Apple’s music streaming service now boasts over 10 million subscribers on its platform. The feat has been accomplished by Apple in a span of just six months, something which took its nemesis, Spotify close to six years to achieve.
Apple Music has out done its competitors and grown resoundingly within a short span of time. The music streaming platform is now available in more than 100 countries, after Apple expanded the services to newer territories in June last year.
The success of Apple Music will most certainly raise hopes for the music streaming segment. However, Industry experts opine that the success of Apple Music might result in the reduction of number of music downloads, which will affect the revenue of the music industry.
The rise in the number of music streaming services in the market had curbed the rate of downloads by almost 9 percent in 2014. This has reduced the profits generated from the online sale of albums in the US. Compared to the sales of individual tracks the numbers fell by almost 12 percent, according to Nielsen Music data.
The fall in number of downloads has increased the demand in music streaming by 50 per cent. Users from across the globe have streamed over 164 billion songs across various platforms.
Spotify and Apple are the current industry leaders in the market with respect to their active user base. Apple Music is closing in on its rival Spotify and is pitted to overtake the platform by 2017.
Other platforms such as Deezer, Tidal are catching up to take over their own share of the market. Deezer accounts for over 6 million users and was expected to make its initial public offering last October, which did not materialise. Tidal, on the other hand is a service owned by Jay Z and other artists, making it a unique service in the market. With the backing of renowned names in the industry, Tidal has managed to create a following of its own and reportedly signed up 1 million subscribers in October.
Leading ahead of its competitors, Spotify is laying the ground plan for making an initial public offering. The service is valued at more than $8 billion and has more than 75 million active users and operates in over 56 territories.
The service based in Sweden had announced in June last year that it had managed to sign up 20 million paid subscribers on its platform. Ever since then the number has increased and is a notable revenue generator for the platform. The success of the app has made it the third most profitable app on the App Store in the US.
