Tim Cook may like the “runway” for Apple Music’s take off, but Spotify is currently soaring.
Apple’s competitor in the music streaming business found itself in the No. 1 position on the iPhone App Store’s Top Grossing charts for the first time in the United States. This is on the same day that the Apple CEO Cook told the audience at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference that Apple Music has 6.5 million paying customers.
If Spotify executives are gloating, they are doing so privately. There is no mention on the official Spotify blog of this milestone. Spotify has 20 million subscribers to its paid, commercial-free service while it has another 55 million who tune in to the free programming.
Cook told the WSJD audience that he was “really happy about” the numbers on Apple Music so far, adding “the runway here is really good.” Cook has also said Apple is aware of the work it still needs to do to make the streaming service a success.
TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez wrote today that Spotify could be benefiting from the launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Some iPhone users, Perez wrote, could be new to music streaming and checking out different services, like Spotify or Pandora.
The timing of Spotify’s rise to the top also falls a couple weeks after the three-month trial of Apple Music ended for the service’s earliest adopters. During the trial, Apple claimed 11 million users took advantage of the free trial; if 6.5 million are currently paying, that free-to-pay conversion should be encouraging for Apple.
But as Cult of Mac‘s Luke Dormehl pointed out earlier today, there are likely several Apple Music users who are unaware the free trial is over and are currently paying because they forgot to cancel their memberships.
Source: Tech Crunch
David Pierini is a former newspaper writer and long-time photographer. Considered a luddite by most of his friends, they did not believe him when he broke the news that he would be writing for a technology website. He is fascinated by human nature and would love to cultivate stories about the people driving the tech bus. Reach out to him at [email protected].
16 responses to “As Apple boasts about Music, Spotify takes App Store’s top spot”
3 months of Apple Music made me start a subscription with Spotify. It’s better in every single way, and not by a small margin.
Are you paying for Spotify or using the free tier?
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Agreed. Spotify Premium is vastly superior to Apple Music. I’ve been a paying Spotify customer for over a year, but I was so excited when Music launched. Started the 3 month trial with enthusiasm only to learn that the service is absolutely terrible in comparison.
I’m not so sure Tim Cook is aware of all the “homework” needed to meet Spotify’s standard…
There’s a simple reason that Spotify is the #1 app this week. Once Apple’s free trial ended, all of the cheapskates switched to Spotify to use the free tier they offer.
The 3 month free trial is a genius move by Apple. By offering a full featured free trial, Apple gets tons of folks to try streaming music. When the free trial ends, those willing to pay for streaming music stay with Apple and those who want free stuff switch over to Spotify. Apple keeps all the valuable customers and shuttles the worthless ones over to Spotify. This is very bad for Spotify in the long run.
This cannot be bad for Spotify, it is a win for both companies……
The fact that people are on a free service and building a playlist is a good way of tying them in, with an extensive playlist and a good product like Spotify, you have a reason to try a paid service at some point even if it is at a discount.
The only way Apple can come close or beat Spotify is by offering a free service like Spotify and match Spotify toe to toe. with the millions of iphones out there and an improving service. That is a no brainer that Apple can win if they offer a free service.
The more people that uses a free service, the high likelihood of conversion to paid, and that has been a good sales strategy for most companies that offers such.
You don’t get it. Apple doesn’t want customers in a free tier. Neither streaming service providers nor artists make anyt money from free tier subscribers. It’s a dead end. Spotify offers the free tier to try to attract users in the hopes that they will convert to paid subscribers. Those who ditch Apple Music after the trial period for the free Spotify tier will never convert to paid subscriptions. Apple is slowly killing Spotify by sending them the riff-raff.
PJ, correct me if I am wrong but the article said #1 grossing app did it not? If so, gross would mean paying customers not freebies.
You assumption is that none of the Free trial Apple users did not came from Spotify, try Apple Music, but move back to Spotify.
I also wonder how many Apple Music Trails resulted in people being too lazy to cancel or forgot but might later on.
I prefer Spotify’s UI over Apple Music. It’s easier and I can have the same library on ALL of my devices. Apple music along with the Cloud and iTunes Match, makes things TOO confusing. Kinda like Microsoft.
I’m quite happy with Apple Music
For me it’s not so much the interface, it is the music selection and the suggestions that makes Spotify much better. If you listen to hip hop or mainstream you might be happy with Apple Music. Everybody else should stay away from it.
Hell even apples own iTunes music store has better suggestions than Apple Music.
I currently subscribe to the Family plan on Apple Music and for now it serves our purpose. I subscribed to Spotify Premium prior to Apple Music. I actually like Spotify better as of now, but I like the family option of $14.99 for the whole family on Apple Music. I think Apple Music has a ways to go if it is going to truly compare to Spotify. For now I will stay with Apple to give them time to work out the kinks, grow and improve the service. But if I don’t see improvements I too may switch back to Spotify. And yes I would be a paying customer on Spotify as well.
And don’t forget kids — artists don’t make shinola off of Spotify.
I’m super anal about having a unified experience where I need as few apps as possible, so Apple Music is perfect for what I’m paying.
Spotify >Apple Music