“One month after unveiling its new streaming music service, Apple has locked in 11 million trial members, company executives tell USA Today,” Marco della Cava reports for USA Today.
“‘We’re thrilled with the numbers so far,’ says Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, adding that of that sum 2 million have opted for the more lucrative family plan at $14.99 a month for up to six people,” della Cava reports. “July also brought a fiscal high-water mark for the company’s App Store, which did a record $1.7 billion in transactions, ‘with particular momentum in China,’ says Cue. That brings the total amount paid to app developers to $33 billion, up from $25 billion at the end of 2014.”
“By and large, Apple Music has gotten favorable reviews from the tech-set, with most of the criticisms anchored not to content but functionality. Some users have reported seeing duplicate playlists and mislabeled tracks as they set up the service,” della Cava reports. “Cue says ‘we’re aware that some users have experienced some issues, and we hate letting them down, but we’re releasing updates as fast as we can to address those issues.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, the dupes and mislabeled tracks are issues that need to be addressed, but the larger issue is iTunes’ muddled UI. We’re still amazed this thing came out of Apple and we’re hoping for a massive overhaul of the whole iTunes+Apple Music desktop mess ASAP. At least give us some consistency between how we deal with music on our Macs vs. on our iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. (Shouldn’t it be “how we enjoy music,” not “how we deal with music?” Unfortunately, with iTunes it too often feels like a chore.)
And, despite Cue’s claims of being “thrilled,” doesn’t 11 million seem a bit paltry for a free trial that launched in over 100 countries over a month ago? 11 million free trial users? That’s it? With more than 1/3rd of the trial period now gone? This might be a harder sell than most, including Apple (with their rumored goal of 100 million subscribers), initially thought.
And, why is Cue dropping these figures via USA Today? Why not an official Apple press release? Is Cue in damage control mode?