Spotify Now Has 75M Paid Subscribers, Apple Music Has 40M

[robbyx]

Glad you had a good experience with the music matching. I didn't - Apple Music replaced (and kept on replacing) some of the tracks that I really like with completely wrong replacement tracks - and no way to tell it to make an exception for those tracks.

It was pretty for that reason that I stopped using AM.

I’ve had some problems with it in the past, so I sympathize. It’s not perfect. I wish they’d get rid of matching, or let the user flag tracks as “do not match”, and just upload everything instead. This is what I liked about Google. It lets you upload your library but it doesn’t match anything. The problem is, there’s no desktop integration so managing your music becomes a manual/tedious process.

Before returning to AM, I manually went through my entire library and made sure everything looked good, no dupes, tracks properly tagged, etc. And then I made a backup pre-upload in case AM screws something up. I’d go back to Google in a second if they provided iTunes integration or worked with a third party app like Swinsian.

 

[ColdShadow]

I haven’t even tried Apple Music for the simple fact that Spotify keeps offering great discounts and deals including many free trials (2 months),whereas Apple Music is stingy and never offers such discounts.
So why bother?

 

[truthertech]

That wasn't to be taken seriously.
It's just that the way you put it sounds something like Apple Markting Department would say.
In fact it's more like: Hey! Apple Music works perfectly on your Apple devices. (If it didn't Apple would have failed completely).
So does Spotify. However, to make you pay for AM iso Spotify, we locked everyone else out from the HomePod.

Seeing an ecosystem from the inside should hopefully always result in an excellent user experience, while seeing it from the outside will reveal a more complete picture. And Apple doesn't do well on cross-plattform.
People who lack the outside vision will one day wake up and realize how they locked them self in with Apple.

Since the Apple Music App has been crippled in the past iOS releases (a usability nightmare that made me purchase Cesium music player) it's not even a pleasure to use anymore,... also playlists, history,... will stick with Apple. Limiting your music to Apple devices (and a bad Windows/Android experience) is like buying a supposedly universal aftermarket navigation system like TomTom that will only fully work inside a specific brand of car.
For the same reason I would always recommend using Alexa over Apple. Apple will lock you in with HomeKit, while Amazon is using an open standard (ZigBee). So you can ditch Alexa anytime and use any other device that supports ZigBee (the HomePod does not).

So, take a look outside the Apple ecoystem, and see if AM is really the best deal. Especially when it comes to retrofitting old equipment, something with a Spotify receiver will outperform AirPlay in usability. That costs ~30€ (~40$) per unit, e.g. AudioCast.

"Locked out from Homepod." LOL> Family member streams Spotify everyday with Airplay to Homepod.

 

[0029937]

Moreover, they could develop and promote their iCloud.com website by adding Apple Music there.

I wish, Apple is going to let it grow more and more stale. iCloud.com is so dated. Apple hardly ever does any updates to it. It's slow. Wish it had iMessage on it. Let's face it. It's beautiful and simple but it's sort of slowly dying it feels like. For me the big face palm was when reading an e-mail on iCloud.com, it wouldn't sync on your iPhone after so there would be a lockscreen notification + mail badge icon stuck on your iPhone. Google had this working perfectly 10 years ago. Creating a calendar event on iCloud.com, can't set a location for the event as Maps isn't built into iCloud.com. iCloud Drive wish it worked like Dropbox with the option to make files available to share with a public link. Worst of all, mail doesn't do conversation(threaded) view. It's 2018, come on, what a joke.

 

[robbyx]

I wish, Apple is going to let it grow more and more stale. iCloud.com is so dated. Apple hardly ever does any updates to it. It's slow. Wish it had iMessage on it. Let's face it. It's beautiful and simple but it's sort of slowly dying it feels like. For me the big face palm was when reading an e-mail on iCloud.com, it wouldn't sync on your iPhone after so there would be a lockscreen notification + mail badge icon stuck on your iPhone. Google had this working perfectly 10 years ago. Creating a calendar event on iCloud.com, can't set a location for the event as Maps isn't built into iCloud.com. iCloud Drive wish it worked like Dropbox with the option to make files available to share with a public link. Worst of all, mail doesn't do conversation(threaded) view. It's 2018, come on, what a joke.

