Apple says Apple Music earned 11 million trial users in a month

Apple’s new music streaming service has attracted more than 11 million members during its free trial period, a result that music industry experts called respectable but not overwhelming.

Jimmy Iovine, Beats (now Apple Music) co-founder said the company is working outside the U.S.to make that clear and to show people how Apple Music works.

Apple Music costs $9.99 a month for individual access to some 30m songs as well as a live radio station but the tech giant is offering the first three months since launch for free.

Apple will not offer a free trial once a user’s initial three months runs out, meaning that many who simply didn’t use it to begin with will likely just delete it off of their phones.

It is understood that out of the 11m around 2m users signed up for the US$14.99 a month family plan.

Aside from watching how many Apple Music trial members convert to paid accounts in the coming months, we’ll also have to see how many Android device owners test the music service. The number is respectable, and the firm’s VP of software and services said the firm is “thrilled with the numbers so far”.

Signing up 11 million people to a free trial is a decent effort, and a combination of Apple’s brand prestige, coupled with a strong novelty factor has helped with the growth. It could well be the case that many thousands choose not to pay once the free service ends. 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.

Any comparisons between Apple Music and other streaming services are moot at this stage, because its rivals can actually talk about full-on subscribers, rather than trial users. The company wants to blow past all of its competitors combined and hit 100 million subscribers.

Apple also revealed record App Store sales in July, largely thanks to “momentum in China” according to Cue.