Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021 • Hacker News Board

Re: Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021

#71

Post by anoonmoose » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 8:57 PM UTC

amanzi wrote: post #49

anoonmoose wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long time user of Google Play Music as well and I gotta say...while YouTube Music is slightly inferior (edit: to GPM), it's not even close to inferior enough to convince me to go back to Spotify. Granted, it does look like Spotify finally fixed the thing that got me to leave in the first place (10K library limit) but there's nothing so bad about YTM that I'd bother to pick up and move again.

Depending on your point of view, YouTube Music is far inferior to Spotify. The key advantage to Spotify is that they have apps for all platforms and have a much better integration story than YouTube Music. For example, I can stream directly from the Spotify app on Android to my Sonos speakers, I can use a Spotify app on my Samsung TV, I can integrate Spotify on my Home Assistant server, and I can sync Spotify playlis…

Some of those things I can do (I can stream directly from the YTM app to many different devices in my house, I don't have any Sonos stuff though)

Some of it I never even thought of doing (no Home Assistant, Garmin watch)

Some of those things I explicitly do not want to do (my TV is hooked up to a Windows PC with wireless keyboard, using an app directly on the TV sounds like a strict downgrade in usability)

I'd say it's less of a "point of view" thing and more of a "how do you interact with computers and the IoT" thing

Re: Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021

#72

Post by hbn » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 8:58 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #65

hbn wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify is a nonstarter for me because I can't upload my own music. I don't want to be beholden to whatever they decide I can listen to, and there's lots of music I want to listen to that's not in any streaming catalogue. edit: note I say "upload," not syncing local files to my phone. I want a built-in streaming catalogue + cloud music locker that all my devices stream from, not something I have to manually transfer…

That's completely fair and I even pay for iTunes Match even though I don't really use it anymore, it and Apple Music never meshed well in my experience but maybe it's gotten better. There is a way to listen to your own music in Spotify (even mobile) [0] but it might be a little shaky, I doubt they care much about it. I've used it before but only on desktop. [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-upload-music-to-s…

I've read up on Spotify's custom library stuff, and it seems to just be a weird hack that only works on one device. What I really want is a music locker I can stream to any device to fill in the gaps that aren't available in the streaming library.

Re: Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021

#73

Post by robbiep » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 8:58 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #39

I am all in on Apple and only a few dollars away from the Apple One bundle being worth it for me but I just don't like Apple Music. The UI is just too difficult to use and it feels slower than it should be, definitely slower than Spotify. While I have no love for Spotify's podcast ventures and dislike them trying to push me to listen to podcasts on their platform, I do love it for music and it "Just Works". Also I ca…

I agree that Spotify is a much better ‘listening experience’ (ie discoverability etc) but the problems I have between Spotify and my HomePod(s) is almost enough for me to switch back to music - it is infuriating, needing to reboot the HomePod to get it to play anything again (apparently an issue with Spotify not supporting airplay 2 but the flow on effects are weird)

Re: Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021

#74

Post by Graffur » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 8:58 PM UTC

schoolornot wrote: post #40

Eddy Cue should be fired for allowing Spotify to reach such critical mass. Music and playlists is such a sticky ecosystem that people don't just up and switch services at a whim. The 381 million users that Spotify accumulated over the years will never switch to another platform. Apple lost so many years with trying to spin Beats into something that it wasn't, rewriting clients, and putting out garbage like "Your Stat…

Strong statements. I just cancelled Spotify and will likely go to another provider when I choose to get a music streaming sub back.

Re: Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021

#75

Post by poulsbohemian » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 8:58 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #67

aparticulate wrote: post #50

sluggish UI aside, I really don't like Apple Music's TASTE in music. Spotify's playlists are reliably more niche. Apple is far more "GRAMMY/Top 40"-oriented and that's just not interesting to me. Also, Apple should have bought Rdio.

I really don't like Apple Music's TASTE in music. I'm with you there. Apple (and really all the streaming services) are constantly crowing about how many millions of songs they have. How about some metric for how many good songs they have? 80% of my wife's record collection is not available on Apple Music, so I'm left ripping her records in what used to be my spare time. The only reason we have Apple Music is for whe…

>80% of my wife's record collection is not available on Apple Music

I'm really curious what kind of music is in her collection? I'm always amazed at the obscure stuff that is available... obscure jazz, klezmer, classical recordings, etc...

Re: Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021

#76

Post by deadmutex » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 8:59 PM UTC

wwweston wrote: post #34

I pulled the trigger on an Apple Music subscription this year because it pays artists better. Spotify still considers a penny per stream "entitled" according to an exec giving one of the most absolutely tone-deaf AND nonsensical justifications for their choices ("we solved piracy by more or less adopting piracy's business model and legitimizing it!") [0] Apple stepped up to that level. [1] Revenue streams from record…

> Apple Music subscription this year because it pays artists better.

I wonder if this is a growth tactic. If Apple was more altruistic, one could argue that they would pay their App store 3rd party devs (by taking less of a cut via the App store) better too.

So, I am going to chalk this up as a possible business decision for growth.

Re: Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021

#77

Post by cujo » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 8:59 PM UTC

steve-benjamins wrote: post #47

I’m an indie artist and here’s the avg split on my plays per week: Spotify: 25,000 Apple Music: 600 … Not trying to make a statement— just sharing cause it’s interesting!

How much do you make from each of those services?

Re: Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021

#78

Post by cauthon » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 8:59 PM UTC

aparticulate wrote: post #50

sluggish UI aside, I really don't like Apple Music's TASTE in music. Spotify's playlists are reliably more niche. Apple is far more "GRAMMY/Top 40"-oriented and that's just not interesting to me. Also, Apple should have bought Rdio.

I totally agree with you. I miss Google Play Music. In addition to a superior queue UI (hey Spotify, let me play a song next), they had the best playlists and song recommendations I've found on a streaming service.

Re: Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021

#79

Post by YesThisIsJay » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 8:59 PM UTC

I have recently decided to try Apple Music as apart of trial of Apple One trial (not likely to go beyond that) my biggest gripe with it is the usability on any platform outside of iDevice/Mac. It seems to be a 'pleasant enough' experience on my iPhone/ATV, but once I transition to my PC for work. A place where I would listen to music for a lot of my day. The PC client is trash, they have a semi capable web client, but it was just feeling Apple Music lite.

One thing with Spotify is that I appreciate the effort across all platforms (well, at least the ones I've used)

iTunes on Windows feels like they stopped working on it back in 2008 and now have some interns trying to support it.

Re: Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021

#80

Post by MajorBee » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 9:00 PM UTC

aparticulate wrote: post #50

sluggish UI aside, I really don't like Apple Music's TASTE in music. Spotify's playlists are reliably more niche. Apple is far more "GRAMMY/Top 40"-oriented and that's just not interesting to me. Also, Apple should have bought Rdio.

I have a slightly more cynical take on why Spotify pushes niche bands and music so much (in fact, I can’t even remember the last time I saw an “established” band in my Discover Weekly playlist) — Spotify doesn’t have to pay out that much per listen for these niche bands, while having, say, Beyoncé or Drake pop up on millions of subscribers’ weekly playlist would eat in their margins.