The State of Streaming Services
Competition among streaming services is fierce and getting fiercer. The good news for us as consumers is that prices have been driven down and options for these subscriptions have been expanded. But overall, which service is really coming out ahead? And at what cost? Spotify and Apple Music have released their latest numbers and while Apple Music has been paying literally millions of dollars to secure exclusive releases, they’ve amassed 4 million new subscribers in the last six months, but that’s compared to Spotify’s 10 million new users and lack of special or exclusive releases. However, Spotify released a family subscription option earlier this summer, allowing up to four accounts per subscription for only $15/month. TIDAL is steadily gaining new subscribers, but announced a $28 million loss in 2015, double the company’s loss from the year before. TIDAL’s parent company Aspiro also owes $438,000 in outstanding bills. There’s been talk that Apple is interested in purchasing TIDAL, but that rumor was shut down quickly by Apple Music head Jimmy Iovine. And what about Pandora? The one that kind of started it all. Today, Pandora launched a new subscription service. For $4.99/month, Pandora offers an ad-free experience complete with more skips, more replays, and offline listening to combat those pesky data overages. CEO Tim Westergren has also confirmed that Pandora will be releasing its on-demand service later this year.
