"Apple Music Overtakes Spotify in Paid U.S. Subscribers"

"Tech giant’s subscription service trails Swedish rival’s globally but is growing faster"

WSJ Article published April 5, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-music-overtakes-spotify-in-u-s-subscribers-11554475924

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8098161/apple-music-spotify-streaming-wars-subscribers-advantage

Analysis by Nancy Rodriguez

The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple Music has more paid subscriptions in the U.S. than Spotify Technology. As of February, the rival music streaming services had a two million paid subscriptions difference in the U.S. Additionally, Apple Music has a higher monthly growth rate than Spotify comparing 2.6%-3% and 1.5%-2%. Globally, Apple Music is growing faster than Spotify at rates comparing 2.4%-2.8% and 2%-2.3%.
However, Spotify has more users overall in the U.S and globally. The reason is Apple Music only offers paid subscriptions, but Spotify offers paid subscriptions with an ad free experience and free subscriptions while getting revenue from ads.
Spotify has also maintained a high amount of users by promoting a discounted subscription bundle with Hulu, a television/movie streaming service. Spotify also promotes extended discounts for its users at 99 cents for three months of premium service. Further, Spotify has partnered with Samsung Electronics Co. to make it the default music service for South Korean users which seems to attempt to rival Apple's advantage of having its music app already installed in its own devices. Additionally, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint against Apple Music for using its App Store to its advantage.

Yet, Apple Music is growing quickly especially with its recently announced subscription offers for magazines, TV shows and video games. Apple's marketing team has also spent twice as much on TV ads than Spotify since 2016 including having ads during important televised events. However, Apple Music has not produced profits, because of the costs associated with music streaming services, brand image and promotion.

This article relates to marketing, because it discusses various parts of the marketing concept. Here you see two major music streaming services who are competing for subscribers and watching each other to stay ahead. Both steaming services are also using different yet similar types of promotions. It was noted in the article that both music streaming services use TV ads and promote discounts and partnerships. The discounts along with the different types of subscriptions appeal to the pricing aspect of the marketing concept. For example, Spotify has the upper hand, because it provides a free option which gives the music streaming service a larger target audience. However, although Apple Music seems to narrow its target market with only paid subscriptions, Apple Music works hard on maintaining a strong brand image.

I chose this article, because I use both Apple Music and Spotify. However, I am often inclined to use Spotify, because it is free and seems to have a larger music selection. On the other side, I am an avid Apple product user and having the app already installed in my phone sometimes makes it my default streaming service.