Apple Music has had its fair share of competition, including the music streaming powerhouse Spotify and rapper Jay-Z's Tidal. Although competition is fierce, the Financial Times reports that Apple Music has reached a new milestone in record time: 10 million paid subscribers, which is something Spotify took six years to accomplish.
A newly released report from Apple Music reveals that their built-in music streaming service already garnered 6 and a half million paid subscribers by October 2015. This means they reached that massive figure after only a three month period. At this time, they already had 8 and a half million users undergoing the 3-month trial.
According to the Washington Post, "the 10 million figure isn't an unqualified success." A lot of people did not agree to become paid subscribers after their 3-month trial period was over. However, Apple did have a distinct advantage over their competition. Apple Music was already built into newly released Apple devices and updates would install them to any already released and compatible devices. This means that millions of iPhones, iPods, iPads, and Macs came with Apple Music built-in.
Music Business Worldwide projects that the 10 million users will grow to an active user base of over 100 million within the next six years. This is one of Apple's reported internal goals that they have set for themselves. It is very likely that they will reach this goal. Spotify had 20 million paid subscribers, according to Spotify's report released in June, among its 75 million active users, with the other users availing only of the free tier. Spotify spokesman Jonathan Prince said that they experienced their fastest growth ever in the second half of 2015 and as of now they have over 25 million paying subscribers.
Both Apple Music and Spotify cost $9.99 per month to become a paid subscriber. However, a Spotify subscription purchased through the Apple Store costs $3 more due to Apple Store policies.
