Apple Music rival Spotify hits 50 million paid subscribers

AppleInsider

Spotify on Thursday announced a milestone of 50 million paid Premium subscribers, keeping up a strong lead over its main rival in on-demand music streaming, Apple.

The growth represents an addition of about 10 million people in just 5 months. Spotify didn't immediately say how many people are now using its free, ad-based tier, but in June last year the company topped 100 million total users at a time when it had just 30 million paid customers.

Apple last reported over 20 million Apple Music subscribers in December, roughly 17 months after the service launched. It took Spotify 7 years to reach the same level, though the Sweden-based company was an early pioneer of on-demand music.

In February, Eddy Cue in an interview said Apple Music had well over 20 million users, but declined to disclose a specific number.

Thank you to our 50 million subscribers. #Spotify50 pic.twitter.com/eXkOV71bwu

-- Spotify (@Spotify)

March 2, 2017

The two services share many features in common, such as curated playlists, but Apple has placed more of an emphasis on exclusives, for instance securing the rights to Drake's "Views" for one week before it appeared elsewhere.

Apple is also venturing deeper into video than Spotify, preparing exclusive shows like "Planet of the Apps" and its "Carpool Karaoke" spinoff. Some exclusive long-form content includes a Taylor Swift concert movie and the documentary "808."

Spotify, meanwhile, is testing the idea of a more expensive "Hi-Fi" tier, which would offer lossless audio to people with the bandwidth to handle it. That would add an advantage over Apple, and match the key selling point of another on-demand competitor, Tidal.

maestro64

Last summer they were at 30M and in little under a year that added 20M wonder how many will stay, kind of hard to believe they grew it that fast. I have not been keeping and eye on them, have they been running promotions or something to get people to sign up?

macxpress

50 Million subscribers...and yet still losing money! Its only a matter of time before the funding runs dry. Apple has far more revenue sources to offset any losses from Apple Music. 

ireland

macxpress said:

50 Million subscribers...and yet still losing money! Its only a matter of time before the funding runs dry. Apple has far more revenue sources to offset any losses from Apple Music. 

I don't know, wouldn't be surprised to see them turn a profit soon. I wonder have Apple passed 30 million yet?

NY1822

Love Apple music, especially its integration with Shazam...most of my friends still use Pandora. When I mention apple music to them, they are baffled....these are people in their 30's. They are the 9-5 job, have young children demographic. 

foggyhill

There is a lot of bullshit in there. I'm theoretically paying for Spotify (It was a promotion which was part of my phone plan), yet I'm not paying a cent directly, probably pad by my own phone company as a marketing expense.

They're probably getting 2-3 bucks a month out of me.

Would not be surprised if Apple is now at 25-30M  $10 a month subscribers.
My bet is Apple's revenues and profits from Apple music are already higher than spotify.

sharpdave1

I jumped in on a .99cent promo because it would work on my Samsung Watch, and Boom I am going to stick with them, streams better with less bandwidth and the GUI works much better for me..

ericthehalfbee

foggyhill said:

There is a lot of bullshit in there. I'm theoretically paying for Spotify (It was a promotion which was part of my phone plan), yet I'm not paying a cent directly, probably pad by my own phone company as a marketing expense.

They're probably getting 2-3 bucks a month out of me.

Would not be surprised if Apple is now at 25-30M  $10 a month subscribers.
My bet is Apple's revenues and profits from Apple music are already higher than spotify.

I see lots of cell carrier promotions for Spotify. I wonder how much they're actually getting from them. It would, however, explain Spotify's rapid gain of 20 million paid subscribers in only 6 months.

gmgravytrain

I'm glad to hear Spotify is getting paid subscribers. I'd hate to see a service like Spotify fail or close down. They offer plenty of various types of music and I like the way the application is designed. It even incorporates my iTunes library. I occasionally listen to their free service and it seems OK to me. I mainly use Pandora's service because it was part of my Grace Digital Internet Radio package.  I have an Amazon Prime account but I never listen to their streaming music service.  Although I'm glad it's available it really doesn't interest me at all as I've got more than enough music from other sources to listen to.  Heck, even listening to the free iTunes Internet Radio is fine for me.  There's plenty of streaming internet stations out there from all over the world.

