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Apple Music up to 20 million subscribers

Apple Music black canvasApple Music has confirmed that it now has more than 20 million subscribers. The streaming music service is still comparatively the new kid on the block, but it has been growing at a steady clip since its launch on June 30, 2015. Within its first year, the platform jumped out to 15 million subscribers. Adding another 5 million in just under six months shows that the service is holding strong, especially with the rollout of a more user-friendly redesign.

Any time there are subscriber updates from across the industry, it’s natural to review how it stacks up against the rest of the competition. Spotify is currently still in the lead with 40 million paying subscribers as of September. However, the next year could lead to some shuffles in the standings, with iHeartRadio debuting two new subscription products and Pandora Premium on the horizon. These new on-demand entries are stemming from existing lean-back services, just as Apple had a large consumer base for its tech products when it rolled out Apple Music. Time will tell if the newcomers are able to convert paying subscribers at as fast a clip.

Anna Washenko

10 Comments

  1. I’ve been trying to decide between Apple Music for Android or try out my phone’s Google Play Music app. I’m leaning towards Google’s app. The Google Play Music application acts as a local music player and can see the music you have stored on your device. This successfully bridges the gap between locally stored music and streaming with more fluidity than the competition.

    • If most of your music is from iTunes, my suggestion would be to get an app to sync your songs to Android. There are some sync apps that double as music players as well.

    • If you do like I do, and occasionally need to buy from somewhere other than iTunes, I would suggest using Amazon as a secondary music store.

    • The difference between Apple Music for Android and Apple Music for iPhone is that iPhone users can listen to their iTunes purchases without having to subscribe. Android users, on the other hand, have to subscribe in order to listen to their purchases. Since it sounds like you are an Android user, if I were you, I would either sync your iTunes music to your phone (Google Play has several apps for that) or I would transfer them via your phone’s USB cable or I would add them to other cloud services only if your library is not too large.

  2. I did a test of purchasing some music from Google Music. It plays good in their phone app but their downloading program is slow. Also, unless you subscribe to their streaming program, your purchases do not automatically show up in their phone app. You have to manually copy them from your PC to the phone.

    • Definitely agree with you. I’ve downloaded from iTunes and Amazon. Both work really well. Decided to give Google Music a try and got frustrated at the slowness.

    • Re: Only streamers get purchases instantly on their phones.

      Sounds like Google is treating music downloaders as second class citizens or red headed stepchildren.

      I’ll test out Amazon and let you guys know if they do the same.

    • I downloaded the Amazon Music app. Purchases of downloaders show up.

      • I might try Google’s music store/app again. Maybe there was something that needed to be edited with my settings.

    • Download and upload speeds have to do with Internet connections. Could have been either a slow connection on your end or it may have been on Google’s end.

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