Apple Stock News
Four months after Apple released “Apple Music”, the silicon valley tech company has already begun to compete with the major music streaming services, Spotify and Pandora.
Earlier this week, CEO, Tim Cook announced that Apple Music had already gotten 15 million subscribers, 6.5 million of which have already signed up to pay. This is particularly impressive when you compare Apple Music to Pandora and Spotify. Pandora has 78 million subscribers, however only around 4 million paying subscribers. Spotify has 20 million paying subscribers, which makes Apple already one third of the way to being level with them.
Pandora has been more impacted by the emergence of Apple Music. Pandora lost 36% of its users in the last quarter alone. Spotify has remained stagnant as they, like Apple, offer on-demand music, rather than just a radio service like Pandora.
While Apple music is off to a fast start, this doesn’t mean Spotify or even Pandora. When the music service first launched in June, users were offered a free 3 month trial. For many users their free trial will be ending soon, and some will cancel its subscription. There are also only 41 million people in the world who pay to subscribe to music. This means there is still more than enough room for all 3 companies to grow and thrive.
Apple Music is off to a fast start, but it’s goal of dominating the streaming music industry is far from a guarantee.