Spotify Has Twice as Many Paid Subscribers as Apple Music

[Abazigal]

There's and old saying: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

If I were in the market for streaming music, and I'm not, I would go with Spotify instead of Apple Music. This is also the reason I don't use iCloud.

I could also interpret that saying as "Don't opt for the company whose only business is music streaming, when Apple has more than enough resources to sustain Apple Music for however long it takes to be successful."

Though honestly, I don't see why it's a bad thing to go all in on the Apple ecosystem. Switching costs aside, Apple Music does benefit from Siri integration and is available on the Apple TV. I do use iCloud for certain purposes, but not exclusively.

Apple's services might not be the best "in-class", but their tight integration can give them an edge over the rest of the competition. I am actually looking at how I can further wean myself off Google and embrace the Apple ecosystem in its entirety.

 

[c.d.embrey]

To be fair, hasn't this always been a problem in the music industry, even before the internet? Couldn't you go back to the 1950's and 1960's and say the same thing? In the 1990's, how much did Whitney Houston or Celine Dion or Britney Spears make from album sales on CD? (I don't know, genuinely curious, but I suspect that a lot of the profits went to the record labels.)

I don't disagree that the internet has been devaluing creative work - it has. But the music industry, from the stuff I've read about in biographies, is pretty dirty with or without the internet. Artists/acts usually loose. And I've also seen rumblings about how abusive things have gotten for 3D artists... sounds completely miserable!

Some act are bypassing the labels. The Raveonettes
are using Pledge Music for a new album http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/the-raveonettes-new-album

Some BIG acts are paying their own recording costs and are selling direct to WalMart.
[doublepost=1466480169][/doublepost]

Though honestly, I don't see why it's a bad thing to go all in on the Apple ecosystem. Switching costs aside, Apple Music does benefit from Siri integration and is available on the Apple TV. I do use iCloud for certain purposes, but not exclusively.

Apple's services might not be the best "in-class", but their tight integration can give them an edge over the rest of the competition. I am actually looking at how I can further wean myself off Google and embrace the Apple ecosystem in its entirety.

I don't use Siri and I don't use Apple TV. I dislike like the tight integration,—I prefer that I, not Apple be in charge.

 

[BGPL]

The UI in Apple Music is horrid. I signed up, and then signed off and went crawling back to Spotify.

Just another testament to the failed leadership of Tim Cook. Steve Jobs would have despised the UI in the app, but somehow it takes a lay person to see that.

Stay tuned for a mediocre iPhone 7 with 3.5mm headphones and an adapter so it can be used with their proprietary headphone jack. What a fail. If you haven't sold AAPL yet, I suggest you do it before the iPhone 7 debuts.

 

[sudo1996]

How many people should be paying for Apple Music?

Someone posted a link earlier that said only 68 million people on Earth are paying for any streaming music.

That sounds awfully low given that there are billions of people who listen to music and who have a device or multiple devices that can stream music.

This isn't necessarily an Apple problem... it's a paid-streaming-music problem. Maybe it's just not a product/service that everybody needs. Did you ever think about that?

You can keep railing on Apple for only having 15 million paid Apple Music customers... but I don't think paid streaming music is as big an industry as you think it is.

That said... Apple with 15 million out of 68 million is pretty damn good. That's 22% in less than a year.

Well, most people I know just use YouTube when they're studying, and I see why. There's no setup or login to use it, making it by far the easiest music streaming service to use. It has everything on-demand. It's free. Very few ads, and you can block them if you want. There are playlists. You can even download something if you want it offline.

 

[nameischarles]

I wonder what is the statistic for Apple Music users on the Android platform

 

[Schwyz]

Congrats. You have access to 1000 songs, I have access to 30,000,000 songs.

Ah, but I still have access, though less convenient/with ads. My 1000 are simply more convenient - perhaps more so than any service will ever be - minus the hassle of iTunes of course

 

[Zirel]

1. I thought you could?
2. Terrible reason
3. Not sure about this, besides Taylor Swift.
4. Another terrible reason.

OMG, you don't care about Taylor Swift and Drake, or the Beats1 radio!

Apple sure is doomed because you're getting anything else, or nothing at all!
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For the last few years, I've spent about $4/month on individual songs, amassing over 1000.

Much cheaper than any of these services.

When will people like you learn that Apple Music is more than access to songs?

You can download them for free!

 

[wovel]

I'm one of the reasons Spotify is growing in tandem with Apple Music - I would not exactly say I loved Apple Radio, but it was pretty good. Apple music is so ghastly bad for me that I had to shop around for an alternative - I found that pretty much ANY alternative was 10x better.

I'm sure this varies a lot by user, but here were the reasons I left (aside from the horrible UI)

#1) Just plain horrible music. I don't think I've heard a single song I liked on Apple music, and I even tried going by music category and top 50 lists. Even the ordinary radio played songs I liked, but not Apple music - nothing like Apple Radio in which I could easily find music I loved. And I've found zero way to search for the songs I actually like. (And all this after I suffered through 2 hours of the initial set up to specify my interests.)

