Apple Music is about to overtake Spotify in the US

Mike Blake/Reuters

Apple CEO Tim Cook.

• Apple Music has been growing faster than Spotify in the US, and as a result it might overtake the leading music streaming service later this year.
• The figures are not representative of worldwide trends, however, as Spotify is still leading with almost twice as many paying subscribers.
• Apple Music also has more users enrolled in its pre-subscription trial period, but Spotify counts a larger number (140 million) of monthly users who choose to listen for free with ads.

Apple's music subscription service is high on the heels of Spotify, and it might just be about to overtake it in the US.

A new report from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) claims Apple Music has been growing monthly subscribers at a much faster pace when compared to its Swedish rival - 5% versus 2%.

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With this growth rate, Apple would count more US-based paying subscribers than Spotify by the summer.

The US is not a representative market, as worldwide figures still give Spotify a huge lead, with almost twice as many subscribers. Spotify has 70 million, as of last month, while Apple told the newspaper it has 36 million paying subscribers.

There is also another metric that music labels are interested in beyond subscribers and monthly active users, and that is how many people have signed up for free or deeply discounted trials, which often lead up to full subscriptions.

The WSJ is reporting that a person familiar with the figures told them that Apple has "three to four times" the number of such users, which in turn could lead to a massive boost of full subscribers.

Unlike Spotify, Apple Music does not have an ad-based, free-tier option. It also has an automatic three-month free period at the beginning of each subscription, which naturally inflates the number.

Revenue for Apple's services arm, which includes Apple Music, was up 18% in the company's latest quarter. Spotify, on the other hand, is reportedly going to go public sometime later this year.