Cook Confirms Apple Music's 50M Users

In an appearance on Bloomberg Television on "The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations,", Cook was forthcoming about paid versus trial Apple Music subscribers. He said that in total, the service has more than 50 million users between paid members and trials, in contrast to the 40 million paid subscribers the company declared in April.

Looking at Apple's growth numbers, the company appears to be posting about 4 million conversions a month to a paid subscription above and beyond any makeup for cancellations, according to AppleInsider.  This number has been consistent since at least January, suggesting that Apple will have about 60 million paid subscribers before the holiday season, three years after launch.

Primary competitor Spotify announced earlier in May that it has 75 million premium subscribers meeting its own targets. Assuming Spotify maintains consistent growth of subscribers, it will have about 90 million paid subscribers by the start of the holiday season, and it had a eight-year head start on Apple.

While the push into content isn't a secret, the interview was the first time that Cook directly addressed the effort.

"We are very interested in the content business. We will be playing in a way that is consistent with our brand," Cook told Bloomberg. "We're not ready to give any details on it yet. But it's clearly an area of interest."

It was reported in 2017 that Apple was investing approximately $1 billion into original video programming, but the report suggests Apple will easily extend the budget past that figure. It is claimed in recent months that it has outspent Facebook and YouTube's own original content efforts, as well as traditional TV studios, as well as defeating main competitor Netflix in some bidding wars.