Spotify, the biggest premium music streaming service in the world with over 140 million paid users recently launched in the Kenyan market officially rivaling Deezer, a smaller platform with its subscriber base of less than 10 million which was already available. But is Spotify the better platform or is the underdog the king?
Spotify is undeniably king, the larger subscriber base means podcasters, for example, will opt to use the platform giving it a way bigger edge over Deezer with the feature-rich catalog.
Spotify vs. Deezer: User interface (UI)
I noticed that with each update on both the music streaming apps, there was a small tweak to polish the UI, I was highly impressed by the two apps, they are beautiful and just easy to use.
On Deezer, you get a shouting bright user interface with colors that change with every interaction, the same stylish fonts across the whole app while Spotify’s interface keeps it dark and simple, both are identical in terms of navigation.
The music player interface holds the most difference, yet again Spotify takes the lead here, with animated cover art, this means you sometimes get short videos while playing songs. Deezer maintains the simple colored background which changes to match the cover art on each song.
Spotify vs. Deezer: Functionality
You can skip, like songs, add to queue, adjust the playback mode, cast with Chromecast, and all that basic stuff with both apps, it depends on preference here. However, Spotify has a “Behind the Lyrics” feature which explains what lyrics mean. Deezer also has a sing-along feature that lets you view the lyrics of a song.
Spotify vs. Deezer: Music Catalog
Both streaming services have over 50 million songs including local music from any underground artist you can think of. This is because both streaming services accept submissions from both unsigned and signed artists.
You can upload your own files for local media playback, and download songs for offline listening on both platforms.
Spotify has more podcasts than Deezer by far, if you’re into podcasts this is a no-brainer!
Spotify vs. Deezer: Audio quality
Here is where I found a disconnect, I had to do a little bit of research for the right numbers and terms, but audio quality on Deezer and Spotify wide apart
Deezer has a HiFi setting, which plays lossless FLAC files at 16-bit/44.1kHz, so long as you pay for Deezer HiFi. Deezer Free’s audio quality tops out at 128kbps via MP3 files, and Deezer Premium is 320kbps.
Spotify audio quality tops out at 160kbps and Spotify Premium’s maximum quality is 320kbps. Spotify announced Spotify HiFi, earlier this year
Let’s just face it to enjoy HiFi audio quality, you need a good set of studio headphones or speakers, and good WiFi or data connection as streaming and downloading FLAC files takes up a lot of data and storage space so I will not give Deezer that win, unfortunately.
Spotify vs. Deezer: Pricing
This is what we are all here for, which platform is cheaper?
Spotify
Deezer
Which do you prefer?
