Apple Music has now reached 38 million subscribers

In a little more than a month’s time, Apple Music has managed to increase its subscriber base by a couple of million, comfortably hitting the 38 million mark in terms of the volume of subscribers. Eddy Cue, the senior vice president of Apple’s Internet software and services, revealed as much at this year’s South by Southwest Conference and Festivals (most familiarly known to everybody as SXSW).

It goes without saying that this latest achievement should give Apple another reason to celebrate, considering that its music streaming subscription service has only been around for less than three years. While it is true that the massive popularity of Apple’s brand name can not be discounted, the success of the tech giant’s Apple Music offering should still deserve some credit especially in light of the fierce competition in the music streaming business.

Indeed, hitting 38 million subscribers is nothing to scoff at, but the fact remains that industry leader Spotify continues to enjoy a large lead against Apple Music. According to the latest estimates, Spotify has around 71 million paying customers, and close to 160 million users are tuning in to the streaming service at least once on a monthly basis. Sure, one can argue that Spotify has the advantage of having existed way before Apple Music had made its debut, but Spotify has remained the market leader for so long because it continues to attract loads of new customers through an ad supported tier (which is free of charge) that Apple Music does not offer. 

Still, it appears that Apple is quite happy with its approach to promoting its Apple Music. By marrying exclusives for hit records with some marketing wizardry (a proven skill of the tech giant), it is drawing a healthy number of new sign ups each and every month. 

And there are still plenty of users out there to entice. As pointed out by Cue, there around a couple of billion potential music streaming subscribers in the face of the planet, and Apple Music and Spotify combined have only signed up about five percent of that total. 

We get the feeling, however, that Apple does not have any problem with taking the slowly but surely approach. And it appears that the company has been making some quiet but strategic moves in the last few months in order to boost its services business. Over three months ago for instance, Apple had confirmed that it had completed its acquisition of Shazam, one of the most recognizable music recognition apps today.