Roger Fingas
Assuming current subscriber growth rates hold steady, Apple Music should surpass Spotify — if only in the U.S. — sometime this summer, a report claimed on Sunday.
In that country Apple is adding subscribers at a rate of 5 percent per month versus Spotify's 2, record industry sources told the Wall Street Journal. One of the sources added that if people in free or discounted trial periods are included, Apple Music already has a slight advantage.
In fact Apple allegedly has three to four times the number of trial users as Spotify, simply because it doesn't offer a free ad-based tier — anyone who signs up for Apple Music's three-month trial must either cancel or pay.
Nevertheless, Spotify maintains a large worldwide lead. It has upwards of 70 million paid Premium subscribers, and at least as many free listeners, whereas Apple told the Journal that it now has 36 million subscribers in total. This is despite Spotify being available in just 61 markets versus Apple's 115.
Apple Music is deeply integrated into Apple devices, including the upcoming HomePod, but Spotify launched in 2008 and is largely credited with spearheading on-demand music streaming. The latter has its own advantages, such as dedicated clients, and integration with a host of platforms and devices such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home. The HomePod will only support Apple Music, iTunes, and AirPlay.
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27 Comments
Apple has time. Apple will wait. Apple has the integration that counts, the iPhone.
Doomed...
Unfortunately, AppleMusic contributes very little to Apple's overall revenue, so it will still be considered a failure as far as Wall Street is concerned. AppleMusic should probably be offered on more platforms if they really want to boost membership. I wouldn't mind AppleMusic being available on Roku because I use that a lot. Of course, Apple is in the market of selling hardware, so they only want AppleMusic to be used on Apple devices. It might work for some but I'm not falling for it. We'll see if Apple's strategy works. Maybe it will, but it won't reach any market share percentage that Amazon services will reach. Apple will always be compared to front-runner Amazon.
"Of course, Apple is in the market of selling hardware, so they only want AppleMusic to be used on Apple devices. It might work for some but I'm not falling for it.".
Apple Music is available on Android.