Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Music Reportedly Surpasses Spotify Subscriber Count in the U.S.
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I used the free trial of Apple Music and my friend shared with me his Spotify family plan
Okey I like the fact that I can « finally » listen to my music on my xbox one and controlling it from my iPhone or iPad Is a +1 for spotify
And don’t forget RapCaviar
But that’s it
I hate that ****** Spotify for Mac app , it’s eating my MacBook Pro battery like hell!!!!!!
For me the difference between the two service is on Spotify I’m following my friend playlist (he have time to create awesome playlist) or RapCavier
But Apple Music radios are a killer feature for me !
Can replace “play <some ****>” and you won’t have to skip a song !
Not sure what u you mean by discovering new music, for me it’s a star next to the song I first time listen to from <My mood> radio
Last edited by a moderator:
If Apple ever allows Spotify on the Watch, I’d switch back in a heartbeat. Or at least update the cluster that is iTunes in the meantime, and allow browser-based streaming.
These numbers are always used in a context of “see how great we are” (self-appreciation unfortunately being the only angle of communication by Silicon Vallye behemoth companies)
Comparatively, Apple is just incredibly fallable if they only now surpassd Spotify (with their huge competitive advantage and cross-subsidizing and thereby false competition) implying that the overall appreciation for Spotify must be so much higher...
Last edited:
Investors, reinvestment, etc. It's no different than any other company that has been operating at a loss or at even. Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, and many other companies are/were in the same boat.
I can see how AM passed up Spotify for the simple reason of ease of use. AM integrates perfectly with all Apple stuff including CarPlay. I've used Spotify and GPM and liked them both just as much as AM. I'm only using AM now because of the tight integration, especially with CarPlay. I used GPM with CarPlay and there were some goofy things that would happen and it just wasn't as polished as AM.
Other than that, I like Spotify, AM and GPM just about equally.
Other than that, I like Spotify, AM and GPM just about equally.
At least iTunes is in the Windows 10 store yes it is still the same POS bloated desktop app but at least it uninstalls like an app so it easier to get rid off.
Hilarious that Apple was the first major digital music distribution platform and its 2018 and they're just now reporting to be #1 at something related to music.
When will Apple learn...no one trusts you with their money anymore. It's easy to be #1 with a cellphone when your distribution is reliant on the service provider, but that's why their computers were never widely hailed as #1, no retailer was willing to take the risk to buy up their product and have it at the ready as demand is not dependent on a service so no ones there to drive sales.
Tim Crook is the new CEO which will drive Apple into the ground. He's no comparison to Jobs, in fact, I would go as far as to say, people tolerate him more than they like him. His presence at the keynotes disgusts many we've spoken with. No one trusts Crook because he gives off the vibe that he's hiding something and that he's a fake, especially when he's pushing both his privacy and transparency policies.
If Apple does not go back to the old design of the aluminum case upgradeable Mac Pros or change the EULA to where macOS can be installed and sold on regular computers the company will go out of business as there will be no one left to buy their cheap, crappy pappy systems and if India or China never buys into their cellphones, which they won't, the cellphone sales will not be enough to save the company given Apples current trend of churning out newer models to drive sales versus focusing on making quality products that don't glitch out or fall apart and require repair plans to satisfy customers.
Yes. All of this, on a thread about... Apple Music.
When will Apple learn...no one trusts you with their money anymore. It's easy to be #1 with a cellphone when your distribution is reliant on the service provider, but that's why their computers were never widely hailed as #1, no retailer was willing to take the risk to buy up their product and have it at the ready as demand is not dependent on a service so no ones there to drive sales.
Tim Crook is the new CEO which will drive Apple into the ground. He's no comparison to Jobs, in fact, I would go as far as to say, people tolerate him more than they like him. His presence at the keynotes disgusts many we've spoken with. No one trusts Crook because he gives off the vibe that he's hiding something and that he's a fake, especially when he's pushing both his privacy and transparency policies.
If Apple does not go back to the old design of the aluminum case upgradeable Mac Pros or change the EULA to where macOS can be installed and sold on regular computers the company will go out of business as there will be no one left to buy their cheap, crappy pappy systems and if India or China never buys into their cellphones, which they won't, the cellphone sales will not be enough to save the company given Apples current trend of churning out newer models to drive sales versus focusing on making quality products that don't glitch out or fall apart and require repair plans to satisfy customers.
