According to Tim Cook Apple Music already has 6.5 million paying subscribers-- but how does it stand compared to the music streaming competition? Statista reveals how the service is actually pretty well, all considering.

Apple Music launched on 30 June 2015 and includes a 3-month free trial, meaning the earliest payments only start from 30 September 2015. However, as seen in the Statista chart, Apple Music already stands 2nd in the streaming service rankings, beating the likes of Deezer (6.3m paying subscribers) and Pandora (3.9m).

Thus, the one service Apple needs to beat is Spotify. The music streaming champion claims 20m paying subscribers as of June 2015, and so far shows no signs of backing down.

On the other hand 3rd ranking Pandora already feels the Apple Music heat, even if the company's financial Q2 2015 earnings call insists the overall impact from the Apple Music launch was "muted."

"[W]e expected some short-term impact to our audience  growth as listeners tried this highly-promoted new service," the company says. "Given the scale of press and consumer attention on this launch, the impact on our active users and listening hours was muted."

Apple does have a secret weapon up its sleeves, though-- Apple Music is built-in the iOS 9 Music app. Every new iDevice ships with the latest version of the OS, not to mention millions of existing iPhone and iPad users have already upgraded to iOS9, meaning Apple Music already has a massive potential user base.

Rumours also insist Apple is working on an Android version of the service, making it even more widely available worldwide.

Go Spotify Ahead of the Pack in Terms of Paying Users (Statista)