Apple’s Music Streaming Subscribers Top 10M

Apple has passed 10M subscribers for its music streaming service, taking six months to hit a milestone which took its arch-rival Spotify six years to hit, according to people familiar with the matter.

The rapid growth of Apple Music, which launched in more than 100 countries in June, raises the stakes in streaming, a form of distribution that offers hope to the music industry after decade in the doldrums.

“It’s good news that Apple is making streaming work but it is also going to accelerate the decline of downloads,” said Mark Mulligan, music industry analyst with Midia Research. Apple was rapidly gaining on Spotify and at its current growth rate had “the potential to be the leading music subscription service sometime in 2017.

Streaming is becoming the dominant form of digital music consumption and is growing rapidly as download sales decline. In the US, total sales of album downloads fell 9 per cent in 2014 while sales of individual tracks declined 12 per cent, according to Nielsen Music data. However, CNBC reports demand for streaming increased more than 50 per cent, with 164bn songs streamed.

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