Apple Music is the second most used music streaming service globally, Spotify remains in t...

AppleInsider · January 20, 2022 12:34AM

New research shows that Apple Music accounts for 15% of the global music streaming market, still falling behind streaming giant Spotify, which holds more than 30%.

Apple Music is the second-most widely used music streaming service, according to new research by MIDiA. The Cupertino-based tech giant caters to 15% of the nearly 524 million global listeners.

Spotify remains in the top spot with a 31% share in 2021, though the streaming service is down from 33% in 2020. Amazon Music and Tencent Music each take a 13% market share, while YouTube Music accounts for 8% of global subscriptions.

The report, initially spotted by 9to5Mac, points out that the global base has grown by 109.5 million by the end of Q2 2021, or roughly over 26% year-over-year.

Global streaming is up, largely spurred by COVID-19 boredom. In 2020, on-demand audio streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify saw growth of 16.2% globally over 2019.

Read on AppleInsider

macxpress · January 20, 2022 12:55AM

And how many of the 31% are free tier Spotify users? As is the case with a lot of areas, Apple isn't the top of the market share, but they are where it counts, which is revenue/profits.

JinTech · January 20, 2022 1:53AM

macxpress said:

And how many of the 31% are free tier Spotify users? As is the case with a lot of areas, Apple isn't the top of the market share, but they are where it counts, which is revenue/profits.

Really? Because I am constantly seeing ads for "free six months of Apple Music with said purchase!" I wonder how many of those users are in the mix here.

ravnorodom · January 20, 2022 3:08AM

Wonder where poor Pandora is at now. It’s used to be my go to streaming music but its music finding model just doesn’t work for me anymore.

JinTech · January 20, 2022 3:59AM

Bosa said:

JinTech said:

macxpress said:

And how many of the 31% are free tier Spotify users? As is the case with a lot of areas, Apple isn't the top of the market share, but they are where it counts, which is revenue/profits.

Really? Because I am constantly seeing ads for "free six months of Apple Music with said purchase!" I wonder how many of those users are in the mix here.

Most Apple trial people keep it, I did and so did my brother and some friends. It’s just a great service , the lossless quality is the difference maker for me

Never tried any other music service other than Apple Music and never will, I am also a big fan!

geekmee · January 20, 2022 6:39AM

I have no facts other than a hunch….

But I bet it’s killing Spotify to maintain number one.

Or another way of saying, there is more to this story than meets the eye.

I am an Apple Music user myself and have not tried any other.

geekmee · January 20, 2022 6:46AM

“Really? Because I am constantly seeing ads for "free six months of Apple Music with said purchase!" I wonder how many of those users are in the mix here.”

I think those ads are not from Apple… But 3rd party phone carriers looking to attract iPhone purchases.

Beats · January 20, 2022 7:59AM

JinTech said:

macxpress said:

And how many of the 31% are free tier Spotify users? As is the case with a lot of areas, Apple isn't the top of the market share, but they are where it counts, which is revenue/profits.

Really? Because I am constantly seeing ads for "free six months of Apple Music with said purchase!" I wonder how many of those users are in the mix here.

That’s not the same. Spotify has a free forever option. No purchase necessary.

Beats · January 20, 2022 8:01AM

This number is sad for Apple. They could have had the entire market. I’m still confused why Jimmy left. He was doing an amazing job. He has a relationship with the biggest artists and had the drive. I really thought Apple Records was coming with him on board and many people thought Apple Music would be the App Store for musicians.

mcdave · January 20, 2022 10:15AM

Driven by Apple One? It’s a no-brainer.

harry wild · January 20, 2022 11:46AM

I still on Amazon Music with Amazon Prime! They got me with 4 month free and since I have Prime, $7.99 a month afterwards. Apple Music only had 2 free months and $10.99 a month afterwards.

carnegie · January 20, 2022 12:42PM

macxpress said:

And how many of the 31% are free tier Spotify users? As is the case with a lot of areas, Apple isn't the top of the market share, but they are where it counts, which is revenue/profits.

This report appears to be counting only premium subscribers Spotify.

31% of 524 million is 162 million. Spotify reported 165 million premium subscribers and 210 million ad-supported MAUs for Q2.

goodbyeranch · January 20, 2022 1:07PM

JinTech said:

macxpress said:

And how many of the 31% are free tier Spotify users? As is the case with a lot of areas, Apple isn't the top of the market share, but they are where it counts, which is revenue/profits.

