Apple Music Now Has 36 Million Subscribers, Could Eclipse Spotify in United States This Year

[MacRumors]

Apple Music now has 36 million paying subscribers around the world, an increase from well over 30 million reported last September.

Apple confirmed the updated total to The Wall Street Journal, which today reported that Apple Music is growing at a faster pace than Spotify in the United States, and could soon eclipse the service in popularity in the country.

Apple's subscriber-account base in the U.S. has been growing about 5% monthly, versus Spotify's 2% clip, according to the people familiar with the numbers. Assuming those growth rates continue, Apple will overtake Spotify in accounts this summer.

On a worldwide scale, Spotify maintains a sizeable lead over Apple Music. The streaming music service revealed that it has 70 million paying subscribers a month ago, making it nearly twice as large as Apple Music. Spotify also has a free, ad-supported tier, giving it over 140 million listeners overall around the world.

Spotify expanded to the United States in 2011, while Apple Music simultaneously launched in over 100 countries in 2015. In terms of paid subscriptions, both services offer individual plans for $9.99 per month, student plans for $4.99 per month, and family plans sharable with up to six people for $14.99 per month.

Apple Music has the benefit of being preinstalled on hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads. It's also available on Mac, PC, Android, Apple Watch, Apple TV, vehicles equipped with CarPlay, Sonos, and HomePod.

Article Link: Apple Music Now Has 36 Million Subscribers, Could Eclipse Spotify in United States This Year

 

[XTheLancerX]

Apple needs to revamp their family plan, having to set up ALL of your Apple IDs as a family before hand is the reason we don't use Apple Music. We all have our own payment methods, and want to keep it that way. Spotify's model of paying $14.99/mo for 6 completely independent accounts is amazing. So we went with that and not Apple Music.

 

[anzio]

We absolutely love Apple Music. Hopefully this causes them to continue to improve it! Knocked it out of the park with iCloud Music Library and the Family Plan. Tried Spotify but it didn’t suit our needs.

 

[asdavis10]

It's hard to bet against Apple in this space. They have the hardware/software advantage for services of any kind. They can also subsidize services profitability with hardware revenue although they haven't had to do that yet (and may never have to). Will investors bet big on Spotify which doesn't turn a profit and whose sole business model is to sell music at a profit margin that the rights holders want more of?

I'm not betting on Spotify to die, but I think Apple will win the profitability war easily even if they don't win the subscriber war.

 

[iapplelove]

I enjoyed my free trial. But not enough to keep subscribing.

Too many subscription services, so I chose not to subscribe to any.

I know I’m in the minority.

 

[unobtainium]

Spotify is superior in every way. Too bad Apple Music is gaining more subscribers. For many people, it’s just the default option because Apple pushes it so hard.

I could never give up the excellent music discovery on Spotify, nor could I live without Spotify Connect allowing me to seamlessly control playback from any device.

 

[Avieshek]

I enjoyed my free trial. But not enough to keep subscribing.

Too many subscription services, so I chose not to subscribe to any.

I know I’m in the minority.

You are not.

 

[arkitect]

I guess it depends on what music you listen to…

Spotify caters for my pretty varied tastes with spot on recommendations and new discoveries.

Apple Music offers me their choice of "new" music in which I have mostly no interest. I am just not sure why that is, but…

YMMV, as usual.

As I have said before, I do not understand the mindset so many here have "Spotify must die!!111!!! So that Apple can "succeed".

 

[johnnygee]

This good news is sure to make the stock drop on Monday.

 

[arkitect]

I could never give up the excellent music discovery on Spotify, nor could I live without Spotify Connect allowing me to seamlessly control playback from any device.

Same here.

 

[nfl46]

Spotify is barely making any money because of their free model. Apple is eventually going to destroy them in 3-5 years. I think they know Spotify is going to eventually crumble.

 

[Bawstun]

Spotify is better. They offer more, have better algorithms and recommended playlists, and their user interface is also superior.

Apple is catching up because it’s preinstalled on all devices sold. That’s it.

 

[The Game 161]

Hence why they feel there’s no need for Spotify for HomePod side from air play of course

 

[thekeyring]

Apple needs to revamp their family plan, having to set up ALL of your Apple IDs as a family before hand is the reason we don't use Apple Music. We all have our own payment methods, and want to keep it that way. Spotify's model of paying $14.99/mo for 6 completely independent accounts is amazing. So we went with that and not Apple Music.

Totally agree with this. They should break out a "Family Plan for Apple Music" that's separate from everything else.

 

[stanman64]

Re-subscribed to Apple Music last week after placing my HomePod preorder. I'm a devote Spotify junkie, but wanted to get the full experience of the HomePod. Apple Music has definitely improved since the last time I used it (probably late 2016/early 2017), but it has a long way to catch up to Spotify still IMO in terms of playlists, recommendations, and UI.

