Spotify has over 100m paying subscribers

"More than 100 million users worldwide now pay for Spotify Premium, the company has announced. Spotify reached the milestone by growing paid subscribers by 32-percent year-on-year. Including free subscribers, Spotify now has a total of 217 million monthly active users worldwide. That includes two million Indian users who joined after the company launched its service there in February.
Globally, the numbers put Spotify well ahead of Apple Music, its closest competitor, who reportedly had 50 million paid users worldwide at the beginning of April. However, in the US Apple’s music streaming service in winning, according to the Wall Street Journal, with 28 million subscribers compared to Spotify’s 26 million."
Source:  The Verge, 29th April 2019

Earlier - 70m announced in January 2018
Earlier - 60m in July 2017
Earlier - 50m in March 2017
Earlier - 37m (estimated) in July 2016

A Global Digital Snapshot April 2019

Digital 2019 Q2 Global Digital Statshot (April 2019) v02 from DataReportal

Over 400,000 homes 'cut the cord' in the UK in 2018

"Declining pay-TV subscriptions in the UK suggest that cord-cutting, which is well established in the US, is now beginning to affect the European market, according to findings from research firm Strategy Analytics.
Its report, European Pay TV Index, found that the UK saw a net decline in pay-TV households of 424,000 in 2018, the largest decline of any European country. Other countries with falling subscriptions include Denmark, Switzerland and Germany, although the rates of decline are less significant."
Source:  Advanced Television, 26th April 2019

Mobile accounted for 51% of UK digital ad spend in 2018

"IAB UK, the trade association for digital advertising, has today announced the results of the latest IAB UK and PwC Digital Adspend study, which reveals UK advertisers spent £13.44billion on digital advertising in 2018.
The total ad spend figure is a 15 percent year-on-year increase and demonstrates continued confidence in the power of digital advertising.
For the first time ever, ad spend on smartphones has exceeded desktop accounting for 51 percent of the total spend, up from 45 percent in 2017. This is a year-on-year increase of £1.65bn.
These latest figures show that advertising spend now better reflects consumer behaviour, with recent UKOM audience data showing that people spend two thirds of their online time on smartphone1.
Beyond mobile, an additional driver of growth continues to be video, which accounts for 44 percent of the total display market. For the second year running, outstream (which includes social in-feed video) has exceeded pre-roll video2, accounting for 57 percent of all video advertising."
Source:  Press release from IAB UK, using data from the IAB & PwC, 24th April 2019

Apple Music has more paid subscribers than Spotify in the US

"Apple Music has reportedly surpassed Spotify in terms of paid subscribers in the US, holding around 2m more paying users. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, Apple Music had 28m paid subscribers at the end of February compared to Spotify’s 26m.
Spotify is said to be adding subscribers at a monthly growth rate of between 1.5 and two per cent in the US, while Apple Music is growing at between 2.6 and three per cent.
Though Apple Music has captured the lead in paid subscribers, Spotify still more overall users than Apple in the US, due to offering a free, ad-supported tier in addition to its premium tier.
It’s also reported that Apple Music is also outpacing Spotify’s paid subscriber growth globally – with Apple growing at a rate of between 2.4 and 2.8 per cent versus Spotify’s between two and 2.3 per cent."

Source:  Mobile Marketing, 8th April 2019