Maybe, just maybe, Spotify is actually really great and customers love it.
This reminds me of people debating Apple vs Android circa 2012.
If you're gonna ask me to re-create all my playlists and invest the time to train the recommendation engine, your client better be damn good. Otherwise what's an extra few bucks a month for not having to bother relearning shit? $10/month difference would probably get me thinking, though...
- Seamless user registration and free trial that comes with automatic recurring payment. You'd be surprised how easy it to get $5 monthly out of android/apple account without people noticing.
- Bots, lost and fake accounts
- Arrange statistics generally speaking and careful wording. "subscribers" doesn't distinguish between free trial, inactive accounts or long term regular users.
There are plentiful ways to handle PR however you like. Only the insiders really know what's happening inside a company.