Spotify’s subscriptions continue to rise despite the launch of competitor Apple Music in 2015. Spotify announced it had reached 100 million subscribers in June 2016 and has since gained another 40 million. In comparison, as of the Worldwide Developers Conference held earlier in June, Apple Music has 27 million subscribers.
An article published on MacRumors claims this rise is due to its free tier which Apple Music fails to provide. Apple Music only
Apple Music only provides a three-month free trial period, after which customers can only enter into a paid subscription. The article even reports Spotify vice president Jonathan Foster claiming that by increasing awareness of the concept of streaming music, Apple Music helped not hindered Spotify.
Spotify’s subscriptions were boosted further earlier this month when Taylor Swift finally joined the site, ending her refusal to give the site access to her music which stemmed back to 2014.
Her refusal came as a result of Spotify refusing to limit her music to Premium users, however, an agreement has now been reached allowing both Premium and non-Premium users access to her songs.
As a result, Apple Music no longer has an exclusive hold on her music, which was thought to have stopped some users switching to the rival site. Taylor Swift was previously exclusive to the site after they agreed to pay artists during its free trial period. The globally famous singer even featured in some of Apple Music’s adverts and a concert film before allowing Spotify access to her music.
