The competition between Apple Music and Spotify seems to have reached a new milestone. In its major home market, the USA, Apple Music is expected to have more paying subscribers than Spotify for the first time. The global situation is still a little different.
When it comes to streaming services for music, users are spoilt for choice. In addition to Apple, Amazon also offers its own service and Google has been running Google Play Music and YouTube Music on two tracks for a few weeks now. In addition to the large corporations we know of is one service from Sweden. Spotify has been available in large parts of Europe and America since 2006.
Apple overhauls Spotify
According to Digital Music News, Apple Music should have outperformed its sharpest competitor Spotify for the first time on the American market and be able to extend its lead even further by the end of the year. Both services have about 20 million paying users in the United States, Apple now a little more than Spotify. Users of a test subscription, or the free version of Spotify, are not part of the data. The report does not give exact figures, these should come from a confidential source.
The fact that the report could nevertheless be correct is supported by the growth rate of Apple Music already presented in February. According to the Wall Street Journal, the paid streaming service is expected to reach about 5% in the USA, while Spotify is only growing by 2%. So it was only a matter of time before Apple passed by.
Still a long way off worldwide
Apple Music has 45 million subscribers worldwide, while Spotify has about 70 million paying users. Outside the USA, Apple is still relatively far behind. If the numbers of free Spotify accounts are included, the service reaches as many as 160 million users. Apple only offers a free trial month and is generally subject to a fee.