“In just over three months, Apple has created the second-largest paid music service in the world,” Adam Levy writes for The Motley Fool. “Apple Music’s 6.5 million paid subscribers are short of only market leader Spotify, which recently reported 20 million paid subscribers.”
“Apple CEO Tim Cook added that there are 8.5 million more users still trialing the service,” Levy writes. “In August, Apple announced that 11 million users were trialing Apple Music. Just about all of those trials have expired now, so Apple is converting people that sign up for the trial at around a 59% clip. That’s pretty phenomenal, considering the Apple Music app has gotten torched by reviewers, claiming it has a clunky interface and can be confusing.”
MacDailyNews Take: Confusing is one thing, but having unlimited access to virtually all of the world’s recorded music for up to six people for a mere $14.99/month is another. That deal is simply too good for many to pass up, regardless of usability niggles.
“Spotify has historically converted 25% of free users into paid subscribers,” Levy writes. “dditionally, Apple is signing up free trial users at a relatively strong rate. Since it announced its 11 million free trial signups in August, the company has added 8.5 million new trial users — about 3.5 million per month. That’s slightly faster than the 3 million net new listeners Spotify added per month in first half of 2015.”
Levy writes, “If Apple can keep up its trial and conversion rates, it could surpass Spotify’s paid subscriber base within a year.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Oh ok. (smirk)
SEE ALSO:
Apple debuts new Kenny Chesney ad for Apple Music, featuring Apple Watch and iPhone 6s Plus – November 5, 2015
Apple TV’s Siri search soon to include Apple Music – October 29, 2015
Why Apple Music will win in streaming music – October 27, 2015
Apple Music takes a huge bite out of Pandora – October 23, 2015
Taylor Swift calls Spotify a ‘start-up with no cash flow’ – August 4, 2015
Oh ok, Spotify listeners are upgrading to Apple Music – July 19, 2015
Apple Music could kill more than just Spotify, it could kill music labels, too – June 25, 2015
Why Apple Music will gut and publicly execute Spotify – June 10, 2015
Spotify CEO claims to be ‘ok’ with Apple Music – June 9, 2015
Jimmy Iovine and Eddy Cue: Apple Music gunning for Spotify, YouTube, and terrestrial radio – June 9, 2015
Apple Music’s huge advantage over Spotify – June 9, 2015
Apple’s revolutionary Apple Music just might prove its skeptics wrong – June 8, 2015
Apple unveils revolutionary Apple Music service – June 8, 2015
Apple is going to put the hurt on Pandora – November 10, 2014
Um, OK
Apple Music continues to have one of THE worst interfaces I’ve ever come across. WHEN is Apple going to do ANYTHING to simplify this and make in manageable?
iOS 9.2
User error.
I actually have very few issues with the interface itself. I don’t find it confusing at all. The thing about Apple Music that is infuriating is the fact that making songs available offline fails to actually download the song at least half the time. Something that worked damn near flawlessly in iTunes Match seems to be completely broken in AM. However, given the fact that it used to work so reliably, it will most likely be sorted out sooner rather than later.
There is that distinct possibility that many of those conversions are people who didn’t even realise they are now paying for it. Like vast majority of free trial services our there, you need to actually cancel it if you don’t want to get charged for paid service. Spotify doesn’t have this limited-time trial plan; they have a permanently free tier, and a premium tier, so there won’t be any spotify users getting automatically converted to premium after three months. We’ll have to wait for a few months, until those Apple Music users who are now paying realise that they are paying. Some will likely eventually cancel. The question is how many.
I’d gander like you’re doing that there’s not more than 1-2% of the population that has that money to throw around, but troll on.
I have no idea where exactly you got that from my message.
The question is how many (will eventually cancel Apple Music). I haven’t offered my own opinion above (I don’t think the number is that high though). What I said is that the wildly optimistic estimates are a bit premature. I have no doubt that Apple Music will eclipse Spotify and take its place at the top. I’m just not sure it will be within the next year or so.
Most users rarely hear the musing of the technocrati who troll these pages. I Love Apple Music. Paying for it is a no brainer – all that music for my family for $15 a month. That’s like 2 latte’s at starbuck for gods sake. The user interface? Never understood the bitching about that, it causes me no grief. Its really not that hard to figure out . Just mindless Apple bashing IMHO
I think if you completely disregard all the additional features that are hidden behind the allegedly confusing interface and just take the fact that you can find and listen to practically ANY piece of recorded music known to modern man, Apple Music is an incredible offering.
I like Apple Music. I’m staying subscribed.
I use it on my New Apple TV at home, and streaming over LTE when I’m travelling. I don’t even bother to store things locally. I usually listen to the “For You” playlists.
Right there with you BB … Apple Music kicks some serious ass. Worth EVERY penny. It’s called VALUE AssDroids.
… Fine for some. Not for me. I’m not into renting my music. But Music has other nice features I enjoyed during my trial run. My wish is for it to continue maturing.
If Apple supported my 100K iTunes Library I would subscribe. I tried the service and found it irritating and the UI was not great. But not allowing my larger library was the end for me.
The 6 users for 14.95 was the one for me. With 4 kids on iPhones, the iTunes gift cards would cost me a lot more than 14.95 a month. I actually still use google music because it imported my library of over 30000 songs, but Apple is perfect for my kids to save and build their libraries