Spotify continues to dominate Apple Music in sheer number of subscribers despite Apple's increased focused on exclusives. Spotify announced that they have reached 40 million subscribers, putting them far ahead of Apple Music which currently has 17 million subscribers. Spotify first announced their subscriber total on Wednesday (Sept. 14) via a tweet by CEO Daniel Ek.

"40 is the new 30. Million," he wrote.

Spotify just hit 30 million subscribers this past March, making this achievement all the more impressive. The 40 million does not include the many free users that Spotify has maintained through the unpaid version of their service. Spotify reached 100 million subscribers in June when counting both their paid and unpaid users.

It is important to note that Apple Music has not been around as long as Spotify. Apple Music launched in January 2015 while Spotify was first debuted in October 2008. However, Spotify did not launch its U.S. service until July 2011.

Although Apple Music is way behind Spotify right now, the streaming service does not seem too worried about their current position in the race. In fact, there was talk this summer of Apple acquiring one of their rivals in Tidal.

Conversations about Apple Music buying Tidal have come to an end though. A new report by Buzzfeed featured a complete denial of such talks by Apple Music's Jimmy Iovine.

"We're really running our own race," the co-founder of Interscope Records said. "We're not looking to acquire any streaming services."

Tidal reportedly has 4.2 million subscribers, so Spotify would still maintain a commanding lead if Apple had been serious about acquiring Tidal.

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