Less than a month ago, it was revealed that Apple Music had overtaken Spotify in terms of paid subscribers in the US – a milestone for the music streaming service – but Spotify’s latest earnings report shows that it’s still well and truly dominating the overall global market.
“Premium Subscribers grew up to 100 million, up 32% year on year,'' the report reads, a figure that's double that of Apple Music’s last reported subscriber count, from January of this year.
The report attributes the growth, at least in part, to the success of certain promotions such as Family Plan offers, bundles with the Google Home Mini in a variety of regions, and Hulu partnerships in the US.
It’s worth considering that Spotify offers a free tier on its service, whereas Apple Music does not, and when factoring these figures in, Spotify’s total global listenership more than quadruples Apple’s, with 217 million monthly active users (a growth of 26% from last year).
In Apple’s defense, the most recent figures that it has officially released date back to the end of 2018, so Spotify has a four-month advantage on these numbers in terms of paid subscribers, although this may change during Apple’s anticipated Q2 earnings report.
It's no secret that the two competing services are feuding, with Spotify officially complaining about Apple's alleged anti-competitive practices, but with Amazon tipped to be launching a hi-res audio streaming service as well as a free ad-supported service, there'll soon be a new kid on the block that's likely a serious threat to both.