I hate to agree, but I do. I’m trying out Gmail and it’s night and day better than what Apple offers with iCloud and the Mail app. I’m slowly preparing myself for when I need to migrate off Apple products and services in the future. Apple is releasing too many half-baked products and too much buggy software these days.

 

[bluecoast]

I hate to agree, but I do. I’m trying out Gmail and it’s night and day better than what Apple offers with iCloud and the Mail app. I’m slowly preparing myself for when I need to migrate off Apple products and services in the future. Apple is releasing too many half-baked products and too much buggy software these days.

Agreed. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that iCloud has had a significant update since 2013 when it took on the new look of iOS 7.

True story: I had quite a few issues with iCloud Drive this year and there are settings that you can only get to on the web (desktop) and nowhere else.

The same is true of Mail and probably a few other apps that I don’t know about.

iCloud.com seems to be an anomaly at Apple as it’s primarily a web product with some hooks into it at the software end.

For consistency, you should be able manage iCloud completely on your device with the web interface as just another way to access it - not the primary way.

And don’t get me started on the utter confusion thst is the iCloud Drive.

Apple need to admit defeat and just allow it to be similar to the finder instead of having app type folders (text edit etc) as well as a documents folder (if you use a Mac).

I really really hope that we see an update for iCloud at WWDC. I have a feeling it’s going to be next year though.

And can we just call it ‘Apple Cloud’? The ‘i’ prefix is getting very dated now (I vote for ‘Apple Message’ over ‘iMessage’ too).

 

[one more]

How did Apple drop the ball so hard on this? They were the market leader. They DOMINATED music. They had the iTunes (when it was good), the iTunes store, iPods, gift cards, it all worked so well.

For several reasons:

They were quite late joining the music streaming market to start with, just remember Jobs’ famous “people want to own their music”. So if you already use Spotify, why switch now? I personally can’t find a single good reason.

Apple devices, despite all the hype, account for quite a small percent of the market (for phones, tablets and computers). The majority of smartphones run Android, the tablets - Windows & Android, computers - Windows by far. We can use Spotify on all of them, via a dedicated app or in a browser, easily.

 

[convergent]

Music streaming is now a commoditized business, where consumers will choose primarily on price

I don't agree with you on this. They are all roughly the same price. I switched from AM to Spotify purely based on features and functions.

 

[zanderstrong]

Spotify is a million times better than Apple Music.

apple music has more albums than spotify. and apple music can hold 100,000 songs but spotify can only hold around 10,000

 

[Scarpad]

I'm been a jumper moving around on services but i've settled on spotify. The Music sounds good, the app is worlds better with its ability to crossfade something apple won't include on it's apps for some reason, also the music discovery seems better as well, overall spotify is best especially for device support love i can use it on all my echo's and on my Playstation as well

 

[bluecoast]

I don't agree with you on this. They are all roughly the same price. I switched from AM to Spotify purely based on features and functions.

I subscribed to AM for three years and its discovery is not thst great. I suspect it’s why they’re trying to buy Shazam. If you’re into albums and singles and pretty mainstream music, AM is good.

Conversely, Spotify’s music discovery is amazing. Really amazing.

It’s a shame that it has de-emphasised albums over playlists but hey, I’m old fashioned. And most albums always have 2-3 average tracks so I suspect that Spotify is right here.

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

Conversely, Spotify’s music discovery is amazing. Really amazing.

It’s a shame that it has de-emphasised albums over playlists but hey, I’m old fashioned. And most albums always have 2-3 average tracks so I suspect that Spotify is right here.

I must be doing something wrong
When I search for an artist, one of the first things I see us a list of their albums, with the option to immediately show all albums. Which is what I want actually.

