Since the announcement of Apple Music, the company’s arrival into the music-streaming service arena, all eyes have been on current market champ Spotify to see how it would respond to the prospect of taking on the consumer tech behemoth.
Shortly after Monday’s unveiling of Apple Music, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek took to Twitter, writing “Oh ok”, in a since-deleted post. But Spotify appears to be in a more defiant mood today, revealing that it has reached 20m paid subscribers – a 100pc rise since May of last year. That’s fast considering it took the company five-and-a-half years to hit that first 10m mark.
“We could have never achieved this growth without all of you: the music fans who listen, discover, share and celebrate music and artists every day,” wrote Spotify in a statement. It also reported more than 75m active users.
To mark the occasion, the company also compiled a music playlist titled 20 Million Thank Yous and, in what may or may not be a reference to its forthcoming battle with Apple, the first track on the compilation is The Underdog by Spoon.
Apple plans to capture more than 100m users for Apple Music in a move that would sideline players like Spotify and Jay Z’s recently-launched and often-criticised Tidal. It is set to be released to 100 countries on 30 June.
