WSJ: Apple Music Has Overtaken Spotify in U.S. Paid Subscribers

[MacRumors]

Apple Music has surpassed Spotify's paid subscriber count in the United States, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke with The Wall Street Journal. The shift reportedly happened earlier in 2019; Apple had more than 28 million U.S. subscribers in February compared to Spotify's 26 million paid U.S. subscribers.

Similar news broke last summer from an industry source, but now months later the WSJ is corroborating the report. According to the paper, Apple Music has been adding subscribers "more rapidly" than Spotify, with a monthly growth rate of 2.6 to 3 percent, compared to 1.5 to 2 percent for Spotify.

Apple Music is starting to see growth in areas outside the United States as well:

Apple Music is growing faster globally--at a rate of about 2.4% to 2.8%, compared with Spotify's 2% to 2.3%--and the gap is starting to close in other markets outside the U.S., according to the people familiar with the numbers.

The numbers reported today refer only to paying subscribers and exclude any user on the Apple Music three-month free trial or the Spotify ad-supported subscription tier. If the figures did include the free tiers, Spotify does have many more users overall in the United States.

In February 2018, the WSJ predicted that Apple Music would soon overtake Spotify in the U.S., but thanks to Spotify's numerous bundle offerings with Hulu and Showtime, Spotify remained in the lead for a while longer. Apple Music does offer discounts for families and students, but has yet to partner with another streaming video company to offer a bundle like Spotify.

Apple has become increasingly focused on its services business in recent years, given their high profitability thanks to monthly and/or yearly subscription costs. Apple Music debuted in 2015 at $9.99/month, but the company also offers iCloud storage at various price levels, and just launched Apple News+ at $9.99/month. Later in 2019, users will have a chance to sign up for Apple Arcade and Apple TV+, both of which have not yet been given price points.

Article Link: WSJ: Apple Music Has Overtaken Spotify in U.S. Paid Subscribers

 

[AutomaticApple]

Apple Music has surpassed Spotify's paid subscriber count in the United States, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke with The Wall Street Journal. The shift reportedly happened earlier in 2019; Apple had more than 28 million U.S. subscribers in February compared to Spotify's 26 million paid U.S. subscribers.

Similar news broke last summer from an industry source, but now months later the WSJ is corroborating the report. According to the paper, Apple Music has been adding subscribers "more rapidly" than Spotify, with a monthly growth rate of 2.6 to 3 percent, compared to 1.5 to 2 percent for Spotify.

Apple Music is starting to see growth in areas outside the United States as well:
The numbers reported today refer only to paying subscribers and exclude any user on the Apple Music three-month free trial or the Spotify ad-supported subscription tier. If the figures did include the free tiers, Spotify does have many more users overall in the United States.

In February 2018, the WSJ predicted that Apple Music would soon overtake Spotify in the U.S., but thanks to Spotify's numerous bundle offerings with Hulu and Showtime, Spotify remained in the lead for a while longer. Apple Music does offer discounts for families and students, but has yet to partner with another streaming video company to offer a bundle like Spotify.

Apple has become increasingly focused on its services business in recent years, given their high profitability thanks to monthly and/or yearly subscription costs. Apple Music debuted in 2015 at $9.99/month, but the company also offers iCloud storage at various price levels, and just launched Apple News+ at $9.99/month. Later in 2019, users will have a chance to sign up for Apple Arcade and Apple TV+, both of which have not yet been given price points.

Article Link: WSJ: Apple Music Has Overtaken Spotify in U.S. Paid Subscribers

Good for them.

 

[TimUSCA]

Spotify will just say it's due to unfair business practices.

 

[Baymowe335]

Anyone else want to comment Apple Music can’t compete with Spotify?

 

[benshive]

Just renewed my status as a student for the discounted pricing. It only checks once a year and I graduate in less than a month. Good timing

 

[bwillwall]

"Apple Music will be a failure, they're too late, etc."
This gives me hope for TV+, if they put enough effort into making it the best I think the market will catch on. Also, did I misunderstand or are they going to offer per channel subscriptions?

 

[jkelly03]

Do you think the addition of Apple Music to some Verizon subscribers affects these numbers?

