Spotify says subscriber growth now doubles Apple Music
Streaming music giant Spotify reported positive earnings for the third quarter of 2019 on Monday, with the company stressing increased subscriber growth which supposedly doubles that of Apple Music on a monthly basis.

In a letter to shareholders published in concert with today's earnings reveal, Spotify reports total monthly active users (MAUs) grew to 248 million during quarter three, a 30% year-over-year jump. More importantly, the company's premium tier numbers were up 31% on the year to hit 113 million paying subscribers.
Customer churn rates improved 19 bps year-over-year, the company said.
Citing the surprisingly positive metrics, Spotify claims it is handily trouncing the competition. The company drew specific comparisons to Apple Music, which has over the past few months enjoyed favorable media coverage as it gains on the streaming leader.
"Relative to Apple, the publicly available data shows that we are adding roughly twice as many subscribers per month as they are," Spotify said in investor note. "Additionally, we believe that our monthly engagement is roughly 2x as high and our churn is at half the rate."
Apple typically keeps Apple Music details private, reporting gains, losses and revenue in the catchall "Services" category, but the tech giant does from time to time announce subscriber numbers. Most recently, SVP of Services Eddy Cue in June said the streaming product boasts 60 million paying subscribers, up from 50 million in January.
While the 60 million subscriber metric pales in comparison to Spotify's 113 million premium users, Apple built its existing customer base at a faster clip, hitting the milestone in just four years. By comparison, Spotify Premium launched in 2008.
Despite lagging globally, Apple Music surpassed Spotify in the U.S. in April, according to estimates at the time. North America is Spotify's second-largest market and accounts for 27% of the service's total MAUs.
Today's earnings arrive as Spotify pursues antitrust claims against Apple in Europe. In a complaint lodged with the European Commission in March, the company claims Apple unfairly limits access to App Store data, third-party services and other technologies to gain a competitive advantage over other streaming industry players.
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Comments
1. I notice the story makes no mention of profit. Has Spotify finally made one?
2. They’re comparing their “paid” subscribers (most HEAVILY subsidized and don’t directly pay anything, see various promotion partners ... not sure most of that group would pay if they actually had to) to old figures from Apple (four months ago).
They’re still ahead in “paid” subs (unless you look more closely), but still losing money, not paying artists, still in court about that, and don’t have a plan to turn that around. How do you have 100+M subscribers and not turn a profit?
Don't underestimate the free tier and availability, though. When you've had Spotify for 10 years, you have a lot of playlists which you share with friends and with thousands of users who subscribe to them, you're not simply going to abandon that for Apple Music. Instead, when it comes time to choose a Premium, you're going to get the one you're already on (or whichever is free with your mobile contract). It's difficult for Apple to compete against that. Also, markets with lower incomes are always going to go for Spotify, because it's free (or Deezer, which though less known, also has a free tier).
Not being as entrenched in the U.S. (since 2011) and having a lot more competition made it more difficult for them to dominate the U.S. like they do elsewhere, giving Apple Music a better chance with its dominant position as the premium platform of choice.
Just pondering...
For one, everybody (including Apple) knows that Apple Music is 90% for the Apple ecosystem users.
Those, if one includes all macOS/iOS users, are still much smaller compared to Android and Windows users.
And Apple doesn't much care about those others (even if they will e.g. make a client for Android, like they have a Windows iTunes).
So I don't think Apple expects to get the non-iOS/macOS part of the market, and thus doesn't expect to ever be larger than someone that does...
you mileage may vary...
The minute you publicly highlight how well you're doing in contrast to the numerous
complaints you levied against Apple just last year it renders those complaints moot
and allows Apple to be more aggressive about pushing Apple Music. Apple always
has to be wary of antitrust issues.
Apple is in no way dependent on Apple Music subs so this move does nothing to harm
them and only gives them breathing room.
Even the "For You" section isn't good at displaying new artists, tracks or playlists I may like. Sure it does personalize a bit, but I've found other than using "Recently Played" I never use anything else on the screen.
Maybe I'm overly critical, but for a company that knows every iTunes song I've purchased, all the songs I've uploaded through iTunes Match and all the songs I listen to daily, I find discovery/personalization in Apple Music to be completely underwhelming if not non-existent.