Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Spotify Announces 75M Active Users, Raises $526M Following Apple Music Debut
Spotify today announced that it now has more than 75 million active users and 20 million paid subscribers worldwide as the Sweden-based streaming music service prepares to compete with Apple Music, available June 30 on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and PC.
Spotify doubled the 10 million paid subscribers it had through May 2014 in just one year, and has now paid over $3 billion in royalties to artists, songwriters and rights holders, including more than $300 million in the first three months of 2015 alone.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Spotify has also raised $526 million in a funding round that values the company at $8.53 billion, giving it significantly more financial backing to take on Apple Music and other rivals in the increasingly competitive streaming music market. Spotify will reportedly invest the capital raised from investors in expansion and new forms of content to further differentiate itself.
Spotify operates at a loss due to significant royalties and revenue sharing with music label partners, although the company aims to become profitable through continued subscriber growth. The company announced plans last month to add video programming and podcasts from partners such as ABC, BBC, ESPN, NBC, Comedy Central, Conde Nast, Maker Studios, Turner Broadcasting and Vice Media.
Apple Music was announced earlier this week as a streaming music service, live global radio station and social platform for artists to connect with fans. The subscription-based service costs $9.99 per month with a three-month free trial for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and PC. Apple TV and Android versions of the service will be available in the fall. Apple Music launches June 30 on iOS 8.4 and iTunes.
Tags: Spotify, Apple Music Guide
[ 246 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
54 months ago
meh,... remember when Ping was going to kill facebook. Maps was game over for google... iAd was the end of Google ads. ITunes radio? was going to kill Pandora. iCloud, so much for dropbox. iBooks, so long Kindle... Right? not really.
In the end nothing happened - hell some of those Apple services are now in the mud. Apple services are hit and miss.
In the end nothing happened - hell some of those Apple services are now in the mud. Apple services are hit and miss.
54 months ago
Too bad Spotify's mobile UI is a nightmare. Tap, tap, tap, back, back, back, tap, tap, tap.
54 months ago
Apple Music is interesting enough a product that I'm going to sign up on day 1 for a trial and see how things go from there.
It doesn't bode well that Spotify still isn't profitable despite currently being the industry leader.
It doesn't bode well that Spotify still isn't profitable despite currently being the industry leader.
54 months ago
Being able to use Siri to choose a song while I'm driving plus this FREE 3 month subscription may just make me convert from Spotify.
54 months ago
Spotify operates at a loss due to significant royalties and revenue sharing with music label partners, although the company aims to become profitable through continued subscriber growth.
If this is their situation, then I don't see an extremely bright future for Spotify
54 months ago
Being able to use Siri to choose a song while I'm driving plus this FREE 3 month subscription may just make me convert from Spotify.
This. Plus being able to load my playlists onto my Apple Watch for workouts will likely entice me to switch from Spotify (which I like a lot).
54 months ago
Spotify has been operating at a loss and they expect to be profitable now that Apple has entered the game? I give them a year
54 months ago
The fact that Spotify is effectively 'Dark Mode' on iOS is enough for me to stay on the platform!
[ Read All Comments ]
Tennessee State University last week launched the HBCU C2 Presidential Academy, a new initiative that's designed to expose students of color to coding and app development, reports The...
Apple has asked the Trump administration to exclude components for the new Mac Pro and various accessories like the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad from being subject to a 25 percent tariff on Chinese...
Apple Maps vehicles will begin surveying Germany next week, through mid-September, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine.
The data collected, such as road details, signage, and landmarks,...
Since its introduction with iOS 7, AirDrop has become the favored means for iPhone and iPad users to instantly share photos, videos, documents, and more to nearby Apple devices over Wi-Fi and...
Twelve South today launched a new product called the "StayGo," which is a portable hub that connects to USB-C MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with...
The team behind Pixelmator Pro today released a major update for the photo editing app, introducing useful new capabilities that make it easier than ever to edit your photos.
There's now a...
Television maker LG says that updates will soon arrive that make HomeKit and AirPlay 2 available on supported TVs.
LG's Australian support account on Twitter responded to a customer query...
Alongside the launch of iOS 12.4, Apple today released new versions of iOS 9.3.6 and iOS 10.3.4 for older iPhones and iPads that aren't able to run iOS 12.4.
The iOS 9.3.6 update is...