Yes. All of this, on a thread about... Apple Music.
Music services make sense, but music streaming makes no sense. Apple Music needs a better caching system because Internet service is neither free nor ubiquitous when you're in places where you'd listen to music. Also, it needs to coexist peacefully with my local library synced from iTunes. This should be easy to do, and I think they made some attempt but failed.
Lol, is this for real... for years now its been the Industries undivided opinion that Samsung makes the best hardware on the market.. this isn't even up for debate. Apple wants better screens, who do they go to.. feel free to find any web review that says the bland X is shinier and prettier than the s9 or s8 or s7 come to that. Go on, I'll wait...
Someone on Reddit pointed out that people maybe don't switch streaming services so much and that the majority of the new Apple Music users probably aren't switchers from Spotify, but newcomers to streaming services or perhaps just people so invested in the Apple ecosystem that they simply find Apple Music better since it's better integrated.
What do you mean that Spotify is "widely known to have the most complete music library"? I mean, 40 million songs is 40 million songs. Right?
Pretty sure that that's the case, the way I'd put it is, AM is basically the IE (internet explorer) of iOS, it comes pre-installed in every iPhone and it's the default music player.
But considering 1 billion iOS devices shipping all with AM installed, front-most and default, it makes you wonder why such slow adoption of AM.
Apple Music has now surpassed Spotify's subscriber count in the United States, according to an industry source who spoke to Digital Music News.
The anonymous source, said to be a major U.S.-based distributor, is said to have shared a report with the website detailing the subscriber tallies of several streaming music services, including Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, and Sirius XM.
Among primarily on-demand music streaming services, the report says both Apple Music and Spotify have more than 20 million subscribers in the U.S., with Apple now "a hair ahead" with "20 million plus" members. The exact figure was reportedly withheld on request of the source to protect confidentiality.
In February, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was gaining U.S. subscribers at a higher rate than Spotify. Apple's US-based subscriber growth rate was believed to be 5 percent in the U.S., compared to Spotify's 2 percent. Based on those figures, the report predicted Apple Music would surpass its biggest rival in the summer.
Apple's growth was said to be due in part by the increasing numbers of devices in consumers' hands. Since the WSJ report, Apple has also released its HomePod speaker, which includes features specific to Apple Music.
Apple's service recently surpassed its single-day streaming record, with Drake's fifth album, Scorpion, notching up over 170 million streams in its first 24 hours of availability. Spotify was unable to keep up with its rival's streaming figures for the album, despite Apple Music having around 120 million fewer subscribers than Spotify, suggesting Apple won via stronger user engagement.
In May, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple Music had over 50 million users worldwide on either paid subscriptions or free trials. However, that figure still put Apple Music some ways off Spotify, which said it had 75 million paying subscribers as of March 31. Spotify has a much larger total of at least 170 million active users due to the free, ad-supported tier that it offers.
Apple Music has been a major contributor to the continued growth of Apple's services category, which brought in $9.1 billion revenue in the second fiscal quarter of 2018, an increase of 31 percent on a year-over-year basis. Other service-related revenue includes App Store and iTunes Store sales, paid iCloud storage, licensing, and more.
Article Link: Apple Music Reportedly Surpasses Spotify Subscriber Count in the U.S.
I'm a mature university student and I get Apple Music for $5.99AUD a month. Which also includes iTunes Match, so 1400 albums of mine are stored as well as having full access to the iTunes catalogue of music and playlists, not a bad deal.
I don’t know if this was mentioned in this thread or not, but until Apple Music works with the Amazon Echo and Google Home, then it will be a non starter for a lot of us.
I have 3 Echos and 2 Google Homes in my House, and I can use Spotify on them, plus I use the app on my phone, and in Windows 10, and on the Xbox.
So Apple would need to start making their services to the above things for a lot of to want to switch.
Why would I want to use Apple Music when it will only work on my phone?
I have 3 Echos and 2 Google Homes in my House, and I can use Spotify on them, plus I use the app on my phone, and in Windows 10, and on the Xbox.
So Apple would need to start making their services to the above things for a lot of to want to switch.
Why would I want to use Apple Music when it will only work on my phone?
Very true.
Another thing that is not often talked about... is that streaming music is still a relatively small market in general.
Think about it. Spotify has a total of 160 million users (paid+free)... Apple Music has 50 million... then there's Google, Pandora, Tidal, and probably others I'm forgetting.
