While streaming services like Soundcloud continue to forge their identity after large dealings and placement in 2015, Spotify is steadily paced for a great final quarter to the year. A new report suggests that Spotify is expected to gain 100 million users by the end of this year. Thanks to free access users growing rapidly (and if you've ever signed up it's easy to see why), Spotify is capitalizing on a free trial experience and loyal user base that's keeping things interesting at the top of the stream chain. Apple Music, as one report, insists, might have about 15 million total users.
Spotify chief revenue office Jeff Levick projected the 100 million user mark recently in a statement. If this were to come to fruition, there would be a near-35 percent gain over the past six months for their total user count.
Reports also suggest that Spotify's aggressive business strategy and focus on advertising has led to a steep increase of late. The streaming service also claims that users will keep sessions open for up to 2.5 hours a day at times on average.
In comparison, Soundcloud has somewhere close to 200 million of users and deals with over 20,000 label partnerships. One report makes a valid point that states,”For listeners, SoundCloud is less like a music collection or radio station than an audio-based social network.”
While some artists claim it is a “life-changing” music discovery program, users don't remain as steadfast with other competitors on the rise. One of Soundcloud's most loyal users remains Skrillex, showing how electronic producers have grown with and become quite comfortable with the platform during the trending times.
While the industry looks for strategic alternatives, citing Souncloud's weakness as being less catered towards monetization… other music fans are helping create the streaming service “spike” by downloading less music from traditional services that pay artists formally. Soundcloud was established in 2007 while Spotify launched one year later in 2008.
Spotify has served more so as a radio-streaming type, with a few recent big premieres from artists like Sam Smith and Tidal member Beyonce. Soundcloud, meanwhile, has undergone some new modifications that give it an overall positive outlook. Fans are curious about why play counts have gone down in small increments (read an official response here), while majors labels have expressed interest in partnering up with the service despite some take-downs that a few producers have questioned in recent weeks.
In comparison, Jay Z's TIDAL streaming service is celebrating 1 million users.
Read the full story here from Digital Music News
