I wonder how many of these 6.5 paid users are using a company phone that is tied to company credit card, or how many of those users probably forgot about it and overlook the $10 a month?
But then trying to think rationale about anything Apple to people who try to belittle others about their opinion of Apple that they see as "Anti-Apple" is just irrational.
I wonder how many of the 6.5 million people who stayed just happened to 1) miss the cancelation cutoff before their account was auto-renewed at $10/month or 2) figured they'd give it a few more months of trial before making a final decision.
I'm in both of these categories. I think Spotify is better (and so was Beats Music) but after my account auto-renewed before I cancelled, I decided to hold out for a few more months to see if they service improves before making a final decision.
I didn't say they weren't. I said Apple can afford to subsidize a money losing operation because they'll bury it in the P&L. I made an apt comparison to Microsoft using IE to destroy Netscape. Anything else you're reading into it is from your imagination.
Really? So a free browser and a paid music subscription service makes for an "apt comparison"?
Apple isn't out to destroy Spotify. Just like they weren't out to destroy Palm, Nokia or Blackberry. Apple makes the best possible products they can. If they also happen to cause difficulty for competitors, then it's a side effect from their making outstanding products.
Plus the pricing is completely out in the UK, even taking in VAT etc on our price it's way above the US Price. Should be closer to £7.50 not £10!
Yeah.. Many annoying bugs. Some were fixed. Some were still present but I subscribed anyway, simply because Spotify UI is not my thing. If they're very serious about fixing bugs the same way they were about Apple Map Spotify should be very very afraid.
Just an hour ago I wanted to listen to one song and I didn't even have to open the app. I just told SIRI to play that song and voila!
I am a paid subscriber only because of integration with ?Watch. Honestly what's better about Apple Music than Spotify or Rdio or even Google Play Music? I wish Apple would have designed something simple and intuitive rather than trying to boil the ocean and do all these different things. Often times I'll go to the For You or New tab and be completely overwhelmed not even knowing where to start. And it now it appears that the For You tab has infinite scrolling...I keep scrolling and it keeps showing me more and more albums, playlists, artists. Again completely overwhelming.
Among Apple Music users under the age of 35, 62% of those asked about the status of their subscriptions said they had already cancelled. Meanwhile, 67% of respondents ages 35 and up said they are now paying subscribers.
Spotify said "over twenty million" in June. Sorry, I need up to date numbers from them before I agree that it's a third as many.
And as a percentage of active iOS devices that's a really low number...
Correct. I don't remember whether I got the data from this site or another, but on June 10th, Spotify claimed 75 million customers of which 20 million were paid. Whether it's up or down, numbers have to of changed since then.
While Apple Music's numbers may be low as a percentage of iOS devices, 6.5 million subscribers is $780 million revenue a year. While that's small as compared to Apple's total business, it will probably be a $billion within another six months and what other company wouldn't like to have a $billion revenue stream? I think it's quite impressive, especially considering all the free streaming services available. (Personally, I don't subscribe, but I have to admit that if all the free streaming services disappeared, or if they started having advertising loads as large as traditional radio does, I might, but for music I want to hear again and again, I'm still a physical media guy.)
I would love to know for both Spotify and Apple Music (and Pandora for that matter) how many of those subscribers are in the U.S. Anyone know? For the first half of 2015, the RIAA reported only 8.1 million paid streaming subs, generating just under $478 million back to the music industry. The number of subs is up (for the six-month period) only 5% from 2014 - you'd think there would be faster growth.
Apple signed up about 12 million users on the initial trial.
6.5 million stayed on.
That over a 50% retention rate! That is very high.
It is more likely that 50% of people proactively turned OFF auto-subscription. Which I think is surprisingly high considering it was ON by default and how deep it was buried in the Settings.
Would be interesting to see when the first bills start coming how the remaining "paid" user base would react.
I wonder how many of these 6.5 paid users are using a company phone that is tied to company credit card, or how many of those users probably forgot about it and overlook the $10 a month?
But then trying to think rationale about anything Apple to people who try to belittle others about their opinion of Apple that they see as "Anti-Apple" is just irrational.
I'm no Apple fan-boy and I'm perfectly willing to criticize Apple, but I don't buy your arguments.
No company that I've ever worked for (and I've been an exec at many) would approve a charge to "Apple Music" on a company credit card unless I could prove I was buying some tracks for a company event. Companies do make employees rationalize every charge.
