Apple music hit 20 million subscribers
Music users since September, bringing its total subscriber count to 20 million. Furthermore, VP Eddy Cue tells Billboard that 60 percent of those are new customers who haven't purchased an iTunes song in the last year. By contrast, Spotify announced it had 40 million users in September, afteradding 10 million premium subscribers in a six month period. As before, Apple is using exclusive artist deals to drive users to Music. "Chance the Rapper, who we put on Apple Music exclusively, hit the top 10 on the Billboard charts [from streaming alone] and I can't recall that being done before," said Cue. Such deals are controversial with fans and the press, however, and artists like Kanye West (who has done his own exclusive deals on Tidal) have railedabout it. Unlike Apple, Spotify has a free, ad-supported subscription tier that it uses to drive premium subscriber growth. As of June, the company said it had100 million total users, including non-paid subscribers. Apple has