So lets say, for the sake of argument, that there are 250 million users of streaming music around the world.
But there are BILLIONS of people on Earth who enjoy music.
I don't know what the ceiling is... but streaming music might continue to grow for the foreseeable future. It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out among Spotify, Apple and the others.
When will people learn - one bets against Apple to their own detriment.
I agree that Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs, and that’s what I like about him. Different people are needed at different points in a company history. Jobs was right for his era, but he would have been a disaster for the Cook era. Just as Cook is doing an amazing job running Apple today.
I firmly believe these values that Tim Cook keeps pushing (security, privacy, trust, equality, ethics and environmental responsibility) will become his legacy at Apple.
Cook often gets criticized for not being a product visionary. I do feel that such criticism fails to recognize how Cook is doing some groundbreaking things when it comes to redefining the role of CEO in today’s world, and by extension, how these espoused values influence the design of products at Apple.
My prediction is that Apple will go on to be even more insanely successful than they are today despite their treatment of the Mac, or perhaps, because of it.
This small mind mentality cracks me up every time. You guys must not know a lot of people or never leave your tiny bubble.
I know tons of people on Apple Music and on Spotify. I'd say it's pretty representative of the market share growth we've seen reported. Initially, most people I knew had Spotify, and Apple Music share steadily grew to where I know lot's of people on both services.
... and this is why anecdotal reports aren't reliable. You must know that the number of people you know is just a tiny tiiiiiiiiny fraction of the people out there. You don't? Jeez, I feel sorry fo you. Expand your horizons.
I don’t agree that if you’re an Apple user Apple Music is the only way to go. Apple Music is rubbish and so is Siri. I’ve tried and rejected both. I’m also not impressed with the HomePod. There are far better speakers out there.
Same thing can be said with Spotify. I mean they’re exist in Android, iOS, game consoles even smart tv apps and set top boxes. You'd think there will be billions of listeners. Yet they only have 170mils something users (that includes free tiers).
Streaming business isnt as popular as you might want to believe. It’s still in infancy and plenty of room to grow
[doublepost=1531018385][/doublepost]
Well if you hate Siri so much there’s little incentive to stay within Apple environment. Smartphone is only little part of digital ecosystem nowadays. By “locking in” all your products you get the most of your purchase.
On the other hand, mix and matching everything will end you up with almost nothing. Spotify works relatively well with Google Assistant and their smart speakers, but iPhone might not work too well with those. I mean can you imagine someone using iPhone and Google Home Max? Sure it works if you download another google app. But you're just hindering the potential for both devices.
HomePod is the best smart speakers I’ve heard for its size. Yes, of course my surround setup sounds so much better but they’re like 10x bulkier and heavier.
Last edited:
Tim is a wonderful human being. Even if he’s not a visionary. He also knows how to make money. I don’t think Tim can be faulted because he knows how to keep Apple ahead in a very competitive market. Steve never had to compete in such a market.
[doublepost=1531035013][/doublepost]Well that’s good to hear. I don’t think there’s much of an incentive to use Apple Music if you don’t have other Apple products. However there are a lot of iPhone users so Apple have a wide potential customer base to grow from.
I have a HomePod which makes Apple Music essential. It works nicely.
I’ve recently subscribed to YouTube premium simply because I want add free YouTube, offline viewing and background playback. I get google music as part of the package all for £11.99. I have a google home mini but the sound quality isn’t as good as my HomePod so I can’t see a situation where I’d use google Music over Apple Music. It’s a shame to have to subscribe to both.
Last edited:
Google is going to have to make their services available in a lot more countries than just the US if they want more people to subscribe to it. Here in my country, it's really just Apple Music and Spotify.
While I don't envy your current political situation one bit, it still must be nice to be in a country where you are first-class citizens to so many US-based companies and services.
[doublepost=1531036770][/doublepost]
I think this is an important point which often goes ignored. People have a tendency to compare apple products in a vacuum, often dismissing the value they have within their ecosystem.
To be fair Apple have always treated us well in terms of product and services releases in the UK. We are always in the first wave or get it very quickly after those in the US. Won’t comment on their post Brexit pricing. It is what it is.
But it took about 3/4 years for YouTube red to come to the uk and a lot of things from Google’s end take a long time to make it here.
Last edited: