Apple Music has been chasing down streaming pioneer Spotify since it launched three years ago. Now the iPhone’s built-in music service may have notched its first major victory.
According to a leaked report, Apple Music now has more paying subscribers than Spotify in the United States.
Digital Music News offers ‘confidential details’ shared by a major US-based music distributer. It says Apple Music now tops the pile among on-demand music streaming services.
It says both Apple Music and Spotify are both topping 20 million US paid streamers, but the fruity company is now ‘a hair ahead’. The report says Apple is likely to widen that lead before the end of the year.
Related: Spotify vs Apple Music
Apple Music, of course, does not have a free streaming tier like Spotify, so the report doesn’t present the full picture. However, Apple has accelerated growth in paid subscriptions – the customers that truly matter to both companies.
The Wall Street Journal says that Apple’s subscriber growth currently sits at 5% while Spotify is only adding paying subscribers at a rate of 2%.
A sobering note for both companies is that Sirius XM, the on-demand satellite radio giant in the US currently has 33 million subscribers in North America.
Spotify still leads overall, according to the report. It has 70 million paying subscribers with about 160 million listeners overall. Apple Music has 45 million subscribers, the report claims. Although Apple is yet to confirm this.
Of course, Apple benefits from being built-in to all iPhone and iPad devices making it an easy point of access for users simply looking for the easiest solution. It also offers an Android app for those on the other side of the isle.
YouTube Music and Google Music, you have some catching up to do. Tidal? Well, we worry about you. Are you ok, hun? DM us.
How do you rate Apple Music and Spotify? Which has the best discovery and recommendation engines? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.