Apple Music Hits New Subscriber Milestone

Apple Music has a new achievement, but its success may require an asterisk for the time being.

In an interview with French site Numerama last Friday, which was picked up by Variety, the company’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, revealed that the music streaming service has officially hit 60 million subscribers. However, it is important to note that Apple has used both paying members and those on free trials to reach this number. In January of this year, Tim Cook stated that the service had 50 million paid subscribers alone.

Even with the asterisk, this represents some major growth for the streaming service. In May of 2018, the company cited a similar statistic, stating that there were roughly 50 million paid and free trial users.

Still, Apple Music remains in second behind Spotify, which has a seven-year lead on Apple’s product – Spotify launched in 2008, Apple Music in 2015 – and blazed the trail that all other streaming platforms now follow. Earlier this year, Spotify claimed 100 million paid members worldwide, with a staggering 217 million when factoring in free users. Unlike Apple Music, Spotify offers free streaming through an ad-supported lower tier.

As Variety highlights, a significant uptick could be on the horizon for Apple Music. In September, the company will be doing away with its long-running iTunes app in favor of Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Podcasts. It is unclear at this stage how many new users this will push to these products, but the change is sure to be significant.