If you’re like me, and you listen to music in the background while working, you have a lot of options. Spotify is the obvious choice (especially if you use Spotify Lossless), as it’s the largest and one of the oldest music streaming services. But unless you know exactly what you want to listen to, Spotify is not always the best choice.

For background audio and for picking a particular vibe (like focus or energize), YouTube Music offers a much better experience, with all the benefits of other music streaming services—you might even never switch back.

YouTube Music has nothing to do with videos

It’s a full-featured music streaming service

You might be asking, “Isn’t YouTube Music for music videos?” and the answer is “no.” However, it does indeed have plenty of music video content. In 2026, YouTube Music is a full-featured music streaming service with most of the same features as Spotify, plus the added benefit of access to live performances, remixes, and user-generated musical content.

Both YouTube Music and Spotify have over 100 million songs.

YouTube Music has fantastic options for background music

It focuses on moods and vibes

Whether you want to hear music that makes you feel good, focus, or even relax, YouTube Music has a playlist for you. While you can find similar mood-based playlists on Spotify, they are mostly human-curated except for some of their algorithm-based playlist options like Discover Weekly, Daily Mixes, etc. YouTube Music more so focuses on AI and algorithms to generate mood-based playlists, which means they are virtually unlimited and improve the more you use the service and rate songs and playlists.

There’s music for all kinds of moods — if you go to Explore -> Moods & Genres, you’ll see YouTube Music’s comprehensive list of mood-based playlists, from chill to energize, and from feel-good to romance. YouTube Music has a playlist for every mood.

When working, I need music that is more rhythmic and has a slower tempo to avoid distraction. I particularly like the Classical Focus and Gentle Piano playlists that strike just the right balance for me to get my work done. Furthermore, if you save songs you like or upvote/downvote tracks, the YouTube Music algorithm will improve for you and also get better at giving your recommendations. Every time you revisit YouTube Music, the music suggestions will change based on your feedback.

YouTube Music is free

But you get premium features if you pay

Like Spotify, YouTube Music offers a free, ad-supported tier.

If you want to pay for YouTube Music on its own, it’s $10.99 per month for a single account or $16.99 for a six-member household. This is less expensive than Spotify, which is $11.99 per month for one account or $19.99 for a family of six. The best value for an individual is to just go with the YouTube Premium option, which gives you both an ad-free YouTube experience (which I love) and YouTube Music at no additional cost for $13.99.

Perfect for listening in the car

Background music on every platform

Like Spotify, YouTube Music is available on every platform, from Android to iOS, Android TV, Android Auto, and Apple CarPlay. In my car, YouTube Music is my new best friend because I can throw on an energizing playlist and go for a long drive, and know that the playlist will essentially go on forever and stick to the energized vibe from YouTube Music’s fantastic algorithm.

The best value for an individual is to go with YouTube Premium, which gives you an ad-free YouTube experience and full YouTube Music at no additional cost.

YouTube Music is my choice for background listening

For years, I’ve defaulted to Spotify for background music listening. And while I love Spotify, it requires you to know what you specifically want to listen to, and sometimes I’m paralyzed by the choices.

Spotify has heaps of playlists for moods and vibes, but I sometimes feel that they’re relatively finite and limited because they are mostly human-curated and don’t improve automatically over time. That said, Spotify does have some AI tools available, such as the AI playlist generator and its generative AI Prompted Playlist tool, and its weekly generative playlists like Release Radar, Discover Weekly, and Daily Mixes also scratch an itch.

But YouTube Music is just right when I want a particular mood or vibe. And I love that, since I’m already a YouTube Premium customer—and literally save dozens of hours per month by not watching ads —I get all the features of YouTube Music included in my YouTube Premium subscription. So for me, the choice is clear: YouTube Music is better for background listening.