Spotify breaks 100 million paid subscribers, holding lead over Apple Music
Spotify on Monday revealed that it has topped 100 million paid subscribers worldwide, putting it twice as far ahead as Apple Music, albeit with a years-long headstart.
Premium subscribers grew 32 percent year-over-year in the March quarter, Spotify said. Total listenership reached 217 million people, aided by 2 million in India, who've only been able to sign up since February.
The Swedish firm is aiming for between 222 and 228 million listeners by the end of the current quarter. Of those, 107 to 110 million are forecast to be on Premium.
The company reported $158.3 million in losses, but recently acquired three separate podcasting firms: Anchor, Gimlet Media, and Parcast. Apple has traditionally enjoyed a lead role in podcasts thanks to iTunes, but Spotify said it intends to build a better ad model with superior "targeting, measurement, and reporting capabilities."
Smartspeakers are another focus, Spotify mentioned, without commenting on rumors that it's developing first-party hardware. The service is a native option on Amazon Alexa- and Google Home-compatible speakers, though not on Apple's HomePod, where only Apple Music has full Siri control.
Spotify was the first major on-demand music platform, launching in 2008. Apple Music has enjoyed relatively rapid growth -- its 50 million users have appeared since just 2015, aided by default integration across Apple devices. It recently surpassed Spotify Premium in the U.S., even if ad-based listeners continue to give Spotify an overall advantage in listener base.
The two companies are engaged in a legal war in Europe, where Spotify recently launched a competition complaint with the European Commission. Apple has established artificial barriers to competition, Spotify charges, pointing to the fact that it takes 15% to 30% from third-party App Store subscriptions, simultaneously denying those parties the same level of integration as Apple Music. In its defense Apple has argued that Spotify wants "all those benefits [of the App Store] while also retaining 100 percent of the revenue."
Premium subscribers grew 32 percent year-over-year in the March quarter, Spotify said. Total listenership reached 217 million people, aided by 2 million in India, who've only been able to sign up since February.
The Swedish firm is aiming for between 222 and 228 million listeners by the end of the current quarter. Of those, 107 to 110 million are forecast to be on Premium.
The company reported $158.3 million in losses, but recently acquired three separate podcasting firms: Anchor, Gimlet Media, and Parcast. Apple has traditionally enjoyed a lead role in podcasts thanks to iTunes, but Spotify said it intends to build a better ad model with superior "targeting, measurement, and reporting capabilities."
Smartspeakers are another focus, Spotify mentioned, without commenting on rumors that it's developing first-party hardware. The service is a native option on Amazon Alexa- and Google Home-compatible speakers, though not on Apple's HomePod, where only Apple Music has full Siri control.
Spotify was the first major on-demand music platform, launching in 2008. Apple Music has enjoyed relatively rapid growth -- its 50 million users have appeared since just 2015, aided by default integration across Apple devices. It recently surpassed Spotify Premium in the U.S., even if ad-based listeners continue to give Spotify an overall advantage in listener base.
The two companies are engaged in a legal war in Europe, where Spotify recently launched a competition complaint with the European Commission. Apple has established artificial barriers to competition, Spotify charges, pointing to the fact that it takes 15% to 30% from third-party App Store subscriptions, simultaneously denying those parties the same level of integration as Apple Music. In its defense Apple has argued that Spotify wants "all those benefits [of the App Store] while also retaining 100 percent of the revenue."
Comments
Yeah Apple Music is still not great. Take playlists for example. I have some music that crosses different playlists. There’s no easy way to add songs from one playlist to the next. You have to do it one by one or add the entire playlist to another, Playlists also allow duplicate songs (even from the same album). If you try to add a song to a playlist that’s already there you should get a message saying the song already exists. Instead it just gets added again. You can’t manually sort playlists and CarPlay sorts alphabetically no matter how they’re sorted in the iOS music app. When you search for a song or pull up top songs from an artist 9 times out of 10 the first listing you get is a greatest hits album. If I’m adding music to my collection I want the original album not some greatest hits album. Even Apple Music radio stations are mediocre. I listen to decade/genre stations and they repeat the same songs constantly. Now I do most of my non-playlist listening in the SiriusXM app because it has more variety. These are minor things but if Apple really wanted to they could make Apple Music far and away the best streaming platforms.
Spotify has to make money out of one service.
It's clear from the rumblings from other vendors that Apple is going open up Apple Music. Google let slip support for Google Assistant devices and other vendors like Savant have said "yeah Apple Music is coming".
Make me wonder if Apple's going to add some interesting things to Apple Music and the ecosystem at WWDC.
Apple can never be #1. Because it's Apple by themselves against a whole lot of other company's making Android phones. Phones where they make slim to none in profits or even lose money. Apple is not going to play that game.
Put is this way in simple terms. Android sells a ZILLION phones are breaks even. Apple Sells 1 iPhone and makes a $50 profit. Who Wins? Android sells 10 ZILLION phones, Apple sells 10 iPhones but makes a $500 profit. Again who wins? Android people will say Android did, they sold 10 ZILLION phones to Apple's 10!!! Android is #1. Anyone else with a brain will say Apple is Winning. They actually made a $500 profit. This is pretty much what is happening.
Businesses are created to MAKE MONEY!! They don't exist to create jobs. That's just a needed side effect to grow larger. If you're not making money, you can't keep your doors open. Breaking even doesn't cut it.
Spotify is the hole for the last 10 years, MILLIONS in debt, with no Profit in site yet?!?! They really have nothing to fall back on. Apple just cares to break even. If they can make a profit on Apple Music, great, but break even is just fine also as they have everything else to fall back on. What does Spotify have? They can be #1, #1 loser of money!!! How long can they keep that up?
It's not a viable business on its own. Apple needs to negotiate the next step which is finding a way to balance the sale of music with the "all you can eat" subscriptions. Most of the music lovers that I know use streaming services to curate and find music for them and the best stuff gets purchased. Apple's message regarding buying versus streaming is cloudy. I'd like to see a threshold being hit where if I purchase enough music I get my streaming fees comped. I'd like to see Apple focus more on concert goers as well. Acquire BandsInTown and integrate it into a future version of music. We also need hires support sooner rather than later.
When you're young you need the inexpensive package but later in life as an enthusiast you want more course to the meal and you have the disposable income to make it happen.
However, Spotify also share some stubbornness when it comes to playlists. Eg. Can’t delete song from playlist create by other user..