Apple Music Reportedly Surpasses Spotify Subscriber Count in the U.S.

[PickUrPoison]

This has got to be a regional thing. Or perhaps a generational thing? I'm in my 20's living in NYC and I can count the number of people I know with Apple Music on one hand. All of my friends and coworkers use Spotify, as do I. Spotify's US HQ is based here in New York so maybe that has something to do with it.

Are they listening to the free Spotify or paying for the premium version? A lot of people listen to the free version.

For many I think it comes down to the fact that Spotify has been around longer. Those that started listening to Spotify 5 years ago have always liked it and find no real reason to switch.

 

[Uofmtiger]

For my own use, the ability to use Siri with Apple Music was the big difference between the services.

Whether I am using Carplay, Airplaying from iOS/MacOs, controlling the iPhone at work with my Apple Watch, using the AppleTV, or telling the HomePod what to play or where to play....it is just a superior experience for my devices. Of course, I am deep into the Apple ecosystem, so that makes the service so ideal.

 

[dominiongamma]

I question the numbers now because HomePod is seen as a failure it seems

 

[justme1]

I question the numbers now because HomePod is seen as a failure it seems

Seen by whom?

 

[dominiongamma]

Seen by whom?

less then 10% of market share of homepods isn’t good, and the HomePod is way to expensive, and Siri will only do Apple Music while amazon echos can do more

 

[OTACORB]

less then 10% of market share of homepods isn’t good, and the HomePod is way to expensive, and Siri will only do Apple Music while amazon echos can do more

Total nonsense... Mac's barely have above 10% market share overall and no one seems to think they are a failure. Amazon also has a history of recording during times you think it's private. This has happened a few times now. I wouldn't have one in my home I don't care how many music services it can play. My HomePod's play all the music services it needs to via AirPlay 2. Not to mention those echo's sound like CRAP in comparison. You get what you pay for it seems.

I'd rather pay Apple more money, then to pay Amazon less and also pay them with my private info. They like Google are nothing but data whores. Give the customer cheap stuff and we can harvest their info.

 

[beanbaguk]

Total nonsense... Mac's barely have above 10% market share overall and no one seems to think they are a failure. Amazon also has a history of recording during times you think it's private. This has happened a few times now. I wouldn't have one in my home I don't care how many music services it can play. My HomePod's play all the music services it needs to via AirPlay 2. Not to mention those echo's sound like CRAP in comparison. You get what you pay for it seems.

I'd rather pay Apple more money, then to pay Amazon less and also pay them with my private info. They like Google are nothing but data whores. Give the customer cheap stuff and we can harvest their info.

You are foolish to believe Apple is anything but that also....

 

[decafjava]

You are foolish to believe Apple is anything but that also....

Proof?

 

[EdT]

You are foolish to believe Apple is anything but that also....

They claim that they are different and their security standards for software are more stringent-though definitely not completely effective- and none of their competitors are pointing to Apple with proof that they also are monitoring or monetizing customers data, and if they have proof I think they would.

I am tired of and no longer believe the everyone’s doing it excuse no matter who or what the subject is. Show me documented proof.

 

[beanbaguk]

How do you think they know your music tastes, movie, app preferences and more to offer you relevant content? Everything you feed to Siri is stored on an Apple server for automated analysis. On top of this they have location information, map corrections, the list goes on....

They may not share this information now, but all it takes is a change of management and...

At the end of the day, Apple cares about one thing. Making money and knowledge is money.
[doublepost=1543787521][/doublepost]ETA, just take time to ready Apple’s privacy policy! It’s all there in black and white.

https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/

Collection and Use of Non-Personal Information
We also collect data in a form that does not, on its own, permit direct association with any specific individual. We may collect, use, transfer, and disclose non-personal information for any purpose. The following are some examples of non-personal information that we collect and how we may use it:

• We may collect information such as occupation, language, zip code, area code, unique device identifier, referrer URL, location, and the time zone where an Apple product is used so that we can better understand customer behavior and improve our products, services, and advertising.
• We may collect information regarding customer activities on our website, iCloud services, our iTunes Store, App Store, Mac App Store, App Store for Apple TV and iBooks Stores and from our other products and services. This information is aggregated and used to help us provide more useful information to our customers and to understand which parts of our website, products, and services are of most interest. Aggregated data is considered non‑personal information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy.
• We may collect and store details of how you use our services, including search queries. This information may be used to improve the relevancy of results provided by our services. Except in limited instances to ensure quality of our services over the Internet, such information will not be associated with your IP address.
• With your explicit consent, we may collect data about how you use your device and applications in order to help app developers improve their apps.

If we do combine non-personal information with personal information the combined information will be treated as personal information for as long as it remains combined.

 

[OTACORB]

You are foolish to believe Apple is anything but that also....

Yet here you are tooting your horn about the Echo which everyone and his brother knows Amazon snoops and they have no real concern for any ones privacy, plus harvest your data. I am like the others time to put up your proof.

There is no doubt Apple takes info for the purpose it's intended and they are transparent about it. Not so with Amazon and Google. They have for years harvested info and SOLD it and damn sure wasn't transparent about it. Apple doesn't sell our data... you have NO PROOF, you are just posting nonsense!

 

[Abazigal]

I question the numbers now because HomePod is seen as a failure it seems

Not everyone who uses Apple Music is going to run out and get a HomePod. Not least because they are still only available in a few countries.

https://iphone.appleinsider.com/art...n-on-apple-music-crushes-spotify-in-streaming

Metrics like this would be more meaningful, where artistes are recording more streams on Apple Music compared to Spotify despite the latter having more subscribers on paper.

