The Swedish company Spotify has added 20 million paid subscribers in less than a year, while it’s taken Apple Music more than a year and a half to make that progress. Spotify now has 60 million subscribers, compared to Apple Music’s 27 million. Together with the ad-supporter free service the total listening base for Spotify worldwide now is 140 million.
Spotify’s ability to accelerate its growth rate despite competition from Apple the world’s most powerful company is a testament to the product and community it’s built. Spotify remains the go-to streaming service for music lovers.
Spotify growth has been fueled by several important product developments:
Discover Weekly: Spotify’s wildly popular weekly updated personalized playlist has made it the top choice for music fans trying to find new songs and artists to love. The playlist reached 40 million users its first year, and Spotify has followed it with Release Radar specifically for new tracks.
Recruiting Hold-Out Artists: The royalty payouts to musicians have grown significantly alongside Spotify’s subscriber base. The cash, plus the leverage Spotify has built as it becomes a must-have distribution channel if artists want a big hit record. The public debut could strengthen Spotify’s standing in the music industry, and convince both artist and listener holdouts that it’s built to last.
Google Home + Spotify: The partnership with Google Home for voice-controlled music will become even more important once Apple starts shipping its own HomePod smart speaker.
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Analysis: Spotify positioning itself as a major music distributor on a level to be compared with Netflix for television drama and movies. Spotify will make an impact on how an competing broadcasting industry will position itself for the future.
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