But even if it is charged to a company credit card or even if it is people who overlooked the $10 a month, so what? They're still subscribers. You're trying to denigrate Apple by making the case that these people either didn't want the service enough to pay for it themselves or don't really want it, but are just stupid and keep paying for it. I still get a physical copy of the NY Times delivered to my door each weekday morning. It doesn't matter if I really don't want it anymore and have just forgotten to cancel it. I'm still a subscriber until the day I'm not.
Besides, any case you can make against Apple can also be made against Spotify and Pandora paid services.
IMO, 6 million paid subs is quite impressive considering the free streaming alternatives available.
And in response to some other arguments, the 30% gross margin that Apple makes after paying royalties to the labels is higher than the typical margins that record stores earned when physical media dominated. Retailers who sold records at sale prices earned as little as 5% to 10% gross margin. Typical on product that sold to close to full price was about 22%.
Am I the only one who thought the quality of Apple Music was so bad it's hard to listen to? It's like ripped YouTube audio compared to Spotify.
I find the Apple Music audio comparable or sometimes better than Spotify. Are you making this reference because of the bandwidth difference between the two? Spotify needs to use more bandwidth because they are using a codec equivalent to MP3. Apple is using a codec with higher compression so they don't require higher bandwidth which gives you equivalent audio quality and reduces the amount of data needed from your data plan. If your carrier is throttling your data because you have an "unlimited data plan" check your contract. Unlimited doesn't always mean "unlimited bandwidth". Sometimes people get suckered in by some carriers.
I've got both Spotify and Apple Music at the moment as I get Spotify for free through my carrier. I've also been pretty lazy when it comes to porting my Spotify playlists over to Apple Music.
The big question for me is whether I want my purchased music mingled in with my subscription music. Ironically, the thing that may keep me sticking with Spotify is that it's not integrated with the Apple ecosystem.
That's my biggest issue with Apple Music. The first day I tried it when it became available, my iTunes library was destroyed. I gave it one more chance a few days before my trial expired. I tested it on another Mac with a small iTunes library. Same thing happened again. Music I owned disappeared, dozens of repeat playlists were added, etc. I wish Apple would give us the option to turn off iCloud Music Library, but still be able to download songs for offline listening.
Comments
Apple signed up about 12 million users on the initial trial.
6.5 million stayed on.
That over a 50% retention rate! That is very high.
Actually a bit higher than that as Eddy Cue was quoted in August that they had 11M initial users so the conversion is more like 60%.
But then trying to think rationale about anything Apple to people who try to belittle others about their opinion of Apple that they see as "Anti-Apple" is just irrational.
Too many bugs and issues for me at the moment.
Plus the pricing is completely out in the UK, even taking in VAT etc on our price it's way above the US Price. Should be closer to £7.50 not £10!
Plus the pricing is completely out in the UK, even taking in VAT etc on our price it's way above the US Price. Should be closer to £7.50 not £10!
Spotify does exactly the same thing so perhaps it's something mandated by the music industry.
I'm in both of these categories. I think Spotify is better (and so was Beats Music) but after my account auto-renewed before I cancelled, I decided to hold out for a few more months to see if they service improves before making a final decision.
I didn't say they weren't. I said Apple can afford to subsidize a money losing operation because they'll bury it in the P&L. I made an apt comparison to Microsoft using IE to destroy Netscape. Anything else you're reading into it is from your imagination.
Really? So a free browser and a paid music subscription service makes for an "apt comparison"?
Apple isn't out to destroy Spotify. Just like they weren't out to destroy Palm, Nokia or Blackberry. Apple makes the best possible products they can. If they also happen to cause difficulty for competitors, then it's a side effect from their making outstanding products.
Yeah.. Many annoying bugs. Some were fixed. Some were still present but I subscribed anyway, simply because Spotify UI is not my thing. If they're very serious about fixing bugs the same way they were about Apple Map Spotify should be very very afraid.
Just an hour ago I wanted to listen to one song and I didn't even have to open the app. I just told SIRI to play that song and voila!
It's a good start. I'm sure the numbers will continue to increase.
And yet according to Jackdaw research it's older people more likely to pay for Apple Music.
http://qz.com/526689/older-people-are-more-likely-to-pay-for-apple-music/?utm_source=YPL
Spotify said "over twenty million" in June. Sorry, I need up to date numbers from them before I agree that it's a third as many.
And as a percentage of active iOS devices that's a really low number...
