Streaming Music Service Boasts 11 Million Trial Members — Apple Music News

Mr. Cue also revealed that of that sum 2 million have selected the family plan at $14.99 a month for up to 6 people. The real question is how many Apple customers will decide to pay for the music streaming service once the free trial has run its course? The music service offers subscribers access to 30 million songs, human-curated playlists and a live radio station.

The streaming service costs $9.99 per month with the first three months free.

11 million subscribers in a month may sound like a lot, but none of those are paying yet.

For a company whose CEO once said “People have told us over and over and over again, they don’t want to rent their music”, Apple is moving forward quite well with its Apple Music subscription service.

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We’re thrilled with the numbers so far”,

Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue is reported to have said. At first glance, they seem a little low, given the pre-launch excitement around Apple’s 800m+ registered iTunes accounts, and the hundreds of millions of iOS devices that the new service could be pushed to.

A former music executive, Ted Cohen said that it would be remarkable if the company persuaded 20 percent of the trial users to become paying members once the free trials comes to an end. However, although App Store transactions are on the rise, Apple still draws the majority of its revenue from sales of hardware such as its iPhone.

For instance, Apple sold 61 million iPhones in Q2 2015 alone, so 11 million is only a dent in that number.

Music producer Jimmy Iovine also chipped in, saying that he is “pleasantly shocked” by the uptake of Apple Music so far. Apple responded to say it had revised its policy and would pay artists during the period, and Swift in return announced all five of her albums, including last year’s 1989, would be available to stream on the platform.

Even so, the figure of 11 million should give heart to Spotify and suggests that Apple may not have everything its own way in the music market in the years ahead.