Spotify maintains lead on Apple Music with 87M paid subscribers
Spotify is continuing to show progress towards profit, posting better financial results for its third quarter -- including its all-important number of Premium subscribers, which rose from 83 million in June to 87 million.
Spotify on iPhone.
Including free, ad-based listeners, the company now has 191 million users in total. Premium subscribers are more valuable to the company though as they generate 90 percent of revenue, Reuters noted.
Revenue increased 31 percent in Q3 to 1.352 billion euros, or about $1.54 billion, while gross margins were up year-over-year from 22.3 percent to 25.3. Analysts had typically been expecting figures of 1.33 billion euros and 24.9 percent.
The company did disappoint in one area, reining in its goal for full-year 2018 listeners to between 199 million and 206 million. The average analyst forecast was 208 million.
Apple Music has struggled to catch up with Spotify in terms of global paid subscribers, its last reported figure being 50 million combined trial and subscriber customers. There is no free version of the service beyond a three-month trial, which may be giving Spotify an edge in allowing more people to become hooked. Spotify is also more platform-agnostic -- Apple Music is tightly integrated into Apple products, but has a barebones presence on Android and non-HomePod smartspeakers.
Apple has eclipsed Spotify in North America, likely because of the popularity of iPhones, heavy marketing, and a focus on genres like rap and hip-hop.
The company could announce updated subscriber numbers during today's quarterly results call, scheduled for 5 p.m. Eastern time.
Spotify on iPhone.
Including free, ad-based listeners, the company now has 191 million users in total. Premium subscribers are more valuable to the company though as they generate 90 percent of revenue, Reuters noted.
Revenue increased 31 percent in Q3 to 1.352 billion euros, or about $1.54 billion, while gross margins were up year-over-year from 22.3 percent to 25.3. Analysts had typically been expecting figures of 1.33 billion euros and 24.9 percent.
The company did disappoint in one area, reining in its goal for full-year 2018 listeners to between 199 million and 206 million. The average analyst forecast was 208 million.
Apple Music has struggled to catch up with Spotify in terms of global paid subscribers, its last reported figure being 50 million combined trial and subscriber customers. There is no free version of the service beyond a three-month trial, which may be giving Spotify an edge in allowing more people to become hooked. Spotify is also more platform-agnostic -- Apple Music is tightly integrated into Apple products, but has a barebones presence on Android and non-HomePod smartspeakers.
Apple has eclipsed Spotify in North America, likely because of the popularity of iPhones, heavy marketing, and a focus on genres like rap and hip-hop.
The company could announce updated subscriber numbers during today's quarterly results call, scheduled for 5 p.m. Eastern time.
Comments
(my example was said in jest, however, the new trend is to bundle music subscriptions to other products/services, so the "paid/premium" subscribers may not otherwise "paid" had they not been buying their other product/service).
The other thing is they are at the mercy of the music industry. They really have no other source of income. How much longer are people going to give them millions to keep their doors open? If they can get into the black and stay there, it'll going to take years to get out of debt.
My money is on Apple burying Spotify, or acquiring them.
• Apple's 256K AAC sounds better than Spotify but, like most of Apple's services, it's poorly implemented.
• Poor little Pandora.
• C'mon Qobuz, let's make this happen.
The recommendations playlists are on point “Daily Mix”. Way more accurate than Apple Music. I appreciate the better playlists too.
Lots of hate here for Spotify. Every. Time. Sad.
I do like my Apple Music but find myself using Spotify way more often.
Also, as a working DJ I can access my Spotify account from within the DJay Pro app. Win.
Both are good, but I lean towards Spotify more often.
Apple has been reported to have in excess of 800 million iTunes accounts. To have only a tiny fraction of that after all this time, promotion and such. 1/16 is not a success and apparently that includes every freebie sub being given away.
As to the comment saying Spotify has yet to make a dime, the same is true of the Netflix streaming service.