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Apple services stand out as bright spot in otherwise rough Q2

Services revenue was perhaps one of the few comforts for Apple in its second-quarter financial results shared on Tuesday, growing 20 percent year-over-year to $5.99 billion, setting an all-time record for the company.

"We are very happy with the continued strong growth in revenue from services, thanks to the incredible strength of the Apple ecosystem and our growing base of over one billion active devices," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a prepared statement.

As usual, the company's unaudited data summary lumped all services together, rather than breaking down individual sources. The category does, however, include everything from iTunes, the App Store, Apple Music, and iCloud through Apple Pay and licensing income.

The rest of Apple's second quarter was largely disappointing, with overall revenue down 13 percent to $50.557 billion. All of the company's major product segments — iPhone, iPad, and Mac — declined in terms of shipments and revenue. The iPhone, Apple's mainstay, saw shipments fall by almost 10 million units, with revenue down 18 percent to $32.857 billion.

Services growth was likely connected to Apple Music. It now has over 13 million subscribers, up 2 million during the quarter. The company is still behind Spotify, which in March had over 30 million paying customers, plus many more people on its ad-based tier.