Monday 09-07-2018 16:48 Apple Apple Music Spotify Music Streaming Music Apple’s music streaming service is expected to have more paying subscribers in the US than Spotify by the end of this year, as it continues to slowly eat away at the Stockholm-based firm’s lead. As of last week, Apple is reported to have had between 21m and 21.5m US subscribers, while Spotify had 22m to 22.5m, according to the Financial Times, citing music industry executives. These executives forecast that Apple should end the year with around 27m US subscribers to Spotify’s 24m. On top of this, despite not being as close in subscriber numbers, Apple Music is also growing faster than Spotify in the UK and Canada. Across the globe, Spotify still holds on to its dominance of the digital music industry. Upon filing to go public back in March, Spotify said it had 159m monthly active users, 71m of which were premium subscribers as of 31 December 2017. On the other hand, Apple most recently reported having 50m subscribers in May, although the number is inflated by those on free trials.
Apple is gradually eroding Spotify’s lead in the US music streaming market, with its Apple Music service on track to have more paying subscribers than the Swedish firm by the end of 2018. Music industry executives expect Apple to end the year with around 24 million US subscribers, compared with 27 million forecast for Spotify. A similar picture is emerging in the UK and Canada, where Apple Music is also growing more quickly than Spotify.