When Apple launched Apple Music in June 2015, many believed it would only be a matter of time before Apple caught up and eventually overtook Spotify. Apple’s financial and commercial power combined with an installed base of hundreds of millions of iOS seemed like a tough combination to beat the Swedish music pioneers.
And yet, since Apple launched its own streaming service midway through 2015, Spotify has managed to keep Apple Music at arm's length. If anything, Spotify seems to be pulling away from Apple Music in terms of subscribers. As the chart below shows, the gap between the two streaming services has gradually widened from 20 million when Apple Music launched to more than 40 million subscribers by the end of 2018.
Spotify announced Wednesday that it had 96 million subscribers and 207 million monthly active users across premium and ad-supported tiers last year. True to its European heritage, Spotify is the most popular across the continent, with 40 percent of its premium subscribers in Europe. North America, the home turf of rival Apple Music, is Spotify’s second-largest market, accounting for 30 percent of the premium.
