Apple Hit a Milestone in 6 Months That Took its Rival 6 Years
, Apple Music has reportedly hit 10 million subscribers just six months after launching. The music-streaming service launched on June 30 in more than 100 countries with a three-month free trial, whichFortune reported attracted 11 million subscribers by the beginning of August. Though not all of them stuck around to actually pay for the service, Apple AAPL 1.31 Music has almost built back up to that number, and subscriptions are still on the rise. Music industry analyst at Midia Research told the Financial Times that Apple Music has "potential to be the leading music subscription service sometime in 2017.", Spotify is currently the industry leader. As of June, the service had 20 million subscribers and 75 million monthly active users. Considering the app was the third top-grossing in the App Store in the U.S. over the weekend, those numbers have likely gone up since then. According to FT, the company has been valued at 8 billion and it's leading up to an IPO. Music streaming is quickly pushing out downloads. In 2014, streaming demand rose by 50, while album downloads and individual song downloads fell by 9 and 12, respectively.