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Spotify Continues to Grow Faster Than Apple Music Thanks to Free Tier
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Nope, didn't work. Trust me, I tried everything, calling Apple, the works. In the end, I gave up.
IMO, It's only worth comparing the paid subscribers and changes in growth. Certainly, Spotify is way larger in this metric. But is Apple starting to gain on the paid user membership at all, or losing ground? But comparing the size of the freebies is really not very important. FM Radio has more listeners than either, as well. But who really cares. But a good merasure of paid Sirius/XM - Apple - Spotify - Amazon - Pandora - etc and how they have shifted would be interesting.
So, people prefer free stufff huh... OK then.
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It's about profits and Apple is winning that battle, just like Apple won vs Android on profits.
That's it.
Profits comes from willingness to actually pay for a service; meaning the Service is worth more to you.
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It's about profits and Apple is winning that battle, just like Apple won vs Android on profits.
That's it.
Profits comes from willingness to actually pay for a service; meaning the Service is worth more to you.
Seems like spotify is best for those who like to listen to other curated playlists while AM is better if you like to rate your own music and make smart playlists. I find the audio quality (especially on an iphone) a smidge better on spotify's top audio quality level. I currently get spotify for free with my mobile plan but pay and use AM 98% of the time as I've invested time into rating my music. Though when I'm bored I find the AM playlist good enough to hear new gems.
Those days are over at Apple, it used to be about making the user experience great and then profits would follow... But now its about how can we maximize profits first and foremost.
I just wish more people had a chance to use Rdio before it folded. As a music fan, the overall user experience put Spotify to shame. I've lamented using Spotify for years because I was such a huge fan of Rdio. Unfortunately at this point, Spotify is our best option, and yes, it is far better than Apple Music.
I'm sad that it seems no one will ever get streaming as right as Rdio did.
Well not totally true, it brings in less money to the labels because the royalties on the "free" stream are slightly less than paid. Spotify though is likely to be profitable this year for the first time ever. Recall how long it too Amazon to get traction by pricing many products almost in a preditory fashion and only in recent years became profitable. Spotify isn't going away anytime soon.
But even the labels and artists, while not making as much money on the front end do make it back via concerts and merchandise, which has become the central way income is earned in music industry of late. Which brings me back to my original question why they are so against it because, just like radio back in the 50-2000's, free streaming is how many people find new artists. It's even a better situation for small artists that labels don't want to bankroll a big album and tour for because people can find them where they normally would not have had a chance on corporate owned radio stations.
When have artists and record companies been paid more for their music? And don't say 80s and 90s, because it was basically a CD cartel at that time that artificially inflated prices way higher than the market would have sustained at the time. As with all things in a free market, it's worth whatever the buyer is willing to pay, and the buyers today are willing to pay Spotify / Apple Music prices.
But it isn't like you don't get a benefit for "repurchasing". The DRM-Free versions are encoded in iTunes Plus, which is twice the bitrate of the original DRM-ed tracks. And the "repurchase" isn't really a repurchase anymore.
Since iTunes Match began, Apple discontinued the "30 cents per track" upgrade from DRMed 128k AAC to Un-DRMed 256k AAC, in favor of the $24.95/yr iTunes Match subscription.
But wait! There's a (good) catch! Once you subscribe to iTunes Match and Apple "replaces" your old, broken DRMed copies of songs with brand new NON-DRMed 256k versions, you can then DOWNLOAD those Tracks to your LOCAL Library. Those songs are then YOURS TO KEEP, even if you drop your iTunes Match subscription!
So, instead of 30 cents per song, what Apple now offers is essentially a $25 FLAT FEE to convert ALL of your DRMed tracks. If you only have a few, better to just repurchase those tracks; but if you have a number of the old iTunes DRMed tracks, $25 to convert them all isn't so bad. And you can either keep using iTunes Match at $25/yr, or simply DROP it, and have your nice DRM-FREE, iTunes Plus-Encoded, versions.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2015/01/18/itunes-drm/21964513/
I'm sure that Labels would not want Spotify to go under and have stepped up behind the scenes, that would leave them in a weaker position with other streaming services. I much prefer Spotify because of the great cross platform user experience.
I am an original iPod 2 owner and ripped my 170 cd collection that has since migrated over to my iPhone. I am disappointed in how the changed the iOS iTunes interface over the years emphasizing the streaming service and making it difficult to pick my own music. For streaming I have been using the streaming free Spotify service (the commercials are annoyingly repetitive but I tolerate them just like regular radio).
Yes, but they stripped it of all the things that made it great, and turned it into something else. It's just... not good.
More subscribers, way less money. Building a business? Is perpetually giving it away for free a business model at all?
Come on, you don't become the most valuable company on the planet, with the most revenue ever recorded by not focusing on customer experience. Every customer satisfaction survey pretty much puts Apple on top, but what validates it most is the actual parting of money by consumers.
There app sucks big time. With the ads that pop up and take over the screen and if you are connecting to some bluetooth devices it won't allow you to connect until you accept the dang ad. So frustrating. I have even contacted their team and put a request in to have an audio ad play instead of the pop up. Well we still have a pop up.
I didn't even give the entire trial period a go. I gave it a few days, and knew straight away that it wasn't what I had hoped for. Cancelled within a week.
Apple could have cleaned up, had they not launched such a broken product at first, along with such emphasis on hip hop. While they have fixed a lot around the streaming and UI, the UI is still poor and still just hip hop...
Personally I prefer Spotify from a user experience.
Personally I prefer Spotify from a user experience.
That may be true of the curated "stations" (but not really); but, since you have access to pretty much all of the iTunes Catalog (with VERY minor exceptions), you have to have some REALLY "outside" tastes to not be able to find stuff to listen to.
I'm an old guy who likes Prog Rock/Art Rock, and I can tell you that I have been VERY pleasantly surprised by what is available for the asking on iTunes Music. For example, as I type this, I am streaming a copy of Brian Eno's "Here Come The Warm Jets", from 1974 (2004 Remaster), before that, it was Todd Rundgren's "Liars" (2009?), and yesterday I listened to a nicely remastered version of Emerson Lake & Palmer's "Pictures at an Exhibition" (2012 Remaster), from 1972. A couple of days ago, it was XTC's "Oranges and Lemons", from 1981 (IIRC). Etc, etc. ET CETERA.
I don't think any of that is very "Ebonic"...
And there ARE actually "Alternative" and "Progressive" stations; I just like curating my OWN music, thank you. And that's where Apple Music REALLY shines. Just open Itunes (or the Music App), Select "New", type what you want in the Search, and have at it!
The Giant Jukebox In The Sky (nearly) has it all! Only some artists (I'm looking at you, Robert Fripp!) keep some music out of iTunes. But it is a fair guess that, with very rare exception, if an artist doesn't want their stuff on iTunes, it probably isn't available on the other streaming services, either...
