28 million paid subscribers, while Spotify has
26 million paying customers in the United
States, though Spotify’s free tier means that the
streaming company is still more popular overall.
The secret to Apple’s success? Being able to bake
in Apple Music into the Music app, which has
in just under five years encouraged millions to
hand Apple $9.99 for unlimited music.
That’s without mentioning the immense power
of the App Store, where consumers can play and
download millions of games and other content
from developers around the world. Apple
revealed at last year’s Worldwide Developers
Conference it had paid developers more than
$100 billion, and that figure is only set to rise as
more companies offer in-app subscriptions and
premium versions of apps, including the likes of
YouTube Premium, where Apple takes a 30% cut.
New data suggests consumers will spend more
than $156 billion on apps a year by 2023, and
with more than two million apps, there’s no sign
of slowing down.
And let’s not forget iTunes. Though the
product will be retired from the Mac
this year, Apple still allows musicians and
filmmakers to sell their music and movies on
the iTunes Store within the Music app on the
Mac, and within a dedicated iTunes Store app
on iOS and iPadOS. iTunes has single-handedly
transformed the entertainment industry in
ways we never could have expected, with
smaller record companies able to distribute
their music to a worldwide audience. Before
iTunes, the music industry sold physical CDs,
cassette tapes, and vinyl records, but the
software and online store allowed stars such
as Black Eyed Peas, Mary J. Blige, The Rolling