Spotify Has Twice as Many Paid Subscribers as Apple Music

[MacRumors]

Spotify confirmed to The Telegraph today that it now has more than 100 million monthly active users worldwide, including approximately 30 million monthly paying subscribers.

Comparatively, Apple services chief Eddy Cue announced at WWDC 2016 last week that Apple Music has 15 million paying subscribers, just two weeks before the streaming music service turns one year old. Apple Music was at 13 million subscribers in April and 11 million subscribers in February, meaning that it has been growing at a rate of about 2 million subscribers every two months.

Spotify, which launched in Europe in October 2008 and expanded to the U.S. in July 2011, thereby remains the world's most popular streaming service, but Apple Music is quickly closing the gap. Both services cost $9.99 per month for individuals and $14.99 per month for families, while only Spotify offers a free ad-supported tier.

Nevertheless, Spotify recently said that Apple Music has helped, not hurt, its business. Since Apple Music launched on June 30, 2015, its European rival has grown at a faster pace than beforehand. Spotify has now surpassed Skype as the most lucrative European startup, with an estimated valuation of roughly $8.5 billion.

"It's great that Apple is in the game. They are definitely raising the profile of streaming. It is hard to build an industry on your own," Jonathan Forster, a vice president and one of its first employees, told Reuters in an interview.

"Since Apple Music started we've been growing quicker and adding more users than before."

Despite rising users and revenues, Spotify continues to operate at a loss due to expensive royalties and revenue sharing with music label partners. The report claims Spotify's losses rose by 10 percent to $195.7 million (173 million euros) last year, prompting some investors to question the viability of its business model.

Article Link: Spotify Has Twice as Many Paid Subscribers as Apple Music

 

[iLoveiTunes]

they had the head-start so, this should not be surprising.

 

[tomnavratil]

Actually, not surprising considering Apple Music is a massive mess from UX and UI point of view. Just my .02.

 

[FoxMcCloud]

Not bad for a service that has only been around a year. Spotify has been out what... 5 years now or more?

 

[LordQ]

Good for them but Apple Music suits my needs.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Give it 2 years and Apple will be in the lead. Much to the chagrin of many an Apple-hating MR regular.

 

[bushido]

most used app on my iPhone and so easy to use.

AM doesnt even have a browser interface. Therefore impossible to consider for listening to music at work

 

[hemanwomanhater]

Seriously impressive given that Spotify has been around for years. How is Spotify going to address the revenue loss? They put themselves in this position of allowing people to expect free music with minimal annoyance and even added more functionality for free users down the line, but now they actually need to get those free users to pay...

 

[vertsix]

Every time I use Apple Music the Music app gets progressively slower and glitchier. It's like it punishes you for using the service.

The Spotify app is flawless, I have yet to encounter a single issue. And the design is better. It is by far the best constructed iOS app I've encountered.

 

[Mlrollin91]

As others above have stated. Spotify has been around so much longer than Apple Music, therefore its impressive that Apple Music has taken off so quickly. Im sure Spotify didn't have 15M paying subscribers a year after its launch.

 

[sudo1996]

I'd think 10X, not 2X. If this is true, Spotify is in trouble, and Apple Music is doing pretty darn well. Spotify is running a loss, providing so much free service, so they should have massive market share to make up for it.

 

[rdlink]

Seriously impressive given that Spotify has been around for years. How is Spotify going to address the revenue loss? They put themselves in this position of allowing people to expect free music with minimal annoyance and even added more functionality for free users down the line, but now they actually need to get those free users to pay...

Not necessarily. Depends on the revenue they see from the ads. I personally never liked Spotify, and Apple Music works for me, but perhaps a combination of paid, ad free subs alongside ad supported will work for Spotify. It's not like they're getting any competition for those users from Apple.

 

[co.ag.2005]

I went back to Spotify after my Apple Music trial. I just like the curated playlists and user-shared playlists on Spotify. While I actually like Apple Music's UI, I am interested in test driving the new iOS 10 version. Will likely subscribe for a month or 2 in order to try it out again.

