Apple Music eclipsed Spotify in the United States?

Apple Music continues to track Spotify for the total number of users, but it may have overshadowed the biggest rival in a very important market: the United States.

Apple Music and Spotify each have more than 20 million paid subscribers in the US, but Apple is "now ahead," reported Thursday Digital Music News, citing an anonymous music distributor.

Amid a wider cultural evolution towards streaming as the most popular way to listen to tracks Apple Music and Spotify emerge as the leaders of a race bidirectional to the music of subscription. Although Spotify remains the largest streaming service by listeners and subscribers, Apple Music has benefited from the popularity of the iPhone to recruit new members. This gives Apple Music a head start in countries like the United States, where the popularity of the iPhone is higher than in the rest of the world.

The United States may be just a market, but it remains the largest recorded music market in the world.

Overall, Spotify has 75 million paying members and 170 million people who use the service either by listening to free ads or by subscribing. About 23 million of its subscribers are largely in North America, according to financial information in May.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, meanwhile, said Apple Music hit 40 million subscribers in total in April.

Spotify declined to comment. Apple did not immediately respond to a message requesting a comment.

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