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WSJ: Apple Music Has Overtaken Spotify in U.S. Paid Subscribers
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Whatever I have both Apple Music and Spotify and Spotify is still much better in searching for albums, artist, genres and music their audio quality is much better than Apple music also learns better the taste I have in what kind of music I listen to which also gives correct list of music I would like on Fridays.
If Apple Music or Apple wants to gain some steam they better off add Apple+ original movies/TV Shows together for the same price or change audio quality for Apple Music to HD. Plus iTunes sucks on Microsoft Windows it is fine on my iMac but using on a Notebook damn CPU fan kicks and drains the battery so much and fast it is not funny at all which is another reason I don't enjoy Apple Music because the option is limited for more to Apple products only.
If Apple Music or Apple wants to gain some steam they better off add Apple+ original movies/TV Shows together for the same price or change audio quality for Apple Music to HD. Plus iTunes sucks on Microsoft Windows it is fine on my iMac but using on a Notebook damn CPU fan kicks and drains the battery so much and fast it is not funny at all which is another reason I don't enjoy Apple Music because the option is limited for more to Apple products only.
apple music is 256kbps AAC. AAC is superior to OGG Vorbis which spotify uses. No, spotify does not sound better. Close, but not better.
If I was wealthy, I would be an audiophile with the equipment and all. Anyway, those who subscribe to these services most likely don’t want or have the space to store the CDs or the albums and prefer something more simple.
I quit Apple music along with my friends for one simple reason: Apple music wiped out our entire playlists/artists/albums we had customized from our computers dating back years to control all music on the device from the Apple music cloud. Why cant users keep their existing music and have apple music playlists blended in the lists? I have a 512gb phone for the purpose of holding my music, which is my preference.
Now I've signed up for a year of Spotify. Very frustrating because I liked the song sharing features. Another major issue is the lack of ability to adjust the quality of the streaming music. Songs sound muffled next to the VPR MP3s I have stored on the phone. I'm impressed they passed Spotify. This isn't to rip on the service but to hopefully make it better so it could potentially work for myself and my friends sometime in the future..
Now I've signed up for a year of Spotify. Very frustrating because I liked the song sharing features. Another major issue is the lack of ability to adjust the quality of the streaming music. Songs sound muffled next to the VPR MP3s I have stored on the phone. I'm impressed they passed Spotify. This isn't to rip on the service but to hopefully make it better so it could potentially work for myself and my friends sometime in the future..
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
This is like Internet Explorer having been big on Windows in the 90s/00s. They'd have to mess it up pretty badly not to be a behemoth. Which they did . . .
Interesting, after a year of using Apple Music, I just switched to Amazon Unlimited to give it a try. I just didn't find Apple Music very good for finding music. Amazon Prime music app which I used I always stumbled on songs I liked more easily.
I also never merged my ripped CD's into Apple Music's library, always leary of getting too locked-in and having to untangle any potential mess of a failed merge that I kept reading about.
If i don't like Amazon, I will give Spotify a try.
I have to say, I think Apple does desktop/phone UI stuff better than anyone, but for online content, they always seem a little out-of-step to me.
I also never merged my ripped CD's into Apple Music's library, always leary of getting too locked-in and having to untangle any potential mess of a failed merge that I kept reading about.
If i don't like Amazon, I will give Spotify a try.
I have to say, I think Apple does desktop/phone UI stuff better than anyone, but for online content, they always seem a little out-of-step to me.
Yep. 200mil users vs 28 mil users
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I don’t get why people pay subscriptions for music
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
I suppose giving away your business is a strategy, but you can see people would rather pay for Apple's service.
Spotify is going to be gone longer term.
I tried AM and cancelled before the 3 months was up. I much prefer Spotify and Pandora but you get 28 mil users when your default music app is AM in iOS. This is really no different than MS making Microsoft Edge the default web browser in Windows 10 or Internet Explorer back in Windows 95. I remember back when the DOJ aka Janet Reno came down hard on MS and made them make changes to the operating system. Apple is pretty much using the same tactics MS got called out for back in the 90's.
Apple simply crushed them on marketing, and they have the advantage of having a foothold on the phones and iTunes. I think Apple music is good, but Spotify is better - primarily the UI. So many people give me the blank stare when I ask them if they're on spotify.... a failed marketing campaign, they simply relied on word of mouth and having a great product. Apple has proven in the past five years that marketing can outperform product performance all day long.
Thanks for clarifying. I told my coworker who uses Apple music and seemed shocked with excitement. This feature doesn't appear to be obvious. Perhaps recently added? Regardless, the playlist issue kills it for me
There's plenty of other music services that will die before Spotify. And you're implying Apple will be standing alone at the top. There's always going to be competition in the on-demand music market, it just means they won't own the market anymore. Spotify has a healthy long-term user base. I like the UI better, and honestly, coming up with my playlists all over again scares the hell out of me. Yeah silly, but I see draw to Apple right now.
