Apple Music has 13 million subscribers, CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday, a disclosure that comes a month after chief rival Spotify said it has surpassed 30 million paying members.
The latest Apple stat means the $9.99-a-month subscription music service has gained 2 million members since February. Cook made the announcement during a conference call to discuss the company’s fiscal second quarter results.
Apple was slow to jump into the burgeoning market for streaming tunes, after it has spent the last decade-and-a-half dominating the digital download market. But as streaming became the music industry’s most significant area of growth, Apple was forced to come off the sidelines, even if it meant sacrificing iTunes sales.
Apple’s delay allowed a smaller rival to get a big head start. Spotify, a private Swedish company, said a year ago that it had more than 75 million active listeners, which includes people who use Spotify free by sitting through ads.
Apple’s performance in new businesses, like music streaming, is growing in importance as sales of its all-important iPhone slow. Earlier Tuesday, the company reported its first quarterly drop in sales in 13 years, as it sold 16 percent fewer iPhones than it did a year earlier.