Spotify Now Has 75M Paid Subscribers, Apple Music Has 40M

Wednesday May 2, 2018 2:33 PM PDT by Juli Clover
Spotify this afternoon reported its first quarterly earnings since its February IPO filing, and in the report, the company revealed that it now has 75 million paid subscribers.

The 75 million number is up from the 71 million paying subscribers that Spotify reported at the end of February, and it's almost double the number of subscribers who pay for Apple Music.


Apple in April said that it had 40 million paid subscribers across 115 countries and an additional eight million people using the service through the free three-month trial.

Though it has 75 million paid subscribers, Spotify's total subscriber base is much larger at 170 million subscribers due to the free tier that it offers.

While Spotify has more paying subscribers than Apple Music, the latter service has been gaining new subscribers at a quicker rate. A recent report from The Wall Street Journal suggested Apple Music is on track to overtake Spotify in U.S. subscribers as soon as this summer because its five percent growth rate per month outpaces Spotify's two percent growth rate.

Spotify last month beefed up its free tier with on-demand playlists, song recommendations, and a new low-data mode with the hopes that a more robust free tier will convert more listeners into paid subscribers.

Spotify stock is down following its earnings release as its $1.36 billion in revenue fell short of the $1.4 billion in revenue estimated by Wall Street.

Tags: Spotify, Apple Music
67 comments


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Plutonius
15 weeks ago
I'm not sure why people are concerned over what other people are using for a music service ? Use the one you want and hope that there is enough competition to keep the prices down.
Rating: 16 Votes
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Shaun, UK
15 weeks ago
Spotify is a million times better than Apple Music.
Rating: 14 Votes
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convergent
15 weeks ago
Love Spotify... moved away from Apple Music about a year ago. The main reason was that I wanted to use it across all my devices, and Apple Music didn't support some of them. Then after using it, I found that I like it better for discovery.
Rating: 13 Votes
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IGI2
15 weeks ago
Apple has to make a Linux version, or web-based version.

Spotify is easy to use on Linux.

Try iTunes on Linux via Wine, it's a nightmare.

Moreover, they could develop and promote their iCloud.com website by adding Apple Music there.

A lot of folks would get familiar with that domain and would see other options, such as Pages or iCloud Drive.

iMessage could also have a debut there. So we would gain a handful of useful apps there: iMessage (in the Cloud), Apple Music, Apple Maps, and the rest that's already there. Apple could steal the Google's momentum for web apps. (even further by making them iCloud-hosted, using CloudKit, or even making an App Store for iCloud.com).

Finally, a simple Apple Music on the web would resolve issues with lack of the Linux support or the need to install that crappy iTunes on Windows.
Rating: 9 Votes
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Defthand
15 weeks ago
After a disappointing subscription to Tidal and an unremarkable Apple Music trial, I agreed to try Spotify. I’m not a fan of compressed sound files when I listen with hifi hardware, but the offerings are fine for the car and for music discovery. I actually prefer Spotify’s discovery features and recommendations. Spotify‘s presentation somehow reminds me of the record store experience, whereas Apple Music resembles a pretentious art gallery.
Rating: 8 Votes
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IGI2
15 weeks ago

I'm not sure why people are concerned over what other people are using for a music service ? Use the one you want and hope that there is enough competition to keep the prices down.

Maybe it's a bit like with Messaging apps.

You're not using, for example, Viber (but just WhatsApp or Signal) and you cannot communicate with that person (who uses Viber).

Similarly with music services. You cannot share playlists, send direct links with each other to listen to that track.

When you have a party, and you know that remix is on Spotify and you want your friend to play it but it's non-existent on Apple Music.

Since it's all streaming you cannot send just that 7 MB file...
Rating: 7 Votes
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convergent
15 weeks ago

Still prefer Apple Music for the ecosystem. Be it storing music on my Apple Watch, or listening to it from my Apple TV, or locating a song via Siri. It’s all these little conveniences which add up.


And I basically get the same conveniences with Spotify.
Rating: 7 Votes
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dnewkirk
15 weeks ago
With their degree of success, Spotify till can't turn a profit. That's a big problem. That has to take its tole on the company eventually.
Rating: 6 Votes
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AxiomaticRubric
15 weeks ago
Spotify has a far better related music algorithm in my experience. Spotify finds music I like in Daily Mixes. Apple Music tends to force rubbish Pop hits down my ear canals.
Rating: 6 Votes
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robbyx
15 weeks ago

Spotify is a million times better than Apple Music.


What makes Apple better in my mind is that they didn’t just design the service for people who stream, but also for people who buy music. It’s why I’ve switched back after trying Google for a while. Spotify won’t match my 30,000+ track library and store all of that in the cloud. Most of those files are lossless as well. iTunes manages. Sonos plays. Plus everything is on my iPhone. I hear pretty consistently that Spotify is better for discovery, but that doesn’t interest me nearly as much as having a service that takes personal libraries into account.
Rating: 6 Votes
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