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

[wigby]

Please enlighten us on a few ways that it is better. I've found Spotify way better to discover new music, it's multiplatform and has a better look and feel, although that's personal.

That's funny because I have no experience with Spotify but the only negative things I universally hear about it are that the UI is poor and that manual search is crippled in favor of its discovery algorithms.
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I call B.S. I’ve never met an actual person in the real world who uses Apple Music instead of Spotify.
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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.

This comment is replete with things that no one has ever stated with a straight face. I'm noting it as /s

 

[posguy99]

This is all true and a reason I avoid iCloud Music like the plague, as I do with every iCloud feature that manages any of my libraries or local files. I still have to deal with family members who have enabled such features and gotten stuff either deleted or screwed with as a result. It's retarded. It's good for mail, contacts, calendars, and browser stuff, that's it.

Off topic, but it's not good for that, either. I let Safari sync browser tabs via iCloud, but I care about contacts, calendars, mail, etc, so I certainly don't put them into Apple services. That's what Fastmail is for.

 

[1050792]

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.

I did read and answered your question "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?". You seem to be the one with lack of reading or comprehension skills.

 

[trellus]

11. 3 device limit with Spotify vs. 10 device limit with Apple Music
12. 10,000 song library limit with Spotify vs. 100,000 with Apple Music
13. 3,333 song download limit per device with Spotity; no such limit with Apple Music
14. Spotify’s unsustainable business model as a stand-alone service.

I have found Spotify to be a very good service, however limitations #11-13 are particularly troubling.

3 device limit? I use Spotify on at least 13 devices (2 iPhones, 1 iPad, 2 Macs, 1 Windows PC, 2 Android tablets, 1 Windows Phone, 2 Android phones, 2 Echo Dots), and that's not counting when I open it and use it on a web browser on Chromebook or other computers I don't even own.

 

[dan110]

Long-time Spotify users, we have tried both Apple Music and Google Play/Youtube Red, and are now happily enjoying Google. There is really very little difference in content these days, it's mostly what interface you like. To both me and my wife, Apple Music was/is the hardest to use/find stuff.

I have to agree with you. I tried Apple Music and ... it seemed like they asked a third party to develop it and just stuck on the Apple logo for marketing reasons.

My preference has been Pandora for variety and ease of use. A close second is Google's Play Music ... which I think is getting ready to go through another transformation. *groan*.

 

[Nueve]

Apple music needs a redesign on PC, it's so clunky.

 

[trellus]

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. iTunes Match is buggy and I have several albums it no longer will stream even though it used to. I'm fortunate I uploaded my music to Google Music as well (for free, unlike iTunes Match) and still have those available there since I've unfortunately lost a few albums otherwise.

2. Don't care about that, although if true, that's genuinely a win for Apple Music.

3. Definitely don't care about that, but concede the point for people who do care.

4. Uh, I use human-made playlists all the time, including shared playlists made by multiple humans, as well as personal ones, in Spotify.

5. I hate the navigation in Apple Music - cartoonish to me. Guess this one comes down to personal preference.

6. Uh, I use Spotify on my iPad and it sure looks like an iPad interface to me. Not sure what you meant?

7. This one -- Apple Watch interface -- that is one area where I concede Apple Music is unquestionably superior, and one reason why I'm considering keeping Apple Music after the trial which I just started -- but it would be a luxury as I definitely will not give up my Spotify subscription.

8. iTunes is crap. I last liked it about 6-7 years ago and only on my Mac, it's always been dog-poop on Windows.

9. Partially true, although I use voice controls using my Alexa-enabled devices to control Spotify since Spotify is a more open platform than Apple Music. But I agree that for using with my iPhone, Apple Music is superior experience on this count.

10. I've yet to find anything I listen to that is only available on Apple Music that I can't get on Spotify, but I guess this depends on the user.

 

[Release]

That's funny because I have no experience with Spotify but the only negative things I universally hear about it are that the UI is poor and that manual search is crippled in favor of its discovery algorithms.
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Whaaaaatt? Manual search is in no way crippled.

And as far as the UI, I find it MUCH more to my liking than Apple Music. I can't stand the white background screaming at me while listing to music late at night. That alone is a deal breaker with AM. I tried the trial and quickly went back to Spotify.

 

[oneMadRssn]

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.

Agreed. It would be better if the integration with Genius was a bit better and gave the user more control.

 

[Biofreak12]

I don't believe this. I call this ********, they just pull numbers out of their ass Spotify is way superior, and i don't know that many people using apple music, I know bunch of people using spotify and spotify family subscriptions.