 

[FSMBP]

Don't care what anyone says...When iPhones come with Apple Music preloaded, and the Music app/iTunes bombards you with Apple Music ads, it isn't a level playing ground.

Even diehard Apple fans shouldn't be happy - fair competition is good for consumers.

Edit: For those saying they don't recall seeing the pop-ups, you can Google iOS Apple Music pop-ups/ads to see websites/forum posts about it and turning off Apple Music in general.

 

[DNichter]

Pretty incredible coming in as late as they did. I am sure they look at this as an example for how they can see success with Apple TV+.

 

[HacKage]

Note that this is in the US only, where Apple is far more popular compared with many Android handsets. Compare the figures in Europe and I imagine the numbers would be totally different.

 

[jonnyb098]

Anyone else want to comment Apple Music can’t compete with Spotify?

Oh just.....you.....wait.....

RED ALERT: Incoming Trolls
[doublepost=1554479049][/doublepost]

Pretty incredible coming in as late as they did. I am sure they look at this as an example for how they can see success with Apple TV+.

Agreed. Apple music had a rocky start the first year with a very buggy app but its really damn solid now. Not perfect. But clearly good enough to overtake Spotify while only having been in existence half as long.

 

[iCole]

Anyone else want to comment Apple Music can’t compete with Spotify?

They are practically the same in my eyes. You could argue over UI, offline songs, social stuff, shuffle, ... etc, but in the end, most people just want to listen to some music. I've tried both and I'm using Spotify now, but I was equally happy on Apple Music.

 

[44267547]

I Guarantee this doesn’t sit well with Spotify. Good for Apple. Competition is much needed in this sector.

 

[rtomyj]

Don't care what anyone says...When iPhones come with Apple Music preloaded, and the Music app/iTunes bombards you with Apple Music ads, it isn't a level playing ground.

Even diehard Apple fans shouldn't be happy - fair competition is good for consumers.

I don’t remember being bombarded. Now how I define bombarded is what youtube does. They put a pop up every other day on my feed. No matter how many times I click no, they push their protube or whatever on me.

 

[IRockThat828pScreen]

Sad day... Apple Music is still objectively worse than Spotify....

 

[Websnapx2]

Do you think the addition of Apple Music to some Verizon subscribers affects these numbers?

No more than Spotify with Hulu, and here in Canada with Rogers Wireless. I think with Verizon it's only with the Unlimited bundle.

 

[jonnyb098]

Don't care what anyone says...When iPhones come with Apple Music preloaded, and the Music app/iTunes bombards you with Apple Music ads, it isn't a level playing ground.

Even diehard Apple fans shouldn't be happy - fair competition is good for consumers.

When Spotify makes a phone they can do the same thing. Also Spotify is constantly on the front page of the App store under "Top Paid Apps"

 

[Don1985]

Competition is good. If Apple is catching up or the other way around.

I’m fortunate to have access to both services (my partner had student Spotify) so I see the benefit of both.

 

[willyx]

Predatory iOs/App Store practices might have a lot to do with his. iOS devices are a huge selling channel and Apple has a lot of mechanism to bully every app they want to compete with until they kill this sales channel for them. They are begging to be investigated for monopolistic practices, as certain Senator has pointed out.

 

[dominiongamma]

I tried Spotify and couldn’t find a lot of songs that were on Apple Music. Why I stuck with Apple Music

 

[Intellectua1]

I wonder if they're counting the Verizon customers who get it free as well as any other service that offers free Apple music?

 

[Scottsoapbox]

Counting every Verizon customer as an Apple music subscriber certainly helps.

 

[DotCom2]

Note that this is in the US only, where Apple is far more popular compared with many Android handsets. Compare the figures in Europe and I imagine the numbers would be totally different.

EXACTLY!
One can make numbers mean anything. This is US only...NOT world wide.

 

[Websnapx2]

Sad day... Apple Music is still objectively worse than Spotify....

It's not sad because Spotify hasn't gone anywhere. Apple Music is absolutely not objectively worse than Spotify, that's an anecdotal comment with no more weight than me saying I cancelled Spotify after enjoying AM much more.

Different people like different things, it's not a comment on you personally so you shouldn't take it personally.

 

[Jaybotics]

I still prefer Spotify, and with my student pricing the perk of having both Hulu and Showtime included is a no-brainer for me.