Apple Music Now at 36 Million Paid Subscribers

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) may not have shared how many Apple Music subscribers there are during last week's earnings release, but the company has now confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that its global subscriber base has hit 36 million. That's up from 30 million in September, the last official update provided by Apple Music chief Jimmy Iovine.

By way of comparison, market leader Spotify announced a month ago that it had hit 70 million paid subscribers. Ever since launching in 2015, Apple Music has maintained a fairly steady proportion compared to Spotify, with just about half as many paid subscribers at any given time.