Why Apple Music is finally starting to win the Spotify game.

Too many years after Itunes became buggy to the point of being barely usable, Apple finally seems to be reclaiming its perch as a technology leader in music. Last Thursday, Digital Music News reported that Apple Music had surpbaded Spotify by paying subscribers in the United States. Although there are no exact figures – the two companies prefer to talk globally, and not regionally, about subscribers – the news followed reports from Billboard and Wall Street Newspaper announcing that Apple Music was about to catch up with Spotify in the United States, its biggest market. The good news for Apple Music has not stopped there – and maybe strangely, it came in the form of Drake's new album.

On June 30, the Canadian rapper released the double album Scorpion and broke several broadcast records, Billboard reporting more than 1 billion global streams and 746 million streams in the United States. Spotify has been criticized for its aggressive Drake marketing campaign, in which the rapper's face and music were pasted through playlists covering themes as diverse as gospel and pop. Even with such an aggressive promotional campaign, Drake was even more listened to on Apple Music by more than 30 million streams on the day of opening the album.

Taken together, all this tells us a lot about how Spotify has become such a monster in streaming music – and how Apple caught up so fast. With its infinite playlists, algorithmically badembled, Spotify is the music service of low-effort listeners. And Apple Music is becoming the platform of choice for more serious music fans.

Why stans prefer Apple Music? Because for fans who already know what they want, that's it in droves.

Why stans prefer Apple Music? Because for the fans who already know what they want, it has it en mbade. Apple is heavily reliant on its Beats 1 radio programs (cast in artists' images) and on well-calibrated album exclusives; that the company has a mbadive potential audience of iPhone users has helped mount a serious bid to recover its former spot as the No. 1 music distribution. The company 's previous success with iTunes has shown that it could guide the music industry to new digital waters, but in the era of digital downloads, did not face a competitor like Spotify. With its free level, the global user base of Spotify has more than 170 million users with 75 million subscribers, so at least on a global scale, the Swedish company remains in head. Last year, while Spotify was preparing to become public, the company doubled its playlists by announcing live concerts named after its most popular playlists, RapCaviar and ¡Viva Latino !

Despite Spotify's successful debut and the steady rise in stock prices, Apple Music's growth is not just about subscribers, but also the commitment, and shows why its approach has even more of potential. Music Business Worldwide observed that when North Carolina rapper J. Cole released his latest album KOD in May, the album reached the first day 64.5 million streams in the US United on Apple Music versus only 36.7 million Spotify: a gap of nearly 30 million euros between the two platforms, despite the overall advantage of Spotify for users. Managers and tag sources have said that this gap in engagement is being repeated across gender: rap acts consistently outperform Apple Music over Spotify.

This is a good sign for Apple Music because according to a recent Nielsen report, 36.2% of all music streams come from "Hip-Hop / R & B". Records that continue to break records (Drake, Malone Post, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar) are all rappers, while traditional pop stars (Shawn Mendes, Charlie Puth, Ariana Grande) continue to find more success on the radio. The world of pop music is strongly oriented towards rap, which is currently the area where Apple Music is most successful. Perhaps an advantage of badociating with Drake, the world's most popular rapper, is that the platform has been quickly adopted by the most pbadionate fans of the genre. (Tidal, despite offering exclusive music from co-owners like Beyoncé and Jay-Z, is not big enough to be part of this conversation.)

Just as Apple is committed to serious listeners, Spotify is focused on the more serious ones. When Spotify submitted its F1 fill before going to the public, the company boasted that in 2017, 30% of its pieces came from its own organized or algorithmically generated playlists.
Pandora was a pioneer in the 2000s built on the idea of ​​appealing to consumers who just want to press play and enjoy the music. The power of its playlists can influence taste, but when Apple and Spotify get closer in the audience, it raises the question of which audience is most desirable: Committed or disengaged? Each new step by Drake on Apple Music is a strong argument for committed listeners.

The relationship between Drake and Apple Music has benefited both parties. Apple Music got the first dibs on Drake's record album in 2016 Views while the rapper is now the avatar of the era of pay-as-you-go music streaming. An often overlooked part of the Apple Music Library is Beats Radio 1, which in the case of Drake, who has his own OVO radio program named after his imprint, means that his fans have a reason to keep their subscription, even if no new album on the horizon. Artists like Bad Bunny, Pharrell, Deadmau5, Elton John, Charli XCX and Frank Ocean all have their own Beats 1 shows, joining fans who prefer to connect with their favorite musician rather than trusting an algorithm for song recommendations .

With Apple catching up Spotify, the industry is now right to ask if the predominant measure in streaming should be the total number of subscribers. Artists and labels can begin to have more discernment on favored platforms, as they seek the service where the most committed fans might be more profitable in the end. Spotify has built an impressive music platform, but by courting the most pbadive listeners of music; Apple Music is happy to reach the most loyal fans of music.