Apple Music launched on June 30th, 2015. Now, less than a year later, the service has grown to over 11 million subscribers. Just to compare, it took Spotify six years to reach that number.
However, it’s no wonder Apple can achieve such vigorous growth, with over 782 million iCloud users and more than 1 billion Apple devices circulating the globe. But the rise of Apple Music hasn’t been easy. The company has had to rescind some free features to get to this point, and Beats 1 is now the only station available to non-subscribers.
Overall, it seems Apple has cracked the code to streaming growth, and it’s putting the squeeze on competitors, the biggest being the original Pandora internet radio (It’s reported that the company is looking to sell after user-base has declined to 81.1 million). At this pace, Spotify might be in trouble very soon. 
H/T CNET, Tech Crunch
