Apple Music Now Has 36 Million Subscribers, Could Eclipse Spotify in United States This Year

Apple Music now has 36 million paying subscribers around the world, an increase from well over 30 million reported last September.

apple music logo
Apple confirmed the updated total to The Wall Street Journal, which today reported that Apple Music is growing at a faster pace than Spotify in the United States, and could soon eclipse the service in popularity in the country.

Apple's subscriber-account base in the U.S. has been growing about 5% monthly, versus Spotify's 2% clip, according to the people familiar with the numbers. Assuming those growth rates continue, Apple will overtake Spotify in accounts this summer.

On a worldwide scale, Spotify maintains a sizeable lead over Apple Music. The streaming music service revealed that it has 70 million paying subscribers a month ago, making it nearly twice as large as Apple Music. Spotify also has a free, ad-supported tier, giving it over 140 million listeners overall around the world.

Spotify expanded to the United States in 2011, while Apple Music simultaneously launched in over 100 countries in 2015. In terms of paid subscriptions, both services offer individual plans for $9.99 per month, student plans for $4.99 per month, and family plans sharable with up to six people for $14.99 per month.

Apple Music has the benefit of being preinstalled on hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads. It's also available on Mac, PC, Android, Apple Watch, Apple TV, vehicles equipped with CarPlay, Sonos, and HomePod.

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Top Rated Comments

unobtainium Avatar
97 months ago
Spotify is superior in every way. Too bad Apple Music is gaining more subscribers. For many people, it’s just the default option because Apple pushes it so hard.

I could never give up the excellent music discovery on Spotify, nor could I live without Spotify Connect allowing me to seamlessly control playback from any device.
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
XTheLancerX Avatar
97 months ago
Apple needs to revamp their family plan, having to set up ALL of your Apple IDs as a family before hand is the reason we don't use Apple Music. We all have our own payment methods, and want to keep it that way. Spotify's model of paying $14.99/mo for 6 completely independent accounts is amazing. So we went with that and not Apple Music.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bawstun Avatar
97 months ago
Spotify is better. They offer more, have better algorithms and recommended playlists, and their user interface is also superior.

Apple is catching up because it’s preinstalled on all devices sold. That’s it.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
anzio Avatar
97 months ago
We absolutely love Apple Music. Hopefully this causes them to continue to improve it! Knocked it out of the park with iCloud Music Library and the Family Plan. Tried Spotify but it didn’t suit our needs.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iapplelove Avatar
97 months ago
I enjoyed my free trial. But not enough to keep subscribing.

Too many subscription services, so I chose not to subscribe to any.

I know I’m in the minority.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Avieshek Avatar
97 months ago
I enjoyed my free trial. But not enough to keep subscribing.

Too many subscription services, so I chose not to subscribe to any.

I know I’m in the minority.
You are not.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)