Apple Music vs Amazon Prime — who wrote it best?
In this article I will be comparing the microcopy of 2 music streaming apps. There are plethora of options out there but my personal favourites are Apple Music and Amazon Prime. I am based out of India and these two apps provide the best selection of regional songs.
Most of the streaming apps are designed for discovering new songs and not for downloading them on a phone. Can’t blame them — ad-generated revenue helps in lowering prices. Personally, I prefer to download songs and listen to my favourite ones repeatedly. And I do not like to rely on a stable internet condition always.
Apple Music’s home screen has a clear menu — Albums, Artists, Playlists, etc and I can navigate easily to the songs of my choice. While Amazon Prime does support downloading songs, the options to group the songs is not so great.
I will focus on the microcopy and not on the UX of the app itself. Lets’ get started with some of the common functionalities and see how the apps handle it.
1. Player Queue
Winner — Amazon Prime
A subtle twist by Prime in capitalising some certain alphabets to guide the user’s attention while using relatively longer phrases is a good move. But in general throughout the app, some phrases have every word capitalised while others don’t. This lack of uniformity can be disconcerting for some users.
2. New playlist
Winner — Tie
3. Add playlist
Winner — Apple Music
However one distinction between both is Prime allows users to Download the songs directly to the device. However Music expects you to add to library first and then download.
4. Offline mode
Winner — Apple Music
5. Adding to library
Winner — Tie
6. Delete a song
Winner — Amazon Prime
While deleting a song from library in Apple Music, there are two options
- Remove the song from the device
- Remove the song from the iCloud library
In the former option, the song is removed from the device but if the user were to check in iTunes or login using the same account in another device, the song will be available in the library. In the latter, the song is removed across all devices and the iTunes account.
While this does sound like a tricky situation to explain, I feel the messaging can be changed as below for better clarity.
7. Shuffle and repeat
Winner — Apple Music
8. Streaming quality
Winner — Amazon Prime
9. Storage
Winner — Tie
The final tally is Amazon Prime with 3 votes and Apple Music with 3 votes (excluding the tie). Not another tie!
I hear you but this is where we stand. Both apps have their strengths and weaknesses and remain true to their brand identity. Music keeps things simple as Apple always does and Prime gives users a lot of options a la Amazon way.
What are your favourite streaming apps and how do they fare?
This article was originally published on Microcopy Inspirations.
