Spotify zips up to 40 million subscribers

Spotify has cruised past 40 million subscribers, adding 10 million since March of this year. The streaming service has been making steady progress in expanding its subscription tier, and is further entrenching itself as the leader for that $9.99-a-month music product. Apple Music is also pushing its audience, most recently reporting 17 million subscribers during its fall keynote and securing the No. 2 spot in the field.

The improvements in those paying listener numbers are good news for the on-demand streaming sector. The ability to build a subscriber audience has long been a question about this model’s viability. There’s still progress to be made. But even in the 2015 results from trade bodies worldwide, streaming is already contributing the lion’s share of digital revenue, and in some places it is the largest of any revenue source. The snowballing growth in listenership, particularly as the platforms and artists explore new distribution methods, will likely mean more big numbers when those same organizations come out with 2016 data.