I really hope Spotify is making money from the service. It takes more than just a lot of subscribers to make a business successful. Fortunately, Apple doesn't have to rely on AppleMusic to create revenue to survive although I'm sure it helps a bit. I'm glad Apple isn't trying to undercut Spotify in price to try to steal subscribers. Amazon and Google will definitely go after Spotify using any means possible to grab subscribers away from them.

It's a dog eat dog world out there that Apple doesn't seem to take part in. Apple could easily take a loss to increase subscribers but doesn't seem prone to do so. No real need to. Wall Street will gripe about AppleMusic ONLY having 20 million subscribers but that's how greed works.  AppleMusic seems to be priced fairly.

tzeshan

I feel that there is no difference between Apple Music and Spotify.  Apple Music is overpriced and inconvenient to use.  Apple is very poor in delivering content. 

mike1

gmgravytrain said:

I'm glad to hear Spotify is getting paid subscribers. I'd hate to see a service like Spotify fail or close down. They offer plenty of various types of music and I like the way the application is designed. It even incorporates my iTunes library. I occasionally listen to their free service and it seems OK to me. I mainly use Pandora's service because it was part of my Grace Digital Internet Radio package.  I have an Amazon Prime account but I never listen to their streaming music service.  Although I'm glad it's available it really doesn't interest me at all as I've got more than enough music from other sources to listen to.  Heck, even listening to the free iTunes Internet Radio is fine for me.  There's plenty of streaming internet stations out there from all over the world.

I really hope Spotify is making money from the service. It takes more than just a lot of subscribers to make a business successful. Fortunately, Apple doesn't have to rely on AppleMusic to create revenue to survive although I'm sure it helps a bit. I'm glad Apple isn't trying to undercut Spotify in price to try to steal subscribers. Amazon and Google will definitely go after Spotify using any means possible to grab subscribers away from them.

It's a dog eat dog world out there that Apple doesn't seem to take part in. Apple could easily take a loss to increase subscribers but doesn't seem prone to do so. No real need to. Wall Street will gripe about AppleMusic ONLY having 20 million subscribers but that's how greed works.  AppleMusic seems to be priced fairly.

Free iTunes Radio hasn't existed for some time except for that one silly station. It used to be great, but alas. For the little bit of streaming I do, the Amazon Prime service works fine and doesn't cost me anything more than I'd be paying anyway.

NY1822

something seems a little fishy...25% growth in the last 5 months for a company that has been around....id like to see how much actual money they made.

So for example, last month the New York Times was offering free Spotity with a a subscription of the digital news....so if NYT paid spotify a lump sum one time payment, are these new subscribers counted as paid subscribers?

foggyhill

NY1822 said:

something seems a little fishy...25% growth in the last 5 months for a company that has been around....id like to see how much actual money they made.

So for example, last month the New York Times was offering free Spotity with a a subscription of the digital news....so if NYT paid spotify a lump sum one time payment, are these new subscribers counted as paid subscribers?

I bet they are for the time the subscription lasts; while technically "paid'" for, they are not in fact the same when looking at revenues than Apple's subscription.

The rebate, if indeed there is one, should be counted as one hell of an expense on marketing in theory...
Not sure how they'll cook the book but I'm sure they will do it.

djsherly

ericthehalfbee said:

foggyhill said:

There is a lot of bullshit in there. I'm theoretically paying for Spotify (It was a promotion which was part of my phone plan), yet I'm not paying a cent directly, probably pad by my own phone company as a marketing expense.

They're probably getting 2-3 bucks a month out of me.

Would not be surprised if Apple is now at 25-30M  $10 a month subscribers.
My bet is Apple's revenues and profits from Apple music are already higher than spotify.

I see lots of cell carrier promotions for Spotify. I wonder how much they're actually getting from them. It would, however, explain Spotify's rapid gain of 20 million paid subscribers in only 6 months.

My Apple music sub is part of my carrier tariff, so it cuts both ways. Most of the Telstra post-paid plans seem to offer Apple Music as a feature.

foggyhill

djsherly said:

ericthehalfbee said:

foggyhill said:

There is a lot of bullshit in there. I'm theoretically paying for Spotify (It was a promotion which was part of my phone plan), yet I'm not paying a cent directly, probably pad by my own phone company as a marketing expense.

They're probably getting 2-3 bucks a month out of me.

Would not be surprised if Apple is now at 25-30M  $10 a month subscribers.
My bet is Apple's revenues and profits from Apple music are already higher than spotify.

