As the streaming music market matures, users face increasingly diverse choices. Spotify, with over 600 million monthly active users, is widely recognized for its personalized recommendations and social features, while Amazon Music has quickly risen with high-quality audio and strong ecosystem integration.
When choosing between the two, audiophiles focus on sound quality, social users value sharing, and cost-conscious listeners seek the best balance of price and features. Both platforms claim unique strengths, but which truly fits your needs?
As a paying user of both for over ten years, I will compare them across five dimensions—price, sound quality, library, user experience, and features—to help you decide which platform suits you best.
Spotify vs Amazon Music at a Glance
In simple terms, the two platforms offer similar libraries and core features, but their positioning differs, leading to distinct user preferences.
Spotify’s appeal lies in its smart recommendations and social features. Discover Weekly and Daily Mix can precisely suggest new music, often bringing pleasant surprises. It also creates a sense of music community—playlist sharing, friend activity, and podcast content make Spotify a platform that combines exploration and social interaction, especially favored by users who love discovering new music.
Amazon Music focuses more on sound quality and ecosystem integration. Subscribers get access to lossless and high-resolution audio, along with deep integration with Prime membership and Alexa—just say “Hey Alexa” to start playing. For users who are sensitive to audio quality and rely on the Amazon ecosystem, Amazon Music is the more suitable choice.
Spotify vs Amazon Music: Free Version Comparison
Both platforms’ free tiers come with limitations: ads, compressed audio quality, and no offline playback. The key difference lies in the user experience.
Spotify Free allows on-demand access to the full library, though with limited skips. Amazon Music Free, by contrast, has a narrower library, focusing mainly on playlists and radio-style shuffle, with more frequent ads. Overall, Spotify’s free version feels closer to the full experience.
Spotify vs Amazon Music: Premium Plan Comparison
In 2025, both platforms raised their prices: Amazon Music Unlimited increased from $10.99 to $11.99/month in January, and Spotify followed in August, also adjusting to $11.99/month.
The latest subscription prices for both are as follows:
| Plan Type | Amazon Music | Spotify | GamsGo Spotify Premium |
| Individual (Prime) | $10.99/month | – | – |
| Individual (Non-Prime) | $11.99/month | $11.99/month | $2.99/month |
| Family | $19.99/month | $19.99/month | – |
| Student | $5.99/month | $5.99/month | – |
| Duo | – | $16.99/month | – |
| Echo | $4.99/month | – | – |
Overall, the official pricing of the two is nearly identical. Spotify additionally offers a Duo plan, giving more flexibility when switching between subscription options.
Amazon Music, on the other hand, stands out with Prime member discounts and Echo-exclusive plans.
However, if you buy Spotify Premium through GamsGo, you can enjoy the exact same features as the official plan for just $2.99 per month. This makes Spotify’s cost-effectiveness instantly clear.
Spotify vs Amazon Music: Sound Quality
Amazon Music Leads in Sound Quality
If you’re the type who upgrades equipment for better audio, noticing the crispness of drum beats and the layering of vocals, then Amazon Music Unlimited is a great fit.
Since 2021, the platform has bundled its previously extra-charge high-resolution audio into the standard subscription, giving all users access to:
- CD-quality lossless audio: 16-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC, around 850 kbps
- Ultra HD high-resolution: up to 24-bit/192 kHz, up to 3730 kbps
- Spatial audio support: full compatibility with Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio
On compatible devices, these technologies deliver a more three-dimensional soundstage, offering a clear improvement for listeners who value detail.
That said, to fully experience high-resolution audio you need the right equipment. With Bluetooth connections or entry-level devices, playback typically falls back to the 320 kbps standard.
Spotify Still Stuck with Lossy Formats
Spotify has a clear weakness in audio quality. As of September 2025, its maximum setting remains 320 kbps in Ogg Vorbis lossy compression. Although the company has repeatedly announced its upcoming “Spotify HiFi” lossless tier, it has yet to launch, and there is still no support for spatial audio technologies.
While 320 kbps is clear enough for everyday use (e.g., on a phone with standard earbuds), Spotify is falling behind in premium audio experiences now that competitors widely offer lossless. I’ve detailed this gap further in my comparison between Apple Music and Spotify.
Our Real-World Test
To give you a clearer picture, we ran an A/B blind listening test with the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones in a quiet environment, using the same tracks: the dynamic jazz piece “Take Five” and the pop classic “Billie Jean.”
In Amazon Music Ultra HD mode, the detail was noticeably richer. On “Take Five”, the texture of the drum brushes was more delicate and piano overtones decayed more naturally. On “Billie Jean”, vocal breaths and background harmonies were more distinct, while the Dolby Atmos version added a striking sense of spatial depth.
