Apple Music Has More Paid Subscribers in the U.S. Than Spotify

HONG KONG, HONG KONG - OCTOBER 11: A man holds an Apple iPhone5S as he uses Apple Music app on October 11, 2017 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong. (Photo by studioEAST/Getty Images)

In the constant battle of Apple Music vs Spotify, it appears that Apple Music has taken a slight lead. According to new data released by the Wall Street Journal, a report released last week revealed that Apple Music now currently holds 28 million paid subscribers in the United States. This overtakes the 26 million paid subscribers for Spotify—by a substantial amount.

Spotify still maintains the global edge over Apple Music, which incorporates free tier users as well. This is evident by over 95 million for Spotify worldwide versus roughly 50 million for Apple. However, Apple Music has shown a steady growth between 2.6% to 3% in the past year. This compares to Spotify’s modest growth of 1.5% to 2% in the same timeframe.

With iPhone users at over 900 million worldwide and Apple Music pre-installed on every new phone, Apple Music has placed itself in a tremendous position for this overthrow. Apple has show strong dedication in building new services and playlists for paid subscribers as well. These services cater specifically to iPhone users, and their sleek marketing campaigns seem to be working. Additionally, Apple has worked with phone plan carriers to incorporate Apple Music subscriptions into their deals.

While the battle for streaming supremacy wages on, the next frontier remains with one question: how can these platforms provide “different” options from each other? A big complaint is that it doesn’t really matter which service you have. Ultimately, users will have access to almost all of the same music.

Where do you stand in the debate? Are you loyal to Apple, or are you in the Spotify camp?