“Spotify is going all in on its free tier to take on Apple Music,” Michael Simon writes for Macworld.
At Spotify’s event Tuesday at the Gramercy Theater in New York City, “Spotify barely talked about its Premium service, which boasts some 70 million users to Apple Music’s 40 million. Instead, the focus was on Spotify’s other 90 million customers, the ones who don’t pay,” Simon writes. “And Spotify may be shifting the battle to a field where Apple doesn’t even have an army.”
“With the changes to its mobile app, Spotify isn’t just making its free tier more attractive, it’s doubling down on the things that make it better than Apple Music. And it’s bringing them to everyone. Spotify’s isn’t going after Apple Music users with a better premium offering, it’s basically offering a free sample that doesn’t have an expiration date,” Simon writes. “The biggest upgrade is with playlists. Previously, free users could only listen to playlists in shuffle mode with ads, but now Spotify is giving all users access to 15 playlists a day to do what they want.”
MacDailyNews Take: Musicians and the music industry undermine themselves by allowing their music to be streamed by “free,” ad-supported outfits. – MacDailyNews, December 17, 2015
Simon writes, “The only real advantage Apple has with Apple Music (other than it being the default music app on hundreds of millions of iOS devices every year) is HomePod compatibility.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “The only real advantage Apple has with Apple Music is HomePod compatibility” and 15 million more tracks than Spotify at the same price (sans ads and restrictions). You forgot 15 million more reasons why smart people choose Apple Music over Spotify, Michael.
Tock-tock to 2nd place, Spotify. Sleep tight.
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
SEE ALSO:
Analyst: Apple Music will average 40% annual growth over the next three years – April 18, 2018
Apple needs to reconsider its HomePod strategy – April 18, 2018
Apple Music hits 40 million paid subscribers milestone – April 4, 2018
Apple Music hits 38 million paid subscribers – March 12, 2018
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