 

[bluecoast]

I must be doing something wrong
When I search for an artist, one of the first things I see us a list of their albums, with the option to immediately show all albums. Which is what I want actually.

Fair enough! I’m not saying that it doesn’t show albums. What I mean is that playlists are given equal emphasis as albums & I’d argue maybe even a little more prominence over albums.

Also Spotify feels a little bit cooler than AM and that it’s run by music lovers. Conversely AM feels a little more corporate and with not much personality.

Which is weird given iTunes’ pedigree and that people like Jimmy I & Zane L were involved in AM’s set up.

Wonder why?

 

[truthertech]

I don't agree with you on this. They are all roughly the same price. I switched from AM to Spotify purely based on features and functions.

Commoditized markets are essentially ones in which the products are largely indistinguishable to consumers so they have to compete primarily on price. It doesn't mean there are zero differences, or that competitors won't try to differentiate, e.g., Apple trying to offer "exclusives." Nonetheless, music streaming is in essence a commoditized market because the services are all offering, at least to the vast majority of consumers, the same product: unlimited access to stream the same catalog of music (Apple has a larger catalog, but most people are unaware and/or wouldn't notice).

Spotify knows that consumers are going to primarily choose based on price as evidenced that they have moved in lockstep to match Apple on pricing. They match exactly on monthly plan, annual plan, student plan, and family plan because they know they don't have anything different that most consumers would pay for., even though Spotify is hemorrhaging money because of it. It is also why Spotify offers a free tier; indeed most of their customers are on the free tier.

What difference does all this make? It means that Spotify will have to change its business model to survive because as currently constructed, it has never made money and the future is likely ever growing losses. Most likely they will be acquired and bundled as a service, which is what their backers have likely planned all along.

 

[RobaxMan]

What difference does all this make? It means that Spotify will have to change its business model to survive because as currently constructed, it has never made money and the future is likely ever growing losses.

Does anyone know if Apple Music is actually profitable, yet - given that Apple bundles the numbers.

 

[truthertech]

Does anyone know if Apple Music is actually profitable, yet - given that Apple bundles the numbers.

Two insights from key people. Jimmy Iovine, who knows from both running Beats and then helping lead Apple Music, has commented that there is lots of revenue, but almost no profit from selling just subscriptions. Also,Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO commented this week that while Services revenue for Apple just keeps setting records, the profits from it vary considerably depending on what part of the "mix" you look at. Likely he was referring to Apple Music not providing much in terms of profits, compared to iCloud, App store, etc. Apple can offer Music streaming as part of the great ecosystem, but Spotify is a one note business right now.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

It's probably because Spotify is multi-platform and Apple Music is Apple exclusive.

 

[bluecoast]

Commoditized markets are essentially ones in which the products are largely indistinguishable to consumers so they have to compete primarily on price. It doesn't mean there are zero differences, or that competitors won't try to differentiate, e.g., Apple trying to offer "exclusives." Nonetheless, music streaming is in essence a commoditized market because the services are all offering, at least to the vast majority of consumers, the same product: unlimited access to stream the same catalog of music (Apple has a larger catalog, but most people are unaware and/or wouldn't notice).

Spotify knows that consumers are going to primarily choose based on price as evidenced that they have moved in lockstep to match Apple on pricing. They match exactly on monthly plan, annual plan, student plan, and family plan because they know they don't have anything different that most consumers would pay for., even though Spotify is hemorrhaging money because of it. It is also why Spotify offers a free tier; indeed most of their customers are on the free tier.

What difference does all this make? It means that Spotify will have to change its business model to survive because as currently constructed, it has never made money and the future is likely ever growing losses. Most likely they will be acquired and bundled as a service, which is what their backers have likely planned all along.

I read that Spotify is moving its intrastrucure to google cloud.

Who wants to bet that google will make a swoop for Spotify sooner or later?

After the legals all they’ll really need to do is to integrate google pay.