Apple Music vs. Spotify Statistics 2026: Users, Prices, and Revenue

Spotify ended Q2 2026 with 777 million monthly active users and 300 million Premium Subscribers, according to its shareholder update. The latest Apple Music subscriber figure cited here is 60 million paid users, a number Eddy Cue gave French media in June 2019. That gap shapes the Apple Music vs Spotify statistics below: Apple’s fiscal 2025 10-K and Q3 fiscal 2026 results cited here report Services revenue but no Apple Music subscriber count.

Prices moved as well. Apple raised the Apple Music individual plan to $11.99 a month in July 2026, according to Macworld. Spotify had raised Premium by $1 to $12.99 earlier in the year. The sections below compare users, US prices, catalog size, revenue and margins, then set both services against the wider streaming market measured by the music industry’s trade bodies.

Key Takeaways

• Spotify’s Premium base is 5 times the 60 million Apple Music paid users Eddy Cue cited in June 2019.
• Spotify’s individual plan costs $12.99 a month in the US, against $11.99 for Apple Music’s individual plan, a gap of $12 a year at list price.
• About 63.6% of Spotify’s monthly active users were on the ad-supported tier in Q2 2026.
• Spotify’s 290 million subscribers at the end of 2025 equal about 34.6% of the 837 million users of paid streaming subscription accounts IFPI counted for 2025.
• Spotify lists over 100 million tracks and Apple Music lists over 100 million songs, so both publish the same catalog floor.
• Spotify’s Premium average revenue per user reached €4.89 in Q2 2026, up 7% year over year.
• Apple’s Services net sales reached $30,739 million in the June 2026 quarter, against $27,423 million a year earlier.

Editor’s Choice

• Spotify markets: 184 markets.
• Spotify Q2 2026 revenue: €4.8 billion, up 14% year over year.
• Spotify payouts to the music industry: more than $11 billion in 2025, according to Spotify’s Loud and Clear report.
• Global recorded music revenue: $31.7 billion in 2025, according to IFPI.
• Apple Services net sales, fiscal 2025: $109,158 million.
• US paid streaming accounts: 106.5 million in 2025, according to the RIAA.

Apple Music vs Spotify Statistics: Subscribers and Users

• Subscribers reached 300 million in Q2 2026, reflecting 7 million net additions against guidance for 6 million.
• Monthly active users grew 12% year over year, with net additions of 16 million slightly below guidance for 17 million.
• Apple confirmed Apple Music had grown to 50 million paid users in its January conference call, five months before the 60 million milestone.
• Cue added that “In the Apple ecosystem, Apple Music is the number one streaming service.”.
• Spotify describes itself as the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service.
• Apple’s fiscal 2025 10-K and Q3 fiscal 2026 results cited here report Services revenue but no Apple Music subscriber count.

Source: Spotify Q2 2026 Update, AppleInsider report of Eddy Cue’s Numerama interview, June 2019

About This Data

Figures come from 17 web pages. Of these, 13 are Spotify and Apple filings, releases, newsrooms and pricing pages, 2 are industry reports from IFPI and the RIAA, and 2 are Macworld and AppleInsider reports that trace back to Apple and Spotify. Publication dates run from June 2019 to September 17, 2026, and all pages were accessed on October 1, 2026. Figures are updated when sources publish new editions.

Spotify Monthly Active Users by Quarter

• Spotify added 81 million monthly active users between Q2 2025 and Q2 2026.
• Q4 2025 added 38 million monthly active users.
• Spotify’s Q3 2026 outlook implies the addition of approximately 11 million net new MAUs in the quarter.
• In its first six days, nearly 100 million users engaged with Spotify’s 20th anniversary experience, helping drive Spotify’s biggest single day of subscriber intake ever.

Spotify set its next-quarter targets alongside these results; the table compares them with the Q2 2026 actuals.

