Apple Music growing faster in Canada than Spotify, says report

Apple Music is experiencing faster growth than rival music streaming service Spotify, according to a report from The Financial Times.

The news comes from unnamed music industry sources, who noted that Canada is a country with a strong investment in the Apple ecosystem, demonstrating a particularly high adoption rate of the iTunes Store.

It’s important to note Apple and Spotify don’t release country-specific subscriber information, opting instead to release worldwide figures periodically. In May, Apple reported 50 million worldwide users, a figure that includes both paying subscribers and those taking advantage of free trials.

Spotify, meanwhile, revealed that same month that it had amassed over 170 million users, including 75 million paid subscribers. Spotify launched in 2008, giving it an eight-year head start on Apple in the music streaming service space.

That lead is narrowing, however.

“Spotify has always targeted music lovers, who tend to be a bit younger and were early adopters of streaming,” Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Midia Research, told The Financial Times. “A lot of that base has been soaked up now, whereas Apple has a much wider customer base. They can get those more mainstream people very easily because [Apple Music] is already in their phone, and they already have their credit card info.”

The executives pointed to the June 29th release of Toronto-born rapper Drake’s album Scorpion as a testament to Apple Music’s rising relevance. In its first 24 hours, the album was streamed 170 million times on Apple Music compared to 130 million times on Spotify, despite the latter platform’s significantly higher user base.

Source: The Financial Times