Tech
Catch me if you can: Spotify is still holding on to the top spot in music streaming

Catch me if you can: Spotify is still holding on to the top spot in music streaming

David Crowther
9/2/21 7:00PM

The other streaming wars

‍Netflix, Disney and about 20 other companies might be locked in the battle for video streaming right now, but there's another streaming battle that's heating up — in the music industry.

‍Catch me if you can

‍Despite having a few little tech companies competing with them, Spotify has done an impressive job of maintaining its lead, with the Swedish company topping 165 million paid subscribers in its most recent quarter.

That's ahead of Apple which has 78m and Amazon Music which has 63m subscribers (according to Midia estimates from earlier this year). YouTube's offering, which includes both YouTube Music and YouTube Premium (confusing, we know) is even further behind, this week crossing the 50m milestone for the first time.

‍Running out of ideas?

‍Spotify's big push into podcasts, with multiple acquisitions and high-profile exclusivity deals with hosts like Joe Rogan and Alex Cooper have helped differentiate them from their competition. Unfortunately, the company appears to be running out of ideas — greenlighting a share buyback programme worth around $1bn a few weeks ago. That's money that surely would have been better spent on growing the user base or acquiring more exclusive audio content... unless you've run out of ideas.

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