I see lots of cell carrier promotions for Spotify. I wonder how much they're actually getting from them. It would, however, explain Spotify's rapid gain of 20 million paid subscribers in only 6 months.

My Apple music sub is part of my carrier tariff, so it cuts both ways. Most of the Telstra post-paid plans seem to offer Apple Music as a feature.

It only cuts both ways if Apple is doing it as much as Spotify, around here that's 100% not the case. It's all spotify promotion, all the time for carriers, and in my case I paid nothing for 2 years (still on that promotion) for Spotify premium).

kevin kee

I love Apple Music and would love to sub for the rest of its life. I also think it's fairly priced, and might I say, actually very cheap for the excellent services they provide. Their content is perfectly curated, high quality music and amazingly rich in genres and periods. I haven't used Spotify for years but I believe they are also pretty good.

slurpy

foggyhill said:

There is a lot of bullshit in there. I'm theoretically paying for Spotify (It was a promotion which was part of my phone plan), yet I'm not paying a cent directly, probably pad by my own phone company as a marketing expense.

They're probably getting 2-3 bucks a month out of me.

Would not be surprised if Apple is now at 25-30M  $10 a month subscribers.
My bet is Apple's revenues and profits from Apple music are already higher than spotify.

Yep. I have 2 yrs free Spotify with my iPhone plan, and so does everyone in my family, so obviously I have an account. I'll be cancelling the second I have to pay, but I get counted as a user anyway. I'm sure Spotify's numbers, are really, really padded with all the "free"promotions I see around. 

evilution

Jeez! Obviously they have increased membership by a lot in a short time. They introduced a free option with ads.
the ad revenue will barely cover the cost of these members. It's just another Android style race to the bottom.

[Deleted User]

Spotify regularly do 99p promotions, "99p for 3 months access" etc. That's still a "paid subscriber" even tho it would need 30 people to bring in the same as 1 regular subscriber.

Never seen a "cheap" apple-music promotion, it's always a free trial so wouldn't count towards paid subscriber numbers.

fulles

evilution said:

Jeez! Obviously they have increased membership by a lot in a short time. They introduced a free option with ads.
the ad revenue will barely cover the cost of these members. It's just another Android style race to the bottom.

No they didn't just introduce a free option. It's always been there. Besides this article is talking about premium subscribers. That's users who pay for the service one way or another (as others have mentioned sometimes via phone plans or other means not necessarily directly).

i don't get all the hate for Spotify on here. I understand this is an Apple focussed site and Spotify are (to a degree) a competitor of Apple but competition is good right?

I used Apple Music during the 3 month trial and then went back to Spotify. I prefer to keep my streaming music and the music I own totally separate and I much prefer the UI of the Spotify app. I also prefer Spotify's discovery service which for me works much better than Apple's did. Plus Apple Music messed up my library.

Relatively recently Spotify introduced a family subscription for £14.99 per month. I prefer this to Apple's family plan because with Apple I have to link everyone's iTunes account to my credit card. My son and daughter are old enough to pay for their own apps and having to reimburse me for every app or IAP would be an inconvenience for them and me.  

I wonder whether I'm being classed as 1 subscriber or 6?  I'm the only paying member but there are 6 users on the family account. Maybe that's how they've grown so quickly?

adm1 said:

Spotify regularly do 99p promotions, "99p for 3 months access" etc. That's still a "paid subscriber" even tho it would need 30 people to bring in the same as 1 regular subscriber.

Never seen a "cheap" apple-music promotion, it's always a free trial so wouldn't count towards paid subscriber numbers.

Here in the U.K. there's a mobile phone provider that's offering 6 months free Apple Music with any iPhone so there are also offers available for Apple Music (though probably not as many as Spotify).

[Deleted User]

adm1 said:

Spotify regularly do 99p promotions, "99p for 3 months access" etc. That's still a "paid subscriber" even tho it would need 30 people to bring in the same as 1 regular subscriber.

Never seen a "cheap" apple-music promotion, it's always a free trial so wouldn't count towards paid subscriber numbers.

Here in the U.K. there's a mobile phone provider that's offering 6 months free Apple Music with any iPhone so there are also offers available for Apple Music (though probably not as many as Spotify).

Yeh, I wasn't sure if the "free" offers were counted as paying subscribers - do they get money from the mobile network etc.? I meant I've never seen a reduced price paying-subscriber apple music offer, like deezer and spotify have regularly.