Apple's Beats Music rival Spotify hits 15 million paid subscribers
Swedish streaming music firm Spotify on Monday revealed that its customer base grew to some 60 million active users by the end of 2014, of which 15 million had purchased paid subscriptions.
Spotify's announcement comes less than seven months after the Stockholm-based company reached 10 million paying subscribers. At the time, active users numbered more than 40 million, meaning the ratio of subscribers to users remains roughly the same.
In contrast, Apple's Beats Music --?acquired as part of the company's blockbuster $3 billion deal for Beats Electronics --?is believed to count just 300,000 paying subscribers. Unlike Spotify, Beats Music does not offer an unpaid streaming tier, though it does give prospective users a seven-day free trial.
Apple has made a significant investment in streaming music as the market shifts away from single-track sales to subscription models. In addition to taking on Spotify with the Beats acquisition, Apple competes with industry giant Pandora with iTunes Radio.
Since bringing Beats Music into the fold, Apple has added it to the Apple TV and now promotes it to new iPhone buyers in the App Store. The company is also rumored to be in the process of overhauling Beats Music, which could include dropping the subscription price from $9.99 per month to just $5 and integrating it into iTunes.
Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine is also reportedly spearheading talks to bring exclusive album releases to Beats Music, attempting to replicate the marketing success of previous exclusive releases on the iTunes Store. Beyonce's "visual album" sold more than 800,000 copies in three days after debuting on iTunes, vaulting it to the No. 1 position on music charts in over 100 countries.
iTunes Radio appears to have had more success, boasting 40 million listeners who had streamed more than 1 billion songs at last check. Pandora, in comparison, had 76.5 million active users at the end of 2014's third quarter.
Spotify's announcement comes less than seven months after the Stockholm-based company reached 10 million paying subscribers. At the time, active users numbered more than 40 million, meaning the ratio of subscribers to users remains roughly the same.
In contrast, Apple's Beats Music --?acquired as part of the company's blockbuster $3 billion deal for Beats Electronics --?is believed to count just 300,000 paying subscribers. Unlike Spotify, Beats Music does not offer an unpaid streaming tier, though it does give prospective users a seven-day free trial.
Apple has made a significant investment in streaming music as the market shifts away from single-track sales to subscription models. In addition to taking on Spotify with the Beats acquisition, Apple competes with industry giant Pandora with iTunes Radio.
Since bringing Beats Music into the fold, Apple has added it to the Apple TV and now promotes it to new iPhone buyers in the App Store. The company is also rumored to be in the process of overhauling Beats Music, which could include dropping the subscription price from $9.99 per month to just $5 and integrating it into iTunes.
Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine is also reportedly spearheading talks to bring exclusive album releases to Beats Music, attempting to replicate the marketing success of previous exclusive releases on the iTunes Store. Beyonce's "visual album" sold more than 800,000 copies in three days after debuting on iTunes, vaulting it to the No. 1 position on music charts in over 100 countries.
iTunes Radio appears to have had more success, boasting 40 million listeners who had streamed more than 1 billion songs at last check. Pandora, in comparison, had 76.5 million active users at the end of 2014's third quarter.
Comments
Spotify is a Beat music rival or market leader?
The only service I've even considered subscribing to is Beats Music, and not because Apple owns it. It was genuinely a good product.
Ultimately, I prefer to own the music, but BM is top notch.
The only service I've even considered subscribing to is Beats Music, and not because Apple owns it. It was genuinely a good product.
Ultimately, I prefer to own the music, but BM is top notch.
I agree. Although I prefer to own my music, I did give Beats and Spotify a try. I overwhelmingly preferred Beats. I think Apple needs to push Beats more.
Who ever heard of "Beats Music"?
I mean really...
I have never so much as looked at Spotify. Yet I know exactly what it is and does.
Outside of the US, there is no Beats Music or Apple Radio. Spotify rules.
Right now I am using Spotify and I am one of those 15 million paid subscriber. I became a subscriber right after iPhone 6 event. Because Apple did not talk about Beats at all. I was expecting Beats headphones and its music service in iPhone 6 package. Unfortunately I am disappointed on this issue.
I still wanted to use Beats service but it is not available in Germany. I found a way to try Beats but I really did not like the interface and also did not like discovering music with sentences. I find Spotify's interface much better and user-friendly. I wish Apple bought Spotify and integrate in its ecosystem. Spotify has done an excellent job on streaming service. I am using iTunes Match as well but after Spotify I think I really don't need it anymore.
I will continue to use Spotify until Apple integrates Beats and makes it accessible internationally. If Apple can offer 5$ monthly subscription, many Apple users will switch to Beats from Spotify, including me:)
Spotify is great.
Is it Hip Hop skewed like Beats?
When I learned Apple was buying Beats I signed up to see if it was better than Pandora where I was a paying customer. Even though Beats subscription is currently too high in my opinion, Beats beats Pandora in almost every way. The selection of music is fantastic on Beats in all the genres I listen to: jazz (all types), classical, folk. My hope is that it will have its monthly cost cut soon. Its UI is a little crazy but learnable - Apple hopefully will simplify it but not remove and capabilities. Beats is great for curated playlists and user selected music.
I have to say, I find iTunes to be a fairly complex, frustrating, and downright annoying experience. Here's hoping Apple can really integrate and improve upon Beats.
The bar is high -- Pandora and Spotify work really well in my personal experience.
Still no itunes radio in Canada...
It's nearly been a year since it was supposed to have been available. I'm frustrated too as I'd like to cancel my Sirius radio subscription. I can only assume it has to do with licensing agreements, government policy, and/or other. Whatever the case I've been using Songza and really liked it. However, since Google bought it, it has become less stable and requires me to close the app a couple of times to get it going somewhat problem free. Really hoping this gets moving, it is becoming an annoying first world problem for me.
I signed up for a month to month subscription of Beats...wow what a train wreck. When I would download songs to Offline mode, I would go to play them and it would just randomly stop in the middle of a song and go to the next one. It's like it wouldn't download the whole song for some reason. Also the music discovery feature is absolutely awful. There is absolutely no difference or point in selecting that you're either chilling at home by yourself, or in the car with your friends on the way to a party. Such a pointless marketing grab that ultimately uses the same algorithm for helping you discovery content.
On the contrary, I've switched to Spotify and I can literally say it's amazing. If you asked me to offer a complaint I couldn't do it. Beats Music has a lot of work to do.
I've been using Spotify for almost a year now, and became a subscriber 2 weeks after installing the app.
I would definitely give beats a try.
Edit: changed spotlight to Spotify
i just don't identify with the Beats brand and so i would never even consider purchasing their products. Everything they do is so urban and hip-hop oriented and their headphones are so bass heavy that at any price point i would buy something else.
Serious Beats Music rules....love everything about it. Wish they would chop down the price to 5 bucks.