Inertia
Yup, Spotify is the market leader and has the most features just by virtue of being in the market for so fucking long compared to everyone else. I don't think they actually have a superior product; for example YTM has a much larger music selection and better ML algos, Tidal/Apple Music both offer FLAC, etc. We'll see what happens but if I were Spotify I wouldn't be resting on my laurels.
Spotify has better music discovery than others. Also has better integration between various devices
Honestly its mostly the social aspect and the wide integrations Spotify offers. I was on a family plan for years and switched to Tidal exclusively for most of this year before going back to Spotify. It was just easier discovering new music sharing between friends than any of these plaforms rec algorithms.
No reason for me to switch platforms, been on Spotify nearly 10 years
Some shitty but still last.fm integration
The Spotify algorithm is absolutely spectacular. The system feels like it knows what I want to hear, but also when I want to hear it. Apple Music by comparison feels so stupid and tried to force genres on me that I have no interest in. The “browse” page is one of the most useless UI’s I have ever encountered and it’s the default page users see.
Definitely a pretty split mix with features/ui taking the largest vote
What are the other options?
Suggest in comments if others