Apple Music's AutoMix Feature Is Making Me Rethink My Spotify Subscription
I've been a fan of Spotify for years. I love my Daily Mixes, Discover Weekly and Release Radar for finding new music while still spinning some of my favorites. The music app just gets me. But maybe it's time for me to finally give Apple Music a chance.
At its WWDC 2025 keynote, Apple debuted new features for Apple Music, including lyric translation and pronunciation. You can also pin an album or artist to the top of your library. Honestly, that's pretty pointless to me. But there's one feature making me reconsider whether or not to keep my Spotify subscription: AutoMix.
AutoMix blends from one song to the next, just like a DJ would. While Spotify has a crossfade feature that starts one song while the other is ending, Apple introduces the ability to mix using Apple Intelligence for time stretching and beat matching, just like a real DJ would.
I love using Spotify's AI DJ because it always plays the right song, even when I don't know what I want to hear. I can also see what my friends are listening to, which can introduce me to more music. I might miss my favorite Spotify features, but it's a tradeoff I'm willing to make -- at least temporarily -- to see if Apple Music is a better fit for me. After all, maybe it's time for me to mix things up a bit.
So now, when I'm hosting my son's birthday party or a family gathering, my guests won't only be impressed by my playlist choices that get the party started, but there will also be smooth transitions to keep it going.
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