The battle between Spotify and Apple Music seems endless. Be that as it may, Apple Music has more paid U.S. subscribers than Spotify. In fact, Apple Music has reached over 60 Million paying Subscribers.
This news comes following an interview with french news site Numerama. To point out, Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, revealed that the number of Apple Music subscribers has now climbed to a healthy 60 million. The last update regarding Apple Music subscribers was back in April, when they reached 50 million.
Apple Music Continuing to Climb
Although Apple Music is continuing to trail Spotify (which is currently at a steady 100 million subscribers as of April), Apple is up 20% since May 2018. Perhaps removing iTunes, and replacing it with the Apple Music application on all phones and new computers has helped. The next version of macOS X 10.15 called “Catlina” will be separating iTunes into three different apps. Specifically, one for different types of content: Apple Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV.
With this in mind, Spotify isn’t kidding around either. With a 32 percent increase in paid subscribers, and reaching a total of 217 million subscribers overall, Spotify is remaining on top. Part of the directed growth is towards podcasts. Business Insider reported hundreds of millions of dollars being invested into podcasts on Spotify.
Guggenheim securities reported podcast advertising revenue increased by 54% last year to $479 million. This has the potential to grow as much as $1 billion by 2021. If Spotify can capture even 25% of that market, which is totally possible according to current estimates, it would generate an additional $250 million in annual revenue, and capture broader audiences.
Generally speaking, the growth of both streaming services is substantial. As Spotify remains on top, Apple seems to be prioritizing their music service and will continue to be Spotify’s biggest competitor.