Dear Apple, Thanks for Making Us Even Bigger. Signed, Spotify…

Spotify’s growth accelerates since Apple Music launch…

In a recent interview with Reuters Jonathan Forster, Vice President of Spotify says…

“Since Apple Music started we’ve been growing quicker and adding more users than before.”

It took Spotify from 2008 to 2014 (6 years) to hit 10 million paying subscribers.  Spotify’s growth then started to pick up momentum in 2015, right about when Apple Music launched.  The streaming service managed to gain an extra 10 million subscribers in just over one year, hitting 20 million paid subscribers in 2015.

It then took Spotify approximately 9 months to gain an extra 10 million, an addition of over 1 million paying users per month during 2015 and 2016.  This highlights that the rate at which the streaming platform added paying subscribers has accelerated significantly since Apple Music launched.  Never in its history has Spotify experienced such accelerated growth.

Forster says…

“It’s great that Apple is in the game. They are definitely raising the profile of streaming. It is hard to build an industry on your own.”

Forster also says that “it would be terrible if we were just taking each other’s users or to learn there was just a ceiling of 100 million users – I don’t think that is the case.”

I think Forster is right here. It is definitely more healthy to have a few players in the game, than just one, because it creates healthy competition and is ultimately better for music listeners as the industry won’t have one service controlling and monopolizing the market space.

Streaming is no longer a new phenomenon, it’s an industry, and in order for it to grow there needs to more than one company to drive that growth, and which better company to help build an industry grow than Apple.  Apple has the market power and the money to invest into its streaming service and ultimately the music industry.

But, Spotify’s not letting Apple’s size intimidate them and are investing a large amount of money themselves.  In March, Spotify announced that it has raised $1 billion in convertible debt in a funding round led by  private equity firm TPG, hedge fund Dragoneer Investment Group and Goldman Sachs, indicating that the streaming service have intentions of expanding.

At last count, Spotify had 30 million paying users, and Apple Music had 13 million.  If both streaming services continue to add an extra one million subscribers on average each month, we will see Apple Music surpassing 20 million subscribers by the end of the year, and Spotify nearly reaching double that amount at nearly 40 million subscribers by the end of 2016.

But, maybe it’s not about weighing them both up against each other, but about building a streaming industry that’s fair for artists and affordable for music listeners.