With Apple Music at 20M Users, Spotify Hits 50M Paying Subscriber Milestone

[MacRumors]

Spotify this afternoon announced that it has hit a new milestone, reaching a total of 50 million paying subscribers. That's up from 40 million in September, suggesting Spotify is growing at a rapid pace despite the surging popularity of Apple Music.

As of December, Apple Music had over 20 million paying subscribers, and if the service has been growing at its typical pace, that number could now be somewhere around 22 million. Apple Music had 15 million subscribers in June of 2016 and 17 million subscribers in September of 2016.

Thank you to our 50 million subscribers. #Spotify50 pic.twitter.com/eXkOV71bwu - Spotify (@Spotify) March 2, 2017

Spotify is Apple Music's staunchest rival and over the course of the last year, the two music services have clashed several times due to Apple Music's tactic using exclusives to lure new customers. Spotify in August made headlines when it allegedly started punishing artists who agreed to Apple Music exclusives, displaying their content less prominently and offering fewer promotional opportunities.

Spotify denied the claims, but the relationship between the two has grown increasingly heated as Apple Music's popularity grows. Both services are now testing new features and subscription models to attract new users.

Going forward, Apple plans to use original television programming to entice subscribers, debuting shows like Carpool Karaoke on Apple Music. Spotify, meanwhile, has recently started testing a lossless version of its streaming service to attract audiophiles.

Article Link: With Apple Music at 20M Users, Spotify Hits 50M Paying Subscriber Milestone

 

[AppleFan91]

Interesting. I like Apple Music a lot personally and it's good to see Spotify growing as well. This will lead to competition and improvements which ultimately benefit the consumer.

 

[macsplusmacs]

Neil Cybart (Very smart apple analyst) made a note on his podcast that "paying" includes people who got Spotify for free because they subscribed to the NYTimes.

Can anyone verify?

If that is the case then the number Spotify gives is not nearly as valuable as it would seem on the surface.

 

[niploteksi]

I switched to Spotify a while back... can't remember why I did it but I'm pretty OK with using Spotify these days.

Edit: Right... Algoriddim integration...

 

[Corrode]

I'm quite happy with Apple Music but find Spotify very tempting. Better playlists (imo) and user-curated and shareable playlists, direct to Sonos support, and now this lossless function are all things I wish Apple Music had.

 

[BoltmanLives]

Spotify 30M Songs
Apl music 30M Songs
Groove 38M Songs

 

[djcerla]

Subscribers =/= Paying Subscribers

it's clear even from their tweet. There's a lot of free promotions from carriers, etc, good to inflate the upcoming IPO offer.

 

[B.K.]

I will never directly pay for a music subscription service. That being said, I am an Amazon Prime member. I dowloaded their music app, its pretty good.

 

[iMi]

Spotify 30M Songs
Apl music 30M Songs
Groove 38M Songs

Groove leading the pack surprised me, but good to know. I'll be looking to switch in September.

 

[jntdroid]

Anybody have any numbers for Google Play Music? Can't find it for some reason...

 

[thekeyring]

I think very soon we won't be able to do an "Apples-to-Apple's" comparison.

Once Apple Music features more and more original video content (like planet of the apps) is it fair to make a comparison Or is that like saying "Amazon Prime has X subscribers, compared to Spotify who has 50 million" when Amazon Prime does fast product shipping and video, too?

Sure, Apple Music will still be about music for some time to come. The TV shows will only be a carrot to entice customers. But do we eventually have to concede that Apple couldn't get more subscribers than Spotify just by letting users stream songs from iTunes?

 

[macgabe]

I just started Apple Music - loving it. There are many things that could be improved in the interface, but hopefully they will be addressed over time. I used to listen to Spotify but was so put off by the super irritating (very loud) ads that I never tried a subscription - hopefully their success will prompt Apple to get their act together and increase the pool of streamers. This is pretty much the first time I've paid for recorded music in 20 years so I think it's a net win for all music and will eventually pull hundreds of millions of people in. Though probably in larger bundles with TV and films.

 

[robjulo]

Oh good lord, how many people do you think are really in that number? That promotion just started, it only applies to new subscribers and it only applies to digital subscriptions.

Neil Cybart (Very smart apple analyst) made a note on his podcast that "paying" includes people who got Spotify for free because they subscribed to the NYTimes.

Can anyone verify?

