Nielsen: Apple Music Tops Spotify Among Smartphone Users

Apple Music: Top 10 Smartphone App

APPLE MUSIC is now the ninth largest smartphone app of 2015 in AMERICA, according to NIELSEN, with 54.5 million average unique users. That lags behind FACEBOOK (126.7m), YOUTUBE (97.6m) and GOOGLE PLAY (89.7m), but solidly tops SPOTIFY, which isn't even in the Top 10. 

Those users are being termed "active," though a substantial percentage of iOS users auto-downloaded the app, and some iPHONE users may even be unaware they have APPLE MUSIC on their devices, let alone "actively" use it. 

ANDROID users, on the other hand, must intentionally download APPLE MUSIC, though this ranking does not include users given APPLE MUSIC's expansion onto ANDROID in NOVEMBER.

Also missing  is PANDORA, whose app-heavy platform boasts 80 million active listeners. 

SPOTIFY most recently announced a milestone of 20 million paying subscribers, with 75 million active users overall (55 million free users).  Overall, SPOTIFY projects a userbase of 100 million by JANUARY, with more than 25 million paying.

After just a few months on the market, APPLE quickly crossed 6.5 million paying subscribers, with everyone paying at least $9.99 (or more), with insiders expecting a total of more than 8 million by year-end.  Whisper numbers now suggest that APPLE MUSIC will have more than 8 million and possibly 1, by year-end, setting up a horse-race between the two streaming music rivals -- both of whom now boast THE BEATLES -- in the coming year.

The complete NIELSEN list of Top Smartphone Apps of 2015 by Average Unique Users:

1. FACEBOOK; 126.7m
2. YOUTUBE: 97.6m
3. FACEBOOK MESSENGER: 96.4m
4. GOOGLE SEARCH: 95m
5. GOOGLE PLAY: 89.7m
6. GOOGLE MAPS: 87.8m
7. GMAIL (GOOGLE): 75.1m
8. INSTAGRAM: 55.4m
9. APPLE MUSIC: 54.5m
10. APPLE MAPS: 46.4m

For Q3 2015, ANDROID Operating Systems hold 52.6% of the market as compared to APPLE iOS with 42.7%, with MICROSOFT (2.8%), BLACKBERRY (.7%) and OTHER (1.2%) trailing.

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