• by Alex Weprin , May 16, 2018

Apple Music has quickly established itself as the biggest rival to Spotify for streaming music dominance.

Apple’s streaming service now has more than 50 million subscribers, CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Tuesday. That figure includes free trials.

In April, Apple said the service had 40 million paying subscribers and eight million trial customers, meaning that the service effectively added two million subscribers in the course of the month.

Spotify is the market leader in streaming music, with 75 million paying subscribers and almost 100 million users of its free, ad-supported service.

There has also been speculation that TV shows that have been ordered by Apple will launch as part of the Apple Music bundle to differentiate itself from Spotify, which supplements its music product with podcasts and other audio and short-form video content.