stepping into an old-school jukebox instead of a living, breathing music ecosystem.
Why YouTube Music’s recommendations work better for me
I can’t fully explain why YouTube Music’s recommendations work better for me, but they do. I find myself skipping fewer songs and letting playlists play out more often. With Spotify, the suggestions never felt wrong, but they did feel predictable, like the service was leaning a little too hard on familiar artists and safe choices. Over time, that meant I was more aware of the algorithm, which took me out of my flow.
YouTube Music feels more natural by comparison. The suggestions land closer to what I’m actually in the mood for, whether that’s deeper album cuts, live versions, or related artists that make sense without feeling obvious. I don’t know what signals it’s using behind the scenes, but whatever it’s prioritizing lines up better with how I listen, and that makes the whole experience better for me.
Bringing my own library into YouTube Music
This is the feature that ultimately sealed it for me. I ripped all my CDs years ago, everything from the 90s, the 2000s, and beyond, and that collection has followed me from hard drive to hard drive ever since. With YouTube Music, I can upload up to 100,000 of my own tracks and have them live right alongside streaming albums and playlists. All my rare releases, forgotten B-sides, live recordings, and versions that never made it to Spotify are finally part of the same library I use every day. I’m not juggling local files, separate apps, or half-remembered folders anymore. It’s all in one place.
What really surprised me is how complete the whole ecosystem feels once your own music is in it. My uploads sit next to official releases, mix into playlists, and exist in the same space as music videos and live performances. It stops feeling like I’m renting access to a catalog and starts feeling like a real music library again, one that blends what I already own with what I want to discover next. For someone who’s been building a collection for decades, that matters a lot, and it’s the main reason YouTube Music finally won me over.
Canceling Spotify wasn’t about chasing a new app or saving a few dollars, it was about finding a service that actually fits how I listen to music better. YouTube Music won me over by feeling less restrictive and more complete. For about two dollars more per month than Spotify, YouTube Premium also gives me ad-free YouTube, which I was already paying for anyway.
Once everything I care about lived in one place: albums, live performances, videos, and my personal collection, paying for a separate streaming service stopped making sense.
YouTube Premium
- Subscription with ads
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No, all ad-free
- Live TV
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No