Apple Music Beats Spotify in Customer Satisfaction

According to the latest study carried out by JDPower, Apple Music Receives Highest Rating for Overall Customer Satisfaction of the Seven Most Popular Streaming Music Brands of the moment.

The study has been prepared based on a universe of 4.482 people who have paid for a music subscription service during the last six months. This JDPower report measures six key areas in each service: performance and reliability, ease of use, cost of service, content, communication, and customer service.

Apple Music, "one of the best" services in terms of content, performance and usability

Based on a 1.000-point scale, Apple Music ranked first with a score of 834, followed by Rhapsody with 826, Pandora with 825, and Spotify with 824. The average rating was established at 822 points out of a thousand.

Apple Music it scored top marks in three of the categories, meaning it is 'one of the best' for content, performance and reliability, and ease of use. The service won four of the five possible "power circles" for cost of service, communication and customer service, earning a rating of "better than most."

The music streaming customer experience appears to be affected by a number of dimensions, including paid vs. free streaming, choice of devices and selection of content, said Kirk Parsons, senior director and practice lead technology, media and telecommunications at JD Power. The key to success, however, is that more and more music brands creating a viable ecosystem that can not only support multiple types of devices, but also facilitate social sharing of listeners and tracking of playlists with others.

Payment services generate greater satisfaction

JD Power has reached some key conclusions in its study, including a direct relationship between paid streaming services and higher customer satisfaction. These premium services earned a 19-point advantage over freemium options, specifically excelling in the communication and customer service categories.

In addition, streaming services that support peripheral devices such as smartwatches, home automation controllers, and virtual reality, also registered greater satisfaction with services that do not offer these alternative methods of listening to music.

Another important aspect is that exclusive content improves customer satisfaction. In total, 74 percent of the people who have exclusive content in the services they have contracted stated that they would "definitely" recommend their service, compared to 54 percent of the people who do not listen to exclusive music, and who would also recommend your streaming platform to a friend.

The social element also fuels satisfaction

Ultimately, JD Power found that the "social" aspect of each service is what appears to be driving the activity. The most satisfied customers are "fully engaged", share and consume the lists of other users. Against this, passive listeners (those who do not share their content or listen to the content of other users) represent the largest part of the music streaming industry with 44%, followed by listeners who participate fully with 29%, and those who, although they do not share music, do listen to the content that other users share, with 22%. Finally, only 5 percent share but do not listen to content from others.

Google Play Music, at the end of the queue

At the bottom of the table are TuneIn, Amazon Prime Music and Google Play Music, with a classification in all three cases between medium and poor in terms of content and ease of use.

Meanwhile, Apple Music is growing steadily and according to the latest official data, it already has 17 million paying subscribers compared to the 30 million of its greatest rival, Spotify, who could be about to acquire SoundCloud as a coup that would bring more content and users.