Spotify says it has 182 million subscribers, with 422 million monthly active users.Īpple Music is Spotify's nearest, albeit still distant, competitor.

Spotify is the most popular music streaming service in the world.Īs Apple doesn't offer its subscriber counts regularly, there's no official word on how many subscribe to it. The same research determined that Apple Music was second, catering to 15% of the nearly 524 million global listeners of streaming music services. Research released in Januarydetermined that Spotify was the biggest globally, with a 31% share in 2021, albeit down from 33% in 2020. It also wasn't a project that Apple started from scratch, as elements came from Beats Music, the service it bought as part of its broader $3 billion Beats acquisition.Īs the long-time streaming option, Spotify has cemented itself as the 800-pound gorilla of the market. Of the two, Spotify is the oldest, having been operating since 2006, and so the longest time running in the market.Īpple Music launched much later in 2015, but it benefits from Apple's history with iTunes, which launched in 2001, followed by the iTunes Music Store in 2003. Users settled on one service may not necessarily see much need to switch sides, but there can be benefits to doing so depending on your listening needs. Under closer scrutiny, there are a fair number of differences between the two audio entertainment options. The two seem like similar all-you-can-eat music services from the outside, and they're pretty interchangeable. As the two most prominent on the market, most users will pick one or the other as their service of choice. With many smartphone users regularly listening to music, a subscription to a streaming app is a must.

Many apps are trying to keep the attention of subscribers willing to pay a monthly fee, but two giants are taking the most attention at the top of the pile: Spotify and Apple Music. Music streaming is big business, and after years of services being available, it has become a very crowded market. Spotify's App Store icon (left), Apple Music (right)

Spotify versus itunes