Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to SafariWhen comparing Spotify vs Kodi, the Slant community recommends Spotify for most people. In the question“What are the best audio players for UNIX-like systems?” Spotify is ranked 32nd while Kodi is ranked 39th. The most important reason people chose Spotify is:
Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music. The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Huge collection of music and fast access to newly released songs
Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music.
The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.
Pro Related artists
Helps to find new authors based on your previous picks
Pro Client's functionality can be extended via third-party apps
Spotify desktop client allows for third-party apps. They extend the functionality of Spotify and many of them offer new ways of discovering music. Noteworthy apps include Moodagent, Last.fm, Swarm.fm, ShareMyPlaylists, The Hype Machine, We Are Hunted, Shuffler.fm.
Pro Curated playlists
Public playlists on Spotify created by other people are great for finding new music.
Pro Has a free version
A free, ad-supported account allows streaming from an extensive library of music.
Pro Weekly Discover playlist uses a great algorithm
A playlist generated by Spotify based on your listening habits and released every Monday. The algorithm used by this playlist is great and stands out from its competitors.
Pro Can install on several devices
Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Xbox, Apple TV (jailbroken), and more.
Pro Lots of plugins available
Like PlutoTV, Curiosity Stream, and YouTube. 3rd party repositories, such as the SlyGuy Repository, contain more plugins like Disney+, Paramount+, Hulu, and Netflix.
Pro Free
Pro Open source
Completely FOSS, licensed under GPL 2.0
Pro Great customization/multiple skins
You can change navigation flow and other aspects of Kodi with the plethora of customization options and skins.
Pro Can play many different file formats
It supports Blu-ray Discs, CDs, DVDs, USB Flash Drives, local Hard Disk Drives, AirPlay, network file shares, basically every video, audio, and image format available, subtitle files, and even retro game console ROMs.
Cons
Con Free account have lots of ads
If you hate commercials, you would buy Premium or go on using something else.
Con Discovery is terrible
The discovery algorithm is poor and does not learn fast enough. Not obvious how to train it.
Con Poor audio quality
There's a high range of bitrates and most of vary from average to bad.
Con You may have to jailbreak some devices
This is only for things like a Fire stick, but Android TV boxes etc. should be fine.
Con Terrible navigation
Menus over menus with dozens of submenus.
Con Not Client/Server Capable
While most solutions provide a client/server setup the KODI developers REFUSE to adopt this approach forcing individual setups for every device.
Con Poorly optimized
Often not a fluid experience on low-end devices.
Con No official AAA addons for streaming services
It does not have any official AAA addons and fully relies on the community which result in often broken packages/addons.
