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Spotify-Apple Turn Up the Volume as Music Streaming Fad Grows
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The rivalry between Spotify (SPOT - Free Report) and Apple (AAPL - Free Report) in the music streaming service market is intensifying on a rapidly expanding subscriber base.
Although Sweden-based Spotify is leading for the time being, Apple Music is fast catching up. Per Apple’s senior vice president Eddy Cue, Apple Music now has more than 60 million subscribers, which trails Spotify’s 100 million premium subscriber count.
The competition is going to get stiffer given the strong prospects of the music streaming market. Per Adroit Market Research, the global subscriber base is expected to reach 2.81 billion by the end of 2025.
The immense growth potential has also attracted other service providers. Although Spotify and Apple are leading the music streaming market, services from Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) , Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , Sirius-owned Pandora, Tidal and the recently-launched Qobuz are worth taking note of.
Spotify’s Expanding Partner Base: A Key Catalyst
Spotify’s popularity is primarily driven by its easy-to-use interface and focus on personalization of playlists that enhance music experience for users. Moreover, partnerships with Alphabet’s Google, Starbucks, Uber, Samsung and Hulu are major growth drivers.
Notably, Spotify offers an ad-supported free tier to users, which aids monthly active user (MAU) growth. At the end of first-quarter 2019 (ending Mar 31), MAUs hit 217 million. The company expects premium subscriber base to reach 117-127 million in 2019.
Spotify’s continued focus on strengthening global presence is a major plus. Late February, the company forayed into India, expanding its global footprint to 79 countries.
Moreover, synchronization with Google Home products is a key catalyst. With smart speakers mainly being used to listen to music (70%) in 2018, per an Adobe Analytics survey, Spotify is expected to gain from this trend.
Additionally, in March, the company extended its partnership with Google by expanding Google Home Mini promotion in the United Kingdom and France.
Further, thanks to the expanded partnership with Samsung, the Korean smartphone giant’s new devices have the Spotify app preloaded. Notably, new users buying Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S10 device will also have access to a special six-month free trial offer for Spotify Premium.
Apple’s presence in the music streaming industry is fast expanding driven by a plethora of initiatives.
The company’s tie-up extension with Verizon has made Apple Music available for free to the U.S. telecom giant’s customers, who subscribed to the plans — Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited. The users can freely access Apple Music’s 50 million songs across a variety of Apple and Android devices.
Further, the service is available on Echo smart speakers, thanks to Apple’s partnership with Amazon.
Moreover, Apple’s collaboration with American Airlines has enabled Apple Music subscribers access the streaming app on flights, without having to pay for in-flight Wi-Fi.
Apple Music faces stiff competition in the Indian music streaming market not only from local service providers JioSaavn and Gaana but also from Spotify and Alphabet’s YouTube Music. Per The Verge, the company lowered Apple Music subscription prices from $1.73 to $1.43 in India to attract subscribers.
We believe the YouTube Music and Amazon Music Unlimited services are currently well-poised to challenge the Apple-Spotify duopoly.
YouTube Music is leveraging on the popularity of YouTube and capabilities of its machine-learning techniques. Additionally, Alphabet’s strong focus on expanding global footprint is a major positive. YouTube Music was recently launched in India. The service is available in 17 countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, U.K. and Mexico.
Amazon Music Unlimited, which is a premium subscription service available on the Amazon Music app, offers tens of millions of songs and thousands of expert-programmed playlists and stations.
The e-commerce giant offers this service to more than 40 countries such as the United States, Canada, India, Sweden, Netherlands, Greece, Hungary and Costa Rica.
Additionally, Amazon leverages the popularity of Prime and its ever-expanding subscriber base to strengthen presence in the music streaming space. The company offers Amazon Prime Music exclusively for Prime members at no additional cost.
Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2018, while the S&P 500 gained +15.8%, five of our screens returned +38.0%, +61.3%, +61.6%, +68.1%, and +98.3%.
This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 – 2018, while the S&P averaged +4.8% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +56.2% per year.
Image: Bigstock
Spotify-Apple Turn Up the Volume as Music Streaming Fad Grows
The rivalry between Spotify (SPOT - Free Report) and Apple (AAPL - Free Report) in the music streaming service market is intensifying on a rapidly expanding subscriber base.
