“Apple Inc’s streaming music service now has 38 million paid subscribers, up from 36 million in February, the company said on Monday,” Stephen Nellis reports for Reuters. “Apple’s number compares to 71 million premium subscribers at the end of 2017 at industry leader Spotify, which plans to list shares in the coming weeks on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SPOT.”
“Apple said Eddy Cue, senior vice president of internet software and services, disclosed the most recent subscriber number for Apple Music at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas,” Nellis reports.
“Amazon Music Unlimited has 16 million paying subscribers, and Pandora Media Inc. has 5.48 million total subscribers,” Nellis reports. “Google does not release paid subscriber numbers for its service, Google Play Music.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We love it when a plan comes together.
You’d have to be stupid to subscribe to Spotify when it has 33% fewer tracks than Apple Music for the same price. Apple Music boasts a catalog of 45 million songs; Spotify has a mere subset of just 30 million. Don’t be stupid. If you’re still subscribing to Spotify, it’s past time for you to cancel it and upgrade to Apple Music. (See also: How to move your Spotify playlists to Apple Music.) – MacDailyNews, February 6, 2017
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Simple mathematics makes it blatantly obvious what’s going to happen to Pandora. — MacDailyNews, September 24, 2013
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Apple Music has rendered Spotify’s future decidedly dimmer.
The best customers are those who pay. As demonstrated by years of data, form disparate sources, those paying customers are also significantly more likely to be iPhone owners than those who’ve settled for poor iPhone facsimiles. A healthy portion of these coveted customers will leave for Apple’s comprehensive offering which offers better family rates, more music, likely exclusives, and seamless integration across all Apple devices. It’ll even work with crappy Windows PCs and Android phones eventually (not that those are likely to be Spotify’s paying customers, but whatever, some of them will join Apple Music and maybe even graduate to Apple devices because of it).
Spotify could quickly be left with an unprofitable system, with a dwindling music library because they cannot afford to pay music royalties. — MacDailyNews, June 9, 2015
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Spotify is a poor man’s Apple Music. The demographics in this race, as ever, greatly favor Apple in the long run. — MacDailyNews, January 3, 2018
SEE ALSO:
Apple Music expands student membership pricing to 82 new countries – February 13, 2018
Apple Music poised to knock off Spotify – February 12, 2018
Apple Music was always going to win – February 6, 2018
Apple Music on track to overtake Spotify, become No. 1 streaming service in U.S. this summer – February 4, 2018
Apple Music and Spotify now account for the majority of music consumption in the UK – January 3, 2018
Spotify files for its IPO – January 3, 2018
Spotify hit with $1.6 billion lawsuit from music publisher – January 2, 2018
Apple Music passes Pandora and Spotify in mobile usage – March 29, 2017
Spotify hits 50 million paid subscribers – March 3, 2017
Apple Music surpasses 20 million paid members 17 months after launch – December 6, 2016
Oh ok, Spotify listeners are upgrading to Apple Music – July 19, 2015
Spotify CEO claims to be ‘ok’ with Apple Music – June 9, 2015
I’d love to ditch Apple Music, simply because I’m not a fan of subscriptions, but my children were spending $10-$15 each buying tracks from iTunes when we signed up. Now I’m saving $30/month and the kids get access to literally everything. Wouldn’t go back to the old days. (For my part, I quite like the radio stations.)
Wish we could pay a subscription for all-you-can eat rental movies, or maybe 3 or 5 a month. Right now we stay away from rentals like the plague because we have Netflix and Hulu (ugh, more subscriptions). But we’d enjoy seeing new releases without having to raise the bar so high (everyone has to be there if we’re going to pay for a rental, thus it has to please everybody. Then someone has something to do and it all falls through.)
Way to go, Apple. Wish you’d give me an “Apple Music Discount” on a HomePod. I’d buy in a second.
So why are you paying for your kids’ music?
To this household, now free of kids and with two lifetimes worth of music in our collections, renting music makes no sense whatsoever. Using iTunes or other music management software we are trying out since iTunes has become such a mess, we can still put out an impressive playlist as fast as any music subscriber. The difference is that our music collection contains zero garbage tracks. Good luck with that when you are a subscriber being fed the monthly top 40 ad nauseum.
“Good luck with that when you are a subscriber being fed the monthly top 40 ad nauseum.”
That’s not how Apple Music works. Discoverability is very good in Apple Music, you can find great music in a vast range of genres. My music collection also contains zero garbage tracks because I curate my playlists. Being able to walk through Apple Music’s huge library and discover new music is well worth the price of the subscription.
I hate subscriptions as well, but I prepaid for a year. I think it breaks down to $8.33 vs. $10 per month.
Better than the discounts on Apple refurbs 🙂
I refuse to rent my music and so I’ll not be subscribing to Apple Music or anything else like it!
It doesn’t have to be one or the other. It can be both. I own about 300+ CDs and I still buy the odd one.
It would cost me $10 in gas just to drive to a record store and back and I still have to pay for the CD.
Apple Music introduces me to new albums and bands that I wouldn’t have even known existed.
I can’t afford to purchase millions of songs, but I can listen to whatever I want, whenever I want.
I also get to listen to stuff that I honestly wouldn’t purchase. I love being able to explore genres I’m not overly familiar with. I learn a lot and enjoy it!
Wasn’t a fan of subscription model.
I wouldn’t live without it now.
My only wish is that we could have a premium fee to use Dj app with AM.