Music site Hits Daily Double cites “inside sources at some of the major labels” as stating that Apple Music signed up more than 10M subscribers in the first four weeks, saying the number was shared with them by Apple.
The site says both Apple and the labels were surprised by the speed of adoption, noting that streaming figures for some tracks – which include “a couple of cutting-edge hip-hop titles” – are on a par with Spotify, which has around 75M subscribers …
While 10M is a big number, I’m actually surprised it’s not higher, given that it was offered free of charge to 100 countries worth of iPhone owners the first time they opened the new Music app after upgrading to iOS 8.4. This may reflect the issues and outages experienced by early adopters, with even noted Apple fans like Jim Dalrymple describing it as a nightmare – and Zac Hall suggesting that it should have been labelled a beta service.
Hits reports that some music labels want Apple to make the numbers public, believing that they will encourage others to join the trial. Apple has so far not revealed specific numbers, Tim Cook stating only that “millions and millions” had signed-up. The company is said to be planning “a barrage of TV spots” around the MTV Video Music Awards.
The real test, of course, will be how many trial subscribers convert to paid ones at the end of the free three-month trial. One possible metric is Spotify’s claimed 20M paid subscribers from a 75M base, a conversion rate of around one in four. However, it should be noted that Spotify offers U.S. subscribers an initial three months’ Premium service for just 99c – and is likely counting those as paid subscribers, meaning the number paying $9.99/month will be significantly lower.
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That’s because it’s free. I joined but ensured to switch off auto-renewal.
I’ll stick with it I think – I’ve listened to SO much more new music – love the ‘for you’ bit. Might downgrade from £15 to £10 as ‘the others’ aren’t as hooked as me.
Of course millions and millions have signed up…because it’s free right now. But how many of those millions will continue to be signed up once the free trial is over and they’re charged $10 a month? Also this number seems low to me considering over 40% of eligible devices are supposedly running 8.4. That certainly is a lot more than 10 million people.
Just because you have 8.4 on your phone doesn’t mean you signed up for Apple Music..
After reading all the reviews both good and bad, after hearing all the podcast rants, after see all the numbers and reactions…
Apple Music is part of Phase I. Phase I being Apple’s transition from a company that makes thing for the everyman but also caters and appeals to nerd and power users into a company that caters and appeals to the everyman. Based on everything I’ve seen and heard, the only thing wrong with Apple Music is that it meant for a younger generation than the older tech columnist that are lambasting it for not being meant for them. A generation that doesn’t give a crap about the 1967 limited edition pressing of this single, or the remastered live recording of that 1983 concert in Belgium. A generation that just wants to push a button and get music. And for them, Apple Music is almost flawless.
By the numbers, Apple Music is a runaway success that is leaving old people (including myself and my stacks upon stacks of out-of-print CDs) behind. I can’t dive completely into Apple Music’s iTunes in the Cloud because it doesn’t respect my carefully crafted library like I want it to. But I still respect what it is and, more importantly, who it’s for. So I will still use For You and radio stations alongside my completely offline and manually synced library. Though I will wonder how long I can hold out like that, I won’t fault the world and technology for continuing to move forward in spite of me.
I really don’t think it’s that serious but then again maybe i’m one of those ‘everyman’ people you describe. I’m not 100% clear on what you mean by “it doesn’t respect my carefully crafted library” unless you’re talking about the mismatched songs or something. But it takes very little energy to just back up your library before you switch to iCloud Music Library and then correct problems or revert if you’re not happy with it. If ~10 million people subscribed and you’ve only heard a few journalists pitching a fit because they’re old and don’t understand this newfangled technology and one guy lost a lot of his music and didn’t have a backup, it doesn’t sound like Apple Music is the total mess it’s being made out to be.
“newfangled technology?” Ok… The fact of the matter is that Apple Music is horribly broken and Apple flushed 3 billion down the toilet in acquiring Beats. I’m not saying that streaming isn’t the way to go, just that the path taken was a giant waste of money and the current state of the product is laughable.
You can’t fix the integration with your own music library right now. Switching to iCloud Music Library is not a solution as it renders it impossible to move many songs to an iOS device afterwards. This is not likely by design, it’s a bug, one of many.
If you don’t recognize that this platform has serious issues at the moment, you’ve got your head buried in the sand. I’m a shareholder and I want this platform fixed as soon as possible, I’m also wary of the possible $3b write-down looming in the future.
Yep. I backed up my entire library expecting the custom tagging and and album organization I have to cause it to explode on contact. What ended up happening was my library on the computer (which I may add was THE library; It has everything and is missing nothing that any other device of mine has, all devices sync to it, all the music files are located within iTunes’ own folders and iTunes is responsible for managing the library) didn’t get changed one bit. Greater than half of it had to be uploaded, which took about 30 hours. Once it was done nothing got moved or changed. Songs were labeled as Uploaded or Apple Music (and strangely some were marked as Matched… I have never used iTunes Match). Nothing got deleted, noting got renamed, none of these horror stories I’ve heard describes my experience.
