Quick Hits: Quarterly results for Amazon and Apple, plus industry snapshots

Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:

Amazon Q2 results stay strong: Amazon posted quarterly sales of $30.4 billion with $857 million, or $1.78 per share, in net profit. Q2 2016 marks the fifth consecutive quarter in the black. The report didn’t divulge specifics about either Prime membership or the specific Prime Music platform. However, CFO Brian Olsavsky simply said that Prime is performing well. In light of the results, and corresponding market response, Quartz posted an insightful feature assessing Amazon’s growth trajectory.

Apple’s Services revenue on the rise: Apple has also shared its quarterly earnings. The tech company reported quarterly revenue of $42.4 billion on net income of $7.8 billion, or $1.42 per share. Apple Music didn’t have as much of a presence in this period, but the company announced that its services business did grow 19% year-over-year.

Apple vs Spotify: And finally, a comparison of Apple Music with current industry leader Spotify. It explains how Apple has begun creating perceived value around its streaming music product, which has been updated for more simplicity and to encourage multiple visits a day. The distinction appeared to boil down to “Spotify is becoming like MySpace, while Apple Music is more like Facebook.”

Anna Washenko