During Apple’s recent iPhone 7 media event, Tim Cook relayed that Apple Music now has more than 17 million subscribers. That’s a respectable figure, to be sure, but Apple’s streaming music service has a long ways to go before it comes anywhere close to catching up with Spotify.
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According to subtly cryptic tweet sent out by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek earlier today, Apple Music’s main rival now boasts more than 40 million paying subscribers.
40 is the new 30.
Million. 😄— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) September 14, 2016
This is rather astounding because last we heard, Spotify had 30 million paying subscribers as of March 2016. In other words, Spotify added 10 million new subscribers in just six months time. Even more impressive is that Spotify’s subscriber base has skyrocketed by 100% over the last 15 months, jumping from 20 million in June of 2015 to 40 million today.
Apple Music, meanwhile, is growing at a much slower clip. As a quick illustration, Apple Music over the last seven months grew from 13 million to 17 million paid subscribers. While that’s nothing to scoff at, it appears that Apple’s obsession with securing music exclusives from the likes of Frank Ocean and Beyonce isn’t having quite the impact some would have otherwise anticipated.
Meanwhile, the new Apple Music overhaul appears to be a Windows Phone-inspired jumbled mess. Without question, Spotify’s UI still runs circles around Apple Music.
