Apple Music now has 15 million users, CEO Tim Cook reveals

Apple's new streaming service is still a long way behind Spotify, its main competitor

Doug Bolton
Tuesday 20 October 2015 08:35 EDT
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6.5 million people worldwide are now paying for Apple Music
6.5 million people worldwide are now paying for Apple Music (6.5 million people worldwide are now paying for Apple Music)

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Apple's new streaming service Apple Music now has over 15 million users, 6.5 million of whom are paying.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's WSJD Live conference in California, CEO Tim Cook said that 6.5 million of Apple Music users are paying the £9.99 a month for a subscription, while 8.5 million are using their three-month free trial.

It's an impressive rate of growth for the service, which only launched in June, but it's still a long way behind Spotify, which announced in the same month that it has over 20 million paying customers worldwide.

As The Verge notes, however, the three-month free trial offer means that Apple only started collecting payments this month - some people may have forgotten to cancel the free trial and were charged for October, which could skew the figures a little.

Making the switch from Spotify to Apple Music has been a big ask for some, as it means leaving all your old playlists and listening history behind on Spotify.

However, clearly people have taken it up, and Tim Cook seems pleased with how it's worked, telling Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker, "its' going really well," adding "people love the human curation" aspect of the service.

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