Despite the fast pace of growth for the Apple Music streaming service, its main competitor Spotify doesn't seem bothered. A Spotify exec's recent comments indicated that the company's growth has quickened since Apple launched its competing streamer.
Much has been made about the fast pace of growth for Apple's music streaming service, Apple Music, since the platform was launched just about a year ago. The most recent figures from Apple, noted in its quarterly earnings call last month, pegged the number of Apple Music subscribers at 13 million. That's 2 million more than the company had reported in February, indicating a current growth of an impressive 1 million subscribers monthly.
Spotify execs, however, don't appear bothered at the growth of what, by most accounts, appears to be shaping up as the company's main rival in the paid streaming sphere. Jonathan Forster, a Spotify VP, says Apple's entry into the marketplace has hastened the growth of streaming use in general.
"It's great that Apple is in the game. They are definitely raising the profile of streaming. It is hard to build an industry on your own. Since Apple Music started we've been growing quicker and adding more users than before," said Forster. "It would be terrible if we were just taking each other's users or to learn there was just a ceiling of 100 million users — I don't think that is the case."
Spotify recently announced that it has surpassed the 100 million subscriber mark, with over 30 million of those users on its monthly paid tier. The remaining subscribers utilize Spotify's free advertising-supported tier, an option unavailable on Apple Music.
Forster did indicate, however, that he expects a shakeout in the industry at some point, which could affect some of the smaller streamers — read, Tidal, but that niche streamers focusing on specific genres of music may still have a shot. He also stated that the company plans to acquire companies that could support its core business, such as ticketing, merchandising and video platforms.
Forster was coy, however, on whether Spotify could itself be an acquisition target for a bigger company like Facebook or Google.
"I've always felt Spotify likes being Spotify. We have fought to get to where we are today and we are quite happy and it would be emotionally hard not to be us, but," he qualified, "who knows? I think that people have really woken up to the opportunity of streaming. We can see that it is just the beginning. We've never grown quicker than we have."
