Apple Music now boasts more paying subscribers that Spotify in the United States.
Both services have more than 20 million subscribers, but Apple Music is finally “a hair ahead” after creeping up on Spotify for months, according to a new report. Apple’s service is expected to widen the gap in the coming months as it continues to enjoy a faster growth rate than its biggest rival.
We learned back in February that Apple Music was on track to overtake Spotify in the U.S. this summer. Back then, the service was enjoying a 5 percent growth rate, while Spotify’s was just 2 percent.
Now, according to a Digital Music News report, Apple Music has finally stolen Spotify’s crown.
Apple Music is king of streaming services
According to a source — a major music distributor in the U.S. — Apple is now ranked first among on-demand music streaming services in the U.S. when it comes to paying subscribers.
“Both Apple Music and Spotify have more than 20 million subscribers in America, with Apple now a hair ahead,” reads the report. “The source requested that we withhold exact subscriber numbers beyond mentioning ’20 million plus,’ to protect confidentiality.”
Apple continues to enjoy a much stronger growth rate in the U.S., so it is expected to increase its lead over Spotify in the coming months. However, Spotify does enjoy a faster growth rate than Apple Music globally.
Spotify still on top* worldwide
Spotify also remains a much bigger service when its free tier users are taken into account. The service has roughly 160 million total users worldwide, while Apple Music has an estimated 55 million, including 5-10 million still on a trial plan.
It’s not all about the subscribers, though. Despite fewer customers, Apple Music attracted 170 million streams of Drake’s new Scorpion album during its first week of availability, while Spotify attracted an estimated 130 million.
This indicates that Apple Music enjoys much better user engagement. It seems a lot of peopler are signing up for free Spotify accounts that they never use.
