Apple Music hits 40 million subscribers

Apple Music has hit the 40 million paid subscriber mark, in three years rapidly catching up with Spotify which has 71 million (and 159 million active users) after ten years in operation.

In the case of Apple Music, it has added 2 million more since its subscriber figures were last announced in March.

The figure was 36 million in February.

What’s more, there could be a further rapid growth. Apple Music says that there are currently 8 million people who are trialling the service.

Such is the rapid take-up of Apple Music that the The Wall Street Journal noted last month:

“Apple’s Apple Music streaming service, which has been No. 2 in US subscribers behind Spotify AB, is quickly gaining ground against its rival and may overtake it this summer.

“Spotify has not rested on its laurels waiting for the new upstart to catch up. It too has been adding numbers since Apple Music launched in mid-2015, and is planning to reach 96 million paying customers by the end of 2018.”

The rivalry is still strong.

In the latest instance, Spotify has claimed that it generated more streams for The Weeknd’s new EP My Dear Melancholy than Apple Music.

It says that it clocked up nearly 29 million streams within the first 24 hours of release, while the single ‘Call Out My Name received 7.5 million streams in the same period.

Apple’s figures, provided before Spotify’s, was 26 million for the EP and 6 million for the single, both again within 24 hours.