Apple Music rival Spotify tops 140 million free & paid subscribers
Keeping ahead of Apple in on-demand streaming, Spotify on Thursday revealed that it has over 140 million active users worldwide, including both Premium customers and people on its free ad-supported tier.
The company didn't break out the number of Premium listeners, from which it generates more income. In March, however, it said that it had hit the 50 million mark, a figure which has likely grown since.
As of last week's Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple Music had some 27 million subscribers. The service is paid-only apart from a three-month trial.
Its growth has nevertheless been fairly rapid, having first launched in June 2015. Spotify dates back to Oct. 2008, which has helped make it the "default" platform for on-demand music.
The company received a boost last week when pop star Taylor Swift restored her catalog to the service, ending a boycott in place since 2014. That also signaled an end to Apple Music's exclusive hold on much of Swift's library, including her most recent album "1989."
Apple has increasingly turned to video as way of distinguishing itself from rival streaming options, with shows such as "Carpool Karaoke" and "Planet of the Apps," and documentaries about subjects like Bad Boy Records.
The company didn't break out the number of Premium listeners, from which it generates more income. In March, however, it said that it had hit the 50 million mark, a figure which has likely grown since.
As of last week's Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple Music had some 27 million subscribers. The service is paid-only apart from a three-month trial.
Its growth has nevertheless been fairly rapid, having first launched in June 2015. Spotify dates back to Oct. 2008, which has helped make it the "default" platform for on-demand music.
The company received a boost last week when pop star Taylor Swift restored her catalog to the service, ending a boycott in place since 2014. That also signaled an end to Apple Music's exclusive hold on much of Swift's library, including her most recent album "1989."
Apple has increasingly turned to video as way of distinguishing itself from rival streaming options, with shows such as "Carpool Karaoke" and "Planet of the Apps," and documentaries about subjects like Bad Boy Records.
Comments
Revenue up 50% to $3.3 billion; operating loss $390 million; net loss $601 million.
If you rarely listen to music $9.99 is a bit steep.
Ive also still got Spotify for the reason noted above. It's just easier to use.
But I don't know how much vc money can continue to be tipped into this thing until the losses are enough. Profit from streaming seems pretty hard to do.
However... The more freeloaders Spotify has to carry, the harder it will be for Spotify to become profitable. Is their business model really that bad that they can't ever make money from the ad-supported users? They're probably using up an awful lot of bandwidth with many tens of thousands of free subscribers. I'm not sure why Spotify wants to carry so many free subscribers. It sure doesn't seem like the total number of subscribers would be anything worth boasting about.
I do wonder why Spotify didn't tell the number of paid subscribers. There shouldn't be a need to hide that unless paid subscriber numbers didn't grow. I'm ready to see the news media posting headlines saying, "Spotify is crushing Apple owing to a huge number of new active users." All I get is a picture of Atlas trying to hold up the world on his shoulders and Spotify has become Atlas.
Here is a simple calculation:
Annual Revenue = 20,000,000 paid subscribers x $10/month x 12 months = $2.4 billion
It's only 2 years old.
Any business with $2.4B of revenue after only 2 years is absolutely NOT a failure. It's big, growing, and profitable.
Spotify is simply a better product.
Apple won't introduce a simple, streaming-only app (like Spotify) and instead continues to confuse users with an iTunes app that's a cluster-f of purchase and streaming.
It's almost like Apple decided to let Microsoft and Verizon design iTunes.
I'm a big Apple fan myself, but the company needs someone at the helm with vision and no patience for terrible software.
They used to have a guy like that...
http://nordic.businessinsider.com/shazam-ceo-rich-riley-interview-shazam-codes-and-snapchat-integration-2017-3/
Spotify - 140 million “subscribers" but losing money hand over fist. Yep, Apple should emulate the “better” product Spotify. Sheesh!