It’s been nearly a year since Apple services chief Eddy Cue said Apple Music had reached 60 million paid subscribers. Apple Music, which has no free tier beyond a 3-month trial period, last June had 60 million paid subscribers.
Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t regularly disclose Apple Music subscriptions, preferring only to give investors updates when the service hits certain milestones, but a new estimate from Counterpoint Research pegs Apple Music’s worldwide subscriber base at around 68 million at the end of 2019.
Rival Spotify reports user metrics every quarter because music streaming is its core business. The Swedish company finished 2019 with 124 million paid subscribers.
Last week, the market researcher released estimates on how the global music-streaming market grew last year. Total subscriptions jumped 32% to 358 million.
Translating those market shares into absolute numbers for companies that don’t disclose metrics directly, Apple Music finished the year with approximately 68 million paid subscribers, while Amazon had around 53.7 million. The e-commerce juggernaut said in January that Amazon Music had 55 million customers, but that figure includes ad-supported users in the free tier.
MacDailyNews Take: This is an estimate only, of course, but if it’s too low, perhaps it’ll prompt an official update from Apple at some point. 🤞🏻
Apple Music costs $4.99/mo. for students (which now comes with free access to Apple TV+), $9.99/mo.for individuals, and $14.99/mo. for the family plan.