As Apple has over 57% of the operating system market share in Australia (Statista, 2018), this gives them a big advantage as their service is potentially easier to use for this 57%. Apple Music also connects directly with your iTunes library, giving users the ability to access local files and songs that might not be on Apple Music. Spotify allows local file access on your computer, however does not when using their mobile service. Familiarity with the brand, as well as an experience that is more streamlined with their OS, gives Apple users another reason to choose Apple Music.

Google Play Music does for Android users as Apple Music does for Apple users, making it potentially easier to use as it is designed specifically for this OS. While Android holds over 41% of the market of operating systems in Australia (Statista, 2018), its low number of subscribers in comparison to their competitors suggests that it poses no major threat to Spotify at this stage.

Amazon and Amazon Music services are more popular in the US than Australia, and so many Australians haven't even heard of their music platform; despite this, it continues to slowly grow as a streaming service in other parts of the world. Users might be skeptical of the service, as Amazon is viewed more as a shopping website, which doesn’t give them much credibility in the completely different market of music streaming. However, one advantage is that Amazon Music works best with the Amazon Alexa smart home device, which is arguably the most popular device in this category; this range of services shows how Amazon takes advantage of digitisation, establishing strong roots in multiple digital markets, and dominating most of them. While Amazon Music struggles to break into the Australian market, it poses a major threat for Spotify internationally and therefore as a whole.

Soundcloud claims to be “an open platform that directly connects creators and their fans across the globe” (Soundcloud, 2018). It could be a threat to Spotify as it is the only other service that offers a free version, and it has many more tracks available to users. However, this is because the app is used mostly by amateur creators, which the large majority of people don’t have an interest in compared to established or ‘famous’ artists. Its paid service is also a lot more expensive than its competitors, but this service is targeted at creators over users, and so the existence of the paid version doesn’t affect what is available on the free version. Soundcloud utilises digitisation to appeal foremost to amateur artists and those who seek out this kind of music, making it far easier to access ‘underground’ tracks than it would have been pre-digital economy, where handing mixtapes out on the street and heading to live music venues was your best bet to distribute and find this kind of music.

Having launched in 2008, Spotify remains the oldest among its competitors, giving them more time to perfect the service. While Spotify allegedly has the least amount of songs, it beats out it’s competitors with it’s free service. This makes it much more appealing to those who don’t frequently listen to music, as they don't have to make a commitment with money. It’s also a good way to build loyalty with users, providing them with the ability to listen to what they want, with few restrictions. Those who grow tired of the restrictions have already established themselves with the brand, making them more likely to buy a premium subscription with Spotify over its competitors. Spotify’s popularity also helps to boost its appeal, utilising the marketing technique of focus groups, which influence audiences through the people they are exposed to to purchase a certain product or service (Babin, 2018); this means Spotify’s solid base of loyal customers will influence those around them to also use the service, effectively using a kind of ‘peer pressure’ to stimulate interest and sales.