Short answer: use both.
Longer answer: they serve fundamentally different needs, and understanding that changes how you use them.
What YouTube Does Better
Performance and context. When you want to see how a band leads a specific song — the energy they bring, how they introduce it, how the congregation responds — YouTube is unbeatable. A live recording of "Oceans" with 15,000 people in the Sydney Entertainment Centre communicates something a studio recording can't.
Learning songs. Chord videos, lyric videos, tutorial videos — YouTube's ecosystem for learning worship songs is unmatched. Before teaching a new song to your team, watch three different performance videos. You'll understand the feel far better.
Finding songs across languages. The Malayalam, Tamil, and Hindi worship communities have built enormous YouTube presences. Some of these songs aren't on Spotify at all.
Free. YouTube is free with ads or premium for no ads. For a church on a budget, the free tier is genuinely sufficient.
What Spotify Does Better
Background and ambient listening. If you want to put on worship music while driving, working, or having a quiet morning, Spotify's mobile app is cleaner for pure audio.
Discovery. Spotify's algorithmic recommendations and curated playlists ("Morning Worship," "Deep Focus: Worship," etc.) are genuinely good at finding new artists. The "Radio" feature based on a single song works better than YouTube's equivalent.
Playlist building. Creating and managing playlists on Spotify is cleaner than YouTube. Sharing playlists with your worship team is easier.
Offline listening. With Spotify Premium, you can download albums and playlists. For international travel where data is expensive, this matters.
The Podcast Angle
Spotify has absorbed the worship podcast world in a way YouTube hasn't. If you follow worship leaders who also teach — Tim Hughes, Lila Rose, Hillsong's creative team — their podcasts live primarily on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
What About Apple Music?
Apple Music's library rivals Spotify, and if you're in the Apple ecosystem, the integration is tight. For Christian music specifically, there's no meaningful catalog difference. Pick based on which ecosystem you're already in.
Practical Recommendation
Use YouTube for: learning songs, watching live worship, finding international music, free listening
Use Spotify for: daily devotional playlists, discovery, clean mobile listening, sharing with your team
There's no wrong choice. The music that moves you toward God is the right choice.