Source: Spotify Q2 2026 Update (Form 6-K), outlook as of August 4, 2026

Recent Developments

• September 17, 2026: Spotify said it is bringing the Spotify Partner Program to more than 35 new markets this fall, including Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.
• September 16, 2026: All 58 of Taylor Swift’s official music videos are now available to Premium users on Spotify.
• August 4, 2026: Spotify called 300 million Premium Subscribers a milestone no audio streaming service has ever reached.
• August 4, 2026: Spotify guided to approximately 5 million net new subscribers for Q3 2026.
• July 30, 2026: Apple reported fiscal 2026 third quarter revenue of $109.4 billion, up 16% year over year, with iPhone, Mac and Services revenue setting new June quarter records.

Spotify Premium Subscribers and Ad-Supported Users

• Ad-supported MAUs grew 14% year over year in Q2 2026, while Premium Subscribers grew 9%.
• About 36.4% of Spotify’s monthly active users were outside the ad-supported tier in Q2 2026.
• Spotify said DJ has delivered a more personalized listening experience to nearly 100 million Premium users since its 2023 launch.
• Spotify launched Reserved in the U.S., and nearly 100,000 tickets have been reserved through Spotify across multiple tours.

The ad-supported tier is the larger of Spotify’s two user bases, and the chart below tracks it on the same quarterly basis.

Apple Music vs. Spotify Price Comparison in the US

• Spotify’s Individual plan includes 15 hours a month of listening time from its audiobooks subscriber catalog; on Duo and Family the hours go to the plan manager only, and the Student plan lists none.
• Spotify’s family plan covers up to 6 Premium accounts. Apple Music’s family plan can be shared with up to five people via Family Sharing.
• Spotify Premium Student in the US comes with Hulu (With Ads), which normally costs $12.49 a month.
• Apple Music’s individual plan includes Spatial Audio and lossless audio quality.
• Spotify’s family plan costs $2 more per month than Apple Music’s family plan.
• Apple’s pricing page lists Individual, Family and Student plans; Spotify’s also lists Duo.
• If you already weigh Hulu against other services, the Netflix vs. Hulu comparison shows what the Student bundle adds.

Source: Spotify Premium plans, Spotify Premium Student, Apple Music pricing pages, October 2026

Apple Music and Spotify Price Increases

• Apple Music’s individual plan now costs $2 more per month than it did before October 2022.
• The increase in July 2026 raised the individual price by about 9.1%.
• Apple Music’s family plan rose from $16.99 to $19.99, and the student plan from $5.99 to $6.99 in the same change.
• Excluding currency effects, Spotify’s Premium ARPU growth was driven by price increase benefits, partially offset by product and market mix.

By the numbers: Apple Music’s individual price went from $9.99 to $10.99 in October 2022 and then to $11.99, according to Macworld. Spotify’s Premium subscription sits at $12.99 after a $1 increase earlier in 2026, against Apple Music’s current list price.

Apple One Bundle Pricing

• Apple One’s individual plan bundles iCloud+ 50GB, Apple TV, Apple Music and Apple Arcade, which would cost $34.96 a month separately.
• Apple One’s family plan replaces $44.96 a month in separate subscriptions.
• Apple says Individual saves $13 a month and Family saves $17 a month.
• Premier saves $35 a month on all six Apple subscriptions and 2TB of iCloud+ storage, shared with up to five people.
• Bundling ties Apple Music to the rest of Apple’s subscriptions, the same pattern traced in the Apple ecosystem lock-in statistics.

Music Catalog Size: Apple Music vs. Spotify

• Apple says it is making its entire catalog of more than 100 million songs available in lossless audio at different resolutions.
• Spotify entered the audiobook market in 2022.
• If you keep a downloaded Spotify library, the steps in how to download songs from Spotify cover saving songs for offline listening.

Source: About Spotify; Apple Music, October 2026

Does Apple Music or Spotify have more songs?

Neither has a clear lead on published figures. Spotify lists over 100 million tracks, 7 million podcast titles and 700,000 audiobooks, and Apple Music lists over 100 million songs. Both are floor figures; Spotify’s podcasts and audiobooks are the extra.

Spotify Revenue by Quarter

• Revenue grew 14% year over year in Q2 2026 and 15% on a constant currency basis.
• Free cash flow reached €797 million in Q2 2026.
• Spotify’s revenue over the four quarters to Q2 2026 added up to €18,113 million.