#2) No real way to buy music. I've always used the radio to expand my music collection, and this made Apple Radio #1 for me - as I drove to work, a single click would let me purchase a song. No way to do that at all in Apple Music. Of course, now that we know Apple is canceling the very concept of buying songs, at least that move made sense.

I don't know why Apple Music can't specify music genres, etc, but since I can't buy music, Apple has no advantage to me over any other music source.

And I'm not an Apple hater - I try to use Apple software is it's at all possible. I expect to pay $15-$20 a month for music, but I can only afford to do that in one place. And Apple music is simply broken.

The radio channels are still in Appke music and you can add songs to your library with one click. Not sure how this is different except for the part where you pay for each song. Admittedly the UI sucks, so you may have missed all that. For whatever reason they got rid of custom stations, but there are still dozens to pick from.

 

[Eimantas]

Aren't these numbers for all platforms? What about Spotify's numbers on Apple's platforms only? Not trying to be fanboy-ish. Just making sure we're not comparing apples and oranges (no pun intended).

 

[JGIGS]

most used app on my iPhone and so easy to use.

AM doesnt even have a browser interface. Therefore impossible to consider for listening to music at work

Why? When do you not have your phone with you?
[doublepost=1466490652][/doublepost]I'm with apple music for one main reason. Smart Playlists.

 

[Simon R.]

No wonder. Spotify is so much better, both regarding content (at least in Europe) and the GUI. The Apple Music GUI is simply terrible. Actually I am surprised that Apple Music have that many, and that the gap isn't bigger.

 

[beanbaguk]

I know many people love the Apple Music service but from my point of view, Spotify is MASSIVELY superior.

I went ahead with the Apple Music trial and found the UI horrific to use. I also found many tracks missing from their library.

On top of this, the integration with my car (BMW iDrive), was terrible, and it doesn't work cross-platform.

I can log into my Roku, work PC by web, my sisters Android device when I visit and loads more. With Apple Music, I'm stuck to one platform with little if any flexibility.

And now that Spotify offer a family subscription for the same price, it's really a no brainer.

 

[carlsson]

...and if Apple doesn't make it easer to find your liked songs, and create shareable playlists, Spotify will soon have at least one more user back...

 

[beanbaguk]

Love Spotify app. Million times better than Apple Music app. Apple should have bought them and not beats. Hope Spotify survives.

On a side note, I happy my Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Warriors...couldn't stand see those Apple geeks in front row seats and all the S Curry stuff on the demos...

I'm so glad Apple didn't buy them!!!! One of Spotify's key strength is it's cross platform compatibility. Apple would have eliminated that.

 

[John Mcgregor]

How long it took apple to get to 1 Billion active devices is irrelevant. We are talking users base at launch of Apple Music and launch of Spotify.

The point is that there are about 1 Billion active devices with apple music installed, cause the users did not get a choice.

When Spotify launched, how many devices was it forced on?? It takes a very long time to grow from zero.

As I said, had apple got it right at launch AW, would have dwarfed Spotify user base.

It doesn't work like that. Please come back to the reality. First of all Apple Music is not being forced on anyone. It's there if you want to try it and you can just skip it altogether.

What about all the mobile carriers and how Spotify is being pushed by them for years? That's how many?

If it was a free service i could see ways Apple could force feed it to users, but since it's a PAID SUBSCRIPTION. Apple can have 10 billion active supported devices and it would not matter.

 

[MH01]

It doesn't work like that. Please come back to the reality. First of all Apple Music is not being forced on anyone. It's there if you want to try it and you can just skip it altogether.

What about all the mobile carriers and how Spotify is being pushed by them for years? That's how many?

If it was a free service i could see ways Apple could force feed it to users, but since it's a PAID SUBSCRIPTION. Apple can have 10 billion active supported devices and it would not matter.

Apple Music is installed on every apple device I own , I cannot delete the app, by definition it is forced on us all, with constant reminders when you play your own music.

Had there been a free service makes no difference, I cannot get rid off it of my apple devices .

The point your ignoring is had apple got AW right , took thier time, and make the UI very apple like, they would have dwarfed Spotify numbers. The problems is not the subscription model, it's the mess AW was when it launched, and since that time most will not use it, as it means paying and they has a poor experience. If apple were to offer another free trial once it sorts AW out, numbers will grow

 

[lowendlinux]

Congrats. You have access to 1000 songs, I have access to 30,000,000 songs.

That only matters from 1001 to 30,000,000

 

[MH01]

Maybe you should put some thought into streaming as a whole.

Your "numbers in perspective" are actually pretty good!

15 million paid subscribers of a highly optional service... how is that bad?

Is it because they aren't as high as Spotify's paid subscriber numbers at this same moment?

But then you want to disregard the fact that Apple Music has only been around for less than a year... while at the same time you keep mentioning "a billion devices"

You're all over the map.

Maybe look at the big picture before you "put people in their place"

I also provided numbers... 15 million out of 68 million. That should add some perspective to Apple Music.

You are putting in my place, by changing the focus of the debate , the irony.

So numbers like how many devices come pre-installed with Apple Music are irrelevant , or numbers how many people apple markerting has access to is also irrelevant when discussing growth of a service ? Hmm

In case you missed the debate, I was replying to apple apologists that were gloating how well apple has done in one year and how they would take over Spotify next year (made up numbers), and how Spotify only got to 30'million in 10 years.

