Spotify is an all-around better experience, but I still use Apple Music

Depending on who you ask, Spotify has something like five times as many users as Apple Music. They are the two dominant players in the world of streaming music, but it's really no contest in terms of subscribers and total users.

I have accounts on both platforms. We pay for family subscriptions to both.

Yet I can't tell you the last time I used Spotify.

On the surface, this makes no sense. Spotify is #1 for a reason. They have a better user interface and, in my experience, a better algorithm when it comes to recommending new music I might like.

The only reason I continue to use Apple Music is that  – again, in my experience  – it is far more accommodating when it comes to handling local files. And by local files, I mostly mean my vast library of bootlegged live concerts and obscure classical music CDs.

In other words, the stuff to which neither Apple nor Spotify own streaming rights, and that therefore you have to upload yourself.

I have gigs and gigs of this sort of music. A number of years ago when I tried to transition away from Apple Music, Spotify simply wouldn't accept a lot of these files. Some uploaded and processed just fine, but most simply went away when I attempted to port them over.

I tried a few different times, but I was never able to get most of my local files onto Spotify.

Since that's mostly what I listen to, it was easier to simply stick with Apple Music, on which I never seem to have any issues with local files.

Now before you say it, I am well aware that many, many people have no problem using local files on Spotify. I've tried their prescribed methods for uploading this music onto Spotify, but it has never worked for me.

So I stick with the clear #2. I choose Pepsi over Coke. Burger King over McDonald's. Crest over Colgate. Figuratively speaking, of course.

There are two potential morals to this story:

(1) Companies need to realize that one bad user experience, or one glitch in their product's technical capabilities, can decide a lifetime of brand loyalty.

(2) I am too lazy to try and make Spotify work for me.

I hesitate to tell you how true I believe #2 to be.