• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 22, 2020

Nipping at the heels of Spotify and Apple, Amazon just revealed its Music streaming service has surpassed 55 million users, worldwide.

In part, that’s thanks to the service growing by nearly 50% growth in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan, over the past year.

During the same period, Amazon Music’s users have also more than doubled in France, Italy, Spain, and Mexico.

It has helped Amazon and its music ambitions to have existing relationships with customers, either through Amazon.com, Alexa or one of its other popular services.

“Our strategy is unique and, like everything we do at Amazon, starts with our customers,” Steve Boom, vice president, Amazon Music, stated on Wednesday.

Rather than a single product, Amazon Music consists of six separate offerings, which range from a free ad-supported service to a family plan that costs households $15 per month.

Amazon said subscriptions to its mid-tier Music Unlimited service -- which costs Prime members $7.99 per month and non-Prime members $9.99 per month -- grew 50% over the past year.

Putting Amazon Music’s following in perspective, Spotify said it was approaching 250 million total users -- and more than 110 million paying subscribers -- last quarter.

Apple said its Music service had surpassed 60 million subscribers, last year.

To date, Amazon has invested significant resources into its Music service. In 2018, the tech giant financed a national ad campaign to promote the music-streaming service, which featured music from Queen, Ariana Grande and Kendrick Lamar.

For its part, Spotify has recently struggled to add paid subscribers. The Swedish tech giant has also been distracted by a battle with Apple. Last year, the company asked EU antitrust officials to investigate its U.S. rival, and its control over the music streaming industry.