Apple Music overtakes Spotify in paid U.S. subscribers

“Apple Music has surpassed Spotify Technology SA in paid U.S. subscriptions, according to people familiar with the matter, in a shift that escalates the music rivals’ contest for listeners world-wide,” Anne Steele and Tripp Mickle report for The Wall Street Journal. “Apple Inc.’s streaming-music service has been adding subscribers in the world’s biggest music market more rapidly than its Swedish rival — a monthly growth rate of about 2.6% to 3%, compared with 1.5% to 2% for Spotify — the people said.”
“Apple Music had more than 28 million subscribers in the U.S. as of February, compared with Spotify’s 26 million, the people said,” Steele and Mickle report. “Apple was expected to reach its milestone more than six months ago, but Spotify intensified efforts to maintain its lead, expanding various promotions including a discounted subscription bundle with video-streaming service Hulu. ”
“As of December, Spotify said it had 207 million active users around the world, 96 million of whom are paying subscribers or in a trial period leading to a subscription. The rest of Spotify’s active users have opted for a free, ad-supported version of the service,” Steele and Mickle report. “Apple, which doesn’t offer a free, ad-supported option, has more than 50 million paying subscribers… Apple Music is growing faster globally — at a rate of about 2.4% to 2.8%, compared with Spotify’s 2% to 2.3% — and the gap is starting to close in other markets outside the U.S., according to the people familiar with the numbers.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: After a bit of an early call by some, it was only a matter of time.
BTW: You’d have to be stupid to subscribe to Spotify when it has 40% fewer tracks than Apple Music for the same price. Apple Music boasts a catalog of 50 million songs; Spotify has just 30 million. If you’re still subscribing to Spotify, it’s past time for you to cancel it and upgrade to Apple Music. (See also: How to move your Spotify playlists to Apple Music.)
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Apple Music now leads Spotify in the U.S., the No. 1 recorded music market – December 31, 2018