Apple’s Beats Music streaming service lags behind Spotify and Pandora
The Apple-owned Beats Music subscription service has some catching up to do in the crowded music marketplace.
First reported by CNET, new figures from App Annie show that Beats lagged behind both Pandora and Spotify. Those two apps, in the month of September, tallied more downloads and brought in more revenue than Beats. Those figures include both the App Store and Android’s Google Play Store.
On the revenue side of the equation, Beats was third behind Pandora and Spotify, respectively. Beats moved up three places from the No. 6 spot in August.
As far as downloads, Beats Music was the ninth most downloaded music app. Pandora and Spotify took the same top two positions. Even Apple’s own GarageBand was downloaded more times during the month.
Apple purchased the Beats Music service as part of a $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics in May. Just recently, Apple confirmed that iTunes music sales continue to suffer a sharp decline.
To help boost Beats, Apple is attempting to cut the service’s monthly subscription fee in half and better integrate it into iTunes.
My colleague Bryan M. Wolfe recently discussed a nice idea that would help Apple prop up music sales using Beats. Read more about his idea for a so-called “iTunes Music Extra” service here.
For other news today, see: Apple decides that calculator widgets aren’t allowed in the iOS 8 Notification Center, MCX members won’t face a fine for leaving the organization to join Apple Pay, NFC, and WatchSpring jailbreak tweak puts Apple Watch-like home screen interface on iPhone.
