Spotify Has Twice as Many Paid Subscribers as Apple Music

[inkswamp]

You know when you pay for it there are no ads, right?

Of course, but if their free service is a bad experience, I'm not going to feel compelled to sign up for the paid.

It just turned me off to their service. I sent an email to them explaining this and got back a response acknowledging that many have complained about it. I've considered going back to see if they've addressed it.

 

[Mudcrutch]

Never even considered using the mess that is Apple Music. My Spotify subscription has been worth every penny.

 

[KALLT]

What revenue loss?

Spotify is still not able to break even. They had an annual loss of €173 million last year, a relative increase to the year before, and that despite lots of additional investor money in addition to revenue alone. Although revenues go up, Spotify is also paying an ever larger share in royalties to keep the labels happy.

 

[CaTOAGU]

People keep saying this as if it was a bad thing. They have pioneered this market for everyone else, including Apple. And they are growing roughly at the same pace as Apple Music in terms of subscribers, so I don't think Apple will surpass them anytime soon. But we'll see.

It's not necessarily a bad thing but it shouldn't be a surprise that they have more subscribers at this stage.

 

[tomnavratil]

Have very little to do with the UX. Spotify has been around for way longer. And the UI is going to be updated.

Yes, however Spotify for never aiming for paid users as its top priority due to its business model so it's not really about the market presence. UI, absolutely, there are changes on both playforms but at the moment, Spotify's UX seems to be, IMHO, superior.

 

[SMIDG3T]

That is, unfortunately, a very wrong and inaccurate way of forecasting this.

I know. Apple won't get another 15 million paid subscribers from now until next year.

 

[Rigby]

Spotify is still not able to break even. They had an annual loss of €173 million last year, a relative increase to the year before, and that despite lots of additional investor money in addition to revenue alone. Although revenues go up, Spotify is also paying an ever larger share in royalties to keep the labels happy.

Their relative revenue growth was far bigger than the increase of their losses. They simply do what every successful startup does: Invest in growth.

 

[MH01]

Apple Music is one year old = 15 million paid subscribers.
Spotify is TEN years old = 30 million paid subscribers.

So, next year, if all goes as it has been going, Apple Music will have 30 million subscribers which would've taken them two years, it's taken Spotify ten years to reach that many (granted, things were different 10 years ago, but still).

That's a somewhat of a maths/logic fail.

When Spotify started about how many active users did they have in thier ecosystem?

When Apple Music started out how many active users in thier ecosystem'??

One could argue that 15 million active subscribers for apple, given thier huge user base is a massive fail.

Spotify had to work thier way to 30m subscribers from nothing.

Apple has 1 BILLION active devices...they gave all its users free access to Apple Music for 3 months, and even after all that, just 15 million subscribed.... Maybe time to reflect that something is wrong with the service.

Apple Music should have blown away Spotify in the first year had they got it right.

 

[CAO 303]

I think Bushido is talking about a desktop browser interface for when someone is at work. I don't think he was talking about DJ'ing with Spotify. I could be wrong, but it makes more sense that he's talking about a browser.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't a lot of the DJ apps in the App store provide access to music through a user's Spotify Premium account? Pacemaker and TraktorDJ come to mind...

 

[Michael Scrip]

For the last few years, I've spent about $4/month on individual songs, amassing over 1000.

Much cheaper than any of these services.

I don't know how you can say one thing is "cheaper" when you're comparing two entirely different products and methods.

Buying 1,000 songs is different than subscribing to a streaming service with access to 30 million songs.

Also... how did you only spend $4 a month for a few years and end up with 1,000 songs?

Aren't songs around $1 a piece?

 

[Viddrumr32]

Spotify grows by 0.6 m paying subscribers per month, so at the current rates, it'll take about 3 years for Apple Music to overtake Spotify (when they'll both have around 50m paying subscribers).

It's nice that Apple Music will have lyrics starting this fall, but they aren't time synced like on Spotify Desktop (where it lights up each line as it plays - plus you can scrub the lyrics, so you can have it jump to a specific verse or the chorus or something if you want.) Spotify needs to hurry up and get that feature on mobile... I don't understand why they haven't done that yet.

Also, more important than Spotify's losses growing by 10% y/y is that revenue is up 80% while spending is only up 70%. If they maintain that growth rate next year, their losses should shrink by around 50% for this year, and they'll be profitable next year.

Lyrics are powered through Genius when on mobile (in Spotify) but it's there. Sadly there isn't a pure lyrics version it always includes multiple slides for extra information about how the song came to be. This can be great! But there are times I just want lyrics only.

 

[CAO 303]

I'm a current AM user, and former Spotify Premium user. My biggest peeve with AM is the incorrect metatagging (i.e. a live version of a song instead of a studio version, which happens waaaaay too frequently).

