Apple Music has more than 11 million trial subscribers

If Apple converts all trial users into subscribers, in just three months Apple Music will have half as many users as Spotify has managed to reach in seven years.

Apple Music arrived in late June, and already has 11 million subscribers, executives tell USA Today. Almost 2 million people opted for the free trial family plan, which will cost $US14.99 a month for up to six family members, the company said. But Spotify has many more members on its free tier – an option that Apple Music won’t offer.

Apple seems to be well ahead of that mark, though it remains to be seen whether users will stick around after the conclusion of their free trial.

The real test of Apple Music’s pull will not truly be known until September, when the trial period for the first-day subscribers begins to run out, and the time to pay up or leave arrives.

An initial trial period, which is free, lasts for three months.

As with the recent Eddy Cue interview with USA Today, Iovine does acknowledge some of the criticism Apple Music has faced, but puts this down to the fact that, surprisingly enough, building a central repository for the world’s music isn’t all that straightforward.

If Apple does manage to mirror the Spotify conversion rate, it still won’t make much of a difference to the firm’s bottom line.

How does Apple Music square up to rivals?

On a separate note, Cue shared some new App Store numbers, claiming that July set a record with $1.7bn in App Store transactions thanks to strong performance in China. Business Insider’s Jay Yarow walks through the math: He estimates there are about 500 million iPhone users globally, and about 60% have updated to iOS 8.4, which is required for Apple Music.

It said it has now paid developers nearly $33 billion. The iTunes service that shares payment information with Apple Music has more than 800 million devices to its name, meaning Apple still has plenty of potential subscribers to tap – or plenty of people to irritate.