Apple Music caps off a record-breaking 2025
From major features launches to record highs across listenership and subscribers, 2025 marked a milestone year for Apple Music.
Apple Music’s biggest year so far
2025 will go down as a standout year for Apple Music. According to Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, it was the platform’s best ever year. In fact, it wasn’t just Apple Music that performed well, as Apple Services as a whole hit all-time highs. It was a year that marked milestone anniversaries from Apple Podcasts, Music, News, and more.
Specifically, Apple Music celebrated its tenth anniversary, and with it brought about record listenership and a record number of new subscribers. The platform also doubled down on innovation, rolling out new features that levelled up how fans interact with Apple Music.
A year defined by new Apple Music features
If there was one clear driver behind Apple Music’s record-breaking year, it was the innovation it put behind new features.
In 2025, Apple Music introduced its biggest wave of new features since it launched, arriving alongside iOS 26. Listeners gained access to Lyrics Translation and Lyrics Pronunciation, breaking down language barriers between global music. AutoMix brought smoother transitions between tracks. Library Pinning and Folders made it easier to manage your music library. Animated album art spilled onto the Lock Screen. Plus, in-app Replay stats gave users more insights into their listening habits all year long, right where they stream.
Apple Music Sing saw upgrades too. One of the headline additions lets users turn their iPhone into a microphone, amplifying their voice through the TV while lyrics play onscreen. With Continuity Camera, singers can even appear onscreen alongside lyrics and visual effects.
Ten years of Apple Music, celebrated
Apple didn’t hold back when it came to marking Apple Music’s tenth anniversary.
To celebrate, the platform launched a “Replay All Time” playlist that lets users revisit their most-played tracks since joining Apple Music. A week of special Apple Music radio programming followed, alongside the gradual countdown of the platform’s 500 most-streamed songs of all time.
Most remarkably, Apple also unveiled a brand-new, state-of-the-art studio in Los Angeles. A clear sign of Apple’s commitment to helping artists at every stage of their career, and well beyond just being a streaming app.
A look at the numbers…
While Apple Music didn’t release any official subscriber or listener numbers for 2025, the clues are there.
As MusicAlly points out, MIDiA Research’s external reports suggest Apple Music grew from around 84.7 million subscribers in Q2 2022 to just over 98 million by the end of 2024. Based on that trajectory, we can presume that Apple Music hit 100 million subscribers at some point in 2025.
This kind of achievement would usually be met with some kind of celebration. However, Apple hasn’t done so. In a fiercely competitive streaming landscape, it could make sense that Apple Music may not want to disclose those figures publicly. That’s especially the case if they show how far they are behind Spotify, who hit 281 million subscribers by Q3 2025, and YouTube Music, who hit 125 million subscribers in March 2025.
Shazam also remains a core part of Apple’s music offering, and its scale is staggering. The app generated more than one billion recognition every month in 2025. That’s a lot of people actively using the app to identify music, movies, TV shows, and adverts from their device.
What this means for the music industry
Apple Music’s record breaking year is undoubtedly good news for the music industry.
More subscribers generally means more revenue entering the streaming ecosystem. Over time, that should translate into increased royalty pools and long-term sustainability for artists and rightsholders. At the same time, Apple’s continued innovative focus towards new features and personalization, only levels up the streaming experience for listeners everywhere.