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

[Xenomorph]

iOS 8.4 through iOS 11.4, I've tried to use the app like Pandora, Spotify, Google Music, etc:

* I open app, pick RADIO, then choose a station.

OR

* I open app, play a song, then choose CREATE STATION.

Regardless, either way, every time the app opens in my car, it plays some random song from my Library.

It never, Never, NEVER, NEVER plays whatever I was last playing.

Why can't it "remember" that I was listening to a certain Radio station? My Library is filled with lots of random songs from lots of genres. If I was listening to "electronic" stations in my car on my way home from work, I don't want it to auto-play any of my Christmas songs the next day when I head back into work.

Every time I open Pandora, it immediately auto-plays the last station I was listening to. I've been playing the same station for like 5+ years, fine-tuning it with every thumbs Up/Down. It's like a well-oiled machine.

I went with Apple Music because of the free trial, it being "native" to the platform, cross-platform on Android, supported Family Sharing, and had the biggest(?) selection of songs.

It's a "built in" Music player with like, every song I could ever imagine, but it really sucks as a Pandora "alternative".

 

[crsh1976]

That's nice and even understandable if you primarily own/use Apple products, unfortunately my digital life is a mish mash of Mac, PCs, Android and iOS things, and Spotify just works with whatever platform I use - which is why I won't even give Apple Music a look.

 

[deckard666]

don't really believe in those apple numbers. i have yet to meet a single person that uses apple music. everybody i know uses spotify

Funny enough I have the flip so I guess that proves squat...

 

[zulkiflim]

Wait, so Drakes album was listened to more times on Apple Music compared to Spotify .

My guess would be the streamin occurs more times in the US as compared to other countries.
Spotify worldwide base maybe likes other artists eh....

Secondly the article does not take note the number of subscribers who are on the 3 months free plan on Apple Music .
Are they also tallied as Subscribers ?

What would be more indicative is the number of iOS devices vs Apple Music current subscribers .

Bethca that sales of the latest “cheap” iPad is thru the roof and Apple Music came free with it eh

 

[dontpokebearz]

No thanks albums were 10 bucks a piece, I rather rent music because I rarely listen to same music twice and I can do unlimited for 10 bucks or even 5 bucks if you area student. Glad it gives people an option to buy music but it’s way to expensive to buy a single album

An example of my earlier post on the value of music.

Nothing against you OP, just proved a point I was making. You do you man

 

[oneMadRssn]

Oh sir, please enlighten us which ways Spotify is better?

Besides “because I said so”.

Spotify is crap until it:

1. Allows me to upload my own music and stream my own files
2. Lyrics
3. Vídeos
4. Human made concise playlists, not 500-plus playlists that are basically a google search
5. Decent navigation, without tiny buttons
6. iPad interface
7. Apple Watch interface
8. A tried and true desktop interface
9. Voice controls, not asking Siri because it’s impossible for them, but any speech recognition, e.g. YouTube has speech recognition, why a paid service can’t pay any cloud service for speech recognition
10. Most of all, Apple Music has more music in it.

1. You can do this, but only for offline listening.
2. It has lyrics.
3. We have youtube for crap like that.
4. The vast majority of playlists are human made.
5. I'll take tiny buttons over gigantic buttons that take up 1/3 of the screen.
6. Agreed, that would be nice.
7. Agreed, that would be nice. From what I understand, this is mostly Apple's fault for not providing good APIs. The next WatchOS might provide this.
8. They have a good desktop client.
9. Agreed, that would be nice. From what I understand, this is mostly Apple's fault for not providing good APIs. The next iOS might provide this.
10. No it doesn't.

 

[farewelwilliams]

I call B.S. I’ve never met an actual person in the real world who uses Apple Music instead of Spotify.

Spotify has a great iPad interface.

Spotify is also widely known to have the most complete music library.

And, once again, I call B.S. I’ve never met an actual person in the real world who uses Apple Music instead of Spotify.

interface preference is subjective. i’m subscribed to both and i personally prefer apple music’s interface on the ipad (but i cant wait until Apple ditches iTunes in the future for a better desktop interface)

spotify is missing many tracks compared to apple music (from my perspective at least). for example: Empire of the Sun - Wandering Star. For such a popular band, figured spotify would have it by now (especially since i’ve been putting in my request to spotify to include this song)

i’m surprised that apple music and spotify costs the same, even though apple provides more of an experience (human curated playlists, more royalties paid out, cloud storage of music)

im not sure what it means when you say you have yet to meet someone IRL that uses apple music instead of spotify. are you saying that your personal connections and experiences proves that the article is absolutely false and that no one in the world is exclusively subscribed to apple music?

