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Apple Music hits 15 million subscribers

Apple also redesigns its subscription music service to have a cleaner look.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials
  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
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Joan E. Solsman
James Martin/CNET
Watch this: Apple Music gets simple with cleaner look and design

Apple Music has hit 15 million subscribers less than one year after launch, half the number of bigger rival Spotify.

This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET's complete coverage from and about Apple's annual developers conference.

Apple executive Eddy Cue announced the new number as the company introduced a redesign of the subscription music service "from the ground up," he said during a keynote address at the gadget maker's developers conference, known as WWDC.

The Cupertino, California, company launched Apple Music, its first subscription on-demand music service, at the end of June last year. As the dominant seller of digitally downloaded songs and albums, Apple resisted the burgeoning subscription-music model while upstarts like Sweden-based Spotify raced to dominate.

Spotify has 30 million subscribers to Apple's 15 million.

During the keynote, Apple demonstrated an updated version of Apple Music. The new app makes it easier to get to the user's own downloaded music with a "Recently Added" section that includes the newest albums, songs and playlists. The music player now shows lyrics, and Apple's "Connect" feature that links artists directly with listeners has been folded into a "For You" tab that also offers up songs tailored to each listener.

This is a developing story. Follow our live blog for the latest info from Apple's ongoing WWDC keynote.

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