Apple Music Announces 20 Million Subscriber Milestone: Still Halfway Through Rival Spotify

Apple is thrilled to announce that the company has just reached another milestone. Its subscription music service, Apple Music, now has 20 million subscribers, according to the giant company.

Apple Music has just started June last year and has already earned millions of paying subscribers since then. Business Insider reports that Apple Music has been proposing deals with famous music artists and different labels to have their music available exclusively to the music service alone. Somehow, this tactic has been proven effective considering the growing subscribers it already has.

However, not all artists are happy about how Apple plays the game. The news site has also reported that rapper Kanye West labels the practice as a "d*ck swinging contest" between its rival companies offering streaming music services which just messes up the music game.

Meanwhile, while Apple Music's growing numbers of paying subscribers are impressive, it is still halfway short from its rival - Spotify. This music streaming service now has an estimate of 40 million subscribers, according to CNET.

The undeniable growth in the number of subscribers from Apple Music and Spotify, including other companies that offer subscription to music streaming services, justifies the fact that the popularity of these services is just getting more and more popular. This is backed up by a year-end music report, which states that the number of demands in music streaming services nearly doubled in 2015.

On the other hand, BBC reports that these subscription music streaming services are being criticized. Critics insist that such services are more likely to harm the music artists and their fans as well.

Eddy Cue, boss of Apple Music, meanwhile, does not think that their streaming services affect artists and music fans that much. He said, according to BBC, he does not think that the exclusives and promotions that Apple Music is offering is new to customers. He also said that this practice is already present in recording businesses.