Just as Amazon thought it was taking all the music streaming glory by opening up sharing for the family, it appears Apple has passed a significant subscriber milestone.

As Billboard reports, the platform now has over 20 million subscribers - a 15% increase from September, when it announced it was catering for17 million music-needy users.

Eddy Cue, Apple's SVP of internet software and products, also told Billboard that 60 percent of Apple Music users have not bought any content from the iTunes Store in the last year.

Of course, considering the service has only been available for around 18 months, reaching this subscriber count is a major goal for Apple.

It still sits some distance away from Spotify - which announced 40 million paying customers in September - but these figures will continue to bloat after the Christmas period and when many of the three-month trial users make the leap.

Cue also noted the company's partnership with Chance the Rapper, whose Apple Music-exclusive album Coloring Book performed well on the Billboard charts.

"We were thrilled to see that we could take [artists'] passions and drive them all the way to No. 1. Chance the Rapper, who we put on Apple Music exclusively, hit the top 10 on the Billboard charts [based on streams alone], and I can't recall that being done before," Cue said.


Want up-to-the-minute entertainment and tech news? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.