No it's been there. Music settings, then cellular and you'll see the option for high quality music streaming.Thanks for clarifying. I told my coworker who uses Apple music and seemed shocked with excitement. This feature doesn't appear to be obvious. Perhaps recently added? Regardless, the playlist issue kills it for me
There are also EQ presets in the music settings as well. Lots of them.
I can't help you with playlists. I turned on iCloud music and all my playlists show up there so I don't know what to tell you.
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Your numbers are wrong. If you're going to quote apples US only numbers then why inflate Spotifys numbers? You have to compare apples US numbers of 28 million to Spotifys 26 million. Or you can look at world wide for both. But you have to look at paid subscribers, not free.
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Not the same thing. Apple makes safari the default browser on iOS and macOS. Google makes chrome the default on android and chromeOS. What's the difference? iOS comes with Apple Music. Which you can use or remove and use something else. The choice is entirely yours.
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Your playlist is saved in the cloud. Leave and come back and it's still there. You can use song shift or other apps to transfer playlists back and forth. And use it to continually keep playlists in sync. There's nothing to worry about.
You can find a playlist you really like on free Spotify and simply transfer it over to Apple Music. Easy peasy.
Uh, no.
I'm an "audiophile" having worked years in recording studios and being very particular about sound quality. I have a fairly expensive audio system in the basement. Everywhere else I listen to music (bedroom, den, my car, at work or on the train) the quality is nowhere near my home system. Do I care? No. I'm not some elitist audio snob who will ONLY listen to music from an "audiophile" source and nothing else. As long as it sounds decent enough I don't mind. And Apple Music is plenty good enough for sound quality.
LG phone and Sony LDAC? Yeah, no. If someone was truly an audiophile they'd use an external DAC wired to a set of proper headphones, not some Bluetooth headphones that have a "supposedly" high-def codec slapped on. It doesn't matter what phone you use as long as it can output audio digitally to your external DAC (which iPhones have been able to do far longer than Android phones do to their support of audio over USB). And although LG likes to brag about their onboard DAC the fact is the amplifier in LG phones is nowhere near as good (or powerful) as the amplifier you'd get in a good external DAC. So I don't know why you're promoting LG phones as the only phones capable of meeting the needs of audiophiles. It's simply not true.
Not sure if some posted about this yet. Apple Music includes iTunes Match. I looked it up because I had both and discovered I was double purchasing.
I'm in the process of canceling a bunch of my subscriptions.
It's amazing how much it cost an average person / year when you add up all the subscription cost.
Spotify and Apple music may both be great but I don't need anymore subscriptions
.I disagree because you can also uninstall Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge if you wish. Having AM as part of iOS gives Apple an advantage because the average user is more than likely going to open the app take Apple on it's 3 month free offer and may decide to continue. +1 for Apple because AM was sitting there waiting to be opened.
Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer also has that advantage that the typical user will start using the app in Windows and not bother with another browser. It's basically "suggestive selling". Now if Apple had included Spotify as well as AM in iOS then I would agree with you.
You can uninstall Apple Music, same as IE or edge. (actually I'm not sure you can uninstall edge)
Android includes google music and youtube. How is that different? Should they include apple music in their OS?
Should an iPhone really include a dozen different music services pre-installed?
Should all smart tv's include Sonys playstation tv service?
Should direct tv boxes also include dish network?
Not every item should include everything that every competitor offers.
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Without being *******s, others have replied with the following information.
"Apple Music includes iTunes Match. I looked it up because I had both and discovered I was double purchasing."
There’s still so many control functions in Apple Music that irk me to no end!
If you select a song within your playlist you can skip to the next song but not skip back to a previous song before the one selected to play originally.
When I play a playlist. I make big ones. So it’d be nice to scroll up and not only select what’s next but be able to select a previously played song. Why do I have to exit out of the playlist and search the playlist I’m currently playing to re play a song that played 5 songs ago?
I mean to this day that hasn’t been fixed. I don’t understand. How dumb is that.
Do people that work on Apple Music actually use it?!
If you select a song within your playlist you can skip to the next song but not skip back to a previous song before the one selected to play originally.
When I play a playlist. I make big ones. So it’d be nice to scroll up and not only select what’s next but be able to select a previously played song. Why do I have to exit out of the playlist and search the playlist I’m currently playing to re play a song that played 5 songs ago?
I mean to this day that hasn’t been fixed. I don’t understand. How dumb is that.
Do people that work on Apple Music actually use it?!
Why do “audiophiles” think so high of themselves? They’re just random guys throwing money at expensive stuff they see in magazines and forums.
It’s not like it has to do with being an erudite, master musician, music expert or sound engineer. What a marketing hoax.
It’s exactly like those guys who buy 200 dollars running shoes and think they’re olympic athletes. Ridiculous.
It’s not the gear what makes somebody special. It’s the academic knowledge, training, habilities and gifts. Anyone can buy stuff.