So how about you give these guys a dose of reality of where streaming was and is today, and ask them to stop making numbers up, I at least quoted numbers supplied by apple. Since you seem aware of how streaming is the problem as a paid service, and explain why it took Spotify 10 years to get to 30 million.

All you are doing now is adding another parameter to the debate, is streaming the problem, further making this debate all over the place to try to explain why apple even with its huge user base has had such a small uptake....excuses.

So let's draw a dotted line here, instead of making this more of a dogs breakfast, as too many things are now being debated. And focus on one.

What would you like to debate? The current 68 you brought to the table? Sure, what was the world wide subscriber base before Apple Music launched, of that what percentage was Spotify users ....from there we can do some analytics ....

 

[attila]

And yet Spotify has been going 8 times as long.

And yet Spotify says this: "Since Apple Music started we've been growing quicker and adding more users than before."

 

[John Mcgregor]

You are putting in my place, by changing the focus of the debate , the irony.

So numbers like how many devices come pre-installed with Apple Music are irrelevant , or numbers how many people apple markerting has access to is also irrelevant when discussing growth of a service ? Hmm

In case you missed the debate, I was replying to apple apologists that were gloating how well apple has done in one year and how they would take over Spotify next year (made up numbers), and how Spotify only got to 30'million in 10 years.

So how about you give these guys a dose of reality of where streaming was and is today, and ask them to stop making numbers up, I at least quoted numbers supplied by apple. Since you seem aware of how streaming is the problem as a paid service, and explain why it took Spotify 10 years to get to 30 million.

All you are doing now is adding another parameter to the debate, is streaming the problem, further making this debate all over the place to try to explain why apple even with its huge user base has had such a small uptake....excuses.

So let's draw a dotted line here, instead of making this more of a dogs breakfast, as too many things are now being debated. And focus on one.

What would you like to debate? The current 68 you brought to the table? Sure, what was the world wide subscriber base before Apple Music launched, of that what percentage was Spotify users ....from there we can do some analytics ....

For some reason you are very but hurt regarding this topic. I personally don't use any streaming music service.

 

[attila]

I would have been a Spotify subscriber if it were not for the annoying choices they made for advertising leaving such a bad impression on me when I was testing their service out. The ads get VERY LOUD compared to the music and if you mute, the ad pauses, so you're constantly having to fiddle with the volume just to avoid having your eardrums blown out. That's just obnoxious all around and made me decide against becoming a paid subscriber.

But that's how TV ads work as well. You don't get any ads if you get Spotify Premium, though.

 

[John Mcgregor]

And yet Spotify says this: "Since Apple Music started we've been growing quicker and adding more users than before."

Which makes zero sense logically.

 

[OllyW]

Which makes zero sense logically.

It's because the streaming music market has only just hit the mainstream and is seeing rapid growth.

 

[Abazigal]

No wonder. Spotify is so much better, both regarding content (at least in Europe) and the GUI. The Apple Music GUI is simply terrible. Actually I am surprised that Apple Music have that many, and that the gap isn't bigger.

It's worth noting that part of the reason I eventually settled on Apple Music is because it has more of the mandarin and korean pop music that I like listening to. There is definitely a gap in Spotify, for the Asian market at least.

Apple Music is also available in many countries that Spotify isn't (India being one of them), so outside of the US (where I understand you are spoilt for choice), it's not really a choice for other countries.

One benefit I can think of with Apple music managing both your music content and your streaming music is that you can combine them both in one app. Not with Spotify, so you may need to toggle between two music apps if you want to switch to a song that you own but isn't available on Spotify. With Apple Music, they just combine the two.

 

[MillieWales]

In the UK you can choose one of a few offers with Vodafone mobile contracts. I've not paid for my premium Spotify account for the last two years as I take it as the free option, as do 4 of members of my family. Vodafonehas around 20 million UK customers, I'm sure it's only a tiny percentage that take Spotify over Netflix or the other choice (I think it's Sky sports) but still, that's got to help Spotifys figures, and you can bet Vodafone won't be paying the full amount for each customer.

The thing is, his is like handset sales. Samsung jump up and down about how they sell more than Apple, but selling the most doesn't mean you make the most profit. The fact that every year Spotify is effectively paying out so people can use their service and continuously losing money doesn't bode well. Unless they can turn the figures into a profit they could have 100 million subscribers, it doesn't matter, and they are incredibly vulnerable. When you rely on one product and one income stream you are vulnerable to market changes, competitors and future technologies. Apple saw their music service as a diversification, they have a range of products and services generating significantly higher revenues and don't 'need' Apple Music subscribers to stay alive. If their service grew slowly and steadily from now on that would be adequate, for Spotify that isn't acceptable, they need to make profit.

I use both, I pay for Apple Music and get my Spotify for free. I prefer the range of music on Spotify, Apple Music has too many gaps for my liking, but I really don't like the Spotify experience, it's like something designed 10 years ago and is very sluggish on all my devices. I hope both services continue, competition is essential so both continue to improve and develop.