Apple Music may have attracted criticism from big name Apple pundits recently, but it’s still killing it when it comes to subscribers.
According to a new interview with Eddy Cue, Apple has secured 11 million trial members so far, with 2 million of these opting for the $14.99 monthly family plan rather than the $9.99 standard one.
“We’re thrilled with the numbers so far,” Cue told USA Today.
There’s no guarantee that Apple will retain all these users when it comes time to pay (and, in fact, it seems very unlikely that they will). However, due to Apple’s auto-charging system, all 11 million of those individuals signed up for the free test will automatically be charged once the three-month trial ends.
By comparison, Spotify has lured more than 20 million pay subscribers since 2006.
Apple is reportedly aiming for a total of 100 million paying subscribers, which would roughly double the total number of people paying for streaming music right now.
As for the criticisms Apple Music has received, 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.”
These improvements have so far included the ability to let Beats 1 listeners tune in to on-demand replays of their favorite shows, clarifications about how to navigate the Apple Music UI, and plenty of exclusives. There are also rumors of additional Beats 1 stations launching around the world.
Have you signed up for Apple Music yet and, if so, will you be paying once the free trial comes to an end in September? Leave your comments below.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
21 responses to “Apple Music is crushing it with 11 million subscribers”
Why would I pay apple for a service that is only available on my apple devices, when I can pay around the same for spotify & use it on all of my devices (including none apple devices)? I won’t even bother with the trial.
You obviously havent listened to Beats1. Its the best radio station i ever heard. I havent decided about paying yet but for free, its incredible!! Way better than I could have imagined. The DJs are like regular radio DJs but they grabbed the best ones in the world and its live like a radio 24/7. No commercials!!! The music discovery and variety goes deep. They have more music available than spotify and newer songs quicker than anywhere else. Its totally worth checking it out of you have at least one device that it would play on. You really dont know what youre missing
Your analysis is only appropriate if one is a radio fan, not everyone listens to Radio for music, curated playlists or not… Besides Apple Music is unpolished and buggy with Eddie Cue attesting to the bugginess.
People keep on stating that Spotify has been in business for over 10 yrs giving them an edge, , that is still a lame excuse for Apple to releaase a buggy product, Apple is known for reinventing a product category, Apple music is not reinventing anyting
When did Cue say admit it was buggy?
beats1 is free though, once the trial ends you’ll still get it. Along with you radio stations that you create they’ll just have ads and skip limits.
The radio feature is only compelling if you like radio generally, a lot of people do not listen to radio for music especially millennials. Radio as a conduit for music is not huge as it used to be. Most people i know listen to radio for a mix of reasons which includes news,talk radio and music not simply because of music as a stand alone feature which beats 1 bundled with apple music is.
This is not about free subscription but revenue generation, beats 1 radio wont drive apple music subscription on its own…..
right but the person I responded to said that beats1 was a major reason they were considering getting the subscription I was just explaining that they didn’t need to pay for that aspect of Apple Music.
I know its Cult of Mac with their click bait headlines… Apple is killing it with free trial…
I think as writers a little bit of objective writing is also necessary, this headline might be appropriate after the 3 months trial…… People are signing up in droves because its a new product and its Apple not because it is a superior product, lets wait until after the free trial.
On a side note, isnt it funny that Apple is quick to release figures for Apple Music subscription but refuse to release for Apple watch sales citing competition as a reason not to, considering both are new categories for the company…
Yeah. I was wonder about that as well lol
It’s coming to android.
Apple Music will be available on Android this fall, and is already available for Windows. Pretty much the same as Spotify. The big difference however is that Apple Music has a much larger streaming library than Spotify. It also uses less bandwidth for roughly the same fidelity as Spotify (256 AAC = 320 MP3). Finally Apple Music has deep Siri integration, so when you do use it on an Apple mobile device, it understands natural language (for example I asked it to ‘play the latest Chemical Brothers’ album, and it did just that). This is something Spotify can’t do.
Apple Music does not have more songs than Spotify, based on their advertised library, both have about 30m songs unless you want to state that Spotify cant be trusted but only Apple!
Yes Siri understands natural language but some searches are not possible thus you have to personally type it into Apple Music… thus reducing the power of that feature
Spotify is available on all platforms just as Apple Music plans to be but Spotify is easy to use compared to Apple Music.
The fact is Apple music will gain new subscribers no matter what but it wont dominate the music streaming business, that is definite…. as nothing about Apple Music is revolutionary or groundbreaking, Personally Apple Music is late to the party.
Apple Music on Android is launching this Fall
Ofc, it’s free 3-month trial for everyone. They should brag about subscribers after the trial period.
I’m sure they will, but its barely been a couple months since it went live. And its not a free 3-month trial for everyone at the same time. Anytime you sign up you individually get 3 months from your individual sign up date. Not like once these 3 months are over then everyones 3 month subscription ends. I know plenty of people who will be switching to this from sirius/xm and paying to do so.
Yeah but the free trial is happening right now. We won’t know how successful it is until the period ends in October. The service should be in beta right now anyway because it’s pretty confusing and bad overall.
Apple Music is amazing. Especially considering it’s the first version. Like always, they’ll keep responding to feedback and expanding offerings. It’s a testament to Apple’s reputation that everyone seems to expect perfection right out of the gate.
Signed up for Music and love it! It will save me so much money and no more horrible Spotify! :)
My only issue is that I don’t like much of Beats 1. Too much rap and pop. I’d rather listen to BBC 6 Music. Not much of a problem when I can flit between Music streaming and the TuneIn Radio app. Americans aren’t used to proper radio. It’s a very normal thing in the UK to have lots of stations for your own interests that don’t have any ads at all. (Beats 1 still mentions that it has sponsorships, but doesn’t give long ads).
I get that lots of people use streaming services, but I just don’t want anything to do with apple music. I wish they’d move all the apple music options into a separate app instead of clogging up my music player that I use to play my local music; 70+gb on the go is plenty enough for me. At least the jb tweak MusicMod allows me hide all the apple music nonsense.
10,999,999 cancels
Apple Music is a failure