Apple Music has more paying subscribers than Spotify in the US

In the US, Apple Music has more paid subscribers than Spotify, the WSJ and Reuters report citing sources. The two music streaming services have been in competition for some time, with Spotify recently accusing Apple of unfair practices.

According to the WSJ sources, since February there have been more than 28 million paid Apple Music subscribers compared to 26 million with Spotify. Apple Music is also expected to grow faster than Spotify in the United States, at 2.6 to 3 percent versus 1.5 to 2 percent, respectively. Overall, Spotify probably has even more subscribers than Apple Music, because Spotify also has a free subscription with ads and those subscribers are not included in the above figures. On the other hand, Apple includes its Music app as standard on all iOS devices. Reuters has asked the two companies for comment, but both declined to comment.

Neither Spotify nor Apple are likely to officially comment on the numbers mentioned, as neither company specifically sets out subscriber numbers by country. For example, in announcing its most recent quarterly figures, Spotify indicated that it has 207 million monthly active users worldwide and that 30 percent of those are from North America, but the Swedish company does not specify these figures. The same goes for the total of 96 million paying Spotify subscribers; nearly 29 million of them come from North America, but that includes Canada.

Spotify made a strong statement about Apple last month. According to the Swedish company, Apple behaves as a monopolist and has a policy through the App Store that disadvantages competitors of Apple Music. Spotify has filed an official complaint with the European Commission based on its objections. As a competition regulator, this EU body may decide to launch an investigation into Apple, although it is not yet known whether this will actually happen or has already happened.