 

[tomnavratil]

Not bad for a service that has only been around a year. Spotify has been out what... 5 years now or more?

Seriously impressive given that Spotify has been around for years. How is Spotify going to address the revenue loss? They put themselves in this position of allowing people to expect free music with minimal annoyance and even added more functionality for free users down the line, but now they actually need to get those free users to pay...

Spotify's business model was never build around paying customers. They wanted to create enough attention and functionality in order to attract angel investors and further VC to go through IPO. Nevertheless they have missed the right moment.

 

[FactVsOpinion]

I'd think 10X, not 2X. If this is true, Spotify is in trouble. They're running a loss, providing so much free service, so they should have massive market share to make up for it.

As the article states: loss rather than profit.

 

[Porco]

Spotify should be quite relaxed about how quickly Apple's building their subscriptions, like the man says, it is only going to raise their profile too, and there are enough people who loathe Apple's way of doing things that Spotify will reap the benefits of being an alternative. I think the phrase 'a rising tide lifts all boats' is probably appropriate here.

Personally I use neither service and have no great desire to right now.

 

[sudo1996]

As the article states: loss rather than profit.

I did say profit then immediately edited. Haha. Yep, it's a loss.

 

[bakedgoodz]

I think they need to decouple the player from the operating system.... why do I need to wait for iOS 10 for an upgrade on the service? Also, the service needs to become more social..... I love that my friends on Spotify can send me playlists and I can see what they're listening to (i find a lot of good music this way).

Apple Music can't even match the current feature set in Spotify.... when in reality they really need to exceed and enhance the Spotify player.

 

[vertsix]

I'd think 10X, not 2X. If this is true, Spotify is in trouble, and Apple Music is doing pretty darn well. Spotify is running a loss, providing so much free service, so they should have massive market share to make up for it.

So screw the regular user by providing a paid-only service, right?

I am a fan that Spotify is providing a free tier. It has worked out well for them, clearly.

 

[blacktape242]

id like to see a poll on here, what do users here prefer???? Id like to know honestly.

 

[trichardlin]

So, the annualized revenue is $1.8B now. Give it another year, Apple music streaming business could be a Fortune 500 company.

 

[jdiamond]

I'm one of the reasons Spotify is growing in tandem with Apple Music - I would not exactly say I loved Apple Radio, but it was pretty good. Apple music is so ghastly bad for me that I had to shop around for an alternative - I found that pretty much ANY alternative was 10x better.

I'm sure this varies a lot by user, but here were the reasons I left (aside from the horrible UI)

#1) Just plain horrible music. I don't think I've heard a single song I liked on Apple music, and I even tried going by music category and top 50 lists. Even the ordinary radio played songs I liked, but not Apple music - nothing like Apple Radio in which I could easily find music I loved. And I've found zero way to search for the songs I actually like. (And all this after I suffered through 2 hours of the initial set up to specify my interests.)

#2) No real way to buy music. I've always used the radio to expand my music collection, and this made Apple Radio #1 for me - as I drove to work, a single click would let me purchase a song. No way to do that at all in Apple Music. Of course, now that we know Apple is canceling the very concept of buying songs, at least that move made sense.

I don't know why Apple Music can't specify music genres, etc, but since I can't buy music, Apple has no advantage to me over any other music source.

And I'm not an Apple hater - I try to use Apple software is it's at all possible. I expect to pay $15-$20 a month for music, but I can only afford to do that in one place. And Apple music is simply broken.

 

[vertsix]

Give is 2 years and Apple will be in the lead. Much to the chagrin of many an Apple-hating MR regular.

Or maybe it's too late because their service is clearly inferior.

 

[radiology]

Love Spotify app. Million times better than Apple Music app. Apple should have bought them and not beats. Hope Spotify survives.

On a side note, I happy my Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Warriors...couldn't stand see those Apple geeks in front row seats and all the S Curry stuff on the demos...

 

[trichardlin]

So screw the regular user by providing a paid-only service, right?...

What made you think Apple is in the 'free service' business?