By: Gabrielle Delgado and Ankita Sheoran

Music streaming services have been rapidly rising in popularity, causing music to become increasingly accessible. Streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music have become the go-to sources for your daily dose of music; forcing the question, which is better?

In 2017, spare time has become anything but spare. It is filled with television, texting, and music. People want anything but silence and solidarity in this day and age, which is where music comes in. On a bus ride people would rather listen to music than talk to friends or take a moment for themselves. This is why music is becoming a big part in humans’ everyday lives which is why streaming services are blowing up everywhere you look.

Streaming services are applications that allow you to listen to a vast amount of music for a set amount of money a month. Instead of paying $1.29 for only one song on iTunes, you can pay the small price of $9.99 a month for unlimited music and downloads. One application that streams music that is becoming increasingly popular is Spotify. Spotify offers a month of its premium service for free, after which you have to pay. Spotify premium includes ad-free music, the ability to choose any song you want to listen to and the option to download music offline. With the free version of this app, you cannot download music offline, choose the exact songs you want to listen to, and you have to listen to advertisements but it is still a good option for people who would not like to or have the option to pay. Currently, there are fifty million people are subscribed to Spotify Premium around the world, revealing its successful and still growing revenue.

Spotify is not the only leading streaming service in the music game. Apple Music, an application created by Apple, also streams music and gives access to a variety of songs from many genres and artists. Unlike Spotify, who has a free version, Apple Music offers a three month free trial so that you can experience the app before you make the plunge and get that subscription. Like Spotify, this subscription is also $9.99 per month. While Spotify has reached an astonishing fifty million subscribers to their paid version, Apple Music has only 17 million subscribers as of now.

Apple Music subscribers have been steadily rising since last year, Apple reported having 11 million subscribers in February 2016, 13 million in April 2016, 17 million in October, and 20 million this past December. Though these statistics reveal that Apple Music may have been left in Spotify’s dust, they have been creeping up slowly, and may soon be a valid competitor in the ever growing business of music streaming services.

Sources used:

• https://www.statista.com/topics/2075/spotify/

Singleton, Micah. “Spotify Has over 100 Million Active Users.” The Verge. The Verge, 20 June 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2017 http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/20/11976554/spotify-has-over-100-million-active-users