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Apple's new partnership with TuneIn
In an effort to win back music streaming market share from Spotify, Apple Music is teaming up with TuneIn to put its radio stations in front of 75 million listeners.
In 2020, Apple Music held roughly 30% of the U.S. music streaming market, roughly equivalent to that of Spotify. However, in the years following, Apple’s seen that number slip.
By 2024, the number dropped to 25%. Conversely, Spotify’s market share grew to 37%.
Now, in an effort to regain lost ground, Apple has partnered with digital radio platform TuneIn. The partnership will see Apple Music’s six streaming radio stations made available to TuneIn’s 75 million monthly active listeners, starting Wednesday, August 27.
The San Francisco-based TuneIn distributes music to a global network of home speakers and cars. In addition to Apple Music, TuneIn has partnerships with big-name broadcasters iHeartMedia, C-Span, NPR, ESPN Radio, as well as international broadcasters from around the globe.
Allegedly, Apple approached TuneIn about the partnership in late 2024. The company says that its app and website will feature a link to Apple Music, allowing users to sign up for the service easily.
Of course, whether or not this will work remains to be seen. As The Wall Street Journal points out, Apple has always struggled to gain and retain listeners.
Some of this is the nature of music streaming. All of the big-name streaming services have access to roughly the same catalog of music.
It’s hard to set yourself apart when you are, effectively, offering the same thing. There is no “Severance” equivalent for Apple Music.
A bigger reason, however, is the method of obtaining listeners in the first place.
Apple Music does not have a free tier; it’s always been pay-to-play. While Apple does routinely offer extended free trials for Apple Music, it doesn’t seem to automatically guarantee a listener will stay with the company.
Apple Music’s main competitor, Spotify, provides a free tier that is powered by ads. The allure of free is enough to get people to sign up in the first place.
But the ads aren’t the only drawback of Spotify — it also limits when and how users can listen. Free users have fewer song “skips,” limited control over the songs they can listen to, lower audio quality, and no offline listening.
It’s those negatives that turn free listeners into paid ones. As it turns out, Spotify’s free tier is just annoying enough to make free subscribers want to sign up for paid plans.
Amber worked at MacNN and Electronista from 2015 until 2017, reviewing software, apps, games, and tech accessories. In 2019, she signed up with AppleInsider, where she covers all things Apple, with a focus on tech rev…
