Apple passes 20 million Apple Music subscribers


Since it launched in 2015, Apple has passed the 20 million subscriber number. This is up 15% from September when it posted 17 million subscribers.

Billboard:

The speed with which Apple has built the streaming service -- essentially starting from zero in June 2015 -- may be even more impressive than the latest numbers, which still trail competitor Spotify by 20 million. Cue, who spoke to Billboard alongside Beats 1's Zane Lowe, says "of course we want more and we want it to go faster -- we're hungry!" But, he adds, "We can't forget that, as an industry, we still have very few music subscribers. There are billions of people listening to music and we haven't even hit 100 million subscribers. There's a lot of growth opportunity."

The recent surge in growth likely is attributed to the revamped Apple Music and resulting attention since iOS 10 launched in September.