Apple, Spotify and YouTube add to the rush of streaming news

Apple Music has 6.5m paying subscribers, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Whilst that’s 200,000 more than Deezer’s total subscriber base (although around half of those are inactive), its a massive 13.5m behind Spotify’s official paying subs tally of 20m (and a total of 75M users). But its not all good news for Apple, after the three month trial period it seems around 40% of users have since left the service after their 'freebie' expired. Another 8.5m people are currently trying out Apple Music’s three-month taster, according to Cook.



It’s been two-and-a-half years since Spotify first brought its music-streaming service to Asia, and the company is moving close to entering two important markets in the region: Japan, where music streaming is beginning to show promise, and Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest country with a population of over 250 million.

YouTube, world’s biggest video site is readying a slate of programming that will only be available to people who join its upcoming subscription services. YouTube will announce some of that programming, which it is helping to fund, at an event at its studio/event space in Los Angeles next Wednesday, October 21. YouTube will continue to operate a free, ad-supported version of the site, and has said that all of the videos that appear on the free site will be available on the new paywall protected subscription service.