Apple gives retail employees 9 month free Apple Music subscriptions
Later this month, Apple will be giving its retail employees a 9 month free subscription to Apple Music, in addition to the urBeats headphones the company earlier gave to its retail staff as a holiday gift.
iTunes chief Eddy Cue reportedly advised employees of the award this morning in a video message, according to report by MacRumors. Employees will be sent a redemption code later this month.
Apple has a total headcount of over 110,000 employees, 30,000 of which work in its U.S. retail stores, along with nearly as many who work in its international retail stores.
A 9 month subscription to Apple Music's "all access pass" service has a retail value of $90, and includes unlimited listening to all music in the Apple Music library, the ability to to download tracks to listen offline and expert music suggestions.
Without a paid subscription, Apple Music allows users to login with their Apple ID and access its live Beats 1 radio station, listen to its other radio stations with limited skipping, and to view and follow artists in iTune's Connect social media feed.
Apple Music supports playback on iOS devices, Apple Watch, Apple TV, iTunes from a Mac or PC, or Android devices running 4.3 Jelly Bean or newer.
In October, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook said Apple Music had attracted 6.5 million paid subscribers while another 8.5 million users were in an introductory, three month free trial period.
The company just announced over the weekend that it would be giving subscribers exclusive access to a new Taylor Swift concert video, as part of an ongoing promotion for Apple Music and the company's retail stores.
iTunes chief Eddy Cue reportedly advised employees of the award this morning in a video message, according to report by MacRumors. Employees will be sent a redemption code later this month.
Apple has a total headcount of over 110,000 employees, 30,000 of which work in its U.S. retail stores, along with nearly as many who work in its international retail stores.
A 9 month subscription to Apple Music's "all access pass" service has a retail value of $90, and includes unlimited listening to all music in the Apple Music library, the ability to to download tracks to listen offline and expert music suggestions.
Without a paid subscription, Apple Music allows users to login with their Apple ID and access its live Beats 1 radio station, listen to its other radio stations with limited skipping, and to view and follow artists in iTune's Connect social media feed.
Apple Music supports playback on iOS devices, Apple Watch, Apple TV, iTunes from a Mac or PC, or Android devices running 4.3 Jelly Bean or newer.
In October, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook said Apple Music had attracted 6.5 million paid subscribers while another 8.5 million users were in an introductory, three month free trial period.
The company just announced over the weekend that it would be giving subscribers exclusive access to a new Taylor Swift concert video, as part of an ongoing promotion for Apple Music and the company's retail stores.
Comments
Apple doesn't have to give out Christmas gifts to employees. I work at a large Fortune 20 company and we don't get Christmas gifts.
I know the old saying "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" but these kinds of "gifts" from big corps to low level employees are met with more cynicism than you might think and I am of the mindset they don't create any goodwill.
I just think that 9 months seems arbitrarily chosen when their marginal cost is minimal and could've been a nicer headline if it said "a year" -- your math isn't quite right either as you're assuming everyone hasn't started a trial.
And an iPad Pro's marginal cost is not zero, so I don't expect Apple to give that to employees, although they've given iPhones out before (and they were pretty big then!)
Then I would be inclined to think that it's safer for the big corps to not give anything at all. They choose to give something and it backfires on them because the gift is not "good enough"? That fits in perfectly with the entitlement society we have come to know all too well.
Unfortunately that's systemic in the American workforce, and again not necessarily a dig at the Apple stores. As far as retail stores go, Apple employees are actually decently paid relative to other technology stores (Best Buy). And with that, you actually see a correlation between their pay and their customer service. But again, the Apple Music and earbuds are a "happy" diversion from the fact that Christmas bonuses (money) do not exist in the retail space, which is where the cynicism comes from.
I'm going to get slightly political, but people still hold on to the idea that the American job market is a giant ladder and those at the bottom should be happy with what they get. Never mind that over 50% of the country is on the bottom step of that ladder and working harder every day to make a living. It's delusional thinking and starting to become dangerous. Apple and other influential retailers have more opportunities to lead in this area.