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Music streaming Spotify has revealed it has over 40 million users worldwide - with 10m of the  paying for its premium service.

The service is available in 56 countries, the firm said.

It comes as Apple is believed to be working out the final details of a $3.2bn purchase of Beats, which would see it take control of the headphone maker's Beats Music streaming service.

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Streaming firm Spotify has 40m global users - and 10m paying users, it revealed today.

The figures reveal a growth of some 16 million users since the company's last user disclosure in March 2013.

Despite the strong growth, Spotify still lags rival music streaming service Pandora, which boasts 75 million active users.

'We've had an amazing year, growing from 20 markets to 56 as people from around the world embrace streaming music,' said Daniel Ek, CEO and Founder, Spotify.

10 million subscribers is an important milestone for both Spotify and the entire music industry,'

'We're widening our lead in the digital music space and will continue to focus on getting everyone in the world to listen to more music.'

Spotify now has 10 million paying subscribers and more than 40 million active users across 56 markets.

Since the service launched in 2008, users have created over 1.5 billion playlists, collectively creating or updating over 5 million playlists each day.

'Spotify's growth and global reach is not only significant for us, but for the entire music industry,' the firm said.

'Since 2008, Spotify has driven over $1 billion dollars to rights holders.'

The service also revealed its most popular songs and artists.

Eminem is the most streamed artist of all time, and Rihanna the most streamed female artist.

David Guetta is the second most streamed male artist and Katy Perry the second most streamed female artist of all time.

'Wake Me Up' by Avicii is the most streamed song of all time with more than 235 million streams, while David Guetta is the most followed artist on Spotify with more than 5 million followers.

In the past month: Top 100 Pop Tracks on Spotify was the most streamed playlist, while Clean Bandit's "Rather Be feat. Jess Glynne" was the most played song in offline mode.

Spotify has faced increasing competition over the past year as rival services such as Apple's iTunes Radio launched in a bid to capture a slice of streaming revenue.

At the same time, Spotify has faced criticism from some in the music industry over the supposedly meagre royalties it pays artists.

Dr. Dre, who founded Beats electronics with record producer music producer Jimmy Iovine. The firm could now be sold to Apple.

The company defended such charges late last year, revealing that it paid an average 'per-stream' sum of between $0.006 and $0.0084.

Gross payments would increase as more users signed up, it said, though it cautioned that royalties depended on where the music was produced and where it was listened to.

The figures come as Apple is believed to be finalising a deal to by headphone maker Beats Electronics for $3.2bn.

The firm, founded by music producer Jimmy Iovine and the hip-hop star Dr Dre, is best known for its distinctive headphones.

It is claimed a deal could be announced within days - possibly at Apple's annual developer conference on June 2nd - and mark Apple boss Tim Cook's biggest ever acquisition.

Apple will acquire Beats' streaming music service, which launched this year, and its audio equipment business, which includes its brand of headphones and audio equipment, according to a report in the Financial Times.

The Beats management team will report to Mr Cook, said people familiar with the deal.

Apple and Beats declined to comment.

However, Apple boss Tim Cook said last month Apple was 'on the prowl' for more acquisitions, after buying 24 companies in the past 18 months and he was not averse to large acquisitions.

The potential $3.2 billion deal would mark Apple's largest acquisition of another company ever.

It is believed Apple is also interested in Beats expertise in developing wearable products and it edges closer to a much anticipated iWatch launch, 

2010: Co-Founder reveals how Beats by Dre was born

Beats has also partnered with a host of celebrities, including Lady Gaga, to create endorsed earphones.

The Beats move follows a string of high-priced deals in Silicon Valley, after Google acquired smart home developer Nest Labs for $3.2bn and Facebook offered an initial $19bn for WhatsApp Messenger, and then bought VR firm Oculus for $2bn.

Apple executives Tim Cook and Eddy Cue have previously met with Iovine to discuss streaming music services and Apple and Beats have partnered up to sell Beats earphone products in Apple Retail stores