The Wall Street Journal Says Apple Music Is ‘Losing Ground to Spotify’ — But Hard Subscriber Numbers Tell a Different Story

Photo Credit: Philip Strong

Apple Music is “losing ground to Spotify” – at least according to a new Wall Street Journal report. But do the hard numbers actually illustrate slipping subscribership for the Apple-owned DSP?

When it comes to the world’s largest music market, DMN Pro subscribers already have a handle on the answer courtesy of a one-stop database compiling leading platforms’ paid-user totals.

Said totals are based on figures shared with DMN by some of today’s biggest IP owners, distributors, and administrators. In other words, they and the corresponding takeaways are reliable, and the evidence is pointing to an essential stalemate between Spotify and Apple Music in the States.

Placing that information on the backburner for a moment and returning to the Journal coverage, the outlet framed Apple Music’s TuneIn tie-up as a means of converting radio listeners into subscribers.

This statement probably isn’t too far off the target; the chief objective of streaming services, and especially those without ad-supported listening, is, of course, to add paid subs. As described by TuneIn, the expanded partnership “marks the first time Apple’s 24/7 global radio stations are available outside of its own native platform.”

But the idea that Apple Music has been prompted to act because it’s “fallen further behind Spotify in recent years” might be a different story. In the first place, the Journal referenced data pertaining to subscribership figures as of 2024’s end. From feature additions to price increases and much in between, quite a lot has changed in the interim.

And when factoring for total U.S. subscribers as of May 2025, Apple Music’s market share was closer to 32% than the 25% cited (for 2024, once again) by the Journal, per DMN Pro data. That gives Spotify a relatively modest edge, and importantly, notwithstanding the mentioned changes, there hasn’t been a ton of market-share movement since 2024’s conclusion.

Adjacent to the point, preliminary data shows largely flat Spotify subscribers in the U.S. for H1 2025 – a trend supported by the service’s decision to raise prices in a variety of countries excepting the States and Canada.

Needless to say, there are more moving parts in play from a global perspective; the Journal cited an estimated 12% worldwide subscribership share for Apple Music as of 2024’s end, purportedly down from 16% in 2020.

But Spotify’s mentioned international price increases (which were only announced earlier in August) should be reiterated, as should subscribers’ not-so-enthusiastic responses and Apple Music’s aggressive transfer-tool buildouts.

What, then, are the reasons for the seemingly out-of-whack figures and the “exclusive” report’s angle? In general, discrepancies and misconceptions are hardly rare in non-industry coverage of the music business.

And on a more specific note, many are aware of Spotify’s audiobooks craze – as well as the resulting music-royalties fallout. Less widely discussed, however, are the financial benefits thereof for book publishers including HarperCollins, which ultimately shares a corporate parent with the Journal in News Corp.

“Digital sales increased 5% compared to the prior year,” News Corp noted in its fiscal 2025 earnings report three weeks ago, “driven by higher audiobooks sales, which included the contribution from Spotify, as well as growth in e-book sales.”

Plus, Spotify has mentioned HarperCollins and News Corp in releases of its own, on top of having hosted The Journal, a podcast “co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal,” for years now.

It wouldn’t be a very good look at all if the paper cast a longtime partner in anything but a positive light – particularly when that partner is a leading on-demand audio platform.

Link to the source article – https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2025/08/27/apple-music-spotify-wall-street-journal-report/