Spotify vs iHeartRadio: Full Comparison and Review in 2025

In today's world of diverse music streaming platforms, choosing the one that truly fits your needs has become a challenge for many music lovers. Spotify and iHeartRadio are two well-known and popular options, one excelling in global on-demand music, and the other standing out with its radio and podcast content. But how much do you really know about them? And which one is the best fit for you? Don't miss this article.

We'll take a comprehensive look at both platforms, covering their music libraries, pricing, features, and more. By the time you finish reading, you'll be able to decide on your best pick. Without further ado, let's dive in.

Spotify vs iHeartRadio: Platform Overview

For readers who may not be familiar with Spotify and iHeartRadio, let's start with a quick introduction to these two platforms before diving into a detailed comparison.

What is Spotify?

Spotify officially launched in October 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden, and quickly grew into the world's leading music streaming platform. Today, it operates in nearly 200 countries and regions. As of Q2 2025, Spotify boasts an impressive 696 million active users, including 276 million paying subscribers and 433 million ad-supported users. Holding roughly 32% of the global music streaming subscription market, Spotify remains the dominant player in the industry.

What is iHeartRadio?

In 2008, iHeartRadio was first launched as a website by Clear Channel Communications, the predecessor of iHeartMedia, to provide traditional radio listening online. Over the years, iHeartRadio has transformed into a comprehensive audio platform that combines live radio, music streaming, and podcast content. Currently, iHeartRadio is available to users in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand.

Spotify vs iHeartRadio: A Comprehensive Comparison

In the following sections, we'll compare the two platforms across seven key aspects: music library, pricing, personalized recommendations, device compatibility, audio quality, user interface, and offline playback.

Music Library

By comparing Spotify and iHeartRadio, it's clear that Spotify holds a stronger advantage when it comes to music collection. Known for its massive catalog, Spotify offers over 100 million tracks, with new songs added daily and monthly, earning it the reputation of being a true "music museum."

Spotify's library spans nearly every genre imaginable. From mainstream categories like pop, rock, and electronic to niche styles such as flamenco, Celtic folk, and Indian classical music, Spotify caters to a wide range of tastes. Artist discographies are impressively complete, and you can even find rare albums that are difficult to locate elsewhere.

Beyond music, Spotify also provides podcasts and audiobooks. As of 2025, Spotify hosts over 4 million podcasts and more than 300,000 audiobook titles. Podcast genres range from true crime, talk shows, and interviews to science, culture, and the arts. Currently, audiobooks are available exclusively to Spotify Premium users in select regions, including the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

While iHeartRadio's music library is smaller—around 60 million songs according to past data—it still covers mainstream Western pop music fairly well. The platform's true strength lies in its live radio content. iHeartRadio features over 80 music radio stations across genres such as pop, rock, hip-hop, country, and electronic. Additionally, its podcast library is also robust, with more than 300,000 podcasts covering news, sports, entertainment, culture, and more.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, both Spotify and iHeartRadio offer free and paid plans, but the features and value vary. To give you a clear overview, we've summarized the plans and their benefits in two tables.

Spotify Pricing:

iHeartRadio Pricing:

Personalized Recommendations

Spotify offers a variety of personalized recommendation features:

• Daily Mix: Generates six daily playlists based on your listening preferences, each with a different style. Most songs are ones already in your library, supplemented with a few new tracks.
  
• Discover Weekly: A weekly playlist created using algorithms such as collaborative filtering, natural language processing, and audio models. It features 30 songs, mostly new to you.
  
• Release Radar: Similar to Discover Weekly, but focuses on recently released music. Any new releases from artists you follow or frequently listen to will appear here.
  
• Discovery Page: Recommends albums or singles based on the artists you’ve listened to. The suggestions are relatively precise and tailored to your tastes.
  

iHeartRadio's personalized recommendations are mainly radio-focused:

• Perfect For: A curated list of radio stations for different moods or activities. For example, you can select stations suitable for waking up, exercising, or driving. The system will recommend relevant stations based on the chosen theme, helping you find audio content that matches your current mood or situation.
  
• Custom Recommendations: Based on the genres and artists you initially selected when using iHeartRadio, as well as your listening history—including live radio, personalized stations, and podcasts—the
  platform creates a tailored recommendation list just for you.

Device Compatibility

The Spotify app can be installed on the following devices:

In addition, Spotify is also available on certain cars, smart TVs, gaming consoles, and smartwatches.

You can also play Spotify content directly from these web browsers:

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Edge
• Opera
• Safari

iHeartRadio is supported on web browsers, mobile devices, smart speakers, wearable devices, car systems, and TVs. However, device availability depends on the subscription plan.

iHeartRadio Plus: Available on iOS, Android, and iHeart.com via your web browser.

iHeartRadio All Access:

1. Mobile & Wearable Devices:

• iOS、Android
• Apple Watch

2. Web Browsers:

• Firefox 81 and above
• Google Chrome 84 and above
• Microsoft Edge 18 and above
• Safari 13 and above

3. Smart TVs & Streaming Devices:

• Apple TV（v1.2.0+）、Samsung TV、Vizio TV、LG TV, Amazon Fire TV、Chromecast、Android TV、Roku、TiVo、Comcast Xfinity X1

4. Gaming Consoles:

• Xbox One、Xbox 360

5. Smart Home Audio Devices:

• Sonos

iHeartRadio Family App: Available for Amazon tablets, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, iOS, and Android devices.

Audio Quality

When it comes to audio quality, Spotify offers multiple options depending on your subscription and device, ranging from 24Kbps, 96Kbps, 128Kbps, 160Kbps, 256Kbps, up to 320Kbps. Free users can enjoy a maximum of 160kbps, while Premium subscribers can experience high-quality 320kbps audio, providing an immersive listening experience for audiophiles.

iHeartRadio, on the other hand, streams at 128kbps. Since it focuses more on live radio and podcasts, audio quality is less of a priority compared to Spotify. It's more suitable for casual listeners who care more about content than sound fidelity.

User Interface

Spotify has a clear and organized homepage layout. On mobile devices, for example, the bottom navigation bar includes four core tabs: Home, Search, Your Library, and Premium. Through categorized navigation, you can quickly access different features. Since Spotify is available in multiple countries and regions worldwide, its user interface offers multiple language options. Spotify offers a wide range of features, so many details need to be explored while using the app.

iHeartRadio also offers a clean and intuitive interface with clearly defined functional areas. The app mainly includes four tabs: Library, Radio, Podcasts, and Playlists. Even first-time users can easily find the features they need, and the operation is straightforward. Currently, iHeartRadio is available only in a few countries, so the interface is provided in English.

Offline Playback

Both Spotify and iHeartRadio support offline listening, but this feature requires a subscription. On Spotify, any Premium plan allows offline downloads. For iHeartRadio, iHeartRadio All Access is required to enable offline playback. It's important to note that content from both platforms is DRM-protected, meaning downloaded audio can only be played within the respective app, and access will expire if the subscription ends.

Conclusion

This concludes our detailed comparison of Spotify and iHeartRadio. Hopefully, you now have a clearer understanding of both platforms. Spotify is ideal for music lovers who want access to a global, comprehensive music library with high audio quality. iHeartRadio is better suited for U.S.-based users who enjoy news, sports broadcasts, talk shows, or live radio, making it a great choice for those who value content variety over audio fidelity.