Really? Because I am constantly seeing ads for "free six months of Apple Music with said purchase!" I wonder how many of those users are in the mix here.

Good point but someone can be a free spotify user forever, and one can use apple music free for a limited time, once.

goodbyeranch · January 20, 2022 1:18PM

Beats said:

This number is sad for Apple. They could have had the entire market. I’m still confused why Jimmy left. He was doing an amazing job. He has a relationship with the biggest artists and had the drive. I really thought Apple Records was coming with him on board and many people thought Apple Music would be the App Store for musicians.

Its less sad when you realize apple always aims for 49% of any market and lets everyone else split the rest.

mike1 · January 20, 2022 3:29PM

JinTech said:

macxpress said:

And how many of the 31% are free tier Spotify users? As is the case with a lot of areas, Apple isn't the top of the market share, but they are where it counts, which is revenue/profits.

Really? Because I am constantly seeing ads for "free six months of Apple Music with said purchase!" I wonder how many of those users are in the mix here.

Not the same thing at all. There is no free tier of service. I'm sure there are some users that are within their free trial, but everyone else is paying.

tht · January 20, 2022 3:51PM

Beats said:

This number is sad for Apple. They could have had the entire market. I’m still confused why Jimmy left. He was doing an amazing job. He has a relationship with the biggest artists and had the drive. I really thought Apple Records was coming with him on board and many people thought Apple Music would be the App Store for musicians.

Apple's share looks really good imo.

Theoretically, they could have designed Apple Music as a universal music service available on all platforms with a free tier and a web player, but that's not Apple. The Apple Music for Android gets very little advertising, and they have a big uphill slog to get customers on Android, where a free tier is really needed. Their customers are really their hardware customers enjoying their services. They only have 15% of the phone market and 8% of the PC market.

Getting 15% is really good imo given their platform market shares.

highframerate · January 20, 2022 3:52PM

macxpress said:

And how many of the 31% are free tier Spotify users? As is the case with a lot of areas, Apple isn't the top of the market share, but they are where it counts, which is revenue/profits.

Actually Spotify has 172 million paid subscribers. If this included "free tier" users then the obvious winner would be YouTube and its billions. But since it is only paid users, then YouTube Music only has 50 million subscribers, putting it behind Spotify, Apple Music, Tencent and Amazon (though it DID have 50% growth the last 12 months and is the fastest growing of the services: https://variety.com/2022/music/news/streaming-music-growth-worldwide-youtube-spotify-apple-1235156594/).

davgreg · January 20, 2022 4:30PM

JinTech said:

macxpress said:

And how many of the 31% are free tier Spotify users? As is the case with a lot of areas, Apple isn't the top of the market share, but they are where it counts, which is revenue/profits.

Really? Because I am constantly seeing ads for "free six months of Apple Music with said purchase!" I wonder how many of those users are in the mix here.

Exactly.
I stay pretty current on Apple devices and each one qualifies me for the service as does the Apple One service that I use primarily for the News app.

lostkiwi · January 21, 2022 11:13PM

There are a lot of ISPs that offer 'free Spotify' as an incentive to sign a mobile contract with them - a lot of people in my country get Spotify through that and that offer wasn't available they probably wouldn't be interested. There is nothing for AppleMusic (at least in my country).
I have heard of some ISPs in Australia that offer Apple Music as well but I don't know if they still do it.

crowley · January 21, 2022 11:49PM

goodbyeranch said:

JinTech said:

macxpress said:

And how many of the 31% are free tier Spotify users? As is the case with a lot of areas, Apple isn't the top of the market share, but they are where it counts, which is revenue/profits.

Really? Because I am constantly seeing ads for "free six months of Apple Music with said purchase!" I wonder how many of those users are in the mix here.

Good point but someone can be a free spotify user forever, and one can use apple music free for a limited time, once.

Not once, you can get free trials multiple times.

JinTech · January 23, 2022 9:27AM

geekmee said:

“Really? Because I am constantly seeing ads for "free six months of Apple Music with said purchase!" I wonder how many of those users are in the mix here.”

I think those ads are not from Apple… But 3rd party phone carriers looking to attract iPhone purchases.

Yes from Apple. This ad was seen when looking at buying a new MacBook Air on Apple's very own online US store. The ad rotates. We live in a new era of Apple.

Apple Music is the second most used music streaming service globally, Spotify remains in t...

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