Why Spotify's CEO isn't threatened by Apple's new streaming service

(Image credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Spotify)

published 8 June 2015

In an interview in this week's issue of Billboard magazine, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek explains why Monday's introduction of Apple Music isn't bad news for his company.

Apple Music will be available starting June 30, and will cost $9.99 a month — a comparable price point to Spotify's $10-a-month ad-free streaming service. Unlike Spotify, though, Apple Music doesn't have a free option — after a three-month trial period, users must pay to use Apple's streaming service. But Ek believes the competition is a good thing:

Apple will probably be pretty successful, but it doesn’t have to be at the expense of Spotify. If we think of this as an opportunity instead of trying to maximize the piece of pie we have today, the music industry will be many, many times bigger, and there won't be any arguments about how many percent we pay. When Apple starts doing streaming, streaming will start growing even faster. [Billboard]

Spotify has more than 60 million active users, Billboard notes, and about 25 percent of those users subscribe to the ad-free, $10-a-month plan. In the interview, Ek points out that in 2015's first quarter, streaming revenue was greater than that from music downloads. If Apple's streaming subscription service increases that revenue, it could be good news for the streaming industry and artists alike.