Apple Music finally passes Spotify in U.S. paid subscribers

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Apple Music
Apple Music beat its biggest rival in the U.S.
Photo: Apple

More Americans pay to listen to Apple Music than Spotify. The Swedish company had been ahead since the iPhone maker got into the streaming music business back in 2015, but Apple finally closed the gap. And its growth is continuing to outpace its rival in the US.

Spotify still has many more paid subscribers globally, however.,

In February, there were 28 million Apple Music subscribers in the United States, compared to Spotify’s 26 million, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Apple Music vs. Spotify: The big picture

The shoe is on the other foot globally. Spotify has 96 million total paid subscribers, either already paying a monthly fee or in a trial period. Apple has 50 million.

There are another 111 million users of Spotify’s free, ad-supported service. There’s no Apple Music equivalent of this.

Growth in streaming music

Around this time last year, Apple’s service had 39 million subscribers, while its European competitor finished 2017 with 71 million, so both have expanded considerably since then.

Apple Music is growing in the US between 2.6 percent to 3 percent each month, while Spotify is increasing at a slower month rate: 1.5 percent to 2 percent, according to the WSJ.

These two companies are at loggerheads in other ways. Spotify recently accused Apple of abusing its control of the App Store to take an exorbitant percentage of subscription fees paid by iPhone users.

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