Spotify has surpassed 500 million downloads on Android, despite having only 207 million monthly active users.
How many ‘zombie apps’ does Spotify have? According to the latest Google Play Store counts, Android devices alone have 500 million total Spotify apps installed.
The high install number is undoubtedly inflated by people who no longer use the app. But the same person installing Spotify across multiple Android devices also counts, making a precise ‘zombie’ estimate difficult to calculate.
Still, this is the first non-preloaded music streaming app to pass 500 million downloads on Android — ever.
Spotify has beat Pandora, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, and several others to the 500 million mark.
Both TIDAL and Apple Music still have a paltry 10-50 million downloads. That’s in comparison to the previously mentioned apps which all have 100-500 million downloads.
The stat comes with good news, and bad news. Even with the inflated numbers over actual subscriber counts, it appears that Spotify is the most popular streaming app among Android users. It’s not hard to see why, especially when Spotify continues inking hardware partnerships with Android-heavy manufacturers like Samsung.
There are also rumors that Spotify is looking to create its own physical hardware in the future. Earlier this year, The Financial Times reported that Spotify would release an in-car music player this year. The rumored player is expected to cost around $100.
Spotify is attempting to compete at the same level as pre-loaded music streaming services.
Apple Music and Google’s ever-rotating default music app have the advantage of coming pre-installed on every iOS or Android device. Spotify is the new default on all Samsung devices, which is a direct threat to YouTube Music.
Spotify is hoping that most auto owners will want a single service device that can be left in their car. Instead of fiddling with the Spotify app every time you want to listen to music, Spotify’s in-car solution is just a few taps away. Spotify has already released a simplified Car View for Android users, which activates automatically when connected to a car’s Bluetooth.
This announcement by Spotify was clearly just to counter Apple Music’s weak 40 million installs on Android. I would love to know what the Apple Music app install base looks like on iOS. It’s probably a laughably high number relative to the actual usage.