 

[Glideslope]

Regardless of ones preference this is a loosing business model for Spotify. Everyone in the Walled Garden receives Apple Music with a free trial. Most stay with it. Once Apple bundles all their services under one subscription the price will be even lower. Spotify's "Anti Anyone Else" subscribers can only provide a finite amount of revenue. Apple has Billions of users in the Walled Garden. Love or hate Apple they are simply far to large and powerful in the long run. Those who are hopeful for Govt. intervention on Monopoly Grounds forget who Tim has had dinner with several times. Tim's Social Politics may be Left of Center, however he runs Apple with a High Margins at all costs strategy. He will buddy up with anyone that can facilitate that. Politics aside.

 

[sdwaltz]

As it should be.

 

[decafjava]

I don't believe this. I call this ********, they just pull numbers out of their ass Spotify is way superior, and i don't know that many people using apple music, I know bunch of people using spotify and spotify family subscriptions.

Proof? Also subjective.

 

[Kaibelf]

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.

That only applies if the base ecosystem is very good and people trust it. I have yet to see a Microsoft Surface that runs Edge more than Chrome.

 

[Geardo_Ranger]

I’m a subscriber to both, so I got likes and dislikes for both, but come on Apple. When I ask Siri to play a certain genre the playlists I get are songs I never heard of, crap songs, or not related. I might start off with one good song and then it goes down hill. I know Apple Music is hand curated playlists, but hire some new people because the playlists they create don’t fit everyone. And to top it off, good luck if you look for a good playlist to lift weights or workout to, the ones they recommend are slow rock jams with no energy. Ughhh

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Every time these "Apple Music is superior" fake news bits come out, it's the same thing--Apple Music subscribers try to poke all sorts of holes in and cast their death wish on Spotify (why it matters to them since they choose to pay for AM, I'm not sure) and Spotify users (both subscribers and the "free-use" base) tell why Apple Music and iTunes sucks.

Personally, I thank God I have a choice. If people want only one music service to exist, then we're in real trouble.

 

[yaxomoxay]

• 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.

T

The two are not mutually exclusive. You can rent music AND own what you really like. By renting music you can discover all sort of things, and if a tune pops in your mind you can listen to it and then forget about it. Owning is not stopped by renting.

 

[macfacts]

Looks like Apple's purchase of Shazam is paying off.

 

[truthertech]

Regardless of ones preference this is a loosing business model for Spotify. Everyone in the Walled Garden receives Apple Music with a free trial. Most stay with it. Once Apple bundles all their services under one subscription the price will be even lower. Spotify's "Anti Anyone Else" subscribers can only provide a finite amount of revenue. Apple has Billions of users in the Walled Garden. Love or hate Apple they are simply far to large and powerful in the long run. Those who are hopeful for Govt. intervention on Monopoly Grounds forget who Tim has had dinner with several times. Tim's Social Politics may be Left of Center, however he runs Apple with a High Margins at all costs strategy. He will buddy up with anyone that can facilitate that. Politics aside.

Monopoly? LOL. Apple has the minority position in most every market, much less a monopoly.

 

[yaxomoxay]

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

You don’t know someone, therefore it must be fake?
You know that it’s the same argument flat-Earthers and Idaho Conspiracy theorists (Idaho doesn’t exist: http://www.fantasymaps.com/stuff/idaho.html ) employ?

 

[Rocko99991]

How about a free version with ads.

 

[macduke]

The last time I used Spotify it was a glitchy mess. It would randomly go back during a song and play the same 30 seconds over and over and I never found a way to fix it so I switched to Rdio, and then to Apple Music. I still miss Rdio but can't imagine that Spotify is better than Apple Music. As someone else mentioned in a numbered list above, it has a lot of advantages, though I still feel like the UI could use some work. In the morning I'll often listen to music while getting ready and showering and it's nice to be able to call out whatever song I want it to play. That's also handy while driving. I think the biggest downside is I still haven't figured out how to get Apple Music to play radio edit versions of songs automatically for when my kids are in the car. If I turn on explicit restrictions the songs just refuse to play.

 

[Baymowe335]

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

Apple has said it's over 50M users at least paying or on trial. That we know and it can't be "made up" by Apple. That's illegal. We can see their services revenue exploding...so it's definitely true someone is paying for various Apple services.

What do you think makes up the $9B in services revenue?

Do you just ignore facts because you don't want to believe them or?

 

[cliffster82]

• 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.

Open up an album you like. Scroll down to "You Might Also Like" at the bottom. I have found a ton of stuff using those recommendations.

 

[Jack Burton]

I recently fell in love with Spotify when a friend added me to their family plan, but if Apple Music has better quality that could sway me. Unless Apple's design gets in the way, of course.