According to Hracs and Webster (2021), digital platforms have played a significant role in social networking and streaming services, these platforms have disrupted cultural markets globally through the establishment of powerful market place. One such platform is Apple Music, a music company that is one of the world’s leading music streaming services with millions of users globally. Apple Music as the name suggest sells songs to its user with over 100 million songs curated perfectly into playlists. The company offering music streaming to millions of its users, it also offers live radio and personal music catalog on all in one.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Apple Music

Music recommender systems (MRS) have significantly grown in the recent years experiencing boom due to the emergence of streaming services such as Apple Music. Some of the strengths that Apple Music boosts in the MRS industry which is very competitive include one-demand streaming which allows its users to access numerous catalog of music at any moment and anywhere. Secondly, availability, Apple Music is available in over 100 countries globally and the company also offers three-month free trial which gives subscribers time to enjoy the service before purchase. One of the biggest weaknesses of Apple Music is overreliance on Apple ecosystem where only users with Apple products can enjoy the service. Secondly, it does not offer a option for a free-ad tier and lastly it has limited success in curating its services.

Opportunities and Threats

Like many other companies, Apple Music has experienced opportunities such as emerging markets and global expansion, the market has a potential to grow as more people are gaining access to smartphones. Second opportunity is the growth in music consumption which is increasing globally. Nonetheless, the company also faces threats such as competition from other music streaming industries such as Spotify, and Amazon music.

Apple Financial Data

According to Curry (2023), in 2022, Apple Music approximately made $8.3 billion in revenue, the company also generated $78 billion in the same year and $85.1 billion in 2023. Similarly, Curry (2023) notes that the number of users have significantly increased from 11 million in 2015 to 88 million in 2022. The company also leads in average pay per stream in $ with $0.0076 pay per stream compared to its competitors Spotify and YouTube who pay $0.0026-0.0049 and $0.0067 pay per stream respectively (Curry, 2023)

Company Analysis 2 (Spotify Music)

Spotify is a Swedish music streaming platform which in 2016 was ranked as the biggest streaming service globally, the platform offers digital music, video and podcast services with millions of songs accessible to its users globally (‌Vonderau, 2019). This platform is still the leading music streaming platform with over 550 million users and over 220 million people who have subscribed to the platform. Today, the platform offers its users with unique expereince by tailoring playlists according to the users’ experience and has both free and premium version. The free version allows users to explore unlimited music, video and podcast experience but the user has to endure ads while the premium version is ad free.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Company

Spotify is one of the most user-friendly music streaming platforms which provides individuals with personal recommendations depending on their usage (Sletten, 2021). Secondly, the company has continuous innovation which allows the platform to always be ahead of its competitors by meeting the evolving needs of music enthusiasts. Recently, the company has created a seamless integration with social media platforms which allows people to share their favorite music and playlists with friends. Some of the weaknesses of this platform however include over reliance, its users over rely on the platform which in the event of technical issue can cause numerous inconvenience (Sletten, 2021). Secondly, unlike platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify has poor artist compensation which has resulted to numerous debates about the sustainability of musicians using the platform.

Opportunities and Threats

Spotify has significant opportunities to provide its users with more exclusive services. First, the platform has an opportunity to expand its reach to more smart devices to tap into the growing number of smart home technologies. Secondly, the company should consider live content integration such as live radio and real-time podcasts. Nonetheless, the platform is experiencing intense competition from platforms such as YouTube, Apple Music and Amazon Music which have large established based. Secondly, the company also experiences royalty rate negotiations challenge because it depends on music labels and artists who may change royalty rates affecting its profitability.

Spotify Financial Data

According to
Spotify Annual Financial Statements from 2010 to 2024 (2024), the companies total current asset value us $5.5 billion, with a current income of $74.4 million and a total revenue of $7.8 billion. In 2023, the company made an annual revenue of 13.24 billion. The company ha seen reporting net income loss since 2009 and this trend is expected to continue as its net loss increased from $-430 million in 2022 to $-532 million in 2023 (Iqbal, 2023).

References

‌ Curry, D. (2023, February 1). 
Apple Music Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023). Business of Apps. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/apple-music-statistics/

Iqbal, M. (2023, August 2). 
Spotify Usage and Revenue Statistics (2023). Business of Apps. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/spotify-statistics/

Hracs, B. J., & Webster, J. (2021). From selling songs to engineering experiences: exploring the competitive strategies of music streaming platforms. 
Journal of Cultural Economy, 
14(2), 240-257. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2020.1819374

Schedl, M., Zamani, H., Chen, C. W., Deldjoo, Y., & Elahi, M. (2018). Current challenges and visions in music recommender systems research. 
International Journal of Multimedia Information Retrieval, 
7, 95-116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13735-018-0154-2

Sletten, R. T. (2021). Spotify: Strategic Plan and Analysis. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1346&context=utpp

Spotify Annual Financial Statements from 2010 to 2024. (2024). Macroaxis; Macroaxis. https://www.macroaxis.com/financial-statements/SPOT

‌Vonderau, P. (2019). The Spotify effect: Digital distribution and financial growth. 
Television & New Media, 
20(1), 3-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476417741200

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