Apple Music overtakes Spotify for number of paid subscribers in the US
Apple Music’s streaming service has overtaken Spotify in terms of paid subscribers in the United States for the first time, according to Reuters.
As of the end of February this year, Apple had amassed 28m subscribers for its product, compared with Spotify’s 26m, the report claimed.
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Both companies charge a full price of $9.99 per month for their services, although Spotify still has more listeners overall thanks to its ad-supported free service which comes with limited features and adverts in between every few songs.
Despite Apple music’s growth in the US, analysts still believe that Spotify is faring better globally and has a stronger subscriber position across other countries.
Neither company disclose listener data per country, and both declined to comment on the report.
Apple’s venture into music streaming is part of a wider plan to increase revenue through subscription services and other areas after iPhone sales slowed.
The firm last month announced it would be releasing its own television and news subscription service as well as credit card in partnership with Goldman Sachs.
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Spotify meanwhile revealed in its most recent earnings report in February that is has 96m premium subscribers around the world and 207m active users a month. It also said 67m of those come from outside of North America, which includes the US and Canada.
Apple last disclosed its total number of subscribers in May 2018, at which point there were 50m.