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Apple Music has attracted 11 million listeners since it launched at the end of June, the technology giant has announced.
In an interview with USA Today, Apple executive Eddy Cue said: “We’re thrilled with the numbers so far,” adding that two million of those listeners had opted for the family subscription plan rather than the individual one.
In comparison to rival Spotify, this is a solid start for Apple Music.
Spotify has around 75 million users in total, with 20 million on its paid Premium subscription.
Hypothetically, then, if everyone currently on Apple Music’s three-month free trial chooses to sign up and start paying for the service, it will already be halfway to the number of paying subscribers seen on Spotify. It took the Swedish firm five-and-a-half years to get to 10 million paying customers.
Though that would be an astonishing uptake – even for Apple.
Apple Music’s other rivals will be wary of these figures too, given that Deezer has around 16 million subscribers, of which six million pay, and Jay-Z’s Tidal has less than a million – but that has no free listening option.
The service, which launched on June 30, has generally been met with positive reviews, despite reports of some bugs – most notably concerning streams dropping out, and some users reporting their purchased music collections being wiped.
However, the Beats 1 radio station which is being fronted by former BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe has been well received, and Apple has now added the option to stream shows on-demand. Software updates have also been pushed out to fix most of the reported bugs.
But Spotify has received updates too – such as video content and tempo features for runners, as well as the Discover Weekly playlist in July, a round-up of songs personalised to each listener’s habits.
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.
