Apple Music reaches 27m subscribers

Apple Music has revealed that it now has 27 million subscribers, up from the 20 million executives reported in December.

Billboard reports that the new figure was announced during Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose, two years after the service was launched.

The number was given in passing as Apple's senior vp of software engineering Craig Federighi said: "Last fall, we introduced an all new design for Apple Music which brought greater clarity and simplicity to the Apple Music experience.

"We not have 27 million customers who really enjoy the curation as well as the personalisation of Apple Music."

The service has been growing rapidly since its launch in 2015. When it hit the 20 million mark in December it had added 17 million new subscribers over the previous three months.

Apple Music's biggest streaming competitor, Spotify, announced that it had reached 50 million paid subscribers in March.

A report earlier this year showed that streaming is set to overtake album sales as the biggest generator of income for the UK music industry.

Consumers are continuing to opt for streaming subscriptions such as Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer, pushing revenues to a five-year high in 2016.

BPI figures showed that the total income generated by the UK music industry rose by 5 per cent last year from £881m to £925m.