“Is 11 million Apple Music subs anything to brag about?” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune. “That puts it in sixth place behind Pandora, Spotify, iTunes Radio, SiriusXM and Deezer.”
“Eddy Cue, Apple’s veteran content dealmaker, pronounced himself ‘thrilled’ with the number,” P.E.D. reports. “Music producer Jimmy Iovine, Apple’s $3 billion acquire from Beats and Interscope Records, was ‘pleasantly shocked.'”
“But is 11 million in four weeks anything to brag about? Jackdaw Research’s Jan Dawson is not so sure,” P.E.D. reports. “‘In the context of other music services, Apple Music has made a great start,’ he wrote in a Monday morning post to his Tech.pinions subscribers. ‘But in the context of Apple’s overall base, it’s made a pretty slow start.’ …Apple has still got plenty of time. Apple Music only one month into the three-month free trial period, and because it’s opt-in, enough subscribers will probably stick around to put it ahead of all the rest of the paid services except Sirius and Spotify.”
Subscriber numbers for select music streaming services:
(active users / paid users in millions)
Sirius XM: 28.4/23.4
Spotify: 75/20
Deezer: 16/6
Pandora: 79.4/3.9
Rhapsody: 3/3
Apple Music: 11/–
iTunes Radio: 40/–
Source: Jackdaw Research estimates
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last Thursday:
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.
SEE ALSO:
Apple Music has 11 million trial members, App Store has July record $1.7 billion – August 6, 2015