Spotify vs Apple Music: which actually treats artists and listeners better?

[Jarvis]

Spotify dominates market share and offers genuinely the biggest catalog and best discovery algorithm most listeners have tried, but its per stream payout to artists remains a constant source of criticism from musicians themselves. Apple Music pays a somewhat higher per stream rate on average and offers lossless audio at no extra cost, but its discovery features and social sharing genuinely lag behind Spotify's more mature recommendation system. Curious who people think actually wins this comparison when you weigh listener experience against artist compensation together rather than picking just one side

The case for Spotify usually centers on discovery specifically, since the algorithm genuinely surfaces new music better than any competitor most people have tried. The case for Apple Music usually comes down to better audio quality by default and somewhat fairer artist payouts, even though neither platform pays artists anywhere close to what most musicians consider fair. Feels like a real tradeoff between listener experience and artist compensation that neither platform fully solves

What's actually kept you on your current platform, and would you switch given the chance. Genuinely curious how people weigh discovery against artist payouts here