Key finding: Spotify said revenue growth accelerated in Q2 2026, with revenue up 15% at constant currency, and free cash flow reached €797 million, according to its Q2 2026 earnings release and shareholder update. The Apple results cited here give Services revenue as one total, with no Apple Music line, so Spotify’s quarterly revenue is the direct financial read on this comparison.

Spotify Premium vs. Ad-Supported Revenue

• Premium revenue grew 15% year over year in Q2 2026, or 16% at constant currency.
• Ad-Supported revenue grew 1% year over year in Q2 2026, or 3% at constant currency.
• Premium gross margin was 34.9% in Q2, up 174 bps year over year, and Ad-Supported gross margin was 19.1%, up 179 bps.
• Premium accounted for about 90.7% of Spotify’s Q2 2026 revenue.
• Effective January 1, 2026, Spotify moved certain revenue-generating activities from the Ad-Supported segment to Premium and reclassified prior periods.

Source: Spotify Q2 2026 Update (Form 6-K), August 2026

Spotify Gross Margin and Operating Income

• Operating income reached €655 million in Q2 2026, a 13.7% operating margin, against €406 million a year earlier.
• Operating income was €715 million in Q1 2026 and €701 million in Q4 2025.
• Gross margin expanded 193 bps year over year in Q2 2026.
• Spotify guided to a 32.9% gross margin and €670 million in operating income for Q3 2026.

Apple Services Revenue Statistics

• Apple’s Services net sales grew 14% in fiscal 2025 and 13% in fiscal 2024.
• Services net sales grew about 12.1% in the June 2026 quarter.
• Services net sales for the nine months to June 27, 2026 reached $91,728 million, against $80,408 million a year earlier.
• Services made up about 28.1% of Apple’s June 2026 quarter net sales.
• Services net sales include amortization of the deferred value of services bundled in the sales price of certain products.
• The Apple filings cited here report Services as one total without an Apple Music line, so this figure is context for Apple Music and not a measure of it; the wider breakdown sits in the Apple Services revenue statistics.

Global and US Music Streaming Market Statistics

• Global recorded music revenues grew 6.4% in 2025, the eleventh year of consecutive growth.
• Revenue from paid streaming grew by 8.8%.
• US streaming revenues grew to $9.5 billion, and streaming represented 82% of total US revenue for the fifth straight year.
• The US remained the largest paid subscription market, comprising 1/3 of the format’s global value.
• Spotify’s payouts increased by more than 10% year over year in 2025, against closer to 4% for other music industry income sources.
• Spotify’s lifetime payouts to the music industry total nearly $70 billion.

Source: IFPI Global Music Report 2026; RIAA 2025 Year-End Recorded Music Revenue Report

The takeaway: Spotify’s 290 million subscribers at the end of 2025 work out to about 34.6% of the 837 million users of paid streaming subscription accounts IFPI counted that year. IFPI counts users of paid streaming subscription accounts across every service and Spotify counts its own subscribers at one date, so treat the share as an approximation of Spotify’s weight in paid streaming.

Which Has More Users, Spotify or Apple Music?

Spotify has more users on every figure cited above. Spotify reported 777 million monthly active users and 300 million Premium Subscribers for Q2 2026, while Eddy Cue put Apple Music at 60 million paid users in June 2019.

Is Apple Music Cheaper Than Spotify?

Yes, for individuals and families in the US. On Apple’s own pricing page, Apple Music costs $11.99 a month for Individual and $19.99 for Family, against Spotify Premium at $12.99 and $21.99. Student plans cost $6.99 a month on both services.

How Many Albums Are on Spotify and Apple Music?

The Spotify and Apple pages cited here give track and song counts rather than album counts, so they do not answer this question directly. Both count tracks or songs, not albums: Spotify lists over 100 million tracks, and Apple Music lists over 100 million songs.

Conclusion: Is Spotify Bigger Than Apple Music?

Yes, on every figure cited above. Spotify reported 777 million monthly active users and 300 million Premium Subscribers for Q2 2026, while Eddy Cue cited 60 million paid Apple Music users in June 2019.

Price is where Apple Music now leads in the US, and Spotify’s quarterly results are the regular public figure on its own user count. Watch Spotify’s next update against its guidance, and whether a future Apple filing reports an Apple Music subscriber count.