Streaming music service Rhapsody continues to grow: The Spotify competitor recently surpassed three million paying subscribers across its Rhapsody and Napster brands, according to an announcement the company made Tuesday.
Rhapsody has been around since 2001, but the company only hit two million paying subscribers last summer. Part of the recent growth can be attributed to carrier partnerships and lower-priced plans. This includes unRadio, which basically is a Pandora-like streaming service that is offered discounted to some T-Mobile subscribers.
Rhapsody also said Tuesday that mobile usage was up 60 percent since last year. Offline listening, which occurs when a user downloads tracks to their phone and then later listens to them without using a data connection, grew 40 percent over the last six months.
Rhapsody is one of a number of services trying to get music fans to embrace monthly paid subscriptions. Market leader Spotify now has 20 million paying subscribers, and Deezer boasts 6 million paying subscribers.
Apple hasn’t released any firm numbers on Apple Music yet, but CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s fiscal Q3 earnings call this week that millions of listeners have tuned into the company’s free Beats1 radio station.
