Apple Music is more popular than Spotify in the United States, according to Digital Music News. The report doesn’t use a survey as a basis for the information. Instead, the media outlet was briefed on confidential details from a major U.S. distributor within the music industry.
Both services have each exceeded 20 million subscribers in the U.S., but Apple Music holds a slight edge over its biggest competitor. The exact numbers weren’t offered to let the source remain anonymous.
Spotify, however, does still have more subscribers than Apple Music if you include the rest of the world. But the two services aren’t as far apart as the numbers suggest. The last time we heard from Spotify, the industry leader said it has 75 million subscribers worldwide. Apple Music has somewhere around 40 million subscribers with strong momentum in its favor.
When taking its newly-revamped free tier into consideration, Spotify’s user base grows exponentially to 170 million.
The two services are traveling down different paths. While Spotify is trying to bolster its ad-supported model and transition those users to a subscription, Apple Music could soon find itself bundled with other Apple-made services.
