It’s official: Apple Music is growing two and a half times faster than Spotify in the United States.
According to information provided by the Cupertino iPhone maker to the Wall Street Journal, its current subscriber base totals 36 million, which is up from the more than 30 million that it hit in September 2017.
Spotify is only growing at about 2% every month in the U.S., while Apple is growing at a much faster 5% per month.
At this rate, Apple Music should be able to overtake Spotify in the U.S. by summer of 2018. Worldwide, Spotify still has 70 million paying and another 70 million free-tier users.
Both services offer standard plans for individuals, students and families at similar rates: $9.99 a month, $4.99 a month and $14.99 a month, respectively. Apple, however, has the advantage of device user base because Apple Music comes pre-installed on iOS devices, and only requires a subscription to be activated.
It’s going to take a while for Apple Music to reach Spotify’s current 70 million user base level, but that could become a reality in the next year or two if Apple continues to push for more video content to be added to the platform and keeps growing at a 5% monthly rate.
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