Spotify Growing at Faster Pace Since Apple Music Launched Last Year

SpotifyDespite the launch of Apple Music, which recently reached 13 million paid subscribers, rival service Spotify told Reuters that it has experienced a faster pace of growth since last June than beforehand.

"It's great that Apple is in the game. They are definitely raising the profile of streaming. It is hard to build an industry on your own," Jonathan Forster, a vice president and one of its first employees, told Reuters in an interview.

"Since Apple Music started we've been growing quicker and adding more users than before."

Spotify recently announced that it has 30 million paying customers, compared to around 20 million paid subscribers last June, while its total active user base has grown to nearly 100 million from 75 million a year ago.

Apple has not recently disclosed how many users it has on a three-month trial for an overall comparison, but Spotify remains over 2x to 2.5x larger than Apple Music in terms of paid subscribers worldwide.

"It would be terrible if we were just taking each other's users or to learn there was just a ceiling of 100 million users - I don't think that is the case," said Forster, who had just returned to Stockholm from the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California.

Apple Music has inevitably generated increased awareness of the concept of streaming music, which in turn has helped Spotify triple its paid subscriber base in just two years. The service, which launched in Europe in October 2008 and expanded to the U.S. in July 2011, had 10 million subscribers through May 2014.

Spotify continues to operate at a loss due to expensive royalties and revenue sharing with music label partners, but the Swedish company expects to eventually become profitable through continued subscriber growth. Spotify will also seek to earn increased revenue from advertising, concerts, merchandising, and video.

Spotify today announced that 12 new original series will be coming to the streaming music service this summer and fall, centered around music performances, music profiles, and music culture. Last year, the company also added video programming and podcasts from partners such as Comedy Central, ESPN, and MTV.

In related news, Spotify for iOS was recently updated with a new bottom navigation bar in lieu of its traditional slide-out "hamburger" menu.

Popular Stories

iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
iOS 26 Screens

Here Are All the iOS 26 Features That Require iPhone 15 Pro or Newer

Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence. The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
apple beta 26 lineup

Apple 'Sherlocked' These Apps at WWDC 2025

Wednesday June 11, 2025 7:14 am PDT by
Apple at WWDC previewed a bunch of new features coming in its updated operating systems, but certain changes will have been met with dismay by third-party developers who already offer apps with equivalent or similar features. In other words, their product has been "sherlocked" by Apple. When Apple creates an app or a feature that has functionality found in a third-party app, it is referred...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look. Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
maxresdefault

Everything Apple Announced at WWDC 2025 in 10 Minutes

Monday June 9, 2025 5:21 pm PDT by
At today's WWDC 2025 keynote event, Apple unveiled a new design that will inform the next decade of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS development, so needless to say, it was a busy day. Apple also unveiled a ton of new features for the iPhone, an overhauled Spotlight interface for the Mac, and a ton of updates that make the iPad more like a Mac than ever before. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel ...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Apple to Let iPhone Users Watch Videos on CarPlay Screen While Parked

Thursday June 12, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles. iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 Apple Wallet Boarding Passes

Apple Lists 10 Airlines Set to Offer iOS 26's Upgraded Boarding Passes

Wednesday June 11, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
As we previously reported, iOS 26 enhances Apple Wallet app boarding passes in a few ways. First, the passes now support Live Activities, allowing you to keep track of a flight at a glance on your iPhone's Lock Screen, and in the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro and newer. In addition, new shortcuts below the passes provide one-tap access to Apple Maps for airport directions, and to the Find...

Top Rated Comments

m.x Avatar
119 months ago
It becomes more and more obvious for me that this could really become one of Apples worst years.
There is stagnation everywhere.

Introduce a really flawless Apple Music service from the beginning? Nah! We are Apple, people love us, we will outgrow Spotify!

iPhone sales are down? Let's make a new iPhone similar to the last two ones with little changes and make no big flagship redesign!

Watch sales are not satisfying? Let's make new bands!

iPad sales are down? Let's name it a Pro device and make it more expensive with more expensive accessories! Customers don't need no new iPad mini or Air 3!

Mac sales are down? Let's just take them as they are and don't upgrade them! Some products are now 1698 (!!!) days old, who needs an update? Who needs a dedicated GPU in the 4K iMac? Who doesn't want to have 5400rpm hard drives in their "most advanced" machines?

Watch sales are still not satisfying? Let's make new bands!

Want to revolutionize the "future of television"? Let's cut the optical audio output port to increase the margin and focus on 1080p (maybe they did that because nobody shoots 4K with 16GB of storage ). Double the price so more and more customers can get them in their home! But don't rework the UI, make it white, that's enough!


Oh jeeeeez, like one of you said in a news earlier today, it seems like they are not even trying anymore. It's becoming an "We are Apple, we can do that with our customers" attitude which gives me sleepless nights because my beloved company is going down ☹️☹️☹️
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
magicschoolbus Avatar
119 months ago
I find Apple Music very difficult to use on all apple devices. It needs a redesign badly.
Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FSMBP Avatar
119 months ago
It's sad. Apple always used to be "late to the party" but whatever they created would be better than what was out there (ex. Copy/Paste, Multitasking in iOS, etc..). Now, they have a habit of being late & their products being inferior.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fel10 Avatar
119 months ago
Well, it is the better one out of the two, so not surprised.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JPLC Avatar
119 months ago
Interface wins!

So far for the Dre investment... Ruined the original iOS Music app and drove away early adapters back to Spotify with a terrible UI, Hiphip flavoured radio and useless functionality.

And where the hell did Lovine and his great vision go?!
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dewski Avatar
119 months ago
yeah i left spotify for apple, but after the 3 months, i just wasnt digging the layout and navigation. I went back to spotify and have been happy.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)