Apple Music Climbs Past 60 Million Subscribers In Battle With Spotify

Apple has had a big week, most notably its famed designer Jony Ive has left the company to join his own design firm. Apple has also announced that its Apple Music service has now passed 60 million subscribers. That number come from Eddy Cue in an interview given this week with a French news site.

It appears that Apple is set on giving updates about Apple Music each time the service adds another 10 million users; the last update was given in April when Apple music hit the 50 million subscriber mark. The latest numbers put Apple past the halfway mark in matching its main rival, Spotify, for global paid subscribers. Spotify currently has about 100 million paid subscribers.

Spotify reached the 100 million paid subscriber mark in April. It offers a free tier of service as well and when that is figured in the service has over 217 million subscribers in 79 countries, giving it vastly higher subscriber numbers than Apple Music currently has. However, reports last summer stated that Spotify and Apple Music were in a virtual tie for paid subscribers in the U.S. with each at about 20 million with Apple slightly in the lead.

Apple and Spotify are fighting in the EU over alleged antitrust issues. Apple has stated that Spotify only pays a 15% app tax in the App Store on around 680,000 premier tier customers. Apple notes that this only represents 0.5% of the 100 million premium subscribers Spotify boasts. Spotify filed an official complaint against Apple in the EU in part over the royalty rate that Apple charges on purchases via the App Store. Spotify says if the fees Apple charges are left unchecked, it could be forced to raise its premium subscriber subscription fees.