 

[dontpokebearz]

1. You can do this, but only for offline listening.
2. It has lyrics.
3. We have youtube for crap like that.
4. The vast majority of playlists are human made.
5. I'll take tiny buttons over gigantic buttons that take up 1/3 of the screen.
6. Agreed, that would be nice.
7. Agreed, that would be nice. From what I understand, this is mostly Apple's fault for not providing good APIs. The next WatchOS might provide this.
8. They have a good desktop client.
9. Agreed, that would be nice. From what I understand, this is mostly Apple's fault for not providing good APIs. The next iOS might provide this.
10. No it doesn't.

Just saying, Genius lyrics in Spotify is not full lyrics. It isn't available in most songs unless its pop or hip hop, and doesn't stay on the lyrics. It goes to the Genius meaning of the lyrics. Oddly enough it does that every time I want to see the lyrics. Drives me nuts.

 

[miric]

The only thing bores me in Spotify is battery drain on my iPhone. I tried to switch back to iTunes a couple of times but that "strange" UI and messing my own offline library after enabling iCloud turned me back to Spotify. It is still #1. Would be nice it would stream in AAC.

 

[skitidetdu]

Doesn't Spotify have way way more customers who just listen for free though?

Yes they do and I hope Spotify will be forced to remove it. All the streams from free accounts generate nothing for the creators compared to paid subscription.

 

[[AUT] Thomas]

Is there an Apple Music App for Windows? And, no, I don't mean a fully bloated iTunes /w device drivers.
Can a 3rd party device stream Apple Music? Such as an AudioCast.

If you want to lock yourself in, Apple Music is for you...

Also, IMHO the Apple music GUI is a nightmare. All hail the Cesium App.

 

[truthertech]

Let's face it: it helps when your app is built-in. Most people will try the built-in app first and, when it's good enough, stick with it. Then add all the integrations Apple Music has with Apple's ecosystem (Apple Watch, Apple TV, HomePod, Siri etc.) and an enormous marketing budget, and it's not at all surprising that most people with an iPhone will end up with Apple Music.

Built in aspect helps, but it is somewhat mitigated by the fact that you have to sign up to pay for Apple Music, so you can't simply tap and play. I think the Apple ecosystem is biggest reason as music streaming services is reaching the point where it is increasingly a commoditized product where there isn't much differentiation. That's why Spotify is in such a precarious position as the primary differentiator with a commoditized product is price, and Spotify can't raise prices to cover its huge losses.

 

[posguy99]

Apple Music trashes your local library. Every time. Tried it when it first was released, it did. Apple claimed they fixed the match algorithm, tried again, still trashes the local library. Apple claims further improvements, tried one last time, it still trashes the local library. Not again.

If you *don't* enable iCloud Music Library, you can't download anything for offline listening, which I'm sure makes sense to someone at Apple, but... huh?

I get it, Apple Music is not suitable for anyone who has a local library of any size. That's fine.

Spotify doesn't mess with your local library.

 

[1050792]

Apple Music trashes your local library. Every time. Tried it when it first was released, it did. Apple claimed they fixed the match algorithm, tried again, still trashes the local library. Apple claims further improvements, tried one last time, it still trashes the local library. Not again.

If you *don't* enable iCloud Music Library, you can't download anything for offline listening, which I'm sure makes sense to someone at Apple, but... huh?

I get it, Apple Music is not suitable for anyone who has a local library of any size. That's fine.

Spotify doesn't mess with your local library.

iCloud Music Library is exactly that... it's the library that stores the songs you add to be available in all of your devices for either streaming or offline listening.

 

[posguy99]

Apple would be best to buy out Spotify so they can build a very profitable service for the future.

I'd just discontinue my Spotify subscription.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Spotify comes ore-installed on most Android phones, at least with Samsung’s and Android is bigger than Apple.

Also Spotify is more vendor neutral, Spotify doesn’t sell hardware... yet... so it comes with Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft hardware, Sony hardware (which, with Sony Music owns a piece of Spotify), etc.

My roommate has an Android phone and still uses Apple Music.

 

[Fynd]

Socially, I'd like to see collaborative playlists and the ability to have private listening sessions that don't show your followers.

App-wise, I think the Browse tab needs work. It should pull some from each of the sub-areas up like For You without needing to dig around. For You needs some additional mixes (the 6 daily mixes on Spotify are great) and some work gone into making them really tailored. I never feel like my 3 mixes are tailored to me at all, meanwhile my daily mixes on Spotify feel that way and I barely use the service.

A web app would be nice, opening up the service to some other platforms would be nice (ie. playstation), and a better desktop client that iTunes would be nice.

Not sure what else needs to be done or could be done with AM.

 

[posguy99]

iCloud Music Library is exactly that... it's the library that stores the songs you add to be available in all of your devices for either streaming or offline listening.

So you didn't actually read what you're commenting on. Got it. Let me be more explicit.

You enable iCloud Music Library. Apple tries to upload everything that's in your local library, and match it with what it has in the service. The idea being that what you have that the service doesn't, gets uploaded, what you have that the service has just gets played from the service.

