Apple changed everything a while back with iTunes, proving that people would pay for online music and that the future was all Napster-pirated stuff. But services like Spotify pioneered another way to distribute music online using subscription streaming instead of buy-and-download.
Apple was late to join this party, but it looks like the strength of iTunes and the iPhone were enough for it to catch up, and now surpass Spotify. According to Digital Music Trends and Statista Apple is now the biggest service.
Normally, who cares? The only things that matters is which one, if any, you use. But being big in the music industry means special treatment. And that means Apple Music gets more exclusives, special releases, extra content, and so on. They can also negotiate prices better, which hopefully means the cost of Apple Music won’t go up any time soon.
Hi Gary, Apple Music has now inserted itself as my default Music service on iOS devices iPhone and iPad. I can't access my iTunes library on them but I still have the complete iTunes library on my Mac. Have you published (or can you point me to) a guide to remove the Music and get back my Library? I don't want to subscribe to Apple Music and have turned off the automatic renewal option while I think about it some more. Thank you.
Robin: In Settings, Music, turn off Show Apple Music if you don't want to use it.