Apple’s new music-streaming service is enjoying less of a monopoly over the crowded online music market than it had hoped.
After reports this week that Apple Music had lost 48 per cent of its subscribers, the US-based tech giants known for their secrecy around statistics refuted the claim, stating it was closer to 21 per cent of the 11 million people who signed up for the service’s trial period.
The app’s three-month trial launched on July 1, and will be converted into a subscription service from October 1 for those who signed up immediately. In comparison, Apple’s biggest competitor – Spotify, launched in Stockholm in 2008 – has 20 million paying users, and a further 55 million who opt to use the service for free with intermittent ads and limited track skipping.
Apple Music has no ‘freemium’ model per se, however, all users with the iTunes app will be able to access some of its newer functions, such as radio content from Beats 1, free of charge. Both Spotify and Apple Music come in at the same price for individual users – $11.99 AUD per month, although Spotify’s family package offers a 50 per cent discount for each subsequent member, slightly pricier than Apple’s $17.99 for up to six members on individual devices. Essentially this means the two streaming giants are going head-to-head over nothing but the features they offer music fans.
Apple’s launch brought 24/7 live digital radio station Beats 1, which poached DJ Zane Lowe from his primetime slot at BBC Radio 1 and now broadcasts lives from London, New York and LA. The station features famous presenters and shows guest-hosted by musicians themselves, such as Pharrell, Elton John and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig.
Spotify’s radio function is not as slick, with an algorithm making users a stream based on what they enjoy. We found the radio stations slightly repetitive and not quite to our tastes. The playlists are where Spotify really triumphs – with huge collections of songs for every genre, time of day and mood, it is easier to navigate and far more personalised than Apple’s current playlist setup.
But it is the platforms’ social functions that will see which app eventually takes the streaming market monopoly. Nic Kelly, who works for Southern Cross Austereo and new online music broadcast platform #Amplify, says the new Apple service needs to lift its game.
“I find their partnerships with music tastemakers – for example, getting pop personalities like Muumuse to curate playlists – fascinating and effective,” he said.
“But ‘suggested playlists’ aren’t everything – people trust their peers more than traditional tastemakers. Their playlist sharing and social integration need to be improved ASAP or it will die.”
Spotify users can share personally curated playlists with friends, as well as use an in-app messaging service to send songs around – and a sidebar in the program shows what peers are listening to in real time. While Apple Music has a social media-type platform for artists to share content exclusively through the app, the capability to connect with fellow users is limited.
