Apple Music Audio Quality in Your Tesla Compared to Spotify and Tidal

Apple Music may be available in Tesla’s new holiday update, but don’t expect the lossless audio quality that Apple Music subscribers enjoy… at least not yet.

Tesla owner and software developer Dan Burkland recently performed some tests on the audio quality that Tesla’s in-car streaming services TIDAL, Spotify, and now Apple Music stream at in the vehicle.

Burkland tested TIDAL previously on a different Tesla software version, but with Tesla’s ever-changing software and the rollout of the holiday update, he chose to run the tests again.

Setup and Songs Used to Test

He connected his Model Y to his home’s WiFi network and used a DHCP reservation, which allowed him to have the vehicle use a specific IP address. He then installed ntopng on his OPNsense firewall to monitor traffic statistics for the vehicle. After zeroing out the host stats for the Model Y, he tested a total of nine songs, including “Purple Rain” by Prince, “Foreplay” by Boston, and “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin.

Results

The results of Burkland’s tests concluded that TIDAL still offers the best listening experience. The average bitrate for TIDAL was ~1165 kbps. This isn’t entirely too shocking, as TIDAL has always championed the highest-quality audio streaming experience.

Surprisingly, Spotify’s audio quality came in ahead of Apple Music to nab second place. Burkland’s tests showed Spotify streaming at an average bitrate of ~157 kbps, while Apple Music came in at a subpar ~118 kbps.

Burkland added that he believes Apple Music is limiting bitrate for the in-car app, but a future update to Tesla’s software will hopefully resolve this. If Tesla can enable lossless streaming for Apple Music, it’ll give TIDAL a run for its money in high-fidelity streaming via the in-car app.

Check out some of Dan’s test results below, or for a complete list view his Reddit thread.

So Many Tears by 2Pac
Young Lust by Pink Floyd
Dancing In The Dark by Bruce Springsteen

Length (MM:SS)
3:59
3:30
4:05

Length (Seconds)
239
210
245

Est. Data Transfer @ 96 Kbps (MB)
2.80
2.46
2.87

Est. Data Transfer @ 128 Kbps (MB)
3.73
3.28
3.83

Est. Data Transfer @ 160 Kbps (MB)
4.67
4.1
4.79

Est. Data Transfer @ 192 Kbps (MB)
5.60
4.92
5.74

Est. Data Transfer @ 256 Kbps (MB)
7.47
6.56
7.66

Est. Data Transfer @ 320 Kbps (MB)
9.34
8.2
9.57

Est. Data Transfer @ 1411 Kbps (MB)
41.17
36.17
42.2

Apple Music (MB)
4.10
3.20
4.80

Apple Music (Bitrate – Kbps)
140.53
124.83
160.50

Spotify (MB)
6.70
5.80
2.90

Spotify (Bitrate – Kbps)
229.65
226.26
96.97

Tidal (MB)
27.40
21.50
30.50

Tidal (Bitrate – Kbps)
939.17
838.70
1019.82

Other Tesla Owners Are Running Similar Tests

Reddit user u/OverlyOptimisticNerd ran similar tests with a slightly different configuration. They used an iPhone 14 as a mobile hotspot, Hotspot Monitor Data Usage from Apple’s App Store, and 2019 Model 3 running version 2022.44.25.1.

During their tests, they observed the same pattern across all songs, citing that a bunch of data rolled in at the beginning of the tests and then slowly trickled through. The low data rate for Apple Music appears to align with the company’s HE-AAC codec at 64 kbps.

“It appears to buffer most or even all of the song, then pause between tracks to do it again,” writes u/OverlyOptimisticNerd. “On average, I saw ~2MB per track, with ~1.7MB during the initial burst and ~0.3MB throughout the track. This is consistent with the HE-AAC standard, as most of these songs were a little over 3 minutes in length.”

While Apple Music may come in at the lowest average bitrate of all three services tested, it’s important to note that it doesn’t necessarily mean it has the lowest quality. Audio quality comes down to a variety of factors, some of which are, the bitrate, whether it’s a variable rate, and the efficiency of the audio codec used.

Apple Music’s HE-ACC codec is optimized for low-bandwidth applications meaning that it can outperform an ACC-encoded file in lower-bandwidth situations. In the real-world Apple Music in your Tesla should sound very similar to streaming music from Spotify, but not as good as TIDAL’s offerings.

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