By contrast, Spotify’s 320 kbps version still sounded good overall, but the highs felt slightly muted, and the low end lacked the layering you hear in lossless formats. At higher volumes, compression limits became more obvious, making the sound feel “flat.”
That said, if you’re using regular Bluetooth earbuds or built-in phone speakers, these differences are virtually indistinguishable. True audio improvements require the entire playback chain—from source to device—to be up to par.
Spotify vs Amazon Music: Music Library and Content
Library Size Nearly Identical
Both Spotify and Amazon Music claim to offer over 100 million tracks, covering global major labels as well as independent artists. For most users, there is virtually no difference in the availability of popular songs, and exclusive deals are becoming increasingly rare.
For example, “Look at Us Now (Honeycomb)”, once an Amazon Music exclusive, was soon made fully available on Spotify as well. Overall, the size of the library is not the core difference between the two platforms.
Spotify Excels in Podcasts
Spotify has a clear advantage in podcasts. The platform currently hosts around 7 million shows and has secured high-profile exclusives such as The Joe Rogan Experience.
By comparison, although Amazon Music acquired Wondery, it still lags in both the number of shows and overall influence. For heavy podcast listeners, Spotify’s scale and exclusive content are more compelling.
Amazon Music Leads in Audiobooks
Leveraging its parent company’s Audible, Amazon Music enjoys a natural advantage in audiobooks. Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers can listen to one full audiobook every month at no extra cost, with no time restrictions
Spotify Premium users, however, only get 15 free listening hours per month, and must pay extra beyond that limit. For audiobook enthusiasts, Amazon Music’s offering is clearly more appealing.
Spotify vs Amazon Music: User Experience
Spotify Offers Broader Device Coverage
In terms of compatibility, Spotify holds a clear edge thanks to its strong cross-platform adaptability. With Spotify Connect, users can use their phone as a remote and seamlessly switch playback across devices.
From smartwatches (Apple Watch, Wear OS) to gaming consoles (PlayStation, Xbox), smart TVs, car systems, and various Hi-Fi speakers, Spotify covers virtually everything, ensuring a smooth listening experience.
Amazon Music Excels in Smart Home Integration
Amazon Music may not match Spotify in overall device coverage, but it shines in specific scenarios. As the default music service for the Echo line of smart speakers, it is deeply integrated with the Alexa voice assistant.
Users can not only request songs by voice but also give contextual commands like “play music for dinner,” set a sleep timer, or synchronize playback across multiple rooms. For those heavily invested in the Amazon ecosystem, this seamless convenience is irreplaceable.
Spotify: Intuitive Visual Design
Spotify’s interface emphasizes modernity and ease of use. The home screen is content-rich yet neatly modular: recently played, recommended tracks, and personalized playlists are all visible at a glance—an especially friendly design for users who enjoy passive discovery.
On the playback screen, the large album cover and minimal controls keep the focus on the music rather than distracting options. The overall experience feels light and intuitive.
Amazon Music: Information-Rich Interface
Amazon Music’s interface feels more like a feature panel. The home screen not only offers recommended playlists but also clearly displays HD/Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos labels, letting users know the audio quality at first glance.
The playback screen adapts to the album’s color scheme and integrates X-Ray Lyrics with word-by-word highlighting, giving it a more professional feel. For users who value audio quality and detailed information, this design caters to those needs.
Spotify vs Amazon Music: Feature Comparison
Spotify Offers More Accurate Personalization
Spotify is nearly unmatched in personalized recommendations. Relying on collaborative filtering, content analysis, and neural networks, it continuously learns from users’ daily behavior.
Discover Weekly doesn’t just push popular artists—it precisely uncovers independent musicians with similar styles. Daily Mix generates multiple playlists based on time and habits, even capturing a preference for ’90s West Coast rap and recommending Tupac classics.
Launched in 2023, AI DJ integrates OpenAI technology, not only selecting tracks but also adding commentary similar to a live radio host.
By contrast, Amazon Music’s recommendations are noticeably weaker. It mainly relies on Alexa voice data and traditional collaborative filtering, lacking deep analysis and often defaulting to mainstream choices.
While AI Maestro can generate playlists from natural language prompts, results often feel broad or off-target. Moreover, it is available only to a limited group of U.S. users, and Prime members are restricted to 30-second previews, making the experience significantly less appealing.
