Amazon Music doesn’t seem to get as much attention as rival music streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music, but that doesn’t mean the service hasn’t proven popular. On the contrary, the service is growing rapidly and fast catching up to those rivals, if its claim that it has surpassed 55 million customers is to be believed. 

That’s not bad for a service that was only launched in October 2016, and seemingly puts it within touching distance of Apple Music, which reported 60 million paying users as of last summer. Spotify is still some way ahead though, with 248 million users globally, including 113 million paying customers. 

Still, Amazon Music boss Steve Boom told the Financial Times that the 55 million number was highly significant. 

“Amazon doesn’t talk numbers that much,” Boom said. “We felt like getting to this level of scale was something worth talking about.”

One of the reasons for Amazon Music’s growth is the range of subscription plans it offers, which a free, ad-supported tier that provides access to dozens of top playlists and thousands of music stations. 

The paid options meanwhile include Amazon Music Unlimited, the company’s main offering to rival Apple and Spotify that’s priced at £7.99/month for multiple devices and provides access to more than 50 million songs. There’s also a cheaper Amazon Music Unlimited single-device plan for use on supported Echo and Fire TV devices only. 

In addition, Amazon offers an Amazon Music HD plan, which provides the same access but with “higher quality” audio. Then there’s the Amazon Music for Prime subscribers plan, which provides on-demand, ad-free access to over 2 million songs as part of user’s regular Prime membership. 

In comparison, Amazon’s rivals Apple and Spotify offer just two options, free and paid. 

“We’re proud to reach this incredible milestone and are overwhelmed by our customers’ response to Amazon Music,” Boom added in a statement. “Our strategy is unique and, like everything we do at Amazon, starts with our customers. We’ve always been focused on expanding the marketplace for music streaming by offering music listeners unparalleled choice because we know that different listeners have different needs.