Apple Music Now Has More Subscribers Than Spotify In The United States [Report]

After reports this past February that suggested Apple Music would surpass Spotify in the paying subscriber stakes in the United States at some point this summer, Apple’s music streaming service has done exactly that after an industry source spoke with Digital Music News, outlining subscriber counts for both services.

The source, which did not want to be named for obvious reasons, detailed subscriber counts for Apple Music and Spotify as well as two other competing services; Tidal and Sirius XM.

However, the real focus is on the two heavyweights and it now appears that Apple Music is outselling Spotify, although only just.

The numbers are indeed close. According to the source both services have 20 million paying subscribers in the United States although Apple Music is now “a hair ahead” with “20 million plus” members. The source withheld the exact figures in an attempt to protect confidentiality.

A previous report courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, published in February, had Apple Music gaining subscribers at a higher rate than Spotify. Based on this it was suggested that Apple’s service would become the new US market leader this Summer.

(Image: Apple Music app recently updated with new ‘Coming Soon’ section)

Apple Music is showing growth in other areas, too, with its single-day streaming record of 170 million streams in a 24-hour period recently being set. That was thanks to Drake’s new album, Scorpion.

Apple’s increase in Apple Music subscribers is believed to be down to an increase in device sales. It’s also worth noting that the HomePod is a new edition to the market and is heavily connected to Apple’s ecosystem, including Apple Music. This alone is likely an excellent reason users are moving to Apple’s own streaming service with the HomePod having no way of adding Siri-connected support for Spotify.

(Source: Digital Music News)

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