Correct. I don't remember whether I got the data from this site or another, but on June 10th, Spotify claimed 75 million customers of which 20 million were paid. Whether it's up or down, numbers have to of changed since then.
While Apple Music's numbers may be low as a percentage of iOS devices, 6.5 million subscribers is $780 million revenue a year. While that's small as compared to Apple's total business, it will probably be a $billion within another six months and what other company wouldn't like to have a $billion revenue stream? I think it's quite impressive, especially considering all the free streaming services available. (Personally, I don't subscribe, but I have to admit that if all the free streaming services disappeared, or if they started having advertising loads as large as traditional radio does, I might, but for music I want to hear again and again, I'm still a physical media guy.)
I would love to know for both Spotify and Apple Music (and Pandora for that matter) how many of those subscribers are in the U.S. Anyone know? For the first half of 2015, the RIAA reported only 8.1 million paid streaming subs, generating just under $478 million back to the music industry. The number of subs is up (for the six-month period) only 5% from 2014 - you'd think there would be faster growth.
This isn't surprising to me. Millennial's are listening to Pandora or ad supported Spotify or most likely YouTube.
What's the rate for Spotify and others?
Also what's the ratio for active subscribers.
Apple signed up about 12 million users on the initial trial.
6.5 million stayed on.
That over a 50% retention rate! That is very high.
It is more likely that 50% of people proactively turned OFF auto-subscription. Which I think is surprisingly high considering it was ON by default and how deep it was buried in the Settings.
Would be interesting to see when the first bills start coming how the remaining "paid" user base would react.
I wonder how many of these 6.5 paid users are using a company phone that is tied to company credit card, or how many of those users probably forgot about it and overlook the $10 a month?
But then trying to think rationale about anything Apple to people who try to belittle others about their opinion of Apple that they see as "Anti-Apple" is just irrational.
I'm no Apple fan-boy and I'm perfectly willing to criticize Apple, but I don't buy your arguments.
No company that I've ever worked for (and I've been an exec at many) would approve a charge to "Apple Music" on a company credit card unless I could prove I was buying some tracks for a company event. Companies do make employees rationalize every charge.
But even if it is charged to a company credit card or even if it is people who overlooked the $10 a month, so what? They're still subscribers. You're trying to denigrate Apple by making the case that these people either didn't want the service enough to pay for it themselves or don't really want it, but are just stupid and keep paying for it. I still get a physical copy of the NY Times delivered to my door each weekday morning. It doesn't matter if I really don't want it anymore and have just forgotten to cancel it. I'm still a subscriber until the day I'm not.
Besides, any case you can make against Apple can also be made against Spotify and Pandora paid services.
IMO, 6 million paid subs is quite impressive considering the free streaming alternatives available.
And in response to some other arguments, the 30% gross margin that Apple makes after paying royalties to the labels is higher than the typical margins that record stores earned when physical media dominated. Retailers who sold records at sale prices earned as little as 5% to 10% gross margin. Typical on product that sold to close to full price was about 22%.
I find the Apple Music audio comparable or sometimes better than Spotify. Are you making this reference because of the bandwidth difference between the two? Spotify needs to use more bandwidth because they are using a codec equivalent to MP3. Apple is using a codec with higher compression so they don't require higher bandwidth which gives you equivalent audio quality and reduces the amount of data needed from your data plan. If your carrier is throttling your data because you have an "unlimited data plan" check your contract. Unlimited doesn't always mean "unlimited bandwidth". Sometimes people get suckered in by some carriers.
I've got both Spotify and Apple Music at the moment as I get Spotify for free through my carrier. I've also been pretty lazy when it comes to porting my Spotify playlists over to Apple Music.
The big question for me is whether I want my purchased music mingled in with my subscription music. Ironically, the thing that may keep me sticking with Spotify is that it's not integrated with the Apple ecosystem.
That's my biggest issue with Apple Music. The first day I tried it when it became available, my iTunes library was destroyed. I gave it one more chance a few days before my trial expired. I tested it on another Mac with a small iTunes library. Same thing happened again. Music I owned disappeared, dozens of repeat playlists were added, etc. I wish Apple would give us the option to turn off iCloud Music Library, but still be able to download songs for offline listening.
I dropped the family plan two days ago, I wonder which side of the wild estimate I'm in???
I'm keeping the family plan since I love being able to play Apple music simultaneously on my 3 iPhones and 3 MacBooks.