Although Sweden-based Spotify is leading for the time being, Apple Music is fast catching up. Per Apple’s senior vice president Eddy Cue, Apple Music now has more than 60 million subscribers, which trails Spotify’s 100 million premium subscriber count.
The competition is going to get stiffer given the strong prospects of the music streaming market. Per Adroit Market Research, the global subscriber base is expected to reach 2.81 billion by the end of 2025.
The immense growth potential has also attracted other service providers. Although Spotify and Apple are leading the music streaming market, services from Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) , Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , Sirius-owned Pandora, Tidal and the recently-launched Qobuz are worth taking note of.
Spotify’s Expanding Partner Base: A Key Catalyst
Spotify’s popularity is primarily driven by its easy-to-use interface and focus on personalization of playlists that enhance music experience for users. Moreover, partnerships with Alphabet’s Google, Starbucks, Uber, Samsung and Hulu are major growth drivers.
Notably, Spotify offers an ad-supported free tier to users, which aids monthly active user (MAU) growth. At the end of first-quarter 2019 (ending Mar 31), MAUs hit 217 million. The company expects premium subscriber base to reach 117-127 million in 2019.
Spotify’s continued focus on strengthening global presence is a major plus. Late February, the company forayed into India, expanding its global footprint to 79 countries.
Moreover, synchronization with Google Home products is a key catalyst. With smart speakers mainly being used to listen to music (70%) in 2018, per an Adobe Analytics survey, Spotify is expected to gain from this trend.
Additionally, in March, the company extended its partnership with Google by expanding Google Home Mini promotion in the United Kingdom and France.
Further, thanks to the expanded partnership with Samsung, the Korean smartphone giant’s new devices have the Spotify app preloaded. Notably, new users buying Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S10 device will also have access to a special six-month free trial offer for Spotify Premium.
Spotify Technology SA Price and Consensus
Spotify Technology SA price-consensus-chart | Spotify Technology SA Quote
Apple Gaining Footprint Rapidly
Apple’s presence in the music streaming industry is fast expanding driven by a plethora of initiatives.
The company’s tie-up extension with Verizon has made Apple Music available for free to the U.S. telecom giant’s customers, who subscribed to the plans — Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited. The users can freely access Apple Music’s 50 million songs across a variety of Apple and Android devices.
Further, the service is available on Echo smart speakers, thanks to Apple’s partnership with Amazon.
Moreover, Apple’s collaboration with American Airlines has enabled Apple Music subscribers access the streaming app on flights, without having to pay for in-flight Wi-Fi.
Apple Music faces stiff competition in the Indian music streaming market not only from local service providers JioSaavn and Gaana but also from Spotify and Alphabet’s YouTube Music. Per The Verge, the company lowered Apple Music subscription prices from $1.73 to $1.43 in India to attract subscribers.
Apple Inc. Price and Consensus
Apple Inc. price-consensus-chart | Apple Inc. Quote
YouTube Music & Amazon Music: Closest Challengers
We believe the YouTube Music and Amazon Music Unlimited services are currently well-poised to challenge the Apple-Spotify duopoly.
YouTube Music is leveraging on the popularity of YouTube and capabilities of its machine-learning techniques. Additionally, Alphabet’s strong focus on expanding global footprint is a major positive. YouTube Music was recently launched in India. The service is available in 17 countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, U.K. and Mexico.
Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus
Alphabet Inc. price-consensus-chart | Alphabet Inc. Quote
Amazon Music Unlimited, which is a premium subscription service available on the Amazon Music app, offers tens of millions of songs and thousands of expert-programmed playlists and stations.
The e-commerce giant offers this service to more than 40 countries such as the United States, Canada, India, Sweden, Netherlands, Greece, Hungary and Costa Rica.
Additionally, Amazon leverages the popularity of Prime and its ever-expanding subscriber base to strengthen presence in the music streaming space. The company offers Amazon Prime Music exclusively for Prime members at no additional cost.
Amazon.com, Inc. Price and Consensus
Amazon.com, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Amazon.com, Inc. Quote
Zacks Rank
Currently, Spotify, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet have a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Today's Best Stocks from Zacks
Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2018, while the S&P 500 gained +15.8%, five of our screens returned +38.0%, +61.3%, +61.6%, +68.1%, and +98.3%.
This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 – 2018, while the S&P averaged +4.8% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +56.2% per year.
See their latest picks free >>