What I didn’t like was what happened on my devices. While the files on my computer remained as they were, tracks marked as Apple Music would appear on my phone with the wrong album art or the wrong song titles. The audio was correct, but the metadata was not. A mixed dance album that contained one song by Blur, was labeled as a Blur album. A remix of a song mysteriously lost only it’s subtitle and got matched to the original song’s album. The audio was again correct, but clicking Show Complete Album showed me the tracks from original song’s album and not the remixed album. Even though my searching found the correct album available on the iTunes Store and in Apple Music.
So I turned iTunes in the Cloud off on everything. The devices lost all the cloud-based music but the tracks that had been synced locally still retained the changes made by the cloud. So I manually synced the devices to the computer, wiped out the music stored on them, then re-synced it all back. It was like nothing had ever happened. Everything returned to the way it was before it all started, no lost music, no scrambled data. Even my play counts, stars, and loves were intact. I haven’t had to touch the backup I made as nothing got permanently altered.
Jim Dalrymple, Andy Ihnatko, you’re holding your music wrong.
Aeron, i’m glad you backed up your library. I’ve been using iTunes Match for years and haven’t noticed any glaring issues with Apple Music and my 19000+ song library but that could be due to the quantity of music that I’m not noticing things. I wonder if having iTunes Match is the reason why my devices stayed the way they were?
Bruno, your hyperbole is ineffective with me.
Very well put. I am in the same predicament, where I’ve lost ratings of my songs and playlists were meddled with when I turned on Apple Music (fortunately, I had a backup, and a restore fixed everything).
My time spent setting the correct album cover, correcting genres, names, etc. seems lost in part with Apple Music enabled. But I very much agree that this way of curating old libraries might not appeal to all. I think you nailed the comprehension of their approach, and, likewise, I’ll have to adjust my expectations.
But I’ve also come to appreciate the new options opened to me with this way of making most all music available.
The real drawback is that I didn’t necessarily go for 120 $ of music per year, so am not enthused about putting more money in there and, when I decide not to renew, be left with no more music. At least, with my previous library, I would have fewer discoveries, but at least always have the music I had chosen to purchase. I’m thinking that, if I stop using the service after 5 years, for example, I’ll be left with nothing to show for, after spending 600 $…
Not quite there yet for me, at least at this price point.
I’m pretty sure I don’t represent the majority thought!
I don’t know why 9to5Mac would post an article like this when they know what the negative responses will be. See above.
I really don’t understand why you guys keep complaining. I’ve used every side of Apple Music so far and it’s great.
Likewise, I have also used Apple Music since the start and haven’t experienced the kind of problems I read about. The only problem I have is that AirPlay sometimes gets disconnected when picking a new playlist or after having paused the song for a bit. But that might as well be because I am running iOS 9.
i think that’s an iOS 9 issue — i’m experiencing it as well
what about the side whereby Apple music steals your music if you also happen to be an iTunes match subscriber? I have NOT been able to add new music since Apple music debuted because of the itunes bug that keeps matching my OWN MUSIC to the apple music catalogue. As a cosnequence, my OWN music is synced as a DRM version in my other macs.
Well,I’ve signed up for it.Was supposed to use a family but….its absolute crap.After few months with Spotify,and weeks with Apple Music i prefer to buy my music.
Regarding Apple Music its crap,mess.No Apple in that at all.Its like Android few years ago.Total mess with no-one really controlling it.
I actually want to subscribe to Apple Music but Can’t because it’s not offered in my Country. So…
… and 9.5M subscribers disabled Apple Music and canceled auto-renewal after a week or two.
This number seems REALLY low if this is correct I would think apple would be very worried. I’ve yet to meet any apple user I know who isn’t using it so I was expecting a really BIG number this sounds like a very low number
You haven’t met ANY Apple user not using Apple Music……oh please
Why the surprise? It’s a great service that’s free, I’ve helped 11 family/friends with their set-up and since it came out I’ve chatted to 9 or 10 other apple using friends, they’re all using it and enjoying it. That’s why I’m surprised the number is so low.
Nope 23 friends, family, customers all using apple music all enjoying it :)
I think it’s “only” 10M because I have a feeling people are more disconnected with the possibilities of their devices these days, and less willing to change services. I know many iOS users w/o any payment methods added to their accounts. There are also a lot of people who simply don’t use the Music app or iTunes on their Mac/PC.
Lol at 9to5 trumpeting numbers during the free trial as a “big number”….based on what? With hundreds on millions of Credit Cards on file Apple has convinced about 5% of its users to even test it out for free? And of that 5% only a fraction will keep it after the free trail…. #RIPSpotify
I love it . Apple music is awesome. I wouldn’t scream with anything else.
Apple Music will continue to be free, unless you want to pay for the extra features like stream on demand, saving music to your devices, etc..
“10M subscribers” can mean, US only…