It’s every bit relevant.
I find that way too many people here love to equate marketshare with success versus profitshare as that’s what real success is about. If you are not making money you will not be around for the long haul, plain and simple.
Conversely, Apple Music doesn’t need to be profitable (at least not right away) because it’s there to help sell more Apple hardware, alongside other Apple services.
https://s22.q4cdn.com/540910603/fil...rterly/2018/q4/Shareholder-Letter-Q4-2018.pdf
If you look at their Q4 2018 earnings, it appears that Spotify’s growth comes mainly in Europe and Latin America, and basically any country which doesn’t have a strong iPhone presence. In contrast, Apple is likely finding growth in the U.S. and a few of the largest countries where iPhone has decent share (I am guessing Canada and UK, amongst others).
Their ARPU also continues to decline, which suggests that Spotify’s next marginal customer is different than Apple Music’s next marginal customer.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is going on. Thanks to the iPhone, Apple has aggregated the best customers, and it has managed to also monopolise the best customers for itself when it comes to getting them to sign up for Apple Music instead of Spotify. Leaving Spotify with having to expand to developing countries where they aren’t able to charge as much due to their lower earning power. Which I find is a catch-22 situation for Spotify.
You all want to help and support Spotify? Pay full price and encourage everyone around you to do likewise. All these promotions are honestly not helping their bottom line one bit.