Napster criticises Apple Music and Spotify

Napster may not have the same number of subscribers as Spotify or Apple Music, but that hasn’t stopped the music streaming service from criticising how the other two are going about their business.

It called Spotify’s free tier subscription into question. “In terms of Spotify, there is no evidence that their ’freemium’ business model is sustainable, as their numbers for the last two years show.”

The Napster spokesperson was explaining to TechRadar why their site doesn’t have a free tier. Napster’s focus, according to the spokesperson, "is exclusively on music: we’re not trying to sell ads or hardware."

They then turned their attention to Apple. “No one person in LA or London is telling Napster users what to think is cool," which seems like a dig at Apple Music’s curated approach.

Napster takes “a localised approach to music suggestions, tapping into the culture of every market to make sure we’re surfacing the most relevant music for our members regardless of where they live.”

Spotify is rumoured to be killing off its free subscription, which suggests that this Napster spokesperson is right to an extent.

But Spotify also holds a significant membership numbers advantage over Napster. Clearly, all of the major services have things to learn as they try to keep music lovers, labels, and artists alike happy.