In practice, their matching algorithms are so poor that it will replace tracks with other tracks. And it will do it *in the local library*.

 

[TimmeyCook]

I call B.S. I’ve never met an actual person in the real world who uses Apple Music instead of Spotify.
[doublepost=1530876265][/doublepost]

Spotify has a great iPad interface.

"great"... sure...

Spotify is also widely known to have the most complete music library.

By absolutely nobody.

And, once again, I call B.S. I’ve never met an actual person in the real world who uses Apple Music instead of Spotify.

I don't like it, so it must be false
[doublepost=1530888908][/doublepost]

In practice, their matching algorithms are so poor that it will replace tracks with other tracks. And it will do it *in the local library*.

BS
[doublepost=1530888942][/doublepost]

Apple Music trashes your local library. Every time. Tried it when it first was released, it did. Apple claimed they fixed the match algorithm, tried again, still trashes the local library. Apple claims further improvements, tried one last time, it still trashes the local library. Not again.

If you *don't* enable iCloud Music Library, you can't download anything for offline listening, which I'm sure makes sense to someone at Apple, but... huh?

I get it, Apple Music is not suitable for anyone who has a local library of any size. That's fine.

Spotify doesn't mess with your local library.

You keep insisting in this lie.

It's not going to work.

 

[EdT]

My problems with streaming music, and most of these are generic and not specific to any one service:

• I live in a slow internet area. Especially with the consolidation of service providers already seen in the last few years I find that talk of ‘competition driving cost down’ laughable.
• Most streaming services provide no better than demand requires sound quality. My personal music sources are much better fidelity. It’s good enough for most people so few music streaming services bother to provide better. The few that do are more expensive and not doing well financially. Beyond a very low threshold people pick by price or other features and not by sound quality.
• Did I mention that my internet speeds suck? I did? They really do though.
• Most of the curated or music suggestion software doesn’t know how to handle my preferences. I listen primarily to old swing and jazz as well as current jazz and heavy metal, old and current pop, country, folk, standards, classical, rock, easy listening, alternative, hip hop, rap, folk and probably a few other genres that are hard to classify. If I choose a couple of songs by an artist or genre I find that the software seems to focus on just that style of music and ignores anything else. The service really doesn’t help me find new music, it just tries to reinforce what I already got. Boring.
• I LIKE owning music. Not renting it, but owning, so if a fight breaks out between corporations or an artist signs with a new service I don’t lose access to my music.

 

[posguy99]

You keep insisting in this lie.

It's not going to work.

Which one? That iCloud Music Library trashes your local music library? Sorry, guy, it's documented. That you can't download for offline play *unless* you enable iCloud Music Library? That was a documented incentive before. I'm not going to subscribe again just to find out if it's still the case. Are you saying that it's not?

 

[neuropsychguy]

don't really believe in those apple numbers. i have yet to meet a single person that uses apple music. everybody i know uses spotify

Clearly all your comment tells us is you either don't know what people are using or you don't know any of the 20 million+ AM users in the U.S. I have a subscription. I used to have Spotify but shifted to AM earlier this year.

 

[fairuz]

I tried Spotify once and ditched it forever cause it was missing entire genres that Apple Music had.
[doublepost=1530889427][/doublepost]

Which one? That iCloud Music Library trashes your local music library? Sorry, guy, it's documented. That you can't download for offline play *unless* you enable iCloud Music Library? That was a documented incentive before. I'm not going to subscribe again just to find out if it's still the case. Are you saying that it's not?

This is all true and a reason I avoid iCloud Music, Photos, and Files like the plague. Either stuff gets deleted, or it's unclear what happens. iCloud even retardedly deletes your notes if you use it for that, which I've already fallen victim to, as if my 200KiB of relatively important text just had to go.

 

[neuropsychguy]

I've used for a while now and the recommendations have been terrible the entire time. That's the advantage Spotify has over Apple Music, the recommended music and playlists are way better.

I pay for both thanks to Spotify's bundle deal with Hulu. Apple Music is great for organizing my own music, Spotify is better for nearly everything els

My recommendations on Spotify were terrible for the past 2 years. The first couple years they were great but then everything degraded. AM recommendations aren't great either so now I just manually find new music (which is what I typically did anyway).

 

[djlythium]

Let's face it: it helps when your app is built-in. Most people will try the built-in app first and, when it's good enough, stick with it. Then add all the integrations Apple Music has with Apple's ecosystem (Apple Watch, Apple TV, HomePod, Siri etc.) and an enormous marketing budget, and it's not at all surprising that most people with an iPhone will end up with Apple Music.

Word. Spotify is good, but part of what makes AM great is that I don’t have to download yet another dang app across my devices. On top of all of AM’s other features, it’s perfect for me.