Already the news is rolling in at today’s Apple iPhone 7 event: Apple Music has hit 17 million paying subscribers.
The company’s streaming service continues to keep rolling on despite steep competition, but it’s not super surprising given that Apple is securing exclusive after exclusive for Apple Music. For a bit of fun, Tim Cook arrived at the event with a video of him on Carpool Karaoke — but that wasn’t entirely a joke, as the company recently picked up Carpool Karaoke as a standalone series.
The growth also bodes well for Apple, given that its smartphone sales have started to slow. As Apple’s smartphone sales stall, it’s important that the company still continues to find ways to monetize those existing customers instead of simply using the service to tempt new users into buying iPhones. It’s also natural that it would continue to grow given that the service is built directly into the iPhone, making it more accessible and not requiring an additional download and account in order to use.
Apple most recently said it had 15 million paying subscribers at WWDC in July this year. Adding 2 million subscriptions is still quite a big jump though compared to that Spotify has around 39 million. Apple revamped its Apple Music service in June this year with a new look and feel
Service like Apple Music are increasingly important for Apple. The company is trying to diversify its revenue beyond just hardware sales, giving investors more reason to believe that Apple will continue to grow even as its smartphone sales start to cap out. So it’s invested heavily in its services business in order to grow a significant new tranche of revenue.
We’ll be updating this post with more information, and be sure to check out our liveblog of the event.