Apple Music surpasses 13M paid subscribers on strong services growth

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited April 2016
During Apple's quarterly earnings conference call on Tuesday, CEO Tim Cook revealed Apple Music now serves more than 13 million paying subscribers, adding two million customers in as many months.




Apple last announced Apple Music figures in February, when iTunes chief Eddy Cue said the product hit 11 million subscribers, up from 10 million two weeks prior. The growth figure was one of the high points in today's conference call that announced Apple's first quarterly revenue decline since 2003.

With flagging hardware sales, especially iPhone, Cook concentrated on Apple's services business, which includes Apple Music, iTunes, the various App Stores, licensing, service parts, iCloud and Apple Pay. The sector's purchase value hit a record $9.9 billion in the recent March quarter, a number up 37 percent year-over-year, Cook said.

"We are very happy with the continued strong growth in revenue from Services, thanks to the incredible strength of the Apple ecosystem and our growing base of over one billion active devices," Cook said.

Backed by a massive installed user base in iPhone and iTunes, Apple Music has quickly become one of the largest streaming music platforms in the world. The product still lags behind more mature competitors like Spotify, which is estimated to have about 30 million subscribers.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 19
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Once again the naysayers are proven wrong. Don’t you people ever get tired of being made fun of?
    caligenovellelostkiwiAustinCable
  • Reply 2 of 19
    sirlance99sirlance99 Posts: 1,293member
    lkrupp said:
    Once again the naysayers are proven wrong. Don’t you people ever get tired of being made fun of?
    Except that it's a major slow down in growth 
    lord amhransingularity
  • Reply 3 of 19
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,808member
    But, but, but...$3 Billion was too much to pay!
    calilostkiwi
  • Reply 4 of 19
    It's fine. But, rather tiny in the larger scheme of things for Apple. 
    lostkiwi
  • Reply 5 of 19
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    I'd like to know who 3rd place is and what number they have.

    Edit:
    I think it's Tidal at 2.5 million.
    edited April 2016
  • Reply 6 of 19
    NY1822NY1822 Posts: 621member
    macxpress said:
    But, but, but...$3 Billion was too much to pay!
    http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/9/5698158/what-apple-is-really-buying-with-beats
    just the hardware of beats has probably already paid off in the acquisition fee, if not yet, certainly when they go strictly wireless ...$200 headphones cost $14 to make...ill take that all day...
    edited April 2016
  • Reply 7 of 19
    jakebjakeb Posts: 562member
    Apple Music is probably going to pass Spotify paid subscribers by end of next year
    edited April 2016 lostkiwiAustinCablecali
  • Reply 8 of 19
    beltsbearbeltsbear Posts: 314member
    NY1822 said:
    macxpress said:
    But, but, but...$3 Billion was too much to pay!
    http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/9/5698158/what-apple-is-really-buying-with-beats
    just the hardware of beats has probably already paid of in the acquisition fee, if not yet, certainly when they go strictly wireless ...$200 headphones cost $14 to make...ill take that all day...
    Yup. Apple does need to keep Beats innovating but they are making Apple money.
  • Reply 9 of 19
    lostkiwilostkiwi Posts: 639member

    The product still lags behind more mature competitors like Spotify, which is estimated to have about 30 million subscribers.
    What other competitors? There is only Spotify ahead of them as far as I know. 
    They could have just said Apple Musid is the second biggest music streaming service in the world. 
    cali
  • Reply 10 of 19
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    lostkiwi said:

    The product still lags behind more mature competitors like Spotify, which is estimated to have about 30 million subscribers.
    What other competitors? There is only Spotify ahead of them as far as I know. 
    They could have just said Apple Musid is the second biggest music streaming service in the world. 
    60 million people use Tunein.
  • Reply 11 of 19
    mr omr o Posts: 1,046member
    jakeb said:
    Apple Music is probably going to pass Spotify paid subscribers by end of next year
    IF they dramatically improve the User Interface, both on iOS and macOS.

    >:x
    cali
  • Reply 12 of 19
    mr omr o Posts: 1,046member
    There's no mention of Connect, Apple's free social network for music?

    A happy Soundcloud user,

    >:x 
  • Reply 13 of 19
    cnocbui said:
    lostkiwi said:
    What other competitors? There is only Spotify ahead of them as far as I know. 
    They could have just said Apple Musid is the second biggest music streaming service in the world. 
    60 million people use Tunein.

    Typical troll comment.

    Tunein is NOT Apple Music. Not even close. Try harder next time.
  • Reply 14 of 19
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    cnocbui said:
    60 million people use Tunein.

    Typical troll comment.

    Tunein is NOT Apple Music. Not even close. Try harder next time.
    It is a source of streamed music.  It is very similar to the non subscription Spotify.

  • Reply 15 of 19
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,284member
    lostkiwi said:

    The product still lags behind more mature competitors like Spotify, which is estimated to have about 30 million subscribers.
    What other competitors? There is only Spotify ahead of them as far as I know. 
    They could have just said Apple Musid is the second biggest music streaming service in the world. 
    They would never call out second place.
  • Reply 16 of 19
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    cnocbui said:
    lostkiwi said:
    What other competitors? There is only Spotify ahead of them as far as I know. 
    They could have just said Apple Musid is the second biggest music streaming service in the world. 
    60 million people use Tunein.
    1 billion people use Music App.

    Your point exactly?
  • Reply 17 of 19
    mr o said:
    jakeb said:
    Apple Music is probably going to pass Spotify paid subscribers by end of next year
    IF they dramatically improve the User Interface, both on iOS and macOS.

    >:x
    Have you used Apple Music within the past two months? The interface been improving I would say dramatically with each iOS/OSX update. I have spent many hours with both Tidal and Spotify, and the user interface of each now comes up short compared to Apple Music, IMHO. Apple Music is particularly strong in connecting the user with more albums/songs by the artist currently playing as well as making relevant suggestions under the "you may also like" heading. Also to my ears, Apple Music's sound is the best non hi-res sound, and more than satisfactory for me 90% of the time, particularly if you use it with a good external headphone amp.
  • Reply 18 of 19
    lostkiwi said:

    The product still lags behind more mature competitors like Spotify, which is estimated to have about 30 million subscribers.
    What other competitors? There is only Spotify ahead of them as far as I know. 
    They could have just said Apple Musid is the second biggest music streaming service in the world. 
    Deezer is pretty big outside of USA, not sure of their subscriber numbers however.
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