Amazon Music Stronger in Ecosystem Integration
Amazon Music demonstrates a clear edge in ecosystem integration, thanks to Amazon’s vast product ecosystem. The X-Ray Lyrics feature not only displays synchronized lyrics but also provides song background details and songwriter information.
The shopping integration allows users to browse and purchase artist merchandise—such as official T-shirts or vinyl records—directly within the app while listening. The platform also offers Amazon Music Live, exclusive weekly Thursday night performances featuring well-known artists, giving Prime users a “front-row” concert-like experience.
By comparison, Spotify, as an independent music platform, supports multi-device playback but cannot provide the same level of hardware and e-commerce integration. Amazon Music’s ability to combine music, shopping, and smart home experiences delivers users a more convenient, all-in-one service.
Unique Features of Each Platform
Both platforms also offer distinctive additional features. While not always the deciding factor, these details often provide extra appeal for certain users:
Amazon Music
- Car Mode: A simplified interface in the mobile app with larger controls and voice integration, making it easier to manage playback while driving.
- Purchase and Local Import: Users can buy digital music and import it into the Amazon Music Library for local playback, though cloud library matching is not yet supported.
- Podcast “Topics” Tags: AI- and human-generated tags added to podcasts allow users to jump directly to relevant episodes. This feature is currently available on select top podcasts for iOS and Android.
Spotify
- Spotify Wrapped: An annual recap at year’s end summarizing favorite songs, artists, and listening habits, compared against global data—hugely popular for social media sharing.
- Embed Sharing: Provides creators with embed codes to seamlessly integrate albums or playlists into websites and blogs in a visually appealing format.
- Concert and New Release Discovery: Generates playlists for nearby concerts based on user preferences and creates upcoming release hubs to help users discover new music in advance.
Spotify vs Amazon Music Overview
After an in-depth analysis across seven dimensions, I have summarized the final results in this scorecard to help you make your decision:
| Category | Spotify | Amazon Music |
| Cost | ✅ More cost-effective via GamsGo subscription | ❌ Higher price except for Prime discounts |
| Sound Quality | ❌ Only 320 kbps, no HiFi | ✅ Offers lossless HD/Ultra HD |
| Library and Content | ✅ 7 million podcast shows | ✅ One free audiobook per month |
| Device Compatibility | ✅ Widest cross-platform support | ❌ Limited coverage but well integrated with Echo |
| Interface Design | ✅ Modern, simple, intuitive | ✅ Information-rich, professional features |
| Personalized Recommendations | ✅ Accurate algorithms | ❌ Conservative, lacks deep exploration |
| Ecosystem Integration | ❌ Independent platform, limited integration | ✅ Integrated music shopping and live shows |
From the comparison, we can see:
- Spotify’s strengths are concentrated on the software side — its personalized recommendations are more accurate, cross-platform compatibility is higher, and it can be subscribed to through GamsGo at a lower price.
- Amazon Music is more competitive on the hardware and ecosystem side — high-quality audio and deep integration with the Amazon ecosystem are its core advantages.
Spotify or Amazon Music?
After a detailed comparison, overall, Amazon Music is more suitable for users who have higher requirements for sound quality and who use the Alexa ecosystem extensively, while Spotify is more suitable for those who focus on music discovery, podcast content, and cross-platform experience.
However, from the perspective of overall experience and cost-effectiveness, Spotify is more recommendable. It not only has clear advantages in recommendation algorithms, podcast resources, and device compatibility, but it can also be subscribed to through GamsGo for just $2.99 per month, offering exactly the same service as the official plan.
If you are hesitating about which platform to commit to long-term, Spotify will be the more worry-free and cost-effective choice.
FAQ
What are the cons of Amazon Music?
Amazon Music’s disadvantages lie in its limited social features, lack of playlist sharing and community atmosphere, fewer podcasts and exclusives, and relatively conservative personalized recommendations, making it less appealing to users who like discovering new music.
In addition, some new features such as AI Maestro are only available to users in certain regions, and the experience on non-Amazon devices is not very smooth.
How many people use Amazon Music compared to Spotify?
By the end of 2024, Spotify had about 626 million monthly active users, including 246 million paid subscribers, remaining the global leader. In comparison, Amazon Music had about 80 million users, with most (around 52.5 million) concentrated in the United States.
Is Amazon Music better than Spotify?
Amazon Music and Spotify each have their own advantages, so it cannot be said simply which one is better. If you value personalized recommendations, interface experience, and podcast content, Spotify is more suitable.
If you pursue lossless audio, spatial audio (Ultra HD, Dolby Atmos), and make extensive use of Alexa or Echo devices, Amazon Music will have the edge.