If that is the case then the number Spotify gives is not nearly as valuable as it would seem on the surface.

 

[LordVic]

Anybody have any numbers for Google Play Music? Can't find it for some reason...

its an odd thing. Google Never ever releases numbers on GPM. I honestly don't expect ti to be in the top 5 of streaming services. While it's available for all platforms, Google does almost nothing to advertise it's existence.

 

[Vane]

I use Apple Music as my primary source of music. However, I started to use Spotify more often in the past few weeks. Mainly because of the very good user-curated playlists and because I experienced some stability issues (lags) with Apple Music.

 

[macsplusmacs]

Oh good lord, how many people do you think are really in that number? That promotion just started, it only applies to new subscribers and it only applies to digital subscriptions.

Oh the Gods of Westeros! They aren't the only ones doing a deal with Spotify.

 

[iMi]

I will never directly pay for a music subscription service. That being said, I am an Amazon Prime member. I dowloaded their music app, its pretty good.

I'm curious. Why not pay for the music subscription?

 

[LordVic]

Neil Cybart (Very smart apple analyst) made a note on his podcast that "paying" includes people who got Spotify for free because they subscribed to the NYTimes.

Can anyone verify?

If that is the case then the number Spotify gives is not nearly as valuable as it would seem on the surface.

that depends who is paying for it.

Often times, when a 3rd party offers a "free" subscription somewhere, that company is paying for that subscription out of pocket. So while the end user might very well have been given a free subscription, that subscription is still being paid for, just by someone else.

 

[jntdroid]

its an odd thing. Google Never ever releases numbers on GPM. I honestly don't expect ti to be in the top 5 of streaming services. While it's available for all platforms, Google does almost nothing to advertise it's existence.

Interesting. We use it b/c of the Youtube Red portion - offline, background, and ad-free youtube. Plus we have a couple of android tablets in our house. I guess if we didn't use Youtube it wouldn't be worth it, but that's pretty valuable for our family.

 

[joshen]

Subscribers =/= Paying Subscribers

it's clear even from their tweet. It's mostly free promotions from carriers, etc, good to inflate the upcoming IPO offer.

Mostly?

Anyway, let's not act as if it isn't common practice to include offers and promotions. I doubt Apple excludes them in their 20m number either.

 

[a.gomez]

There is no competition - right back to spotify after trial - it really is the best service hands down. I have a family plan with 3 members... Not sure how that works when they count.

 

[LordVic]

Interesting. We use it b/c of the Youtube Red portion - offline youtube, ad-free youtube, etc. Plus we have a couple of android tablets in our house. I guess if we didn't use Youtube it wouldn't be worth it, but that's pretty valuable for our family.

I use it too, but unfortunately there's no youtube Red here in Canada, because google hates Canuckistan and treat us like a 2nd world nation (MOST of googles paid services aren't available in Canada).

I use GPM because of it's integration to android. and because Google offers a lightweight Web UI to listen to music anywhere I want. those alone make it worth 9.99 for me.

if Apple were to offer the ability to listen to Apple music without iTunes, I'd probably consider it too. but it's tie in to iTunes immediately stops me in my track

 

[B.K.]

I'm curious. Why not pay for the music subscription?

I do not listen to music enough to justify subscribing. Plus, I already have a large collection of music that I can listen to when I do feel like listening.

 

[tonyr6]

I dropped Spotify last month did the 3 day $0.99 trail after they got rid of some artists and like and the fact that certain older albums have missing songs. Spotify is for the youth who listen to playlists. I listen to music pre-2006 (except for Jazz, Christian and World) and I hate playlists. I love listening to a entire album and love the deeper tracks not the same 20 songs over and over again. For this AM is great and for some of the missing songs and Garth Brooks Amazon Music cover's me too as a supplement.

 

[jntdroid]

I use it too, but unfortunately there's no youtube Red here in Canada, because google hates Canuckistan and treat us like a 2nd world nation (MOST of googles paid services aren't available in Canada).

I use GPM because of it's integration to android. and because Google offers a lightweight Web UI to listen to music anywhere I want. those alone make it worth 9.99 for me.

if Apple were to offer the ability to listen to Apple music without iTunes, I'd probably consider it too. but it's tie in to iTunes immediately stops me in my track

Good point on the web UI... and I also love the Android integration - especially the ability to make shortcuts to playlists on the home screen. That sucks that they ignore Canada...