Roger Fingas
The new EP by pop/R&B singer The Weeknd managed over 26 million streams within 24 hours on Apple Music, Apple said on Tuesday, some 6 million of those belonging to the song "Call Out My Name."
Spotify managed just short of 3.5 million streams of the song in the same timeframe, The Verge reported, citing data from Republic Records. This is despite Spotify having over 120 million more listeners than Apple Music, and two exclusive music videos. On Instagram, The Weeknd was directing fans to Spotify.
The discrepancy suggests different demographics and/or listening habits on the two services, or perhaps more promotion from Apple. The Weeknd in fact helped launch Apple Music, appearing on-stage for the service's WWDC 2015 announcement.
Apple Music skews towards rap, hip-hop, and R&B in many cases, which could make its audience more likely to stream a Weeknd release. Drake's rap album "More Life" managed a 33 million-stream gap between Apple and Spotify.
Apple now has over 38 million paid subscribers, and could potentially overtake Spotify in the U.S. this summer. The latter however is the world's most popular on-demand music service, with 159 million active users. Most of those are on a free ad-based tier — but the company still has 71 million paid customers.
Andrew Orr
Christine McKee
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Amber Neely
8 Comments
Eventually Apple music will surpass Spotify worldwide as well.
It's just a matter of who can spend more money and time investing, I will bet on Apple.
I guess all the subscribers of The NY Times who received free Spotify Subscriptions are not a fan of The Weeknd.
I don't quite understand. The stock market is valuing Spotify at around $30B. Apple has about half the number of paid subscribers that Spotify has. So, are they implying that AppleMusic could be valued at around $15B. I have never heard anyone say AppleMusic is worth that much (Even $10B-15B). I thought it was basically a break-even sort of business. Another thing that puzzles me is I had always heard Spotify was struggling to make profits yet suddenly Spotify is worth so much to Wall Street.
I really don't grasp how Spotify is now some music streaming powerhouse. If that's the case, then why didn't Spotify IPO much sooner. Again, it must be one of these dominant market share stocks that Wall Street loves so much. High market share and little profits equates to big investor love. I'm sure it's been said quite often that music streaming businesses are not anything to be excited about in terms of profits. Pandora used to be around $35 a share and now it's about $5 a share.
Don't think I want Spotify to fail or anything like that. I think it's a quite decent streaming music platform and users should definitely have a choice of platforms. I just don't understand this sudden high value Wall Street is placing on Spotify and all this sudden growth potential. What changed positively for Spotify over the past years? Does this article define a powerhouse company worth $30B? I don't see it. I think all those ad-supported subscribers are a drag on the company.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/120314/spotify-makes-internet-music-make-money.asp?rp=y&partner=YahooSA&yptr=yahoo
SINAFAANG Stock.
Spotify is not a FAANG Stock. That's why they are the current Wall St Darling.
OR
INA It's Not Apple.