In the US, more people pay for Apple Music than Spotify

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the battle between Apple and Spotify continues to intensify. "People aware of the case" revealed that Apple Music now had more US subscribers than Spotify, more than 28 million paid subscribers, compared with 26 million for Spotify in February 2019.

These sources also claim that Apple Music is growing faster in the United States at a rate of about 2.6 to 3%. The growth rate of Spotify would be 1.5 to 2%.

It is unlikely that Apple claims this victory because, like Spotify, it does not publicly disclose the number of regional subscribers. However, if the estimates are accurate, they show that American customers are adopting Apple Music as much (and perhaps even more) than its Swedish competitor.

But the numbers in the report reflect only paid US subscribers. Spotify, which had 207 million active users worldwide in December, remains the leader in music streaming. Of these 207 million users, 96 million are paying subscribers or users currently undergoing trial leading to a subscription.

Unlike Apple Music, Spotify offers a free level funded by advertising. Apple Music has 50 million subscribers worldwide. therefore, figures from this recent report show that more than half of the number of Apple Music subscribers comes from the United States.

Although the growth of Apple Music does not result in incredible revenue gains for the company compared to its other efforts (paying labels, artists, etc.), this indicates that the company is moving in the right direction. Recently, Apple has changed its strategy to create and offer more services to offset weak iPhone sales. Apple's new TV streaming service, TV +, and its Apple Arcade game subscription service will join Apple Music in the company's service portfolio when they launch later this year. The company has already launched News +, a paid information and magazine service available in the Apple News app.

This new report follows a dispute between Apple and Spotify in Europe after the Swedish company told the European Commission that Apple was abusing its power to give its streaming music service an edge. Spotify was forced to use Apple's integrated shopping service, which pays a 30% commission to Apple for transactions in iOS applications such as Spotify. This system forced Spotify to increase its price in Europe to € 12.99 per month, a change made about a year before Apple Music starts at its original price of € 9.99 per month.

As a result, Spotify attempted to bypass Apple's system by directing users to its website, where the transactions would not be subject to Apple's commission fees. Apple did not like this strategy and responded by taking a long time to approve new versions of the iOS Spotify app. Experts believe that Spotify has a good business in Europe, but the European Commission has still not responded to the company's demand for antitrust.