 

[quietstormSD]

I really don’t and normally criticize macrumors their content writers. I saw the headline that Apple Music could eclipse Spotify this year then reading more I found out that Spotify has more than almost double the subscribers Apple Music has. Spotify is gaining at the same or similar as Apple Music.

 

[XTheLancerX]

Spotify is superior in every way. Too bad Apple Music is gaining more subscribers. For many people, it’s just the default option because Apple pushes it so hard.

I could never give up the excellent music discovery on Spotify, nor could I live without Spotify Connect allowing me to seamlessly control playback from any device.

Yeah I couldn't live without Spotify Connect.

With Spotify, I can control the music playing from my Mac with my Apple Watch. With Apple Music, that simple action is impossible. Also I can be wearing AirPods, and switch to or from playing music on my Mac or my iPhone without ever having to open an app, go through menus, find the song I'm listening to, etc etc. It's completely seamless with Spotify, and it's such a pain with Apple Music. You'd expect it to be the other way around. Also, yes, music discovery is horrible on Apple Music compared to Spotify.

 

[stanman64]

I guess it depends on what music you listen to…

Spotify caters for my pretty varied tastes with spot on recommendations and new discoveries.

Apple Music offers me their choice of "new" music in which I have mostly no interest. I am just not sure why that is, but…

YMMV, as usual.

As I have said before, I do not understand the mindset so many here have "Spotify must die!!111!!! So that Apple can "succeed".

Can relate. I listen to all kinds of genres, and Spotify is great at mixing solid, reliable stuff with new, fresh stuff that I've never heard.

Meanwhile, Apple Music is like "oh you like folk? have you heard of Mumford & Sons?"

Lol

 

[ersan191]

You are not.

Not for long, according to the article.

I enjoy Apple Music - I don't think Spotify is better enough for me to care (if it even is, I had both for awhile and found it gave inferior music recommendations), and I have an LTE watch and I ordered a HomePod, which aren't compatible anyway.

 

[XTheLancerX]

Spotify is barely making any money because of their free model. Apple is eventually going to destroy them in 3-5 years. I think they know Spotify is going to eventually crumble.

I have trouble believing this. Free users still are bringing in income because of ad-revenue. Probably a lot of the revenue comes from that alone. Then you have premium users.

 

[joshen]

I'll reconsider switching from Spotify once they fix iTunes since the current desktop experience is still absolute hell. The iOS Music app is pretty nice though.

 

[Dave245]

I love my Apple Music subscription I have been a user since it first came out here in the U.K and with my HomePod arriving Friday it’s not going anywhere. The advantage that Apple have is that Apple Music works well with their devices, I use it on my iPhone, iPad and Mac. As soon as my HomePod arrives on Friday it will be working on there as well.

 

[alphaswift]

I guess it depends on what music you listen to…

Spotify caters for my pretty varied tastes with spot on recommendations and new discoveries.

Apple Music offers me their choice of "new" music in which I have mostly no interest. I am just not sure why that is, but…

That's because you're getting old. In my case, I am older than dirt and very little interest in music written after 1989.

 

[XTheLancerX]

I'll reconsider switching from Spotify once they fix iTunes since the current desktop experience is still absolute hell. The iOS Music app is pretty nice though.

Yeah I agree, iTunes is pretty much Apple's bane of existence right now. It's holding them back from the music area for a lot of people.

Apple should shift to an independent music app for desktop like Spotify's (which is really nice by the way) and have an independent app for syncing, restoring, etc.

If it weren't for iTunes not supporting any sort of handoff-type behavior, I would switch to Apple Music with their student plan, considering I'll be going to college soon. $4.99 isn't bad at all. But I'd be losing Spotify Connect which alone is a total dealbreaker. Plus id have to shift my library again and have worse music discovery. So I think I'll pass.
[doublepost=1517770275][/doublepost]

I love my Apple Music subscription I have been a user since it first came out here in the U.K and with my HomePod arriving Friday it’s not going anywhere. The advantage that Apple have is that Apple Music works well with their devices, I use it on my iPhone, iPad and Mac. As soon as my HomePod arrives on Friday it will be working on there as well.

Spotify works better between my apple devices than Apple Music does.

 

[nfl46]

I have trouble believing this. Free users still are bringing in income because of ad-revenue. Probably a lot of the revenue comes from that alone. Then you have premium users.

There are TONS & TONS of articles about Spotify money situation. Simply put: even with a large subscriber base, they aren't racking in a lot of cash.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...iden-after-music-site-flags-accounting-errors

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/12/report-on-spotify-earnings-h1-2017-revenue-loss-margins-growth.html

Spotify can't keep losing money year in and out and expect to stick around. Apple can take a loss if needed.