Apple Music overtakes Spotify in web traffic in Aus and NZ

Apple Music receives more mobile web traffic than Spotify in Australia and New Zealand.

An independent review of the Asia-Pacific region by global web traffic monitor Sandvine, found that in July Apple Music was responsible for 0.8% of the region’s downstream mobile web traffic; Spotify accounted for 0.6%.

While Sandvine didn’t report on any other local streaming services, the traffic from consumers downloading content to their mobiles is predominantly due to a strong uptake in Australia and New Zealand.

The real test of Apple Music’s local use will come at the end of October, when the free trial offer begins to expire. Spotify may be available in 58 markets compared to Apple Music’s 100+, but Spotify currently has more than 20 million paying subscribers. In August Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue said that five weeks into the launch of the service, Apple Music had over 11 million members, with 2 million of those signed up to family plans.

Apple is aiming at 100 million subscribers. While it might get there – Sandvine previously reported it was one of the 25 most used mobile apps in the US – to do so it needs to not only bring in consumers new to streaming, but needs to get those on other services to switch over.

Interestingly, file sharing (including from illegal pirate sites) still represents the biggest source of upstream web traffic, or traffic from users uploading files from their computers, in the Asia Pacific. But not for long; Sandvine said file sharing traffic share has peaked in the Asia-Pacific “and will begin to see significant declines as more over-the-top (OTT) video services expand to the region.”

Sandvine’s prediction was echoed by consumer advocacy group Choice earlier this month. Its survey provided figures proving Australians are increasingly opting for the legitimate new streaming services which entered the market this year, and are shifting from pirate sites. The study found that the amount of Australians who refuse to stream or download movies and TV shows illegally is now 70%, compared to 67% in 2014.

Regardless of which local streaming service will come come out on top come the year’s end, streaming is on track to overtake downloading in 2018. According to a report released by accountant firm PwC in June (Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2015-2019), streaming’s annual growth rate will be 20.3% this year. By 2019 streaming will deliver US$1.9 billion globally, up 11.2% from $1.1 billion in 2014. Downloads in the meantime will decline at a rate of between 11.5% and 9.1%.

Read more in The Music Network here.