 

[tkermit]

Much happier now with Apple Music than I've ever been with Spotify. I don't really understand how people are able to manage a music library in Spotify. Not to mention, you can't even change any tags, let alone create smart playlists or anything of that sort. The way that the AM subscription and streaming music seamlessly integrates into my existing library is really fantastic. I'm like a kid in a candy store the way I'm filling up my library. A feeling I never quite got with Spotify, where you were alway very aware of the fact that you didn't have full control over nor got to organize your music in whichever way you wanted, but were only granted temporary access to some remote repository.

 

[SMIDG3T]

That's a somewhat of a maths/logic fail.

When Spotify started about how many active users did they have in thier ecosystem?

When Apple Music started out how many active users in thier ecosystem'??

One could argue that 15 million active subscribers for apple, given thier huge user base is a massive fail.

Spotify had to work thier way to 30m subscribers from nothing.

Apple has 1 BILLION active devices...they gave all its users free access to Apple Music for 3 months, and even after all that, just 15 million subscribed.... Maybe time to reflect that something is wrong with the service.

Apple Music should have blown away Spotify in the first year had they got it right.

Yep, you're the second person to say my original post is unrealistic

 

[christogold]

FYI: You're not allowed to DJ using Spotify or Apple Music. Public performances are explicitly prohibited. There's no use complaining about a lack of a feature that would enable you to illegally use the service.

By work he most likely means use at work, not for work. Many work-provided computers do not let you install programs, but let you use a web browser (this is true where I work as well). Meaning, you can play Spotify songs through the web browser, but you have to have a program installed to use Apple Music.

 

[KALLT]

Their relative revenue growth was far bigger than the increase of their losses. They simply do what every successful startup does: Invest in growth.

Spotify is not a startup anymore, this is really just investor and creditor leniency. Nobody knows when Spotify will break even, the losses are still significant even though the revenue per customer is rising. The labels are also becoming increasingly difficult to deal with, which puts a constant pressure on Spotify to turn non-paying customers into paid customers desperately.

 

[cicalinarrot]

I don't think it's a bad result, people.
Apple entered later as a competitor of an app that was already synonymous of that kind of service.
I'm honestly quite surprised they didn't have to kill Apple Music after the three free trial months.

 

[nrose101]

What revenue loss?
They already have significant ad income from the non-paying users (it has doubled year-over-year), and they are currently planning to expand this business. They can now leverage 70 million active users of the ad-supported tier in addition to the 30 million paying users. I think they are in a very good position.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/spotify-looks-to-ramp-up-ad-business-1466416801

from article --

Despite rising users and revenues, Spotify continues to operate at a loss due to expensive royalties and revenue sharing with music label partners. The report claims Spotify's losses rose by 10 percent to $195.7 million (173 million euros) last year, prompting some investors to question the viability of its business model.

 

[69Mustang]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't a lot of the DJ apps in the App store provide access to music through a user's Spotify Premium account? Pacemaker and TraktorDJ come to mind...

I'm not sure about the DJ apps, but I was specifically addressing Bushido's quote. If you read that quote, you're more likely to get that he was talking about a desktop browser interface for listening to music at work instead of a browser based interface for DJ'ing.

 

[John Mcgregor]

That's a somewhat of a maths/logic fail.

When Spotify started about how many active users did they have in thier ecosystem?

When Apple Music started out how many active users in thier ecosystem'??

One could argue that 15 million active subscribers for apple, given thier huge user base is a massive fail.

Spotify had to work thier way to 30m subscribers from nothing.

Apple has 1 BILLION active devices...they gave all its users free access to Apple Music for 3 months, and even after all that, just 15 million subscribed.... Maybe time to reflect that something is wrong with the service.

Apple Music should have blown away Spotify in the first year had they got it right.

That's also logic fail.

Spotify was immediately available to use on almost any Windows PC. Spotify didn't have to create their own ecosystem like what Apple had to do.

The problem here is that most just don't like subscriptions, not the size of the ecosystem.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

they lose a bit on each subscription but they make it up in volume.

 

[tomnavratil]

Spotify is not a startup anymore, this is really just investor and creditor leniency. Nobody knows when Spotify will break even, the losses are still significant even though the revenue per customer is rising. The labels are also becoming increasingly difficult to deal with, which puts a constant pressure on Spotify to turn non-paying customers into paid customers desperately.

Very true, or more likely, go through IPO, however the situation Spotify got itself into is not an easy one, they've clearly missed the window.

 

[oftheheavens]

Spotify is easily the most used app on my phone where Apple Music wasn't even used up to the end of the free trial.

 

[rhoydotp]

Here in Canada, most, if not all mobile carrier includes Spotify Premium service in the plan. I wonder if those are included in the count that may skew the numbers tremendously in favor of Spotify.

 

[bushido]

FYI: You're not allowed to DJ using Spotify or Apple Music. Public performances are explicitly prohibited. There's no use complaining about a lack of a feature that would enable you to illegally use the service.

huh? why would i not be allowed to listen to music on my laptop at work