 

[beanbaguk]

Yet here you are tooting your horn about the Echo which everyone and his brother knows Amazon snoops and they have no real concern for any ones privacy, plus harvest your data. I am like the others time to put up your proof.

There is no doubt Apple takes info for the purpose it's intended and they are transparent about it. Not so with Amazon and Google. They have for years harvested info and SOLD it and damn sure wasn't transparent about it. Apple doesn't sell our data... you have NO PROOF, you are just posting nonsense!

Well done for reading my profile and previous posts.

I never said I had an issue with it. I just said you’re foolish believing Apple does not collect this information.

If you took one moment to read the privacy policy from Apples website, you would realise quite how wrong you are.

I even did a copy and paste job for you but that’s obviously “nonsense”. ‍
[doublepost=1543824760][/doublepost]P.S. Where’s your proof that Amazon is selling their information?

That would be breaking GDPR laws in Europe with fines of up to €20m or 4% turnover (whichever is greater), where I happen to live....

 

[beanbaguk]

Another note as I took the time to research your claims that Amazon and Google harvested and sold customer data.

I focused on Amazon as this was the original tidbit of information that you gave to me regarding my echo usage (which I love by the way).

As much as I tried, I found no evidence to support your claim that Amazon deliberately sold customer data to 3rd parties. Now, there were instances whereby a rogue Amazon employee tried to sell customer data, but there were also similar cases at Apple.

Now where Google differs is to do with how it handles your personal data. It doesn't directly sell your data, but it does sell targeted adverts (which has been going on for almost two decades now).

I suggest you educate yourself a little:

https://www.androidcentral.com/does-google-sell-your-data

Having said all this, there have been data breaches over the years and data has been leaked from Amazon, Google....and guess what....Apple too

Here is a list of major breaches over the years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_data_breaches

Interestingly, Amazon isn't listed!

Once again I'm a huge Apple product fan, but I'd consider myself incredibly foolish to believe that Apple doesn't use the data we provide to it in a way that benefits them financially.

I work and specialise in CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation), and have had over 11 years experience optimising major websites. I'm very successful at my job increasing revenues by millions for the companies I've worked at. To optimise these sites, we use clever UI/UX practices, tone of voice and guess what.....customer data.

We collect and use all the information you (the customer), provides to us while browsing and using our products and target you with specific promotions and product areas we believe would benefit you most. We personalise content to make your experience better.

If you don't believe Apple (and every other good website and product service), do exactly this, well.....you need you open your eyes and read the privacy policies from the websites you use. It's all in there.

 

[ipponrg]

Yet here you are tooting your horn about the Echo which everyone and his brother knows Amazon snoops and they have no real concern for any ones privacy, plus harvest your data. I am like the others time to put up your proof.

There is no doubt Apple takes info for the purpose it's intended and they are transparent about it. Not so with Amazon and Google. They have for years harvested info and SOLD it and damn sure wasn't transparent about it. Apple doesn't sell our data... you have NO PROOF, you are just posting nonsense!

The irony going against your argument is that Apple Music is going on Amazon Echo devices, and it’s all over the tech news.

 

[beanbaguk]

The irony going against your argument is that Apple Music is going on Amazon Echo devices, and it’s all over the tech news.

The real irony here is he's claiming Amazon and Google SOLD private data to third parties, yet he has no shred of evidence to show this.....

However, this is not the argument. My point was some users claim they use Apple as they don't track and listen on Siri, but the fact is they do and as with both Amazon and Google, Apple is very transparent about it. None of these companies have ever "sold" this data and to think they use it in any way that's different to Apple, is just plain naive and ignorant.

It does however prove one thing. Apple's marketing machine is truly magnificent in projecting a positive image when the reality is they're after one thing; Your hard-earned dollars. Apple is not a charity or a good-will company. It's a corporate giant and it's bottom line is its end goal.

 

[Uofmtiger]

Well I’m going to cancel my Apple Music subscription. There’s no point in paying for both Apple Music and YouTube premium (google play music). I can airplay google play music to my HomePod.

I get other stuff in YouTube premium that I want.

I carry both subscriptions because I hate ads on Youtube. I rarely ever use Google Play because it isn't compatible with Siri and I don't like the interface. The only time I use it is when using the Nvidia Shield, but that is a rare occurrence these days. I do have some Casting devices, but I have Airplay 2 in the same rooms and it always wins.

I think that having to get my iPhone out every time I want to play music on the HomePod would wreck the overall experience.

I was never impressed with the several times I used Spotify. As someone else mentioned, it didn't work properly in the BMWs I had over the years. It is definitely Spotify's fault. The BMW interface worked with MOG, Rdio, Rhapsody, Beats/Apple Music, etc.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I carry both subscriptions because I hate ads on Youtube. I rarely ever use Google Play because it isn't compatible with Siri and I don't like the interface. The only time I use it is when using the Nvidia Shield, but that is a rare occurrence these days. I do have some Casting devices, but I have Airplay 2 in the same rooms and it always wins.

I think that having to get my iPhone out every time I want to play music on the HomePod would wreck the overall experience.

I was never impressed with the several times I used Spotify. As someone else mentioned, it didn't work properly in the BMWs I had over the years. It is definitely Spotify's fault. The BMW interface worked with MOG, Rdio, Rhapsody, Beats/Apple Music, etc.

I ended up keeping both subscriptions. I do have a google home mini in my bedroom so I occasionally use it for music or the news and like you I hate adds. I’ve also never been impressed with Spotify and I agree having to use airplay defeats the object of the HomePod imo.