APPLE MUSIC, A RESEARCH REPORT AND FAKE NEWS?

When analytics firm Verto published stats reporting that Apple Music is the top streaming service in the U.S. on mobile devices with nearly 41m monthly unique users, Internet watchdogs started howling. How could it be that Apple suddenly has 10m more mobile users than Spotify? And how did 30m sign up this year?

Verto reported that Apple Music led the field with 40.7 unique mobile users followed by Pandora (32.6m), Spotify (30.4m), iHeartRadio (28.5m) and Soundcloud (25.7m). They are the only services with more than 15m users. And just to be clear, the services never provided any user stats to Vetro.

When it came to “stickiness”—average daily users divided by monthly users—Spotify was #1 at 25% with Amazon Music (22%) and Pandora (21%) close behind.

But only one website asked: Is this fake news?

Music Ally got to the bottom of the story, but only after countless websites took the Verto numbers at face value. It’s basically the way the current administration fills staff positions—no extra research or inquisitions.

After dissecting the report, Music Ally got an explanation from Verto. “All data that Verto publishes is based on-screen engagement of the app,” the Finland-based company told Music Ally. “In the Apple Music case, this data includes both the listening of music stored on the device and Apple music streaming. In other words, we do not report separately these two types of usage, but instead the aggregate.”

Got it? So what one research company calls “Apple Music” is in truth the combination of a streaming service and downloaded music stored on a device, mostly likely purchased from iTunes. Alternative facts refuse to die.